Comparing The Views Of Presidents Hoover And Roosevelt During The Great Depression

During the Great Depression, there were several views on how America should handle the crisis before them. Those views were greatly portrayed, by the two different minded presidents who were in office at this time. The presidents who had a substantial say in how this catastrophe would be handled were Hoover and Roosevelt. Their perspective and philosophy on the federal government differed. Ranging from believing the government was sound and believing the government needed to improve and provide. Each president did have certain information that led them to their certain philosophies. America took on the results of whatever theory their president, who was in office, had whether it impacted them in a good or bad way it wasn't necessarily their choice.

His outlook on the federal government was that they should not step in but instead have the economy, who he believed was “fundamentally sound”, take care of themselves. To support this theory Hoover, in his message to Congress about the vetoing of a bill to establish federal government project at Muscle Shoals, Tennessee, stated “ But for the Federal Government deliberately to go out to build up and expand such an occasion to the major purpose of a power and manufacturing business is to break down the initiative and enterprise of the American people”. Hoover was saying that if the Federal Government was to help it would end up causing more harm then good in the way of “destruction of equality opportunity amongst our people” and “negation of the ideals upon which our civilization has been based”. Hoover took his approach as “hands-off” instead of having the Federal Government be