The Great Depression

1. The Great Depression

2. Election of 1928 -Herbert HooverElected “Two cars in every garage” -20’s marked a reign of prosperity Hoover wants it to continue -Hoover predicts the end of poverty “We in America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before…The poorhouse is vanishing among us.” --Herbert Hoover

3. Herbert Hoover

4. Stock Market Crash -Warning Signs Speculation Get rich quick schemes Buying on Margin pay a small percentage of the stock’s price as a down payment and borrowing the rest to pay later -Stock prices were inflated -Oct 1929 prices begin to fall Everyone rushes to sell stock Lose about $30 billion - Oct 29, 1929 Black Tuesday The crash of 1929, and the Depression that followed, dealt a crushing blow to the hopes and dreams of millions of Americans. The high flying prosperity of the 1920s was over. Hard times had begun.

5. New York Times Headline Oct. 25, 1929 In early September 1929, stock prices peaked and then began to decline. Confidence in the market started to waver and some investors sold their stock and pulled out. On October 29-known as Black Tuesday-the bottom fell out of the market. People and corporations alike frantically tried to sell their stocks before prices plunged even lower. Those individual investors who had bought stocks on credit acquired huge debts when stock prices plunged. Other investors, who had invested most of their savings in the market, lost their investments when prices fell. The number of shares dumped that day was a record 16 million. Additional millions of shares could not even find buyers. By mid November, investors had lost $30 billion, an amount equal to American spending in World War I.

7. Causes of Depression -Overproduction of goods Too little demand -Too much available easy credit Depend on future income to pay -less consumption of goods/agriculture People buying less -high tariffs Foreign goods expensive-prices high -no banking regulations No money on reserve-no guarantee on savings - Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1930 Tariff to protect US businesses (disaster since Europe raised their tariffs too) “The Big Bull Market was dead. Billions of dollars worth of profits—and paper profits—had disappeared. The grocer, the window cleaner, and the seamstress had lost their capital (savings). In every town there were families which had suddenly dropped from showy affluence into debt… With the Big Bull Market gone and prosperity going, Americans were soon to find themselves living in an altered world which called for new adjustments, new ideas, new habits of thought, a new order of values.”

8. Hard Times Hit Home -Rural areas foreclosure of farms, food supply, Dust Bowl -Cities shantytowns, soup kitchens, breadlines -Family Life men on the move, hardships of women, health of children, -Social effects more suicide, mental illness, dreams forsaken, ethics, hardwork “I couldn’t imagine a financial disaster touching my small world; it surely concerned only the rich. But by the first week of November, I too knew differently; along with millions of others across the nation, I was without a job. All that next week I searched for any kind of work that would prevent my leaving school. Again it was ‘we are firing, not hiring’…”

9. During the 1920s, farmers from Texas to North Dakota had used tractors to break up the grasslands and plant millions of acres of new farmland. Plowing had removed the thick protective layer of prairie grasses. Farmers had then exhausted the land through overproduction of crops, and the grasslands became unsuitable for farming. When the drought and winds began in the early 1930s, little grass and few trees were left to hold the soil down. Wind scattered the topsoil, exposing sand and grit underneath. The dust traveled hundreds of miles.

10. The region that was hardest hit, including parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, came to be known as the Dust Bowl. Thousands of farmers and sharecroppers left their land behind, packed up their families, and headed west, following Route 66, to California.

11. “The dust is something fierce. Sometimes it lets up enough so we can see around; even the sun may shine for a little time, then we have a frenzied time of cleaning, anticipating the comfort of a clean feeling once more… “Our faces look like coal miners’, our hair is gray and stiff with dirt and we grind dirt in our teeth. We have to wash everything before we eat it and make it as snappy as possible… “When we open the door, swirling whirlwinds of soil beat against us unmercifully, and we are glad to go back inside and sit choking in the dirt… “A lot of dirt is blowing now, but it’s not dangerous to be out in it. The dirt is all loose, any little wind will stir it, and there will be no relief until we get rain. If it doesn’t come soon there will be lots of suffering. If we spit or blow our noses we get mud. We have quite a little trouble with our chests. I understand a good many have pneumonia.”

