The Great Depression and the New Deal
Recovery
"Pump - Priming" Temporary programs to restart the flow of consumer demand. e.g. Agricultural Adjustment Act, Works Progress Administration, Home Owners Loan Corp.
And it gets worse...
"Refusal to compromise"... seen as inaction and has no desire to help people; Hoover's optimism seen as that he doesn't understand people's problems and leads people to question how can he be happy when they are all poor. He was perceived as aloof and content
Agricultural Adjustment Act
(AAA) Taxed food processor and gave the money directly to farmers as a payment for not growing food. This decreased supply so price would go up; 1933
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC) Permanent Agency designed to insure depositors' money in savings banks
Works Progress Administration
(WPA) Provided long term government jobs building schools and other public works projects. Under the direction of Harry Hopkins, was responsible for building or renovating 110,000 public building and for constructing almost 600 airports, more than 500,000 miles of roads and over 100,000 bridges. Kept an average of 2.1 million workers employed and pumped needed money in the economy. Also displayed remarkable flexibility and imagination in offering assistance to those whose occupations did not fit into any traditional category of relief
Depression at Home
1 in 4 Americans unemployed; "Dust Bowl" caused by temperature, rain and prices; African Americans lost jobs to white, sharecropping system failing, continued prejudice, and there one victory was they were allowed to join Unions; bread lines
Reasons for the Depression
1.) No diversification 2.) Poor distribution of wealth 3.) Credit Structure 4.) Declining exports 5.) International debt structure
What did Hoover do?
1.) Volunteerism (concession from business, labor), which worked briefly by failed in 1931 2.) $423 minimum public works funding, which was not nearly enough to fix problems 3.) Private giving (helped Belgians in 1914), which raised only 1/10 of needed funds and was disorganized 4.) Promoted rugged individualism 5.) Won't let government have a deficit
Indians
1830s: Reservation system, Oklahoma to Dakotas. 1887: Dawes Act- railroads were going through reservations, and Act broke up reservation system; did it under guise of its for their good, because their lifestyle was improper; would assimilate them into civilized life. 1934: Indian Reorganization Act: allows Native Americans to own land collectively, basically a reservation system.
Farmers
1920s, over-produced, price of food dropped. Coolidge didn't believe in corporate welfare. The Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA) tried to reduce excess products; The Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional because it was telling people how to live. "Soil Conservation" (I will pay you to grow potatoes and conserve soil) deemed perfectly legal
100 Days
1st three months of FDR's presidency; alphabet soup of programs; flurry of government spending and work; emergency banking act and Economy Act
Father Charles E. Coughlin
A Catholic priest in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, Michigan, achieved even greater renown through his weekly sermons broadcast nationally over the radio. In later years, he became notorious for his sympathy for fascism and his outspoken anti-semitism. But until at least 1937, he was known primarily as an advocate for changing the banking and currency systems. He proposed a series of monetary reforms-remonetization of silver, issuing of greenbacks, and nationalization of the banking system-that he insisted would restore prosperity and ensure economic justice. At first a warm supporter of FDR, by late 1934 he had become disheartened by what he claimed was the president's failure to deal harshly enough with the money powers. In the spring of 1935 he established his own political organization, The National Union for Social Justice. He was widely believed to have one of the largest regular radio audiences of anyone in America
Marian Anderson
A black singer who was refused permission in the spring of 1939 to give a concert in Washington's only concert hall, the auditorium of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Eleanor Roosevelt and Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes arranged for her to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday
The Popular Front
A broad coalition of antifascist groups on the left, of which the most important was the American Communist Party. Softened its attitude toward FDR and formed loose alliances with many other progressive groups. Slogan: Communism is twentieth-century Americanism
Banking Collapse
A collapse of the banking system followed the stock market crash. Over 9,000 American banks either went bankrupt or closed their doors to avoid bankruptcy between 1039 and 1933. Depositors lost over $2.5 billion in deposits. Partly as a result of these banking closures, the nation's money supply, according to some measurements, fell by more than a third between 1930 and 1933. The declining money supply meant a decline in purchasing power, and thus deflation. Manufacturers and merchants began reducing prices, cutting back on production, and laying off workers. Some economists argue that a severe depression could have been avoided if the Federal Reserve system had acted more responsibly. But the members of the Federal Reserve Board, concerned about protection the fed's own solvency in a dangerous economic environment, raised interest rates in 1931, which contracted the money supply even further
African-American Suffering
African Americans for the most part had not shared very much prosperity of the previous decade. But the Depression was devastating for them nevertheless. They experienced more unemployment, homelessness, malnutrition, and disease than they had in the past, and considerably more than most whites
Roosevelt Recession
After unemployment rose again, he gave $5 billion to the WPA. Roosevelt became prepared to focus on foreign over domestic. It appeared to be the direct result of the administration's unwise decision to reduce spending. So in April 1938, FDR asked Congress for an emergency appropriated of $5 billion for public works and relief programs, and government funds soon began pouring into the economy once again
Banking Act
Also known as the Glass-Steagall Act, it prohibits commercial banks from engaging in the investment business. It was enacted as an emergency response to the failure of nearly 5,000 banks during the Great Depression
Escapist Programming
Although radio stations occasionally carried socially and politically provocative programs, the staple of broadcasting was escapism: comedies such as Amos 'n Andy; adventures such as Superman, Dick Tracy and the Lone Ranger. Radio brought a new kind of comedy to a wide audience. Jack Benny, George burns and Gracie Allen, and other masters of elaborately timed jokes and repartee began to develop broad followings. Soap operas were enormously popular, especially with women who were alone in the house during the day
1935
American Communist Party proclaims Popular Front; Supreme Court invalidates NRA; "second New Deal" legislation passed; Father Charles Coughlin establishes National Union for Social Justice; John L. Lewis and allies break with AFL; Huey Long assassinated; Works Progress Administration, National Youth Administration, Social Security Act, National Labor Relations Act, Public Utilities Holding Company Act, Resettlement Administration, Revenue Act (wealth tax)
AFL
American Federation of Labor. Organized people by skill or craft. Turned back on minorities, women and unskilled
Southern Tenant Farmers Union
An attempt by the Communist Party to mobilize support among the rural poor, The Southern Tenant Farmers Union was organized by young Socialist H.L. Mitchell. Attempted to create a biracial coalition of sharecropper, tenant farmers, and others to demand economic reform. Neither the STFU nor the party itself, however, made any real progress toward establishing socialism as a major force in American politics
Dr. Francis E. Townsend
An elderly California physician who rose from obscurity to lead a movement of more than 5 million members with his plan for federal pensions for the elderly. According to the Townsend Plan, all American over the age of 60 would receive monthly government pensions of $200, provided they retired and spent the money in full each month. By 1938, it had attracted the support of many older men and women. And while the plan itself made little progress in Congress, the public sentiment behind it helped build support for the Social Security System which Congress did approve in 1935
Black Cabinet
