American story. Hoover took important and proactive steps to assuage the damage of the continuing depression. His reputation as a successful engineer followed Hoover into the onset of economic tragedy. He proactively used the tools allotted to the U.S. government under the ideological confines which limited him. Hoover, like all of his predecessors, were constrained by the firm ideology that government had little place in business affairs. In the framework of this ideology, Hoover held many meetings with captains of industry and implored them to do what the federal government could not: put liquid capital back into the economy and bolster confidence in American markets. Corporate leaders did not slash their own earnings, however, and gradually cut wages, then hours, then both, resulting in numerous layoffs for American workers. In response, Hoover initiated public works program and created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to bail out the many banks that were going under. Hoover was also constrained by the Gold standard. Roosevelt did not have a grand plan for getting America out of the Depression. He pragmatically asserted that "it is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." In short, the important thing was to try. With his popular mandate, Roosevelt experimented with his government and expanded government's role in American life. He used a talent group of ivy leaguers in his cabinet to reshape the way American government interacted with sectors of agriculture and