THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
HOOVER, Herbert (1874-1964), President. Typed letter signed ("Herbert Hoover"), as former President, to Henry L. Stoddard, 28 April 1933. 1 page, 4to, on personal stationery.
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HOOVER, Herbert (1874-1964), President. Typed letter signed ("Herbert Hoover"), as former President, to Henry L. Stoddard, 28 April 1933. 1 page, 4to, on personal stationery.
SOUR GRAPES, EIGHT WEEKS AFTER SURRENDERING THE WHITE HOUSE TO FDR: "THE MOST RECKLESS AND MOST UNNECESSARY GAMBLING WITH THE FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE THAT WE HAVE EVER WITNESSED"
Just fifty-six days into the First Hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt's term as President, Herbert Hoover lashes out at the Democrat's energetic reform program to a New York newspaperman. "This is the most reckless and most unnecessary gambling with the future of our people that we have ever witnessed," he tells Stoddard. "One curious thing is certain. If it is accomplished, the rich will be richer and the poor poorer when it is all over. Please keep me advised as matters develop."
Roosevelt charged into action against the Great Depression the instant he came into office. He declared a temporary "bank holiday" in order to stem the panicked withdrawals that had wiped out millions. He put through some 15 other major pieces of legislation during those first 100-days (so designated by reporters, borrowing the phrase from Napoleon's 100-day rampage after his return from Elba). Measures such as the National Recovery Act put millions to work in temporary government jobs and tried to get employers to stabilize wages and prices. The Agricultural Adjustment Act called for farmers to cut production in the hopes that scarcity would raise prices. To Hoover, all this smacked of radical government centralization. But for Roosevelt -- and for a majority of the American people -- it was the kind of activism and willingness to experiment that desperate economic times seemed to call for. Hoover and other conservatives, however, continued to argue over the following decades that the habits of massive government spending started by Roosevelt did indeed make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
SOUR GRAPES, EIGHT WEEKS AFTER SURRENDERING THE WHITE HOUSE TO FDR: "THE MOST RECKLESS AND MOST UNNECESSARY GAMBLING WITH THE FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE THAT WE HAVE EVER WITNESSED"
Just fifty-six days into the First Hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt's term as President, Herbert Hoover lashes out at the Democrat's energetic reform program to a New York newspaperman. "This is the most reckless and most unnecessary gambling with the future of our people that we have ever witnessed," he tells Stoddard. "One curious thing is certain. If it is accomplished, the rich will be richer and the poor poorer when it is all over. Please keep me advised as matters develop."
Roosevelt charged into action against the Great Depression the instant he came into office. He declared a temporary "bank holiday" in order to stem the panicked withdrawals that had wiped out millions. He put through some 15 other major pieces of legislation during those first 100-days (so designated by reporters, borrowing the phrase from Napoleon's 100-day rampage after his return from Elba). Measures such as the National Recovery Act put millions to work in temporary government jobs and tried to get employers to stabilize wages and prices. The Agricultural Adjustment Act called for farmers to cut production in the hopes that scarcity would raise prices. To Hoover, all this smacked of radical government centralization. But for Roosevelt -- and for a majority of the American people -- it was the kind of activism and willingness to experiment that desperate economic times seemed to call for. Hoover and other conservatives, however, continued to argue over the following decades that the habits of massive government spending started by Roosevelt did indeed make the rich richer and the poor poorer.