Hoover's answer to rising unemployment was the appropriation of $2.3 billion in federal public works spending. Building bridges, roads, and national parks not only created jobs but helped the country grow. Hoover Dam was one of the Hoover administration's biggest public works projects. Hoover also formed the President's Emergency Committee for Unemployment (PECU) and its successor, the President's Organization for Unemployment Relief (POUR). The main objectives of PECU and POUR were to promote the idea that things would soon get better. But the mostly volunteer agencies were not very successful because of underfunding and poor management. Hoover encouraged Congress to create the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The RFC was a sort of government bank created to save local banks, businesses, insurance companies, and railroads from failing and thus taking away more jobs. But Hoover found industry leaders to be uncooperative. Loan recipients still continued to rely on...