Read the excerpt from Hoover’s “Rugged Individualism” speech to answer the question. Choose the two highlighted examples that best explain why Hoover believed in rugged individualism, or the belief that individuals should rely on themselves and not the government. (which bracket sentences are correct?)
[Nor do I wish to be misinterpreted as believing that the United States is a free-for-all and devil-take-the-hindmost.] The very essence of equality of opportunity and of American individualism is that there shall be no domination by any group or [monopoly] in this republic.... It is no system of laissez faire....
[I have witnessed not only at home but abroad the many failures of government in business.] I have seen its tyrannies, its injustices, its destructions of self-government, its undermining of the very instincts which carry our people forward to progress. I have witnessed the lack of advance, the lowered standards of living, the depressed spirits of people working under such a system....
And what has been the result of the American system? Our country has become the land of opportunity to those born without inheritance, not merely because of the wealth of its resources and industry but because of this freedom of initiative and enterprise. Russia has natural resources equal to ours.... [But she has not had the blessings of one hundred and fifty years of our form of government and our social system.]
[By adherence to the principles of decentralized self-government, ordered liberty, equal opportunity, and freedom to the individual, our American experiment in human welfare has yielded a degree of well-being unparalleled in the world.] It has come nearer to the abolition of poverty, to the abolition of fear of want, than humanity has ever reached before. Progress of the past seven years is proof of it....
