Compare And Contrast Roosevelt And Hoover

As the United States became engulfed in the hardships of the Great Depression, a controversy regarding the Federal Government’s involvement with charity and relievement of suffering became apparent. Was it the Government’s responsibility to aid in relieving Americans of such misery? Or, was it the job of the People to work together to reach a solution? An analysis of the two presidents who took turn in office during the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, reveals their opposing perspectives and philosophies regarding this controversy, and subsequently, Roosevelt’s and Hoover’s contradicting views played a fundamental role in America’s rise out of the Great Depression and the nature of government in today’s society.

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Hoover believed that it should be the duty of the People and charity organizations to raise money to relieve economic struggle and that, “the opening of the doors of the National Treasury is likely to stifle this giving and thus destroy far more resources than the proposed charity from the Federal Government” ( AUTHOR 9). Hoover considered self-government and mutual self-help to be the “American way” (9) and that relying on the government for aid is a “disastrous system” ( AUTHOR 12) to embark upon. Contrastingly, Roosevelt stated that, “the Democratic Government had the innate capacity to protect its people against disasters” (AUTHOR 58) and that the government can accomplish tasks that charities and communities cannot. In his second inaugural address, he alluded to previous events such as the revolutionary war and noted that a strong and proactive Federal Government was necessary for the country’s recovery. Through the methods of government, Franklin Roosevelt united an off-track population, used government resources and the people's’ help to better the nation’s economy, and paved a promising path for future