The Great Depression &

The New Deal 1929-1939

The Human Impact of the Great Depression

Subsistence incomes– “We lived lean”; survival primary goal

Marriage and family—marriages/births decreased; “poor man’s divorce”

Fathers and mothers—fathers more affected than mothers

Psychological impact—shame, self-doubt, self-blame

Programming—radio, a lifelineGeorge Burns and Gracie Allen; Jack Benny;

marquee for the first “talkie” The Jazz Singer;

Orson Welles broadcasting The War of the Worlds.

Dust Bowl—ecological man-made disaster

Impact of commercial farming—farm families replaced by corporate consolidation and mechanization

Exodusters—hope in California dashed Cesar Chavez—37 schools;

“following the crops” Repatriation

—out-migration of Hispanics

One of the Great Plains dust storms pursues a truck down

the road.

An “Okie” vehicle takes a break by

the side of the road on the way to

California.

“Black Blizzards”

LULAC and ethnic identity—Hispanic civil rights

organization anti-Mexican?

Father Divine and Elijah Muhammed—afterlife of full equality; Black Muslims: separate nation?

Scottsboro boys—rapes of two white women: one

admitted frame job

END OF READINGThe Scottsboro boys and a moment

during their trials.

The Tragedy of Herbert Hoover

Private charity—overwhelmed by the tremendous

need: only 6% of relief funds City services—overwhelmed;

states in the red

TERA—New York first state to even attempt unemployment relief and that was in 1931 (Roosevelt governor)

A Hooverville,

where people might be

using Hoover Blankets.

Things will naturally, eventually correct themselves.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation—government lending to banks, insurance companies, railroads: good but not enough—“rescues banks but not people”

Unemployment relief—a little; Hoover feared the dole would ruin people’s independence, initiative

Farm Holiday Association—dumping milk; radical ideas gaining popularity

Communist party—revolution never a danger, but some listening

Veterans of the U.S.

Army now part of the

Bonus Army who went to Washington to get their

bonuses early, but

were forced out.

The Early New Deal (1933-1935)

Recovery, relief, reform—election in Nov./inauguration in March; flurry in “100 Days”

Franklin Roosevelt—polio: arrogance

to compassion

The Brains Trust—lawyers, professors

Franklin and Eleanor

Roosevelt transformed

the Presidency

and the nation.

Emergency Banking Act– “Bank

Holiday,” then reopen the solvent, use

“conservators” for the rest

Federal Deposit Insurance Work relief—CWA, CCC

Roosevelt giving one of his “fireside chats,” such as when he declared a

“Bank Holiday.” There was no fireplace in the room where he

delivered his “chats.”

A Civilian Conservation Corps worker plants trees; Civil Works Administration

workers (below) build a sewer line.

But CWA workers were also hired to teach music (right) or perform or create art as a way

of keeping those skills alive as well.

Tennessee Valley Authority—work

relief to revitalize a whole region

Public Works Administration National Recovery Administration

– “codes of fair

practices” to

control

competition

The symbol for the Tennessee Valley Authority and a power plant built by

TVA.

A restaurant showing its support of the

National Recovery Administration.

Schecter decision– “Sick Chicken Case” declares NRA an unconstitutional over-regulation of commerce

Agricultural

Adjustment

Administration—producers agree to

limit production/

government pays them

not to produce: prices

go up (flaws,

unconstitutional,

reworked)

END OF READING

A Second New Deal (1935-1936)

Liberty League—conservative right: million dollars in Anti-FDR ads

“End Poverty in California”—give poor idle land, factories: this and below were simplistic solutions

Huey Long– “Share the Wealth” and make “every man a king” by limiting fortunes

Charles Coughlin—banks to blame: nationalize them, inflate currency, spread jobs

Francis Townsend—pension for 60+ who quit jobs and spent it in 30 days

Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, who ran for governor of California with the slogan, “End Poverty

in California,” but smeared and lost

election.

Huey Long, the “Kingfish, ” who promised that every man would be a king. He was a

radical, but Federal government seemed to be taking responsibility for welfare of all.

Works Progress Administration—spent billions on wages, BUT couldn’t compete with private industry: arts, public buildings, etc.

Social Security—help those who couldn’t help themselves—aged, infirm, dependent children, unemployed—and maintains consumption (reaching 65 an accomplishment then)

National Labor Relations Act—Unions not only okayed, but protected

Roosevelt Coalition—the South, lower rung ethnics and African Americans, unions: 30 yr. Democratic reign

FDR signing the Social Security Act. The first woman

cabinet member Labor Secretary Frances Perkins is in

the background.

The American People under the New Deal

Rural Electrification Administration—farms electrified: 10% 1935 to 90% 1950

African Americans—party switch from Rep. to Dem.

Mexican Americans—political inexperience left them

largely untouched by New

Deal benefits

The Boulder Dam under construction;

Mary McLeod Bethune was a

member of FDR’s “Black Cabinet.”

John Collier’s Indian Reorganization Act—tribal life promoted, assimilation discarded: Indians divided pro and con

CAWIU farm strike—California migrants, Mexicans rise up, put down

Congress of Industrial Organizations—unskilled workers snubbed by skilled AFLers went their own way

John Collier posing with a couple of Native

Americans.

John L. Lewis, the combative leader of

the United Mine Workers.

Sit-down strikes—effective for

CIO against lockouts, police, scabs

Union gains—near equal player

Rivera and Orozco—New Deal

arts programs

Documentary realism—as it is

Fisher Body workers count down the days during their sit-down strike; the cast from the movie The Grapes of Wrath; paintings by Orozco (left) and

Rivera.

The End of the New Deal (1937-1940)

Roosevelt’s plan—pack the courts to

dilute anti-New Deal influence: bad idea

John Maynard Keynes— “pump-

priming”: spend way out of depression, tax

to pay debts in prosperity—FDR followed

reluctantly

Recovery abroad—Keynes theory

worked in Europe where they ran up

much larger deficits

British economist John Maynard Keynes liked the idea of deficit government

spending, thinking that when prosperity returns taxes can be raised to make up

for the deficit.