An informal network of African american officeholder who consulted frequently with one another. Robert Weaver, William Hastie and Mary McLeod Bethune
Economy Act
Anti FDR because very conservative; reduces government employee salaries; reduce pension payments to retirees; reduce benefit payment to veterans; to reduce federal deficit; 1933; designed to convince fiscally conservative Americans that the federal government is in safe, responsible hands. Proposed to balance the federal budget by cutting the salaries of government employees and reducing pensions to veterans by as much as 15 percent
FDR Nominated
As the 1932 presidential election approached, few people doubted the outcome. The Republican Party dutifully renominated Herbert Hoover for a second term of office, but the gloomy atmosphere of the convention made it clear that few delegates believed he could win. The Democrats, in the meantime, gathered jubilantly in Chicago to nominate the governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The Left's Newfound Respectability
At few times before and few since in American history did being part of the left seem so respectable and even conventional among workers, intellectuals and others. Thus the 1930s witnessed an impressive, if temporary, widening of the ideological range of the ideological range of mainstream arts and politics
National Industrial Recover Act
Authorizes the president to regulate industry in an attempt to raise prices after after severe deflation and stimulate economic recovery. Symbol is a blue eagle clutching a cogwheel and a thunderbolt
African Americans
Benefited from New Deal programs. Kept segregated. "Black Cabinet"- helped formed by Eleanor Roosevelt. Groups of African American businessmen who were brought to attention of president
Increased Female Employment
Both single and married woman worked in the 1930s, despite public condemnation of the practice, because they or their families needed the money. In fact, the largest new group of female workers consisted of precisely those people who, according to popular attitudes, were supposed to be leaving the labor market: wives and mothers. By the end of the Depression, 20 percent more women were working than had been doing so at the beginning
Hoover's Declining Popularity
By the spring of 1931, Hoover's political position had deteriorated considerably. In the 1930 congressional elections, Democrats won control of the House and made substantial inroads in the Senate by promising increased government assistance to the economy. Many Americans held the president personally to blame for the crisis and began calling the shanty-towns that unemployed people established on the outskirts of cities Hoovervilles. Democrats urged the president to support more vigorous programs of relief and public spending. Hoover, instead seized on a slight improvement in economic conditions early in 1931 as proof that his policies were working
No Diversification
Certain industries were prosperous (autos, construction)... that's where everyone invested, not the smaller industries that feed them; economy slowed, companies couldn't pay dividends; other industries lacked capital, causing them to close; newer industries emerging, but not soon enough; Prosperity had depended excessively on a few basic industries, notably construction and automobiles. In the late 1920s, those industries began to decline. Expenditures on construction fell from $11 billion to under $9 billion between 1926 and 1929. Automobile sales fell by more than a third in the first nine months of 1939. Newer industries were emerging to take up the slack-among them petroleum, chemicals, plastics and other oriented toward the expanding market for consumer goods-but had not yet developed enough strength to compensate for the decline in other sectoes
CCC
Civilian Conservation Corps. Put people to work, not necessarily needed job (some criticize). Focus on using National Park Service- employs young, unmarried men and works on reforestation (parks, trails, roads)
Emergency Banking Act
Closes all Banks for 3 days; inspectors look at books, records, and lines of credit, and if they have enough money to function, they could reopen. If they banks were unstable, the Federal Reserve would send money. It gave millions to struggling banks to help them function; closed the insolvent banks and only reopened the solvent ones; 1933; designed to protect larger banks from being dragged down by the weakness of smaller ones. Provided for Treasury Department inspection of all banks before they would be allowed to reopen, for federal assistance to some troubled institutions, and for a thorough reorganization of those in the greatest difficulty
Sit-Down Strikes
Comes about 1936. United Automobile Workers win against General Motors. Workers showed up to job and just sat down and occupied space, so can;t being in scab or strikebreaker. Demonstrates that workers have dedication to job but want to be treated fairly and equally. 80% of all sit-down strikes ended up in favor of workers
John Collier
Commissioner of Indian affairs. A former social worker who had become committed to the cause of the Indians after exposure to tribal cultures in New Mexico in the 1920s. More important, he was greatly influenced by the work of 20th-century anthropologists who promoted the idea of cultural relativism- the idea that every culture should be accepted and respected on its own terms and that no culture was inherently superior to another. Promoted legislation that would reverse the pressures of Native Americans to assimilate and would allow them the right to live in traditional Indian ways
CIO
Congress of Industrial Organizations. Compete with AFL. Organizes based on industry worked in. Will take anyone, including women, unskilled and minorities. Eventually merges with the AFL
'34... Progress Slows
Critics pounce on him as being out of ideas. Criticize him as dictatorial, reckless and anti-enterprise
1936
Dale Carnegie publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People; Margaret Mitchell publishes Gone with the Wind; Life magazine begins publication; Supreme Court invalidates AAA; CIO established; sit-down strikes begin; Roosevelt wins reelection by record margin; Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie's self-help manual preaching individual initiative. The message was not only that personal initiative was the route to success; it was also that the best way for people to make something of themselves was to adapt to the world in which they lived, to understand the values and expectations of others and mold themselves accordingly. The way to get ahead was to fit in and make other people feel important
Bank Holiday
Declared so that the panic would be stopped
Nation Grows Angry
Democrats win 1930 elections; Americans hold Hoover responsible; European banking system collapses; Hoovervilles were shanty-towns for down trodden homeless; empty pockets were called "hoover" flags and newspapers were "hoover" blankets
Keynesianism
Depression was a result not of declining production, but of inadequate consumer demand. Governments could stimulate their economies by increasing the money supply and creating investment- through a combination of lowering interest rates and public spending. Developed by British economist John Maynard Keynes in his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
Holding Company Act
Designed to break up the great utility holding companies. FDR spoke harshly of monopolistic control of their industry
Conclusion of New Deal
Did not end Depression; helped and mitigated, but WWII and time ended. Started welfare state. Stabilized baking industry. Helped disadvantaged groups. Brings unemployment down from 25% to 15%
Huey Long
Educated, boisterous Senator from Louisiana. Saying New Deal ideas have run their course. "Share our Wealth"- take excess money from wealthy and share it with others who don't have any. Long had risen to power in his home state through his strident attacks on the banks, oil companies and utilities and on the conservative political oligarchy allied with them. Elected governor in 1928, he launched an assault on his opponents so thorough and forceful that they were soon left with virtually no political power whatsoever. Many claimed that he had, in effect, become a dictator. But he also maintained the overwhelming support of the Louisiana electorate, in part because of his flamboyant personality and in part because of his solid record of conventional progressive accomplishments: building roads, schools and hospitals; revising the tax codes; distributing free textbook; lowering utility rates. Barred by law from succeeding himself as governor, he ran for Senate and won easily. At first supported FDR.
