Could President McAdoo fix/prevent the Great Depression with his economic skill?

Could President William Gibbs McAdoo prevent/fix the Great Depression, so the impact was lessened?

  • Yes, it could have been presented with McAdoo's experience.

    Votes: 1 3.8%
  • Yes, if he was in the moment, he could make emergency movements to steer the economy back.

    Votes: 10 38.5%
  • No, he may have had the ideas, but not the ability to execute them.

    Votes: 14 53.8%
  • No, he didn't have the ability to really prepare or fix anything better.

    Votes: 1 3.8%

  • Total voters
    26
In 1914, William Gibbs McAdoo prevented an economic panic at the beginning of 1914, by shutting down Wall Street for nearly three months and issuing emergency currency. This was seen as a broad overreach, but effective in halting what could have been.

No matter how he got into the White house, the question is: Could he stop the Great Depression from being as bad as it was? Did he have the ability to make changes to American Fiscal Policy, enough to prepare for an event like 1914 again? Would the FDIC be created earlier, to protect banks?

Personally, I believe so. I'm preparing to write a timeline about a McAdoo that keeps himself out of trouble better by going more into business, being union-friendly, and finding better friends than Doheny.
 
McAdoo was a standard New Deal Democrat in the Senate after 1932. There is no reason to think he would have done either better or worse than FDR. About the only differences I can see are that (1) McAdoo had long been an enthusiastic advocate of FDIC, whereas FDR was a reluctant convert, and (2) McAdoo approved of the Supreme Court decision invalidating some provisions of the AAA:

"While the period from 1932 to 1938, the years of William McAdoo’s service
in the U.S. Senate, clearly belongs in the anti-climactic era of his career, McAdoo
still influenced institutions at the heart of this reform-oriented period. He staunchly
supported practically every New Deal measure, and was instrumental in ensuring
that the FDIC, a long-time pet project, was included in the banking reforms that were
implemented in March 1933. McAdoo had always been connected with
developments in transportation, and his presence on the Senate Aviation Committee
was crucial in promoting governmental investment in a global approach to aviation.
He also advised Roosevelt on monetary policy, and perhaps even more important,
recommended his own allies as appropriate candidates for positions in the Treasury
and the Fed, suggestions that FDR regularly followed...

"When the Supreme Court
overturned certain provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), McAdoo
supported their decision, since one of his constituencies (food processors and other
blue collar workers in the agricultural industry) was paying a surtax to subsidize
another of his constituencies (farmers).846 ..."

http://media.proquest.com/media/pq/...t/ai/rep/NPDF?_s=GbmrSLEdCOr6DGNArVk1cTVC9Pg=
 
McAdoo was a standard New Deal Democrat in the Senate after 1932. There is no reason to think he would have done either better or worse than FDR. About the only differences I can see are that (1) McAdoo had long been an enthusiastic advocate of FDIC, whereas FDR was a reluctant convert, and (2) McAdoo approved of the Supreme Court decision invalidating some provisions of the AAA:

"While the period from 1932 to 1938, the years of William McAdoo’s service
in the U.S. Senate, clearly belongs in the anti-climactic era of his career, McAdoo
still influenced institutions at the heart of this reform-oriented period. He staunchly
supported practically every New Deal measure, and was instrumental in ensuring
that the FDIC, a long-time pet project, was included in the banking reforms that were
implemented in March 1933. McAdoo had always been connected with
developments in transportation, and his presence on the Senate Aviation Committee
was crucial in promoting governmental investment in a global approach to aviation.
He also advised Roosevelt on monetary policy, and perhaps even more important,
recommended his own allies as appropriate candidates for positions in the Treasury
and the Fed, suggestions that FDR regularly followed...

"When the Supreme Court
overturned certain provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), McAdoo
supported their decision, since one of his constituencies (food processors and other
blue collar workers in the agricultural industry) was paying a surtax to subsidize
another of his constituencies (farmers).846 ..."

http://media.proquest.com/media/pq/classic/doc/1663078371/fmt/ai/rep/NPDF?_s=GbmrSLEdCOr6DGNArVk1cTVC9Pg=
Seems like he'd have been economically pretty good if he was elected President, but my God, those KKK ties. He could never run away from that. Maybe it looked like a good bet at the time.
 
In 1914, William Gibbs McAdoo prevented an economic panic at the beginning of 1914, by shutting down Wall Street for nearly three months and issuing emergency currency. This was seen as a broad overreach, but effective in halting what could have been.

No matter how he got into the White house, the question is: Could he stop the Great Depression from being as bad as it was? Did he have the ability to make changes to American Fiscal Policy, enough to prepare for an event like 1914 again? Would the FDIC be created earlier, to protect banks?

