Herbert Hoover: “Rugged Individualism” Campaign Speech

Glossary

• checks and balances safeguards, in the form of laws and organizational structures, that balance the power among branches of government by placing controls on their influence and authority
• devil-take-the-hindmost an expression meaning “every man for himself,” implying that those who are not fast enough to get themselves out of the devil’s way will become his victims
• interprets itself inserts itself
• laissez faire French term, meaning “let do,” for a policy of allowing events, especially in economics, to run their course with a minimum of government intervention
• paternalism a policy of providing for citizens as though they were children and the government a father, the implication being that people are incapable of caring for themselves
• retarded recuperation slowed recovery from World War I
• state socialism any variety of Socialism in which the state controls factories and other means of production