Frazier-Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act of 1933
Enabled some farmers to regain their land even after the foreclosure of their mortgages
1932
Erskine Caldwell publishes Tobacco Road; Reconstruction Finance Corporation established; Farmers' Holiday Association formed in Iowa; Bonus Marchers come to Washington, D.C.; banking crisis begins; FDR elected president
Why did export's decline?
European industry rebuilding; nations couldn't afford American goods; protective tariffs during 1920s- highest in US history, Europe raised exports on American imports, European nations figured... Why export?; occurred gradually
1933
FDR inaugurated; New Deal Begins. "First New Deal" legislation enacted; United States Officially abandons gold standard; 21st amendment ends prohibition with repeal of 18th amendment; Dr. Francis Townsend begins campaign for old-age pensions; Emergency Banking Act, Economy Act, CCC, AAA, TVA, National Industrial Recovery Act, Banking Act, Federal Emergency Relief Act, Home Owners' Refinancing Act, Civil Works Administration, Federal Securities Act
Court Fight
FDR vs the Supreme Court. Social security and minimum wage were approved. SC moving slowly. FDR wanted to "help" overworked justice by "court packing"- adding 6 new judges, going from 9 to 15. This would make the court very liberal. Opponents said FDR acting like a dictator
Election of 1936
FDR was re-elected. He won by a landslide
Okies
Farm prices fell so low that few growers made any profit at all on their crops. As a result, many farmers, like many urban unemployed,left their homes in search of work. In the South, in particular, many dispossessed farmers- black and white - wandered from town to town, hoping to find jobs or handouts. Hundreds of thousands of families from the Dust Bowl, often known as "Okies", traveled to California and other states, where they found conditions little better than those they had left. Owning no land of their own, many worked as agricultural migrants, traveling from farm to farm picking fruit and other crops at starvation wages
Public's Reaction
Farmers held public protests, lobbied Congress for price guarantees, and organized strikes to keep crops off market. The "Bonus Army"march was WWI vets owed $1000 payable in 1945 who feared it wouldn't be available. They wanted early payment, but Hoover denied. They were forcefully removed by the US Army. Hoover thought would open the floodgates
Credit Structure
Farmers were deeply in debt- their land mortgaged, crop prices too low to allow them to pay off what they owed. Small banks, especially those tied to the agricultural economy, were in constant trouble in the 1920s, as their customers defaulted on loans; many of them failed. Large banks were in trouble, too. Although most American bankers were very conversatuve, some of the nation's biggest banks were investing recklessly in the stock market or making unwise loans. When the stock market crashed, many of these banks suffered losses greater than they could absorb.
FDIC
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; put into place policies and regulations all banks must abide by; shows government are operating properly by filing reports; every depositer was guaranteed and insured up to $200,00 ($100,000 originally). Created in 1933. Curbed reckless speculation
1931
Federal Reserve raises interest rates; Depression spreads to Europe and deepens in United States. Scottsboro defendants arrested; Communist Party stages hunger march in Washington
National Housing Act
Federal legislation passed in 1934 to create the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Its purpose is to make credit more available to lenders for home repairs and construction and to make better housing available to low- and moderate-income families.
Hattie Caraway
From Arkansas, first woman to be elected to Senate
The MidWest
From the Dakotas south to Texas, a devastating drought stuck in the 1930s; over excavated farm land dried up, no foliage to root the soil down; MidWest covered by dust
Federal Emergency Relief Act
Gave grants and loans to states to prop up bankrupt relief organizations; formed Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which had previously been the Emergency Relief Administration under Hoover
Home Owners Loan Corp.
