Effects and Influences of the Great Depression and World War II on Georgia

1. Effects and Influences of the Great Depression and World War II on Georgia SS8H8 The Student will analyze the important events that occurred after WWI and their impact on Georgia. Strands a, b, c, and d SS8H9 The student will describe the impact of WWII on GA’s development economically, socially, and politically. Strands a, b, c, and d

2. Boom of the roaring 20’s • New inventions and buying on credit and margin makes life a little easier and more convenient in the 1920’s • New “convenient foods” were now being frozen and packaged • Many things were now delivered to you, milk, butter, ice for the new ice box, even your doctor made house calls • Electricity becomes readily available, as well as electric appliances, including the radio which becomes very popular • Gas ranges replaced coal and wood stoves so cooking becomes easier and quicker • The assembly line becomes a popular method for manufacturing

3. Roaring 20’s Radio Charles Lindbergh and The Spirit of St. Lewis May 31, 1927 Ford’s Assembly-line

4. Georgia’s economic problems of the 1920’s While the rest of the country was enjoying the boom of the 1920’s Georgia was suffering from a depression due to many factors: • Boll weevil- small long-snouted beetle that destroys cotton, (this was the primary cash crop for most Georgians) • Major Drought in 1924- ruins most of Georgia’s other crops • Banks fail and lose money- since many farmers could not pay back loans due to their crop losses, many banks and farm-related businesses close

5. Boll Weevil

6. Causes of the Great Depression • Behind most of the causes are the overindulgences of the 1920’s • People borrowed more money than they could afford to repay • Banks and businesses then did not get repaid • Factories and farmers overproduced and sales slowed due to excess supplies

7. Causes Continued • Crop prices declined due to overproduction • Surplus supplies caused new production to slow down which then lead companies to lay off workers (unemployment rises to 25%) • High tariffs prevent international trading to grow, other countries had trouble repaying WWI debts • Huge losses from stock market speculation and the crash of the market (“Black Tuesday”, Oct. 29, 1929)

8. Widespread Unemployment of the Great Depression

9. Bank Collapses • Banks closed for many reasons: • Losses from lack of loan repayment • Bad investments in the stock market by bank executives • Too many depositors wanting their $ cashed out at the same time (called a “run” on the bank) • Millions still lost their savings

10. The Great Depression Laissez- faire The economy would work itself out People borrowed more $ than they could repay Factories over produced and could not sell the inventory Run on the banks- everyone tried to withdraw their $ Businesses lost money and laid off workers Causes Market Crashes- people find out stocks are not worth what they are selling for Farmers also overproduced = surplus crops and prices fell then farmers could not repay debts High tariffs left foreign countries unable to sell to the US which prevented them from making $ to pay off war debt Stock market speculation by people and banks that purchased stocks on margin

11. New Deal • Programs created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to focus on “the three R’s” , Relieve the suffering of unemployment; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression • Passed by Congress in the early days of Roosevelt’s presidency • First move was to close all banks and only reopen those that were found “sound” after an investigation (Emergency Banking Act)

12. New Deal Cont. • There were so many agencies that his administration became known as “government by alphabet”; see the slides below on CCC, AAA, REA, and Social Security • Many of the programs were later declared unconstitutional • Ultimately did not end the depression or end unemployment

13. Civilian Conservation Corps. • Most popular New Deal program • Provided jobs for young single men 18-25 • Focused on Conservation and development projects like building trails and roads in parks, planting trees to reforest and control flooding, update forest fire fighting methods, and built a network of public roadways in remote areas • GA projects included Kennesaw National Battlefield, Tybee Island’s seawall, Macon’s and St. Simon’s airports, and facilities at FDR Park in Pine Mt. • Built by the CCC, • Pine Mountain, GA; FDR state park

14. Agricultural Adjustment Act • Created to stabilize crop prices • Gave government money grants (subsidies) to farmer in exchange for letting their fields go unplanted • Hurt tenant farmers who did not own the land but worked it for the owners (no crop = no income) (May 28) Appearing before the House Agricultural Committee today, Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace flatly endorsed the proposed Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1937

15. Roosevelt and Rural Electrification Act • REA loaned money to farmer’s cooperatives to help them afford to extend power lines and buy wholesale power • This allowed farmers to now use electric farm equipment (i.e. water pumps, milking machines, lights, and appliances) • Idea born from Roosevelt’s stay in Warm Springs, GA. His electric bill for the cottage was more than that of his NY mansion. Chickamauga Dam and powerhouse. One of the headquarters buildings of farmers' cooperatives which distribute Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power.

