The Great Depression, Part Five

As I mentioned at the end of Part Four, the causes of the Depression were many. The economic catastrophe was so great, there was no one cause that triggered the decline, rather there was a whole series of weaknesses within the economy that brought an almost “cascading effect” to the downturn. Sometimes these weaknesses were exposed by other events. Please bear in mind that after the stock market crash, there weren’t suddenly millions of Americans out of work six weeks later, or even six months later, although that process had certainly begun, and unemployment spiked. The Great Depression was really more of a series of downturns, where at times it seemed that the economy had hit bottom and leveled off, only to have some new problem develop, sending the economy to an even lower point.

Herbert Hoover: I gave some info about Hoover earlier, but he is VERY important to the early years of the Great Depression, and therefore, I need to say even more about him. If you asked Americans what attributes they want in a president, I'm sure many of those named attributes would fit Herbert Hoover. At the time (1928), he seemed to be the perfect candidate for president. He was a self-made millionaire (something many Americans like, the idea that a person earned their money and didn’t just inherit it, and also something that shows that relatively poor folks can attain financial success), a successful engineer and businessman (in mining), the very epitome of American humanitarianism, having successfully organized relief efforts for Europeans during the Great War, a highly recognized and even admired Secretary of Commerce, he was a hard worker, and though he was ambitious, he had a great deal of humility; in fact, by all accounts, Hoover was shy, and rarely made or held eye contact with others. It's been said that he was far better in dealing with relatively small groups of people, or one-on-one, but when he spoke to large crowds, he was intensely nervous, and if you’ve ever heard some of his recorded speeches, they were given in monotone, and they often contained lots of facts and figures, something not always easy for listeners to follow. (Hey, he was an engineer, and engineers are detail oriented, but he hardly presented an inspiring leader for the crisis facing the country when he was president.) As we might tag him in more recent times, Hoover was more of a “technocrat,” and as such, he had great difficulty in conveying how much he cared about the suffering that was rampant in the country during his time in office.

Then too, he was stubborn; in his own term, “pigheaded.” He was criticized for not showing that he was in touch with average people, but when he had the opportunities, what we call today, “photo ops,” he seldom used them. I guess he really didn’t understand the “big picture;” that is, that presidents need to try to convey a certain image. Sure, it’s all managed, but it's what it is. For example, Hoover liked to walk. One day he was out for his walk and he saw a bunch of boys playing baseball. He stopped and the boys gathered around him, some even climbing up on his knee. The connection between the president and these kids was totally evident to one of his political advisers, who wanted Hoover to return to the ball field the next day with reporters and photographers to show how personable the president could be. Hoover refused, saying something to the effect that if he had to participate in such manipulation of the public, he didn’t want to be president (something that happened not long thereafter). Here again, many Americans would probably say, “We don’t like the way politicians try to manipulate us through staged events,” but, at the same time, we kind of expect it. We complain about politicians kissing babies, but see how mad folks can get if a politician passes their baby or grandchild by.

Further, Hoover kept quiet about the personal help and kindnesses he and his wife offered to many people during their White House years. I’ve read that he actually gave away much of his fortune during that time, and he refused to accept his salary as president, donating it back to the Treasury. Many misconceptions about Hoover could have been clarified after he left office, but he refused to release his personal papers and White House documents, ordering that they would only be made available after his death (there’s that “pigheadedness”). Hoover’s religious beliefs certainly had a role in some of his behavior. He was a Quaker, and his faith taught him that you weren’t supposed to help your fellow man in order to get credit for it. That shows that he was NOT a politician, but in fairness to politicians, people like to get credit or recognition, and Hoover was undoubtedly conflicted, wanting to get credit, but held back by his religious upbringing. Hoover's belief was a nice notion, ,and again, something with which many Americans would undoubtedly say they agreed, but office holders do have to establish a broad based image that says, “This is what I am; this is what I believe.” If the public doesn't know that a politician has given to causes to help others, they don't really know that person. It's always been my opinion that the fact that Hoover never had to campaign for, or hold, elective office prior to his becoming president, really hurt him. By not "coming up through the ranks," he didn't have the experience of dealing with voters or other elected officials in the political context and this contributed to his stubbornness. Throughout much of his adult life, Hoover had been in a position to give orders, and he hadn't had to worry about compromising or presenting a public case to get people on to his side of an issue. His wide range of experience made him a bit self-righteous and "preachy" too. (On a personal note, when I was in property management, I had a lawyer for each ear. I would tell them, "I could NEVER be a lawyer. I'm too judgmental and self-righteous." At least I know one of my faults.)

The Wall Street “crash” shook the country, and in an effort to calm the situation and instill confidence, Hoover gave a statement that the economy was still “fundamentally sound,” and that the country was still prosperous. In private, Hoover was far more concerned that the situation was more than just a slight downturn. Just a couple of weeks after the stock market debacle, Hoover called a conference with many of the nation’s business and labor leaders. He got commitments from business people to maintain production and wages. The problem with this was twofold: Hoover’s serious demeanor in public, and his calling the nation’s leaders together, told many in the public that, in spite of Hoover’s pronouncement that the economy was still sound, he really didn’t believe his own words. Secondly, with business inventories already at high levels, maintaining production only made the situation worse. The one good thing was, the president saw a problem and he acted. For a time, the economy declined, but basically it was a slow, steady decline. Unemployment continued to rise steadily.

WORD HISTORY:
Crash-For a relatively common word in modern times, this is a bit of a mystery word, as it showed up in English in the late 1300s as "crashen" and "crasschen," meaning "break up, smash, break to pieces," but its ties to forms in the other Germanic languages is not apparent, as German has "krach," meaning "crash," but it is really the same word as English "crack," although perhaps "crash" is simply a softer sounding form of "crack?" There is speculation it was an English creation to imitate the sound of "breaking," and that it was a combination of "craze" and "dash." In those times, "craze" more commonly meant "crack;" thus the later notion of "insanity."