Gave loans to home owners so they could pay their mortgages. This prevented people from going homeless and prevented banks from going under. Refinanced the mortgages of more than 1 million households
Federal Writer Project
Gave unemployed writers a chance to do their work and receive a government salary
Demise of the Bonus Army
General Douglas MacArthur, the army chief of staff, carried out the mission himself and greatly exceeded the president's orders. He led the Third Calvary, two infantry regiments, a machine-gun detachment, and 6 tanks down Pennsylvania avenue in pursuit of the Bonus Army. The veterans fled in terror. MacArthur followed them across the Anacostia River, where he ordered the soldiers to burn their tent city to the ground. More than 100 marchers were injured
West
Got most funding and infrastructure programs from New Deal- Dams and Powerplants. Federal government owns resources now
Tennessee Valley Authority
Government gets involved in the electricity business and take over partial ownership and runs some plants. In Tennessee and areas around, using water to generate electricity. At the time, it looked like it would collapse and take other down with it. Government generating and selling electricity. Built dams, improved and built water ways, and fix flooding. Also created jobs; 1933; It was also intended to be an agent for a comprehensive redevelopment of the entire region: for stopping the disastrous flooding that had plagued the Tennessee Valley for centuries, for encourages the development of local industries, for supervising a substantial program of reforestation and for helping farmers improve productivity
Black Shirts
Groups of white in many southern cities who began to demand that all blacks be dismissed from their jobs. Slogan: No Jobs for N*ggers Until Every White Man Has a Job
National Labor Relations Board
Has the power to compel employers to recognize and bargain with legitimate unions
1930
Hawley-Smoot Tariff enacted; Ten-year drought begins in South and Midwest (the Dust Bowl); white workers in Atlanta organize Black Shirts to fight African-American competition for jobs; Nisei form Japanese-American citizens League; John Dos Passos publishes USA trilogy
Molly Dewson
Head of the women's division of the Democratic National Committee, who was influential in securing federal appointments for women
Federal Arts Project
Helped painters, sculptors and others to continue their career
Economy of 1937
Henry Morganthaw, secretary of Treasury, saw that economy was getting a little better. As a result, FDR cut spending for the WPA
Results of the RFC
Hoarding of money continued; banks continued to fall; prospects for recovery grew dimmer
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Hoover relents; agreed to support RFC; helps banks; loans to banks, railroads and other businesses; $1.5 billion target; A government agency whose purpose was to provide federal loans to troubled banks, railroads and other businesses. It even made funds available to local governments to support public works projects and assist relief efforts. Unlike some earlier Hoover programs, it operated on a large scale. In 1932, the RFC had a budget of $1.5 billion for public works alone
Failure of Volunteerism
Hoover's first response to the Depression was to attempt to restore public confidence in the economy. "The fundamental business of this country, that is, production and distribution of commodities" he said in 1930, "is on a sound and prosperous basis". He then summoned leaders of business, labor and agriculture to the White House and urged them to adopt a program of voluntary cooperation for recovery. He implored businessmen not to cut production of lay off workers; he talked labor leaders into forgoing demands for higher wages or better hours. But by mid-1931, economic conditions had deteriorated so much that the structure of voluntary cooperation he had erected collapsed
Relief
Immediate action taken to halt the financial deterioration. e.g. Bank Holiday, Emergency Banking Act, Civilian Conservation Corps
Steel Workers' Organizing Committee
In 1936, it began a major organizing drive involving thousands of workers and frequent, at times bitter strikes. In March 1937, United States Steel, the giant of the industry, recognized the union rather than risk a costly strike at a time when it sensed itself on the verge of recovery from the Depression. Smaller companies were less accomodating
Agricultural Marketing act
In April 1929, he proposed the Agricultural Marketing Act, which established the first major government program to help farmers maintain prices. A federally sponsored Farm Board would make loans to national marketing cooperatives or establish corporations to buy surpluses and thus raise prices. At the same time, Hoover attempted to protect American farmers fro Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 contained increased protection on 75 farm productions
American Liberty League
In August 1934, a group of the most fervent and wealthiest Roosevelt opponents, led by the members of the Du Pont family, formed the American Liberty League, designed specifically to arouse public opposition to the New Deal's dictatorial policies and its supposed attacks on free enterprise. But the organization was never able to expand its constituency much beyond the northern industrialists who had founded it
Japanese American Citizens League
In California, younger Nisei tried to challenge the obstacles facing them through politics. They organized Japanese American Democratic Clubs in several cities, which worked for, among other things, laws protecting racial and ethnic minorities from discrimination. At the same time, some Japanese-American businessmen and professionals tried to overcome obstacles by changing the Nisei themselves, by encouraging them to become more assimilated, more "American". They formed the Japanese American Citizens League in 1039 to promote their goals. By 1940, it had nearly 6,000 members
Stock Market Boom
In February 1928, stock prices began a steady rise that continued, with only a few temporary lapses, for a year and a half. Between May 1928 and September 1929, the average price of stocks increased over 40 percent. Stocks of the major industrials- the stocks that are used to determine the Dow Jones Industrial Average- doubles in value in the same period. Trading mushroomed from 2 or 3 million shares a day to over 5 million and at times as may as 10 or 12 million. There was, in short, a wide-spread speculative Fever that grew steadily more intense, particularly once brokerage firms began offering easy credit to those buying stocks
Banking Crisis
In February, only a month before the inauguration, a new crisis developed when the collapse of the American banking system suddenly and rapidly accelerated. Public confidence in the banks was ebbing; depositors were withdrawing their money in panic; and one bank after another was closing its doors and declaring bankruptcy.
Scottsboro Case
In March 1931, nine black teenagers were taken off a freight train in Alabama and arrested for vagrancy and disorder. Later, two white women who had also been riding the train accused them of rape. In fact, there was overwhelming evidence, medical and otherwise, that the women had not been raped at all; they may have made their accusations out of fear of being arrested themselves. Nevertheless, an all-white jury in Alabama quickly convicted all nine of the Scottsboro boys and sentenced 8 of them to death. The Supreme court overturned the convictions in 1932, and a series of new trials began that attracted increasing national attention. The International Labor Defense, an organization associated with the Communist Party, came to the aid of the accused youths and began the publicize the case. Later, the NAACP provided assistance as well. The trials continued throughout the 1930s. Although the white southern juries who sat on the case never acquitted any of the defendants, all of them eventually gained their freedom, four because the charges were dropped, four because of early paroles, and one because he escaped. But the last of the Scottsboro defendants did no leave prison until 1950
1932 Election
In November, to the surprise of no one, Roosevelt won by a landslide. He received 57.4 percent of the popular vote to Hoover's 39.7%. In the electoral college, the result was even more overwhelming. Hoover carried Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Roosevelt won everything else. Democrats won majorities in both houses of Congress. It was a broad and convincing mandate, but it was not yet clear what Roosevelt intended to do with it
Temporary National Economic Committee
In response to FDR asking for the creation of a commission to examine that concentration of economic power with an eye to major reforms in the antitrust laws. Members included representative of both houses off Congress and officials from several executive agencies
John Dos Passos
In the first years of the Depression, some of the most significant literature offered corrosive portraits of the harshness and emptiness of American life, especially John Dos Passo's USA trilogy, which attacked what he considered the materialistic madness of American culture.
