Chapter 10

The Great Depression

1929-1939

Images from Google Images

“Anyone not only can be rich, but ought to be rich.

-General Motors Executive

Roaring Twenties – Thinking about the “today”

Installment buying “Buy now, pay later.”

Electricity more available Demand for electric appliances

Assembly line

Mass media & changing attitudes

“flappers” symbolic of

women’s increasing freedoms

Jazz Age

Bull Market rising stock values

What sort of jobs might these men have had?

Section 1 The End of Prosperity“. . . The worst domestic crisis in the United States since the Civil War.” -TAJ

The Stock Market Crashes1920’s booming economy- nation’s leaders felt the nation had entered

a “new era of prosperity for all.”

The BoomStock exchange- buying and selling shares in corporations

Some bought stock. Purchasing stocks on credit, or with borrowed money – buying on margin.

Everyone was investing in the stock market.

Fearing the boom would end, some investors started selling their stocks (late September)

Brokers demanded to be paid back (forcing people to sell)

The Crash

Stockholders planned to sell stocks at a higher price, pay back the loan, & keep the profit.

Prices dropped (millions sold) On Oct. 24th market lost $11 billion in value

October 29th

Black Tuesday-stock market crashed

“The selling pressure was . . . Coming from everywhere. The wires to other cities were jammed with frantic orders to sell (stock). So were the cables, radio, and telephones to Europe and the rest of the world. Buyers were few, sometimes wholly absent…This was real panic…When the closing bell rang, the great bull market was dead and buried.” Journalist Jonathan Norton Leonard from Three Years Down

New York Stock Exchange closed for a few days to prevent more panic selling.

Page 296 Unemployment during the Depression

https://my.hrw.com/ss_2012/ms_ushist/eactivities/Animated_History/ah25_anim_depression.html

After the crash of the Stock Market in October, 1929, the United States went into a period of severe economic decline. This political cartoon shows…

a family canoeing through the rocky rapids of vacation costs.

Analyze Political Cartoon pg 297

POLITICAL CARTOON

The Economy CollapsesCauses

Banking Crisis

Businesses produced more than they can sell, cut back production, lay off workers, & they buy less-recession.

1929- the wealthiest 5% of the population owned nearly 1/3 of the nation’s wealth,

While the bottom 40% earned only 1/8 of all income.

Deep & Long Lasting Recessions-Depressions

Large banks suffered greatly after the stock market crash, they had investments in the stock market as well.

Between 1930 and 1933, thousands of banks closed. Millions of depositors lost their money.

Small banks suffered when people defaulted on their loans.

Up & Down “bounce back” pattern-business cycle

Great Depression-severity & length of economy crisis

International Depression

“a feeling of worthlessness – and loneliness; I began to think of myself as a freak and misfit.” (Newly unemployed New Yorker Sidney Lens.)

Weaknesses - the economy sapped the strength of the foreign economy

Recovering from WWI-could not afford American goods. High tarrifs made it difficult for European nations to sell products in the US.

Millions lost their jobs.

Those who still had jobs were reduced to part-time or had their wages reduced.

Long lines of hungry people…lined up for soup kitchens & breadlines.

Joblessness and Poverty

Industrial cities were the hardest hit.

Banks dried up

Hoover’s ReactionGovernment Action

The Bonus Army

President Hoover did not believe it was the federal government’s role to provide direct relief.

Hoover did implement some new government programs.Reconstruction Finance Corporation-loaned $1.2 billion to financial institutions.

He called on business leaders to NOT cut wages or production of goods and charities to help the needy.

Angered Americans

Congress had agreed to give a bonuses to WWI veterans and they came to demand early pay.

Out of work vets wanted it NOW.20,000 veterans marched in Washington, D.C.

Resulted in CONFLICT by force and some deaths.

During the Great Depression, many families lost their homes because they could not pay their mortgages. These people had no choice but to seek alternative forms of shelter.

Hoovervilles, named after President Hoover, who was blamed for the problems that led to the depression, sprung up throughout the United States

Franklin D. RooseveltEarly Years of

Promise

Return to Politics

1905- Married Eleanor Roosevelt

1910- New York Senator

1913- Assistant Secretary of the Navy

1920- Democratic candidate for Vice President (Democrats lost to Warren Harding)

Stricken with polio in 1921- paralyzed in both legs

“Once I spent two years lying in bed trying to move my big toe- After that anything else seems easy.”

1928 and 1930 – Governor of New York -National reputation as a reformerSteps to provide aid: relief for farmers & Temporary Emergency Relief Administration-unemployment assistance

Election of 1932

Landslide victory- Showed people clearly wanted a change!

“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.”

Greatest primary task is to “put people to work.”

-part of his acceptance speech

1936, 1940, & 1944-Re-elected President

1941-US entered WWII

1945-Dies at his home in Warm Springs, Georgia

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.”-Inaugural address (March 4, 1933)

Summary

• People we taking their money out of the stock market. On Oct. 29th, the stock market collapsed.

• People were left with no money, jobs, and homes. Many people went to live in places called Hoovervilles.

• They were called hoovervilles, because Americans believed Herbert Hoover was to blame for the stock market collapse.

• FDR offered hope for the future.

Section 2

Roosevelt’s New Deal

“This nation asks for action and action now!”Inaugural address (March 4, 1933)

The Hundred Days

Restoring Confidence 2 days after inauguration, ordered all banks closed for a “bank holiday”.

Passed Emergency Banking Relief Act – system of reorganization.

Government would inspect the finances of every bank-only healthy banks would reopen.

Fireside Chats- radio addresses spoken directly to American people.

Unemployment

Failing banks

Products with no markets

Roosevelt and Congress worked together to create new programs to battle the Depression and aid economic recovery. There programs became known as the NEW DEAL.