16. Social Security • Created in 1935 • System of retirement and unemployment insurance (payments) • Designed to help relieve the suffering of the poor and unemployed • Originally most women and minorities were excluded from benefits • Today it serves as a social insurance assistance program for retirement, disability, survivorship, death, and social welfare programs

17. Who was Eugene Talmadge • Became Governor in 1933, was very popular with farmers and served two terms • Conservative, white supremacist that had the support of the rural voters • Rejected many of the New Deal programs, used the funding for roads rather than to help unemployed • Did not like federal government intervention in state affairs • Opposed government debt • Reduced property taxes, utility rates, and some license fees

18. Shifting World Powers • Increasing tension in Europe from the world’s economic depression and the rise of dictator power creates an unstable and volatile situation • Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Emperor Hirohito in Japan, and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union were all trying to expand their power and territory • Germany invaded the Rhineland, Czechoslovakia and Poland; Italy invaded the African nations of Ethiopia and then Albania; Japan seized coastal areas of China; the Soviet Union took Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and invaded Finland • Hitler and Stalin signed a “nonaggression pact” in 1939 • Finally, England and France stopped their appeasement and in September of 1939 they declared war and mobilized troops

19. U.S. Enters the Global War • The United States tries to stay out of the war overseas with a policy of isolationism • Congress passed neutrality acts • Allowed the president to sell weapons to any warring nation • Lend-Lease Act- in 1941 when the Allied Powers ran out of cash Congress authorized the president to lend or lease arms to them (included lend-lease aid to the Soviets too) • Roosevelt provided escorts for shipments and built bases in Greenland and Iceland to make sure supplies got through, (this also helped the U.S. keep track of German submarines)

20. Pearl Harbor: “A Day that Will Live in Infamy” President Roosevelt “I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant.” • Japan was unhappy that the U.S. stopped exporting to them metals, airplanes, aircraft parts, and gasoline/oil • Japan had already invaded Indonesia to capture badly needed oil • It was a quiet Sunday morning, December 7, 1941 when the Japanese planes filled the skies over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii • In only two hours of bombing all 8 battleships that were stationed there were destroyed or badly damaged, 2,402 people were killed, over 1,282 were wounded, and 188 planes destroyed • On December 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan and we entered WWII • Public support of isolationism ended

21. USS Arizona, Photo from the National Archives

22. Georgian’s help with the war effort Military bases Aircraft and Ships Georgia’s economy takes off during the war due to the needs and support necessary to sustain the military bases Georgia’s politicians influence the location of these bases in their home state Ft. Benning in Columbus; Camp Gordon in Augusta; Ft. Stewart in Savannah; Warner Robins near Macon; Glynco Naval Air station near Brunswick; Ft. McPherson and Ft. Gillem in Atlanta In Marietta, the B-29 bombers were produced by Bell Aircraft Company, by the end of the war they had built 668 planes and employed over 28,000 In the port shipyards of Brunswick and Savannah “Liberty ships” were built and assembled, 99 in Brunswick and 88 in Savannah The shipyards employed more than 30,000 Georgians, many of whom were women

23. B-29 Bomber Liberty Shipyard With the men at war, women went into the workplace

24. Richard Russell’s Washington influence • Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. • November 2, 1897 – January 21, 1971 • Senator from GA 1933 until his death in 1971, where he was on many important and influential Senate committees • Prior to this he served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, as Governor from 1931-1933, and in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1921-1931 • He was the driving force that help create military bases in GA • He favored strong military preparedness and states’ rights • Advised 6 presidents, and at one point was third in line for the presidency as president pro tempore of the Senate

25. Carl Vinson- “Father of two-ocean Navy” • He served 25 consecutive 2 yr. terms representing GA in the U.S. House of Representatives (1914-1965) • He was the chairman of the House Naval Affairs/Armed Services committee and therefore he influenced legislation for a strong national defense • Help promoted the countries military readiness prior to the war, which resulted in increasing naval aviation to 10,000 planes and 20 new bases • Helped loosen labor restrictions which fostered ship production • Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and has an aircraft carrier named for him.

26. What was the Holocaust • The systematic state sponsored murder of between eleven to seventeen million people by the Nazis during WWII • This genocide included the deaths of many of the Jews of Europe, gypsies, Soviet prisoners, homosexuals, people with disabilities, and other political and religious opponents Auschwitz concentration camp, arrival of Hungarian Jews, Summer 1944, Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive)

27. President Roosevelt’s ties to GA • Franklin D. Roosevelt frequented Warm Springs, to help relieve the discomfort in his legs from polio • He had arrived at the end of March 1945 to rest, however on April 12th, he complained of a bad headache and later died of a massive stroke • An entire nation mourned the loss FDR’s the Little White House, Warm Springs, GA

28. Review: • Georgia is in a depression before the rest of the country • The world falls into a Great Depression • Roosevelt tries to help the unemployed with his New Deal • War envelopes the world once again with WWII and the U.S. is drawn in when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor • Because industry and manufacturing had boomed during WWII, by the end of the 1940’s, more Georgians would be engaged in manufacturing than in agriculture for the first time in the state’s history.