"... As with other big government interventions, Hoover made the situation worse by attempting to control one part of the economic picture. When he froze wages, it amounted to across-the-board increases in buying power as deflation set in — and made their companies unable to pass along the costs of production to consumers. After two years, employment had dropped 35% and GDP by 27% as the American economy collapsed. Ohanian argues that two-thirds of that GDP decline can be directly attributable to this deal...."
Hoover Created the Depression
Here's an informative post from HA that gets into the details of the history. I found it helpful to understand. It is a bit sad considering I acquired a great deal of respect for the man and his thinking, which I wrote about earlier. But history is important and ideas have consequences.