Read the excerpt from Herbert Hoover’s “Rugged Individualism” speech, delivered on October 22, 1928.

Question

Choose the two highlighted examples that best emphasize why Hoover supported a limited federal response to the onset of the Great Depression.
(1 point)

I should like to state to you the effect that this projection of government in business would have upon our system of self-government and our economic system. That effect would reach to the daily life of every man and woman. It would impair the basis of liberty and freedom not only for those left outside the fold of expanded bureaucracy but for those embraced within it.

Let us first see the effect upon self-government. When the Federal Government undertakes to go into commercial business, it must at once set up the organization and administration of that business, and it immediately finds itself in a labyrinth , every alley of which leads to the destruction of self-goverment

Answer 1

The two highlighted examples that best emphasize why Hoover supported a limited federal response to the onset of the Great Depression are:

1. "It would impair the basis of liberty and freedom not only for those left outside the fold of expanded bureaucracy but for those embraced within it."
2. "When the Federal Government undertakes to go into commercial business, it must at once set up the organization and administration of that business, and it immediately finds itself in a labyrinth, every alley of which leads to the destruction of self-government."

These examples underscore Hoover's belief that an expanded federal role in the economy would undermine individual freedom and self-governance, which were central to his philosophy of rugged individualism.