Farmer's Holiday Association
In the summer of 1932, a group of unhappy farm owners gather in Des Moines, Iowa to establish a new organization: the Farmers' Holiday Association, which endorsed the withholding of farm products from the market- in effect a farmers' strike. The strike began in August in western Iowa, spread briefly to a few neighboring areas, and succeeded in blockading several markets, but in the end it dissolved in failure.
Federal Housing Administration
Insured mortgages for new construction and home repairs
Indian Reorganization Act
It restored to the tribes the right to own land collectively, leading to a massive increase in tribal land and Indian agriculture
1941
James Agee and Walker Evans publish Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
1939
John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath; Nazi-Soviet Pact weakens American communist Party; Marian Anderson sings at Lincoln Memorial; Executive Reorganization Act
The "Okies"
Kansas, Oklahoma and Northern Texas hit hardest; thousands of families packed up and headed west on Route 66 to California seeking agricultural jobs
Declining exports
Late in the 1920s, European demand for American goods began to decline. That was partly because European industry and agriculture were becoming more productive, and partly because some European nations were having financial difficulties and could not afford to buy goods from overseas. But it was also because the European economy was being destabilized by the international debt structure that had emerged in the aftermath of WWI
FDR 2nd New Deal
Launched in 1936, brand new outlook on labor. Established NLRA, NLRB, AFL, and CIO
Soil Conservation Act
Laws mandating proper soil maintenance to make sure that another Dust Bowl was avoided
Life Magazine
Leading magazines focused more on fashions, stunts, scenery and the arts than on the social conditions of the nation. The enormously popular new photographic journal Life, which began publication in 1936 and quickly became the most successful magazine in American history, had the largest readership of any publication in the US> It devoted some attention to politics and to the conomic conditions of the Depression, more in fact than did many of its competitors. But it was best known for stunning photographs of sporting and theater events, natural landscapes and impressive public projects
Hoover and the RFC
Lent funds only to businesses with collateral; supported projects that could "pay for themselves" such as bridges, toll highways, and public housing; only spent 20% of budget; hoped appearance of RFC would be enough to revive economy, but didn't actually do much
Prosperity and Growth during 1920s
Little government regulation; stock prices soared- over 40%; major industry stocks doubled; "speculative fever"- people buying stock without researching; easy credit; anyone could seemingly make a profit
Share-Our-Wealth Plan
Long advocated for a drastic program of wealth redistribution as an alternative to the New Deal. Claimed the government could end the Depression easily by using the tax system to confiscate the surplus riches of the wealthiest men and women in America and distribute these surpluses to the rest of the population. That would allow the government to guarantee every family a minimum homestead of $5000 and an annual wage of $2500. Led to creation of Share-Our-Wealth Society
"Discovery" of Rural Poverty
Many Americans were shocked during the 1930s at their discovery of the debilitating rural poverty. Perhaps most effective in conveying the dimensions of this poverty was a group of documentary photographers, many of them employed by the Farm Security Administration in the late 1930s, who traveled through the South recording the nature of agricultural life
Depression Literature
Many writers devoted themselves to exposés of social injustice Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road was an exposé of poverty in the rural south. Richard Wright, a major African-American novelist, exposed the plight of residents of the urban ghetto in Native Son. John Steinbeck's novels portrayed the trials of workers and migrants in California. John Dos Passos's trilogy USA attacked modern capitalism outright. Playwright Clifford Odets provided an explicit demonstration of the appeal of political radicalism in Waiting for Lefty
Dust Bowl
Mid-West is area affected most; not allowing soil to regain nutrients; loses its density and becomes dust; In rural areas conditions were in many ways worse. Farm income declined by 60 percent between 1929 and 1932. A third of all American farmers lost their land. In addition, a large area of agricultural settlement in the Great Plains of the South and West was suffering from a catastrophic natural disaster: one of the worse drought's in the history of the nation. Beginning in 1930, a large area of the nation, which came to be known as the "Dust Bowl", stretching north from Texas into the Dakotas, began to experience a steady decline in rainfall and an accompanying increase in heat. The drought continued for a decade, turning what had once been fertile farm regions into virtual deserts. In Kansas, the soil in some places was completely without moisture as far as three feet below the surface. In Nebraska, Iowa and other states, summer temperatures were averaging over 100 degrees. Swarms of grasshoppers were moving from region to region, devouring what meager crops farmers were able to raise, often even devouring fenceposts or clothes hanging out to dry. Great dust storms- "black blizzards", as they were called- swept across the plains, blotting out the sun and suffocating livestock as well as any people unfortunate or foolish enough to stay outside
Belief in Personal Responsibility
Most Americans had been taught to believe that every individual was responsible for his or her own fate, that unemployment and poverty were signs of personal failure; and even in the face of national distress, many continued to believe it. Many adult men, in particular, felt deeply ashamed of their joblessness; the helplessness of unemployment was a challenge to traditional notions of masculinity. Unemployed workers walked through the streets day after day looking for jobs that did no exist.
Glass-Steagall Act
Most significant legislation out of Great Depression. Make Sure what occurs in 1929 never happens again. Sets up the FDIC and SEC; gave the government authority to curb irresponsible speculation by banks
Continuing Popularity of Movies
Moviegoing would seem particularly vulnerable to hard times. Families struggling to pay the rent or buy food could easily decide to forgo an evening at the movies. In the first years of the Depression, movie attendance did drop significantly. By the mid-1930s, however, most Americans had resumed their movie-going habits- in part because movies were a less expensive entertainment option than many other possibilities, and it part because the movies themselves were becoming more appealing
How were Americans coping?
