Letter Writer Wrong About Hoover’s Tactics

A recent letter writer erred in claiming that Herbert Hoover cut taxes and government spending in the Great Depression (“O’Reilly Missed Lesson on Great Depression,” Aug. 21). Actually, Hoover increased federal spending from $3.1 billion to $4.7 billion, and increased marginal tax rates to 63 percent. 

Hoover may have preached individual responsibility, but he failed to practice it. The letter writer’s attempt to blame spending cuts under President Franklin Roosevelt for the 1937 recession ignored more important factors that hurt the economy that year, like tax increases, increases in bank reserve requirements and Supreme Court rulings in 1937 that upheld anti-business laws that had been struck down by lower courts