New Deal chart

Program Purpose

Emergency Banking Relief Act Gave executive branch right to regulate banks

Farm Credit Act (FCA) Refinanced loans to keep farmers from losing their land

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) created jobs planting trees & improving national parks for single, unemployed men

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) Paid farmers to grow less/stabilized agricultural prices (declared unconstitutional)

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Built dams & power plants in the TN Valley (jobs & electricity)

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Guaranteed deposits in individual bank accounts

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) Established fair competition laws/min. wage (supported by Frances Perkins-1st women cabinet member)

Civil Works Administration Act (CWA) Provided jobs for the unemployed

Works Progress Administration (WPA) Created jobs in construction, research, & the arts (built roads, bridges, & airports)

National Youth Administration (NYA) Provided part-time jobs to students (supported by Eleanor Roosevelt-First Lady)

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) Recognized unions’ right to bargain collectively

Social Security Act Provided government aid to the retired and unemployed

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) Organized workers into unions based on industry, not skill level

New Deal Critics

FDR called “Franklin Double-Crossing Roosevelt” on radio by Priest Charles Coughlin

Senator Huey Long complained FDR hadn’t taken steps to redistribute the wealth.

Came up with “Share Our Wealth Plan”

Tax the rich heavily and use the money to provide a home for all Americans and give them money.

Long had a lot of supporters and looked like a competitive candidate for next presidential election.

Assassinated in 1935.

Thought New Deal went too far-gave president too much authority

The Supreme Court

Clashes with the Court

Those who opposed the New Deal Programs challenged them as unconstitutional. Some reached the Supreme Court.

Some, like the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act) and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, were determined to be unconstitutional.

Roosevelt won re-election by a huge margin in 1936.

COULD IT KILL ROOSEVELT’S NEW DEAL PLANS?

Roosevelt’s “Court-Packing”

BillReorganizing the federal judiciary-

He would appoint the new justices for any Supreme Court justice for every justice who was over 70 years old or older.

This caused a loss of support for Roosevelt.

People felt he would undo the system of “Checks and Balances.”

Tennessee Valley Authority Map

Some southern states wired with electricity for the first time.

Which state was not supplied with power by

the TVA? S. Car., GA, AL, or MS

Which dams were in the state of AL?

The Kentucky dam was on which river?

FDR’s New Deal

Section 3Americans

FaceHard Times

Hard Times in America

Women Go to Work

Most Americans had to

learn to deal with LESS

INCOME

FOODSECURITY

PREJUDICES Women should not work, if there are men unemployed.

Women get paid less.

Work harder in the home. Frances Perkins- FDR appointed- 1st woman to serve

on a President’s cabinet

Hattie Caraway- 1st woman to United States Senate

Eleanor Roosevelt- Her husbands “EYES AND EARS”

-FDR appointed more than 100 women to federal posts.

The Dust BowlMassive dust

storms swept the region.

Eastern Colorado

Northern Texas

New Mexico

Western Kansas

Western Oklahoma

What caused the Dust Bowl?

“These storms were like rolling black smoke. We had to keep the lights on all day. We went to school with headlights on, and with dust masks on.” (Texas boy)

Using new technology (tractors, disc plows, etc.) farmers had cleared millions of acres of land for farming.

Drought of 1931- Crops died- Soil dried out – Prairie winds blew away the soil.

“Black Blizzards”

About 2.5 million farmers went to California to become migrant workers. (moving from place to place to harvest.)

“Okies” – Those Dust Bowl farmers that arrived in Oklahoma

“They came in decrepit [broken-down], square-shouldered [cars] . . . That looked like relics of some antique culture . . . Piled high with mattresses and cooking utensils and children, with suitcases, jugs and sacks strapped to the running boards.” (observer- from TAJ)

The Plight of MinoritiesAfrican Americans

Native Americans

Hispanic Americans

African-American men, women and children migrated to northern cities in search of work.FDR appointed some African-Americans to

federal posts- His “Black Cabinet” included Mary McLeod Bethune.

John Collier- head of Bureau of Indian Affairs proposed the Indian New Deal- stopped sale of reservation land; provided government jobs for Native Americans through CCC. Got Congress to pass the Indian Reorganization Act- restored traditional tribal governments and provided $ to expand some reservations.

Politicians and labor unions demanded they be forced to leave.

Depression-Era Culture

At the Movies Songs of loss & struggle

John Steinbeck

Woody Guthri

e

85 million went to movies to escape worries of the day

Soap Operas became popular

“Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” by Bing Crosby

Anthem of the Depression Era

Listen carefully to the words. Why do you think it was so popular during the Great

Depression?

“All along your green valley I’ll work til I die”

                           

The White Angel Breadline in San Francisco, Lange's first "street" photo, taken in 1933.

                                        

        Migrant workers, 1935. Annotation reads: "More Oklahomans reach California via the cotton fields of Arizona."

                          

       Migrant Mother, 1936

Dorothea

Lange

Margaret Bourke-White

The Great Migration

Grant Wood

Effects of the New Deal

• Stock market crash

CAUSES EFFECTS

• Banking crisis

• Soaring unemployment

• Farmers’ troubles

• Widespread poverty

• Provided hope and relief to many Americans but did not end the Great Depression

• Created major programs such as Social Security and the FDIC

• Expanded role of federal government

• Income gap between rich & poor• Millions lose jobs; poverty widespread

Chapter SummaryCauses/Effects of the Great

DepressionCauses Effects

• Overuse of credit to make purchases

• Industry & agricultural supply exceed demand

• Stock market crash; financial panic

• Businesses & banks close

• Depression spreads to other countries

• Roosevelt wins presidency

• New Deal legislation enacted

• Despite periods of economic upturns, the Depression remains