"I am opposed to any direct or indirect Government dole. The breakdown and increased unemployment in Europe is due in part to such practices. Our people are providing against distress from unemployment in true American fashion by a magnificent response to public appeal and by action of local governments. The administrative burden on those who must be aided by government is an additional tax upon the productive citizen. I have, therefore, maintained the policy that the Federal Government must not go into relief business... The Federal Government would immediately sap the foundations of self-government and self-reliance throughout the land."

Herbert Hoover, press statement on unemployment relief, February 1931. Hoover had been President since March 1929. The Depression had begun with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929.