What did President Hoover do to fight the Depression?
Many people believe that President Hoover did little or nothing in response to the Great Depression. In fact, beginning immediately after the stock market crash in October, 1929, Hoover implemented many ideas to lessen the effect of the Depression and to hasten the recovery. He directed all Federal Departments to speed up public works and other projects, in order to create more jobs. He directed the Federal Farm Board to support commodities prices and asked Congress to decrease non-essential government spending and use the money to start new public works. President Hoover called many conferences with industry and finance leaders to encourage voluntary cooperation among businesses to relieve the Depression. Hoover also created the President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief to stimulate and coordinate employment and relief efforts. After the collapse of the European economy in April of 1931 caused the Depression to become even worse, President Hoover called for a temporary suspensio
