Abstract

President Hoover's Record: III. The President's Economics

When U.S. President Herbert Hoover entered the White House, there were widespread expressions of satisfaction over the accession to the Presidency of an engineer and business man of wide experience who would lead the country, not as a politician, but as an economist, taking careful account of all relevant facts, and shaping policy in accordance with them. Today that `illusion has faded. Facts and expert opinion alike are brushed aside when they do not agree with preconceived policies, and it has been generally discovered that the President's economics is the economics, not of the trained student of social affairs, but simply of a successful though not highly intelligent mining engineer and business executive. It is, in fact, the economics of 1831, not 1931. Mr. Hoover's lack of skill in dealing with Congress is often ascribed to his long habit of command in large affairs.