Roosevelt And Hoover Essay, Research Paper
President Franklin D. Roosevelt is commonly thought of as a
liberal and
President Herbert C. Hoover as a conservative. The validity of
these accusations,
however, is uncertain.
Before classifying each president in the categories of
“liberal” and
“conservative,” it must first be understood what is meant by each
term. During the time
of the Great Depression, a liberal was usually associated with
“political equality, free
speech, free assembly, free press, and equality of opportunity.” It
was directly derived
from the word “liberty” which meant freedom. Today, the definition
changes drastically.
A liberal is someone who thinks government can solve problems, and
someone who
trusts government. They believe in more government spending (such as
in social
plans) and are not turned off because of raised taxes, knowing full
well the money taken
away will do the country good. Frankly, liberals believe in more
government in the daily
lives of people. Conservatives believe in directly the opposite of
what liberals do.
They believe heavily in the free enterprise system (private
ownership). Their
economics rely on the theory of supply and demand and profit motive.
Their
lassiez-faire policy was introduced in a book The Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith.
This economic policy can be seen directly in the rest of what
conservatives believe in.
They are resistant to change, being strong believers of traditional
values. They thought
money should be spent on defense, not social programs. In a nutshell,
they want
government to stay out of people’s lives. The modern definitions of
each term will be
used in categorizing Roosevelt and Hoover.
President Hoover, a strong believer in traditional values,
can definitely be
described as a conservative. His initial “hands-off” policy in
dealing with the Great
Depression show this well. He believed in the business cycle and
that the country
would pull its self out of the depression. He did not want to use
government power in
dealing with this catastrophe, mainly because of his predecessor’s
tradition of
lassiez-faire. Hoover stated in an election speech, “Every step of
bureaucratizing of
the business of our country poisons the very roots of liberalism (old
definition).” As
government gets bigger, there are needed more offices, agencies and
bureau’s to
handle affairs. This bureaucracy, he said, would take the American
people’s freedom
right from them. He felt a great need to take government out of
peoples lives more
then ever. Even after the depression hit, Hoover was convinced that
government could
do nothing to help the country out this cataclysm. He said in 1930,
“Economic
depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive
pronouncement.” He felt
that no matter what happens, government actions can do no good for
the economy,
and that only the people can pull themselves out.
As the depression worsened, Hoover began to think he should
not sit back and
watch the depression thorough, but help out as much as he can to
quicken the arrival of
prosperity in the business cycle. While this government action was
one of liberal
proportions, Hoover is still classifies as a conservative because of
his long terms goals
having conservatism written all over them. Drastic times call for
drastic measures, and
he felt the only way to preserve tradition was help out the people.
He first started
helping out by merely encouraging voluntary groups in the community
to help out the
less fortunate. He felt that “government -national, state and local-
can join with the
community in such programs and do its part.” He put people to work
in construction
and doubled the government expenditure. He favored “temporary
expansion of these
activities in aid unemployment during this winter.” While no other
president had ever
participated in the people’s lives as much as Hoover, he was still
considered a
conservative because of his goals for the end of the depression.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt could also be termed a
conservative. In an
election speech in 1932, Roosevelt attacked the Hoover administration
for their
increased government spending and involvement in people’s lives. He
said, “It (the
Hoover administration) is committed to the idea that we ought to
center control of
everything in Washington as rapidly as possible.” This highly
liberal actions would
appall any true conservative, just as it did Roosevelt. He proposed
a twenty-five
percent cut of federal spending, abolish the “innumerable boards and
those
commissions” and balance the budget. In his second election campaign,
he spoke of
himself as a true conservative. He said, “the true conservative is
the man who has a
real concern for injustice and takes thought against the day of
reckoning.” Even in the
heart of the depression, he still felt himself to be a great
conservative. He perhaps
defended his title as a conservative best when he stated “worthy
institutions can be
conserved only by adjusting them to the changing time.” When
Roosevelt formed a
rebuttal against his New Deal as being liberal, he perhaps best
described his political
career by saying “I am that kind of conservative because I am that
kind of liberal.”
Roosevelt’s New Deal was perhaps the most liberal set of
government actions
this country will ever see. While the goals of this New Deal were
liberal, it was all put
into effect to preserve conservatism. The country was so down and
out, something had
to be done to pull itself out so the economy and the people could
return to their normal,
post-depression lives. Government seemed to have the only answer.
Much of the New
Deal contradicted itself with what Roosevelt said he would do in his
campaign
speeches. He said he would balance the budget, yet his devotion of
John Maynard
Keynes idea of deficit spending led this country to almost triple its
indebtedness
between 1929 and 1941. Perhaps Roosevelt did realize at the time
what the true,
horrendous condition of the country was during the time. He knew he
had to act fast, in
order to keep the country “alive”, and capable of living without
government support. He
established agencies and boards like the CCC, CWA, and PWA to provide
jobs. He
also provided loans to farmers and established the AAA to help them
with their farming
difficulties. He hoped that if he could give the people a boost,
they might just get out of
this depression and be able to support themselves, without government
help. If he
could end the depression with these “liberal actions” and make it so
lassiez-faire could
reign supreme again, Roosevelt would be happy.
To say that President Franklin D. Roosevelt is a liberal and
that President
Herbert Hoover was a conservative is only half-true. Both men lead
their country
through the perils of the depression with conservative goals in mind,
and both men had
to resort to liberals actions to preserve conservatism. Roosevelt
best described himself
and Hoover as being “that kind of conservative because (of being)
that kind of liberal.”
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