The Great Depression

1. The Great Depression 1929-1941

2. Music of the Great Depression • You’re Never Fully Dressed without a Smile • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1m2pa5GyEA • Somewhere Over the Rainbow • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU • In a Shanty in an Old Shanty Town • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUCeVoYcReI

3. Causes of the Great Depression • Overexpansion of credit • Technology replaced workers (automation) • Europe never recovered from WWI economically • Reliant on US investment • Overproduction of agriculture • Agricultural Marketing Act, 1929 • Purpose to stabilize farm prices; effect was to encourage overproduction • Protective tariffs • Smoot – Hawley Tariff , June 1930 increased from 38.5 – 60% • Europe & Japan retaliate with less US imports • Federal Reserve stops banks from lending on margin –Feb. 1929 • Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929 • Unregulated banking –b/w 1930 – 1932, collapse of 5000 banks • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDcR-ZS5fyw (:54)

4. Hoover’s Trickle-down Economics (too little too late!) • ‘Priming the Pump’ enacted Public Building Act (1930) & Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) • Help businesses, RR, banks –but only those that had collateral • By Oct. 1930, even w/ 4.5 million unemployed, Hoover refuses to take action for individuals • ‘Bonus Army’ debacle of 1932 • Will vetoed the Muscle Shoals bill (too socialist) –will become the TVA under FDR • Federal Home Loan Bank Act –help w/mortgages & regulate ‘savings & loans’

5. ‘A new deal for Americans’ • FDR wins 1932 election by staying away from prohibition & religious issues • Emphasized economic grievances with the party in power • United most factions of the Democratic party except Southern whites –move to Republican party • Inaugural address: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvonsjqE2a4

6. Did the New Deal Work? • Stops spiral of 1933, but did not end the depressive • March 1933 4 day ‘Bank Holiday’ • Emergency Banking Act • Treasury Dept inspection of banks • reorganization • Economy Act • 15% cut on pensions & gov’t salaries • Repeal of Prohibition

7. Helping Rural America • Agricultural Adjustment Act, May 1933 • Subsidy paid to keep land idle • Big farmers given precedence over little farmers • Eviction of tenant farmers • Reduce agricultural production to control prices (wheat, pigs, corn, cotton, rice, tobacco, dairy) • Rural Electrification Commission • Utility cooperatives • Regional Planning • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

9. AP PARTS • APPROPRIATION • SECTION 1. For the purpose of enabling each State to furnish financial assistance, as far as practicable under the conditions in such State, to aged needy individuals, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1936, the sum of $49,750,000, and there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal year thereafter a sum sufficient to carry out the purposes of this title. The sums made available under this section shall be used for making payments to States which have submitted, and had approved by the Social Security Board established by Title VII (hereinafter referred to as the Board ), State plans for old-age assistance

10. Warm Up • What connection is TIME making between the past and present day?

11. Helping the American Worker • National Industrial Recovery Act -1933 • Allowed monopolist practices in exchange for collective bargaining • Public work spending • Minimum wage, max. 40 hr week, no child labor • SC will later find unconstitutional • Public Works Administration • Helped distribute $6 billion for dams, bridges, roads, schools • Most money given away b/w 1935 - 1938

12. Helping the Economy • US goes off the Gold Standard –May 1933 • Glass-Steagall Act June 1933 • Establishes FDIC & bank regulation, reorganizes larger banks first • Truth in Securities Act 1933 • Est. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) • Second New Deal -1935 • Works Progress Administration (WPA) 1935-1943 • budget was 6% of GDP • employed the uneducated & the over-educated (artists, writers, actors, historians

13. Growth of Federal Relief • FERA –Federal Emergency Relief Act ($ to states) • CWA –Civilian Works Administration (shovel jobs) • CCC –Civilian Conservation Corps –national parks (young men only & segregated) • FHA –Federal Housing Administration –to help mortgage finance

14. Anti-New Deal Voices • American Liberty League –DuPont family & other Northern industrialists • ‘Soak the rich!” • Gov. Huey Long (LS) – “Share our Wealth Society” • Fr. Charles Coughlin – ‘radio priest’ • Both wanted greater wealth redistribution

15. “Court Packing” & Retrenchment • FDR’s 1936 victory –uses mandate to try to prevent reform programs being struck down by the SC • proposes to add 6 more Supreme Court justices & overhaul federal court system • Congress defeats proposal • Resolves to balance the budget • 1936 cuts WPA by 1.5 bil • By 1937, 4 mil. More people out of work –RECESSION!

16. Minorities during the Great Depression • African-Americans • More than 50% in South –whites get precedence for jobs • More than 50% of working age were unemployed in 1933 • Expansion of New Deal programs give aid regardless of race –solidifies loyalty to Democrats • Scottsboro Boys Case (Alabama) -8 of 9 black teens convicted of rape w/o evidence & sentenced to death • Women • About 20% of married women worked outside the home • Few jobs programs for women • discouraged by Sec. of Labor, Frances Perkins ‘to work for pin money’ • Single mothers could qualify for cash relief -AFDC

17. Growth of Organized Labor • “Broker State” –Gov’t acts as mediator b/w corporations and unions • AFL vs. industrial unions -all labor in an industry should organized by industry, regardless of job (UAW strike of 1937) • Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) • John L. Lewis –welcomed blacks & women

18. The New Deal lives on • Social Security Administration , 1935 (SSA) –social insurance –inspired by Townsend Plan –Dr. Francis Townsend • Destitute retirees • Payroll tax based retirement fund • Unemployment insurance • Wagner Act, 1935 • National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) • Enforce collective bargaining • Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 • National minimum wage + 40 work week, end child labor

19. Document D • ,Of course we're all keeping our heads and doing all we can to help’

20. Thesis: FDR Hoover