Hoover Administration - Hoover and Congress
Hoover and Congress
The Seventy-first Congress lasted from March 4, 1929, to March 3, 1931. The Senate was composed of 59 Republicans and 39 Democrats, plus one member of the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota. In the House the Republicans possessed a majority of 103 seats.
Contrary to myth, Hoover did not always have trouble with Congress. True, in 1929 he and his Senate majority leader, James E. Watson of Indiana, shared a mutual contempt. Watson's extreme isolationism and high tariff views, as well as his courting of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacy group, drew little respect from the president. In the House, however, the president's relationships with key party members were not colored by such personal animosity.
Although known for his early-day progressivism (he had fought for an income tax and the Federal Reserve system), Hoover had no plan for preventing the Great Depression. Moreover, he was surprisingly inept...
[The entire page is 471 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