Personally, I believe so. I'm preparing to write a timeline about a McAdoo that keeps himself out of trouble better by going more into business, being union-friendly, and finding better friends than Doheny.
No, by the time of the Great Depression the US economy is too big and the world was interconnected to an extent it hadn't been. Long gone were the days of individuals like JP Morgan who could single handedly buy up stocks or gold and manipulate the market to a soft landing. McAdoo simply can't do what needs to be done, especially since both parties aren't exactly in favor of such activity that needed to be done, and the courts would strike them down anyways and the stock market relies on knowledge of predictability, they won't like new regulations, alphabet govt programs, and laws and banking restrictions that then get challenged and go to SCOTUS and get overturned. Remember that Roosevelt originally campaigned against Hoover's public works and govt spending and said we needed fiscal discipline and a balanced budget (last thing you do in a bad or weak economy!)
 
On McAdoo and the Klan: it supported him in 1924 mostly because he was pro-Prohibition and the arch-enemy of Al Smith. He was not a religious bigot and his backers included Catholics (James Phelan, his California champion) and Jews (Bernard Baruch, his chief financial angel). He did share many of his native state of Georgia's prejudices against African Americans; still, he probably was not more anti-black than, say, an anti-Klan, anti-Prohibition southerner like Oscar Underwood. (Indeed, one of Underwood's arguments against Prohibition was that if the federal government could trample on states rights in the regulation of alcohol, it could do the same thing in race relations.) Moreover, as wartime railroad tsar McAdoo did insist that railroads pay blacks and women the same wages as white men for equal work. Even this may not be as enlightened as it seems, because according to Eric Arnesen, in *Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality*, it was apparently done at the behest of the railroad unions who hoped that if railroads were forced to pay blacks equal wages, they would be less likely to hire them. http://books.google.com/books?id=WE8s2pn2wxAC&pg=PA49 Still, regardless of his motives, his action was applauded by African Americans, and in 1924 some of them supported his presidential bid.)

Some of McAdoo's friends did warn him to repudiate the Klan in 1924, but he apparently was afraid of antagonizing an important source of his support. By 1932, the Klan was insignificant, and even McAdoo was willing to have Prohibition submitted to a national referendum.
 
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In 1914, William Gibbs McAdoo prevented an economic panic at the beginning of 1914, by shutting down Wall Street for nearly three months and issuing emergency currency. This was seen as a broad overreach, but effective in halting what could have been. . .
This is what I love about our website! :)

I've read fairly broadly in modern history, but I had never ever heard of this before.
 
This is what I love about our website! :)

I've read fairly broadly in modern history, but I had never ever heard of this before.
Oh yeah, McAdoo totally saved the economy. It's sad he's turned into a historical footnote or just remembered as the Klan man. What he did was radical and worked. It's why they kept wanting to run him for President.
 
And was Harding himself seen as corrupt? Or could he have gotten of the hook just by firing one or two Cabinet officers?
 
By 1932, it's too late. If he somehow got elected in 1928, however, it could "only" be a very bad recession.
 
On McAdoo and the Klan: it supported him in 1924 mostly because he was pro-Prohibition and the arch-enemy of Al Smith. He was not a religious bigot and his backers included Catholics (James Phelan, his California champion) and Jews (Bernard Baruch, his chief financial angel). He did share many of his native state of Georgia's prejudices against African Americans; still, he probably was not more anti-black than, say, an anti-Klan, anti-Prohibition southerner like Oscar Underwood. (Indeed, one of Underwood's arguments against Prohibition was that if the federal government could trample on states rights in the regulation of alcohol, it could do the same thing in race relations.) Moreover, as wartime railroad tsar MaAdoo did insist that railroads pay blacks and women the same wages as white men for equal work. Even this may not be as enlightened as it seems, because according to Eric Arnesen, in *Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality*, it was apparently done at the behest of the railroad unions who hoped that if railroads were forced to pay blacks equal wages, they would be less likely to hire them. http://books.google.com/books?id=WE8s2pn2wxAC&pg=PA49 Still, regardless of his motives, his action was applauded by African Americans, and in 1924 some of them supported his presidential bid.)

Some of McAdoo's friends did warn him to repudiate the Klan in 1924, but he apparently was afraid of antagonizing an important source of his support. By 1932, the Klan was insignificant, and even McAdoo was willing to have Prohibition submitted to a national referendum.[/QUO
In 1924 His proposed a separatist disability/Black homeland in Alaska. Garvyites hailed him. A phillip Randolph called it the most dangerous idea since share cropping.
 
Hmph. Charles Dawes was equally if not better prepared to deal with an economic crisis with direct financial / banking experience.
 
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