Movies were escapist in nature and music (many were comedies); many blamed themselves for their circumstances; John Dillinger robbed banks, as well as other like Bonnie and Clyde; people living vicariously through these people
Herbert Opposed...
National Employment Service, which he believed would erode the "self-made" American image. Also, direct relief to the unemployed, which he saw as the first steps toward socialism; cited Mussolini, Hitler Nationalization; end of the "American System"
NLRA
National Labor Relations Act. Okay for workers to join unions. Have better change of negotiating for higher salaries if more join unions
NLRB
National Labor Relations Board. Compel company;s to meet with unions and negociate
1938
New Deal programs slow down and end. Roosevelt needs to get prepared for war; Roosevelt proposed new spending measures; Temporary National Economic Committee established; Second Agricultural Adjustment Act, Fair Labor Standards Acr
Persistence of the "Success Ethic"
No assumption would seem to have been more vulnerable to erosion during the Depression than the belief that the individual was in control of his or her own fate, that anyone displaying sufficient talent and industry could become a success. And in some respects, the economic crisis did work to undermine the traditional "success ethic" in America. Many people began to look to government for assistance; man blamed corporate moguls, international bankers, "economic royalists", and others for their distress. Yet the Depression did not, in the end, seriously erode the success ethic.
Republican Presidential Campaign 1936
Nominated moderate governor of Kansas, Alf M. Landon, who waged a generally pallid campaign. They were powerless due to the violent death of their most effective leader Huey Long. Also, the ill-fated alliance between Father Coughlin, Dr. Townsend and the henchmen of Long Gerald L.K. Smith, who joined forces to establish a new political movement- the Union Party, which nominated and undistinguished North Dakota Congressmen William Lemke
Black Tuesday
October 29, 1929; Stock Market Crashes- stocks lose value; took banks down with it; banks looked, took all of it, no insurance; In autumn of 1929, the great bull market began to fall apart. On October 21 and again on October 23, there was alarming declines in stock prices, in both cases followed by temporary recoveries. But on October 29, Black Tuesday, all efforts to save the market failed. Sixteen million shares of stock were traded. The industrial index dropped 43 points. Stocks in many companies became virtually worthless. In the months that followed, the market continued to decline. It remained deeply depressed for more than four year and did not fully recover for over a decade
Memorial Day Massacre
On Memorial Day 1937, a group of striking workers from Republic Steel gathered with their families for a picnic and demonstration in South Chicago. When they attempted to march peacefully and legally toward the steel plant, the police opened fire on them. Ten demonstrators were killed; another 90 were wounded. Despite public outcry against it, the harsh tactics succeeded and the 1937 strike failed. Police used club, tear gas and guns
Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO)
Originally named Committee on Industrial Organization, started by John L. Lewis, leader of the United Mine Workers. It rivaled the AFL. It expanded the constituency of the labor movement. More militant than the AFL
Francis Townsend
Out with old workers, replace with new workers. Give them inducement to leave- monthly payment to live off of. Creates Social Security- monthly pensions after retirement until death; FDR uses idea to create it
Federal Music Project and Federal Theater Project
Oversaw the production of concerts and plays, creating work for unemployed musicians, actors and directors
Emergency House Division
Part of the Public Works Administration, began federal sponsorship of public housing
The Grapes of Wrath
Perhaps the most successful chronicler of social conditions in the 1930s was the novelist John Steinbeck, particularly in his celebrates novel the Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. In telling the story of the Joad family, migrants from the Dust Bowl to California who encounter an unending string of calamities and failures, he offered a harsh portrait of the exploitative feature of agrarian life in the West, but also a tribute to the endurance of this main characters- and to the spirit of community they represent
Social Security Administration
Permanent agency designed to ensure that the older segment of society always would have enough money to survive. It is also good if they spend throughout their lives
Reform
Permanent programs to avoid another depression. e.g. Soil Conservation Act, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security Administration
The Forest Service
Planted over 200 million trees as "shelter belts" designed to slow the dusty winds
Why we loved FDR
Progressive; recognized economic problems; ignored Hoover's plea to keep balanced budget; banking system collapsed
Section 7(a)
Promised workers the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining and encouraged many workers to join unions for the first time. Contained no enforcement mechanism
Soil Conservation Service
Promoted new forms of tillage that held the soil better
Court Packing
Provision to add up to 6 new justices to the Supreme Court. He said the courts were overworked and needed additional manpower and younger blood to enable them to cope with their increasing burdens. His real purpose was to appoint new, liberal justices and change the ideological balance of the courts
Social Security
Put into place 1935. Now a government program in place. Gives $200 pension a month after retirement
FDR
Put thousands back to work; spent billions and had deficit; was governor of NY; progressive and liberal; optimistic, confident and proactive; had fireside chats once a week, which were delivered by radio; "we have nothing to fear but fear itself"
Radio's Impact
Radio provided American with their first direct access to important public events, and radio news and sports divisions grew rapidly to meet the demand. Some of the most dramatic moments of the 1930s were a result of radio coverage of celebrated events: the World Series, major college football games, the Academy Awards, political conventions and presidential inaugurations. When the German dirigible the Hindenburg crashed in flames in Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937 after a transatlantic voyage, it produced an enormous national reaction largely because of the live radio account of the broadcaster overcome with emotion who cried out "Oh the humanity!". Actor/director Orson Welles created another memorable event in 1938 when he broadcast a radio play on Halloween about aliens whose spaceships had landed in central NJ and who had set off toward NY armed with terrible weapons. The play took the form of a fictional news broadcast, and it created panic among millions of people who believed for a while that the events it described were real.
