The Great Depression 1929-1933

1. The Great Depression 1929-1933 Semester One Research Project Jennifer Ortega

2. 1930 In early 1930, over 3.2 million people were left unemployed. February: Food Riots break out nationwide and people begin to gain resentment towards foreign workers. Europe begins the feel the effect of the Depression while it becomes worse in the US 1931 1932 Stimson Doctrine is sent to both Japan and China on January 7th. 1929 October: Wall Street Crash, marks beginning of the Great Depression. Hoover’s Agricultural Marketing Act is passed Timeline Hawley-Smoot Tariff proposed by Hoover becomes enacted in June. The Dustbowl begins in the Midwest, devastating those people even more. Interests rates for the Federal Reserve go up. Japanese invade Manchuria after a bridge explodes in a part of China that Japan was controlling. Congress institutes the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in January. Farmers Holiday Association is formed in Iowa. In June, 20,000 members of the Bonus Army march to Capitol Hill to get their bonuses. Election of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected by the majority of the American people. 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated and so begins the New Deal.

3. The Effects of the Great Depression • Changed the relationship between Americans and the government. • Put an immense fear of another Stock Market Crash in the minds of Americans. • Unemployment rate was over 20% • Between 1929 and 1932 output declined by 40% • More government regulations on banks • International commerce declined • Massive poverty • Devastation of American Farms • 12,000 people became unemployed every day • 20,000 companies had gone bankrupt • 1,616 banks had gone bankrupt • 23,000 people committed suicide in one year

4. This is the floor inside the New York City Stock Exchange on the day that $13 million dollars in shares were lost, Black Thursday.

5. Wall Street Crash It was a cloudy Thursday morning when the “nightmare on Wall Street” began. October 24, 1929 marked the end of the great bull market that Coolidge had held together and marked the first step of the rest of the economic collapse that led to the great depression. By the end of the day there had been a loss of $13 million dollars in shares. This graph shows the steady increase of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to October where you can see the major decrease after Wall Street crashed.

6. CAUSES: The Unequal distribution of purchasing power 60% of families couldn’t afford to buy consumer goods such as cars and radios. Those who were able to purchase goods bought on credit. International Trade decreased The high tariffs put on American goods and the European countries were already struggling with paying back reparations after World War I Overproduction Everyone who could afford the consumer goods had already bought them, which led to drop in prices, with led to the laying off of workers because the companies were trying to save money. Country’s Credit Structure Since crop prices were lowered farmers couldn’t pay off their land mortgages causing them to default on loans. Small banks that depended on the agricultural economy were in danger. Buying on Margin A practice that was soon made illegal after the stock market crash because it was so risky. Buying on margin was buying on the promise of future shares. The problem was a lot of the time those shares never came. Banks Banks had been reckless in the years before the stock market crash, making foolish loans and making hasty investments in the stock market. Causes for the Crash

7. Left: This shows people outside the Stock Exchange on the day of the Wall Street Crash. Right: Shows speculators trying to catch people and convince them that it is okay to buy stocks even after the crash.

8. People have already bought all goods, so now there is over productions which causes drops in prices and employers to lay off workers, less sold=less $$ to pay workers. $$$$ GROWTH BOOM PRICES FALL JOBS LOST People have jobs, so they buy more goods, so companies make more goods and hire more people increasing the number in consumers. Economic Cylce

9. Depression Economy The economy during the depression was horrific. Nearly 9,000 American banks went bankrupt or closed their doors to avoid bankruptcy. This caused a drop in money supply, which caused a drop in purchases, which caused deflation. With this companies began to drop the prices on goods and cut workers so they could save money. In just three years the American gross national product declined 25 percent, along with capital investment, consumer price index and the gross farm income. People were now being laid off and experiencing cuts in paychecks or hours.

10. Unemployment rates had reached an all time low. The men in the pictures gathered outside of employment agencies for days in and days out in hope of finding any job.

11. Moods of Despair Not all Americans were affected by the depression but those who were, suffered tremendously. During this era, Americans believed that every man was responsible for his own fate, and with that being jobless, homeless or poverty stricken was a result of their own personal failure. This put immense stress on men to get themselves out of that situation, and find a job so they could gain their masculinity back. Families turned to public relief systems, but the high number of families in need of relief caused for the relief systems to fall apart. There was simply too many families and not enough to go around Thousands of people stood in breadlines just to have a good meal, others chose to pick the scraps from the trash.

