THE ELECTION OF 1932 Kinsey Swope STATE OF DEPRESSION IN THE NATION

• In 1929, the crash of Wall Street and the were being felt throughout the country • In the falloff 1929, the stock market crashed, factories slowed down production, companies made deep cuts in jobs, and salaries plummeted • Unemployment was at 23.6% • Many citizens lived in poverty, and did not have enough money to pay rent or buy food • By inauguration day, March 4, 1933, most banks had shut down, industrial production had fallen 56% of its level in 1929, around 13 million wage earner where unemployed, and farmer were in desperate need of government assistance STATE OF DEPRESSION IN THE WORLD

• The Great Depression began in the United States but quickly turned into a global economic slump • After World War I, the United States forged many close relationships with European economies • The United State became the major creditor and financer of post-war Europe. Especially to those countries whose national economies that had been greatly weakened by the war itself, war debt, ad or the defending of other nations, by the need to pay war reparations. • America could no long supply investment credits to countries such as Germany and Great Britain. • The unemployment of Germany rose at the start of 1929, and by the end of 1936 had reached 6 million German workers, which was about one fourth of their workforce • In Britain, industrial and export sectors remained depressed till World War II • Nations began to protect their domestic production by imposing tariffs, raising existing ones and setting quotas on foreign imports o By 1932 the total value of world trade had fallen by more than half • In Europe, the Great Depression heighten the power of extremist parties, and lowered the stature of a liberal democracy • This can be seen in the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933 in Germany due to their economic distress o Nazis’ public work projects and rapid expansion of munitions brought Germany out of the Depression by 1936 THE ELECTION OF 1932

• The Great Depression was the main issue of consequence in the presidential campaign of 1932 • Citizens were looking at the government for relief • Prohibition was also an issue looked at in this election. Democrats targeted prohibition, but many Republicans defended it. Bring back alcohol and its associated tax revenues. • Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the governor of New York • At the Democratic Convention Roosevelt had the majority of the delegates votes, but he had to gain two-thirds of the votes in order to gain presidential nomination • Roosevelt won his nomination by a very narrow margin • Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated Republican and incumbent President Herbert C. Hoover • Journalist William Allen White said that the victory of Roosevelt showed, “a firm desire on the part of the American people to use government as an agency for human welfare.” • Roosevelt received nearly 23 million popular votes (57.3%), and Hoover received nearly 16 million (39.6%) • Roosevelt led the poll in 2,722 counties, which was the greatest number ever carried by a candidate for presidency up until this time • The electoral vote was 472 Roosevelt to 59 Hoover OPVL

Millions of Americans listened to Roosevelt’s inauguration speech on radios. In this speech Roosevelt said, “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself- name less, unreasoning unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. This nation asks for action, and action now. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require.” (OPVL) FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT’S RUNNING PLATFORM • Roosevelt was amiable and projected confidence • Roosevelt appeared in person to accept his party nomination. In his speech to the delegates he said, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a for the American people.” • Roosevelt’s campaign was very optimistic and was captured in his campaign song “Happy days Are Here Again”. This became the unofficial anthem of the Democratic party at the time • Roosevelt used what he called “Hoover’s Failure” to deal with the problems forming in the nation. He blamed Hoover’s protectionist policies as the main source of the depression • “I accuse the current Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all our history.” • Promised reform in his policy called “The New Deal”, designed to get results and rebuild hope for the future • Roosevelt stayed away from specifics, but he did make clear that his program for economic recovery would make extensive use of the power of the federal government • Roosevelt abandoned one of his major campaign promises of balancing the budget, The pledge outweighed by the need of the government activism, and began vast deficit spending • Platform called for unemployment assistance, old-age insurance under state laws, legislation to protect labor, assistance for farmers, development of power plants, a repeal of Prohibition, and a balanced budget • Promised aid to farmers, public development of electric power, a balanced budget, and government policing of irresponsible private economic power • Roosevelt united all of the democratic party, partly by avoiding divisive cultural issues such as religion or terrorist groups such as the KKK HERBERT C. HOOVER’S RUNNING PLATFORM

• Hoover was incessantly grim and resolute • Hoover was unable to achieve unity within his party and was strongly opposed by some prominent Republicans, many of these where Republican Senators • Voters felt that Hoover was unable to reverse the economic collapse • Hoover blamed the depression on external events and so-called that Roosevelt would intensify the disaster, and vaguely defined New Deal o Hoover was sometimes subject to the throwing of rotten fruits and vegetables as he rode through the street o One expert noted that, “a vaguely talented dog-catcher could have been elected president against the Republicans.” o Hoover received a letter from an Illinois voter advising Hoover, “Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous.” • BY the end of his term he tried to use the government to help those in need, but it was too late for limited measures • Hoover argued that “rugged individualism” would prevail and that it was not the government’s job to intervene aggressively in the economy • Hoover attacked Roosevelt as a capitalist president who would only worsen the depression by the decreasing of taxes, reducing government intervention in the economy, promoting global free trade, and cutting spending throughout the government • Hoover sought the help of Roosevelt in halting the growing economic crisis, but Roosevelt refused his proposal, because as describe Hoover himself would mean “abandonment of 90 percent of the so-called “new deal” POLITICAL IMPACT

• First election in fifty six years in which the Democratic candidate won a majority or the popular vote • Collapsed the fourth also known as the “” and ushered in a new era known as “The Great Depression” • Democrats had majority in both chambers of Congress • Dramatic shift in the political alignment of the country. The alignment between interest groups and political parties shifted, leaving new coalitions behind each party • Created interest groups supporting political parties, such as labor unions, blacks, ethnic Americans, farmers and southern Americans realigned • Republicans had held presidency from 1860, except both the two terms of , and • Voters realigned into the Fifth Party System also known as the “New Deal Party System”, dominated by Roosevelt’s • FDR victory was the start of five consecutive Democratic presidential wins BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ø McElvaine, Robert S. ""And What Was Dead Was Hope":1932 and the Interregnum." The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. New York, NY: Times, 1984. 121-37. Print.

Ø "1932 Presidential Election." Presidential Election of 1932. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. Ø "United States Presidential Election of 1932 | United States Government." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. Ø Walsh, Kenneth T. "The Most Consequential Election in History: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and The Election of 1932." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 10 Sept. 2008. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. Ø Boundless. “The Election of 1932.” Boundless U.S. History. Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 26 Jan. 2015 Ø "United States Presidential Election, 1932." Princeton University. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. Ø "About the Great Depression." About the Great Depression. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2015.