Three "Rs" of the New Deal
Relief, Recovery and Reform
American Federation of Labor
Remained committed to the idea of the craft union: organizing workers on the basis of their skills. Generally opposed to industrial unionism
International Debt Structure
Reparations crusted European nations; Coolidge wouldn't forgive debts; circular loans (Dawes, 1924) with banks lending enormous sums; US becomes entangled in unstable Euro governments; after crash, many nation default on loans, US suffers
Hoover's Response
Restore confidence in economy; volunteerism- big business voluntarily keep workers on your pay roll, but you can only do for so long before company dies; no direct government relief, because he saw as "socialist"; spend money to get out of recession
1940
Richard Wright publishes Native Son; Ernest Hemingway publishes For Whom the Bell Tolls
First Female Cabinet Member
Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins
SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission; "police" stock markets. Can;t tell people if something good or bad will happen to company (insider trading). Established rules for the stock market
credit structure
Small banks- defaulting farmers; large banks- reckless investing, bad loans; 9,000 banks closed in 3 years; money supply decreased; less purchasing power
Self Blame
Some expressed anger and struck out at the economic system. Many, however, seemed to blame themselves. Nothing so surprised foreign observers of America in the 1930s as the apparent passivity of the unemployed, many of whom were so ashamed of their joblessness that they refused to leave their homes.
Resettlement Administration
Sought to buy up farms on soils that were too marginal for safe agricultural production
1934
Southern Tenant Farmers Union organized; Conservatives create American Liberty League; Huey Long establishes Share-Our-Wealth Society; labor militancy increases; Indian Reorganization Act passed; National Housing Act, Securities and Exchange Act, Home Owners' Loan Act
1929
Stock market crash signals onset of Great Depression; Agricultural Marketing Act passed
Why was it unique?
Stockmarket didn't recover for 4 years; impacted economy for over 10 years; nationwide poverty; severity and length
Retreat from Consumerism
Such circumstance forced many families to retreat from the consumer patterns they had developed in the 1920s. Women often returned to sewing clothes for themselves and their families and to preserving their own food rather than buying such products in stores. Other engaged in home businesses- taking in laundry, selling baked goods, accepting boarders. Many households expanded to include more distant relatives. Parents often moves in with their children and grandparents with their grandchildren.
Social Security Act
Supported by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins. For the elderly, there was two types of assistance. Those who were presently destitute could receive up to $15 a month in federal assistance. More important for the future, many Americans presently working were incorporated into a pension system, to which they and their employers would contribute by paying a payroll tax. It would provide them with an income on retirement. Pension payments would not begin until 1942 and even then would provide only $10 to $85 a month to recipients A broad categories of workers were excluded from the program. But the act was a crucial first step in building the nation's most important social program for the elderly. It also created a system of unemployment insurance, which employers alone would finance and which made it possible for workers laid off from their jobs to receive temporary government assistance. It also established a system of federal aid to people with disabilities and a program of aid to dependent children
Wealth not shared
Technology allowed more to be made (farmers and parity); but, demand didn't meet supply; now, effects entire nation, not one industry; purchasing power among common people decreased; welfare capitalism gave appearance of success; layoffs, plant closing occurred due to more technology; Led to a weakness in consumer demand. As industrial and agricultural production increases, the proportion of the profits going to farmers, workers and other potential consumers was too small to create an adequate job market for the goods the economy was producing. Demand was not keeping up with supply. Even in 1929, after nearly a decade of economic growth, more than half the families in America lived on the edge of or below the minimum subsistence level-too poor to buy goods the industrial economy was producing
Civilian Conservation Corps
Temporary jobs to unmarried single adults filling sand bags and helping out at disaster type situations. Participants lived in barracks type housing; 1933
Walt Disney
The 1930s saw the beginning of Walt Disney's long reign as the champion of animation and children's entertainment. After producing cartoon shorts for theaters in the late 1920s-many of them starring the newly created character of Mickey Mouse who made his debut in the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie-DIsney began to produce feature-length animated films, starting in 1937 with Snow White.
Demise of the National Woman's Party
The Depression saw the virtual extinction of the National Woman's Party, which had fought throughout the 1920s for the Equal Rights Amendment and other egalitarian goals. Even more moderate feminists, committed to protective legislation for women, saw their influence decline. By the end of the 1930s, American feminism had reached its lowest ebb in nearly a century
NAACP's Changing Role
The NAACP began to work diligently to win a position for blacks within the emerging labor movement, supporting the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and helping to break down racial barriers within labor unions. Walter White, secretary of the NAACP, once even made a personal appearance at an auto plant to implore blacks not to work as strikebreakers. Partly as a result of such efforts, more than half a million blacks were able to join the the labor movement.
Severe Contraction
The collapse was so rapid and so devastating that at the time it created only bewilderment among many of those who attempted to explain it. The American gross national product plummeted from over $104 billion in 1929 to $76.4 billion in 1932- a 25 percent decline in three years. In 1929, Americans had spend $16.2 billion in capital investment; in 1933, they invested only a third of a billion. The consumer price index declined 25 percent between 1929 and 1933, the wholesale price index 32 percent. Gross farm income dropped from $12 billion to $5 billion in four years. By 1932, according to the relatively crude estimates of the time, 25 percent of the American work force was unemployed; another third of the work force experience cuts in wages or hours or both. For the rest of the decade, unemployment averaged nearly 20 percent, never dropping below 15 percent
Popular Disapproval of Women's Employment
The economic crisis served in many ways to strengthen the widespread belief that woman's proper place was in the home. Most men and women believed that with employment so scarce, what work there was should go to the men. There was a particularly strong belief that no woman whose husband was employed should accept a job. Indeed, from 1932 until 1937, it was illegal for more than one member of a family to hold a federal civil service job, and such jobs went overwhelmingly to men.