12. Below: A man stands outside of a building hoping someone will offer him a job; men were under tremendous stress to get themselves out of the gutter for sake of their masculinity. Right: Breadlines in New York City and Chicago stretched for blocks and served thousands a day.

13. Hoovervilles Families who were left homeless often lived in shanty towns called “Hoovervilles.” They built houses out of anything they could possibly find.

14. But the Midwest had it worst of all, not only had farm income declined by 60 percent but a natural disaster had hit them hard. In early 1930 people in Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, and the Texas panhandle, which became to be known as the “Dustbowl” experienced a decade long drought. As a result many people decided to head west to California in search for work. These people were known as “Okies” because most came from the state of Oklahoma. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of families left the “Dustbowl” to find a better situation. Agrarian Unrest

15. Left: A man in a dust storm, the ten year long drought not only caused even more economic damage to parts of the Midwest but the dust storms could cause even more damage. Right: Migrants on the side of the road leaving the “Dustbowl” and headed towards California.

16. Above: a dust storm near Oklahoma. Left: a father and his two sons head for their shelter to avoid being caught in a dust storm.

17. The ten year long drought known as the “Dustbowl” devastated people in Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas causing them to migrate west to California.

18. Farm Foreclosures Since farm income had declined by 60%, farmers couldn't afford to pay their mortgages on their land; the result, farm foreclosures. They weren’t uncommon at all, one in five farmers had lost their farms.

19. Minorities & The Depression White people weren’t the only ones effected due to the depression; African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans faced harder challenges. They all experienced unemployment, malnutrition and homlessness but what they also experienced was more discrimination and racism. White Southerners began committing more racist acts towards African Americans, blaming them for taking their jobs and demanding that all white men get jobs before them. Chicanos faced similar challenges. They were not allowed to attend American schools or allowed to seek medical treatment. Asian Americans who had attended college, found themselves working at fruit stands and lost jobs to whites.

20. Veterans of World War I were promised to be paid $1,000 starting in 1945 but many veterans began to demand for their bonuses much earlier due to the economic situation. In June of 1932, 20,000 members of the Bonus Expeditionary Force or otherwise known as the Bonus Army marched into Washington and camped out in and around the city until Congress decided to pay them their dues. Many remained even after Congress disproved legislation to pay them their bonuses. In mid-July Hoover first ordered police to clear out some empty federal building that veterans were occupying, when the veterans reacted Hoover sent General Douglas MacArthur to use force to remove the veterans from the Capitol grounds. Federal troops used tear gas and fire to destroy the makeshift camp they had built near the Anacostia River. Bonus March

21. The Bonus Army on the steps of Capitol Hill

22. Below is a picture of a Bonus Army camp.

23. Hoover-Stimson diplomacy; Japan Though it is called Hoover-Stimson diplomacy both men were very different in their views on foreign policy. Hoover could have possibly cared less about what was going on in Asia while the Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson to stop Japan from invading China more than it already had. The whole ordeal began in July of 1931 when a bridge in China, on the South Manchuria Railroad blew up. At the time Japan was in control of the area and blamed the explosion on Chinese rebels. In turn, Japan used this as an excuse to begin their conquest of Manchuria. Stimson tried to tell Japan not to ignore the treaties it had signed and stop expanding into China with the Stimson Doctrine. Stimson wanted European countries to back him up but no one wanted to/cared enough. No one took Stimson seriously, seeing all this occur with little reaction only encouraged Hitler and Mussolini to do in what events soon followed the great depression

24. This political cartoon is showing how Japan completely ignored the international treaties it was bounded by and continued with their invasion of China.

25. Hoover’s Growing Unpopularity and the Election of 1932 • Hoover’s Inaction and laissez-faire philosophy had him loosing popular votes for quite some time and the incident with the Bonus Army is what completely lost all chances for his reelection. As can be seen the election of 1932 was not a tight one. Franklin D. Roosevelt won by a landslide.

26. Conclusion The Great Depression was the worst economic time in the history of the modern world, it left millions upon millions jobless, homeless, and starving. Through the Great Depression we can learn how to prevent such occurrences from happening again, or at least how to lessen the impact.