Comparative Unemployment Rates:

Panic 1893: 18%Great Depression: 25%Great Recession: 10%

Herbert Hoover was unlucky enough to be president at the time of the crash.

Due to the perception that Hoover did nothing to combat the depression or aid sufferers,

homeless camps were called ‘Hoovervilles’.

Andrew Mellon (Sec of Treasury and Republican) cuts taxes for the wealthy: that didn’t help the perception of the Hoover administration’s being pro-rich and uncaring.

Then desperate WWI veterans head to Washington DC to demand early payment of their promised veterans ‘bonus’.

They were known as the Bonus Expeditionary Force after of course the American Expeditionary Force for which they served.

Thousands of vets camped out in DC; when Congress denied early payment for the desperate men, they sang ‘God Bless America’, went back to their squatter

camp, and stayed. And stayed…

The vets stayed until the army and tanks showed up. They thought it was a show of support…

…until they army began to burn their camp and tear gas the vets so that they would disperse.

The sight of vets being tear gassed on movie newsreels and on the radio made Pres. Hoover look even worse.

The perception was that Hoover was a laissez-faire Republican who figured the economy would fix itself.

In fact, Hoover did start many projects such as Boulder Dam (later named Hoover Dam) as a means of trying to stimulate

the economy and create jobs; it was too little, too late.

So in the election of 1932, Democrat Franklin Roosevelt easily won election to the Presidency.

FDR’s charisma and effervescent attitude helped raise Americans’ spirits.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, was a person who could relate to the common man and had no tolerance for intolerance.