12. Images of the Depression

13. The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.

14. The dust storms in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas were so severe that this region of the Great Plains became known as the Dust Bowl. This was one of the greatest hardships-but only one of many- that Americans faced during the Great Depression. “Last weekend was the worse dust storm we ever had. We’ve been having quite a bit of blowing dirt every year since the drought started, not only here, but all over the Great Plains. Many days this spring the air is just full of dirt coming, literally, for hundreds of miles. It sifts into everything. After we wash the dishes and put them away, so much dirt sifts into the cupboards we must wash them again before the next meal…. Newspapers say the deaths of many babies and old people are attributed to breathing in so much dirt.”

15. Hoover’s Resolve -Rugged Individualism People responsible for themselves -created government agency to help business recover RFC –Reconstruction Finance Corporation Gave loans to businesses to prevent business failure Hoped businesses would then help the people -gave no direct relief to the people Indirect Relief: Give money to states and local governments to help the people

16. Hoover’s Resolve -”Two families in every garage” -Hoovervilles Towns of cardboard boxes -Bonus Army March on Washington WWI soldiers want bonuses early Hoover orders National Guard to attack -Radicals begin to develop

19. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob, When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job. They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead, Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread? Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime; Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a million boots went slogging through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum! Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Why don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a million boots went slogging through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum! Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?

20. The Bonus Army came to the nation’s capital to support a bill under debate in Congress. The Patman Bill authorized the government to pay a bonus to WWI veterans earlier than promised. Although Hoover opposed the bill he respected the soldiers rights to assemble peacefully. When the Senate voted down the bill, Hoover called on the marchers to leave and although most did, about 2000 remained. Hoover decided the Bonus Army should be disbanded. On July 28, a force of 100 soldiers came to roust the veterans. A government official watching from a nearby building recalled what happened next. “The 12th Infantry was in full battle dress. Each had a gas mask and his belt was full of tear gas bombs… At orders, they brought their bayonets at thrust and moved in. The bayonets were used to jab people, to make them move. Soon, almost everybody disappeared from view, because the tear gas bombs exploded. The entire block was covered by tear gas. Flames were coming up, where the soldiers had set fire to the buildings to drive these people out…Through the whole afternoon, they took one camp after another.”

21. Bonus Army March on Washington

22. Election of 1932 Direct Relief: Gives money directly to the people from the national government -Franklin Rooseveltelected governor of NY -Pledged a New Deal for the people Help for the common man -Democrats win great majority in Congress -Hoover remains a lame duckfor several months 20th amendment changed the inaugural date for the president and Congress -Banking system was in a crisis

24. Altogether shout it nowThere's no oneWho can doubt it nowSo let's tell the world about it nowHappy days are here againYour cares and troubles are goneThere'll be no more from now onFrom now on ...Happy days are here againThe skies above are clear againSo, Let's sing a song of cheer againHappy timesHappy nightsHappy daysAre here again! “Happy Days are Here Again” So long sad timesGo long bad timesWe are rid of you at lastHowdy gay timesCloudy gray timesYou are now a thing of the pastHappy days are here againThe skies above are clear againSo let's sing a song of cheer againHappy days are here again

25. New Deal

26. “Only Thing To Fear” -1932 Inauguration Speech “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself” -Public Relations -Fireside Chats FDR spoke by radio to America on a regular basis Calmed their fears In 1932, the presidential election showed that Americans were clearly ready for a change.

27. A Call to Action -Progressive programs Experiment with solutions Relief, Recovery, Reform -Group Effort Eleanor Roosevelt More political first lady Brain Trust Intellectuals who helped FDR develop policies Frances Perkins Secretary of Labor 1st woman to hold cabinet position -1st 100 Days March-June 1933 The Roosevelt administration implemented programs to provide relief to farmers. It also aided other workers and provided for stimulating economic recovery. What do you think the cartoonist means by Roosevelt’s remark concerning New Deal remedies?

