Is completely fallacious to say that Hoover didn't believe in government intervention, yet this is what so many historical accounts say about the period. In 1931, Hoover proposed to:
Establish a Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which would use Treasury funds to lend to banks, industries, agricultural credit agencies, and local governments;
Broaden the eligibility requirement for discounting at the Fed;
Create a Home Loan Bank discount system to revive construction and employment measures which had been warmly endorsed by a National Housing Conference recently convened by Hoover for that purpose;
Expand government aid to Federal Land Banks;
Set up a Public Works Administration to coordinate and expand Federal public works;
Legalize Hoover's order restricting immigration;
Do something to weaken "destructive competition" (i.e., competition) in natural resource use;
Grant direct loans of $300 million to States for relief;
Reform the bankruptcy laws (i.e., weaken protection for the creditor).
Hoover also displayed anxiety to "protect railroads from unregulated competition," and to bolster the bankrupt railroad lines. In addition, he called for sharing-the-work programs to save several millions from unemployment.
Hardly what one might call non-interventionist in economic terms, wouldn't you say? Most of FDR's New Deal, in terms of his first few years in office, were continuations of the Hoover Administration's policies.
