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. 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.

4. 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.

6. 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.”

7. 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’…”

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. “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.”

11. Images of the Depression

12. 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.

13. 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.”

14. 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

15. 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

18. "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?

19. 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.”

20. Bonus Army March on Washington

21. 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

22. 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