Spanish Civil War
The importance to many American intellectuals of the Spanish Civil War of the mid-1930s was a good example of hos the left helped give meaning and purpose to indiidual lives. The war in Spain pitted the fascists of Franciso Franco against the existing republican government. It attracted a substantia group of young American who formed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and traveled to Spain to join in the fight against the fascists
pin-money worker
The married woman working to earn extra money for the hosuehold
Hawley-Smoot Tariff
The tariff was increased across the board to protect domestic manufacturers; Europe responded with retaliatory tariffs; protectionism stifled global commerce and worsened the depression
Discrimination against Hispanics
Those who remained faced persistent discrimination. Most relief programs excluded Mexicans from their rolls or offered them benefits far below those available to white. Hispanics generally had no access to American schools. Many hospitals refused them admission. American blacks had established education and social facilities of their own in response to discrimination, but Hispanics generally had fewer institutional supports. Some joined the American Communist Party. Some turned to the Mexican consulates or to the social and economic leaders of Mexican-American communities, but with little effect. Even many who possessed American citizenship found themselves treated like foreigners
1937
US Steel recognizes Steel Workers' Organizing Committee; Roosevelt proposes "court-packing plan"; Supreme Court validates Wagner Act; "Memorial Day Massacre" in Chicago; executive reorganization plan proposed; New Deal spending reduced; severe recession begins; Farm Security Administration; National Housing Act
National Recovery Administration
Under the direction of the flamboyant and energetic Hugh S. Johnson, who called on every business establishment in the nation to accept a temporary blanket code: a minimum wage of between 30 and 40 cents an hour, a maximum workweek of 35 to 40 hours and the abolition of child labor. set floors below which no company would lower prices or wages in its search for a competitive advantage
Unstable International Debt Structure
When the war came to an end in 1918, all the European nations that had been allied with the United Stated owed large sums of money to American banks, sum much too large to be repaid out of their shattered economies. That was one reason why the Allies had insisted on reparation payments from Germany and Austria. Reparations, they believed, would provide them with a way to pay off their own debts. But Germany and Austria were themselves in economic trouble after the war; they were no more able to pay the reparations than the Allies were able to pay their debts. The American government refused to forgive or reduce the debts. Instead, American banks began making large loans to European governments, with which they paid off their earlier loans. Thus debts were paid only by piling up new and greater debts. In the late 1920s, and particularly after the American economy began to weaken in 1929, the European nations found it much more difficult to borrow money from the United States. At the same time, high American protective tariffs were making it difficult for them to sell theirs goods in American markets. Without any source of foreign exchange with which to repay their loans, they began to default. The collapse of the international credit structure was one of the reasons the Depression spread to Europe after 1921
Broker State
Where the government helps some groups and limits the influence of others. Instead of forging all elements of society into a single harmonious unit, as some reformers had once hoped to do, the real achievement of the New Deal was to elevate and strengthen new interest groups so as to allow them to compete more effectively in the national marketplace. The New Deal made the federal government a mediator in that continuous competition- a force that could intervene when necessary to help some groups and limit the power of others. Interest groups by the end were the corporate world, powerful labor movement, organized agricultural economy and aroused consumers
Farm Credit Administration
Within 2 years, refinanced 1/5 of all farm mortgages in the United States
WPA
Works Progress Administration. Largest, most permanent employer of New Deal programs. Gave people jobs immediately- no school necessary. Initial budget was $5 billion. The jobs weren't necessarily needed. FDR running huge deficit. WWII prevents problems with inflation. Designed to give people jobs now. It renovated post offices, federal Court Houses, Federal Buildings, roads and airports. It employs people in every state. "Flexible", so it employed all types of people, including writers, artists, usicians and photographers
Conclusion of Great Depression
Wouldn't spend money; refused to run deficit; feared "appearance of socialism"; angered people through inaction; doggedly optimistic; paves way for FDR
National Youth Administration
a New Deal agency in the United States that focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25
Civil Works Administration
a short-lived U.S. job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to rapidly create manual labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The jobs were merely temporary, for the duration of the hard winter of 1933-34.
Public Utilities Holding Company Act
also known as the Wheeler-Rayburn Act, was a law that was passed by the United States Congress to facilitate regulation of electric utilities, by either limiting their operations to a single state, and thus subjecting them to effective state regulation, or forcing divestitures so that each became a single integrated system serving a limited geographic area. Another purpose of PUHCA was to keep utility holding companies that were engaged in regulated businesses from engaging in unregulated businesses.
Second Agricultural Adjustment Act
an alternative and replacement for the farm subsidy policies, in previous New Deal farm legislation (Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933), that had been found unconstitutional. The act revived the provisions in the previous Agriculture Adjustment Act, with the exception that the financing of the law's programs would be provided by the Federal Government and not a processor's tax; An Act to provide for the conservation of national soil resources and to provide an adequate and balanced flow of agricultural commodities in interstate and domestic commerce and for other purposes.
Farm Security Administration
an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty; helped with rural rehabilitation, farm loans, and subsistence homestead programs; The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of sharecroppers, tenants, very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming
Home Owners' Loan Act
established a corporation that refinanced one of every five mortgages on urban private residences.
Fair Labor Standards Act
establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments.; 40 hour work week; placed strict limits on child labor
Executive Reorganization Act
gave the President of the United States the authority to hire additional confidential staff and reorganize the executive branch (within certain limits) for two years subject to legislative veto
Federal Securities Act
has two basic objectives: require that investors receive financial and other significant information concerning securities being offered for public sale; and. prohibit deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud in the sale of securities; first major federal legislation to regulate the offer and sale of securities; also known as the Truth n Securities Act; required corporations issuing new securities to provide full and accurate information about them to the public
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
is a United States federal law that allowed the government to pay farmers to reduce production so as to conserve soil and prevent erosion
Securities and Exchange Act
is a law governing the secondary trading of securities (stocks, bonds, and debentures) in the United States of America; An act To provide for the regulation of securities exchanges and of over-the-counter markets operating in interstate and foreign commerce and through the mails, to prevent inequitable and unfair practices on such exchanges and markets, and for other purposes.
National Labor Relations Act
protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to curtail certain private sector labor and management practices, which can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses and the U.S. economy. Also known as the Wagner Act
Rural Electrification Administration
provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States. The funding was channeled through cooperative electric power companies, most of which still exist today.
National Housing Act 1937
provided for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living conditions for low-income families.
Home Owners' Refinancing Act
provided mortgage assistance to homeowners or would-be homeowners by providing them money or refinancing mortgages; helped those in danger of losing their homes
Revenue Act (wealth tax)
raised federal income tax on higher income levels, by introducing the "Wealth Tax". It was a progressive tax that took up to 75 percent of the highest incomes.