28. Eleanor Roosevelt A niece of Teddy Roosevelt and a distant cousin of Franklin, Eleanor lost her parents at an early age and was raised by a strict grandmother. As First Lady, she often urged the president to take stands on controversial issues. She became known for speaking out against economic and social injustice. In presenting a booklet on human rights to the UN in 1958 she said, “Where after all do human rights begin?... [In] the world of the individual person: the neighborhood…the school…the factory, farm or office where he works.”

29. First New Deal -designed for relief, recovery, and reform -deficit spending Spending money country does not have -Bank Holiday closed all banks to prevent withdrawals Reopened sound banks-those unable to repay debts stayed closed -FDIC and SEC created The New Deal was the title President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to the series of programs he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of providing relief, recovery, and reform (3 Rs) to the people and economy of the United States during the Great Depression. Dozens of alphabet agencies (so named because of their acronyms), were created as a result of the New Deal.

30. Alphabet Soup -FDIC Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation federal insurance for individual bank accounts up to $100,000 -SEC Securities and Exchange Commission regulate stock market -PWA Public Works Administration Money given to states to create construction jobs -CWA Civil Works Administration built schools, roads

31. Alphabet Soup -SSA Social Security Act > 65 get retirement income -Fair Labor Standards Act Minimum Wage – 40 cents/hr. 44 hr max/week ended child labor -NLRA National Labor Relations Act/ Wagner Act monitor unfair management practices such as firing workers who join unions -WPA Works Progress Administration provided jobs for unskilled workers, built many government buildings

32. Alphabet Soup -TVA Tennessee Valley Authority flood control hydroelectricity -CCC Civilian Conservation Corp young men age 18-25 Built roads, parks -AAA Agricultural Adjustment Act attempted to raise crop prices by paying farmers not to farm -NIRA National Industrial Recovery Administration set prices to ensure fair competition

35. Not Enough Help -By 1935 the economy has still not recovered Depression not over yet -there is enough relief to keep people from starving -some people start to demand more action “Eighteen million Americans are so poor of this world’s goods that they are on relief”

36. New Deal Critics -Father Charles Coughlin heavy taxes on the rich to provide income for all guaranteed annual income -Huey Long “Every man a King” guaranteed income ($2000), home and college for all “Share Our Wealth” Plan Limit income to <$1,000,000 “We owe debts in America today, public and private, amounting to $252 billion. That means that every child is born with a $2000 debt around his neck… We propose that children shall be born in a land of opportunity, guaranteed a home, food, clothes, and other things that make for living, including the right to education.”-- Huey Long

38. Court Packing -Several New Deal programs ruled unconstitutional AAA, NRA -Roosevelt proposed adding new justices -seen as a threat to checks and balances

39. By the mid 1930s conservative opposition to the New Deal had received a boost from the Supreme Court. The NIRA was declared unconstitutional because it gave legislative powers to the executive branch. The next year the court struck down the AAA on the grounds that agriculture is a local matter to be regulated by the states. Roosevelt was dismayed by these rulings. Fearing further court decisions that might dismantle the New Deal, he proposed that Congress enact a court-reform bill that would reorganize the federal judiciary and allow him to appoint six new Supreme Court justices. This was quickly labeled the “court packing” bill and it received a storm of protest in Congress and in the press. Many people believed the president violated principles of judicial independence and the separation of powers and this damaged his public image. However unforeseen circumstances would eventually lead to support for the New Deal in the court and President Roosevelt would appoint seven new justices over four years.

40. African Americans -Mary McLeod Bethune friend of Eleanor Roosevelt established “Black Cabinet” Advised President on education -Concert of Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial -Roosevelt never fully committed to civil rights -African Americans came to support the Democratic Party When the Daughters of the American Revolution chose not to allow Anderson to perform in their concert hall Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for her to perform at the Lincoln Memorial

41. End of the New Deal -”I see 1/3 of a nation ill -housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished”-FDR 1937 -by 1937, some recovery so gov’t pulls back programs and depression returns -opposition grows to continued gov’t control-not solving the depression -international affairs begin to take precedence -New deal has great legacy WWII Ends the Great Depression What is this political cartoon saying about the New Deal and its affect on America?