THE GREAT DEPRESSION

1929-1941

Music of the Great Depression

You’re Never Fully Dressed without a Smile http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1m2

pa5GyEA Somewhere Over the Rainbow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU In a Shanty in an Old Shanty Town

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUCeVoYcReI

Causes of the Great Depression

Overexpansion of credit Technology replaced workers (automation) Europe never recovered from WWI economically

Reliant on US investment Overproduction of agriculture

Agricultural Marketing Act, 1929 Purpose to stabilize farm prices; effect was to encourage overproduction

Protective tariffs Smoot – Hawley Tariff , June 1930 increased from 38.5 – 60% Europe & Japan retaliate with less US imports

Federal Reserve stops banks from lending on margin –Feb. 1929 Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929 Unregulated banking –b/w 1930 – 1932, collapse of 5000 banks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDcR-ZS5fyw (:54)

Hoover’s Trickle-down Economics (too little too late!)

‘Priming the Pump’ enacted Public Building Act (1930) & Reconstruction Finance Corporation (1932) Help businesses, RR, banks –but only those that had

collateral By Oct. 1930, even w/ 4.5 million unemployed,

Hoover refuses to take action for individuals ‘Bonus Army’ debacle of 1932 Will vetoed the Muscle Shoals bill (too

socialist) –will become the TVA under FDR Federal Home Loan Bank Act –help

w/mortgages & regulate ‘savings & loans’

‘A new deal for Americans’

FDR wins 1932 election by staying away from prohibition & religious issues

Emphasized economic grievances with the party in power

United most factions of the Democratic party except Southern whites –move to Republican party

Inaugural address: http://www.youtube.com/watc

h?v=vvonsjqE2a4

Did the New Deal Work?

Stops spiral of 1933, but did not end the depressive

March 1933 4 day ‘Bank Holiday’ Emergency Banking Act

Treasury Dept inspection of banks reorganization

Economy Act 15% cut on pensions & gov’t salaries

Repeal of Prohibition

Helping Rural America

Agricultural Adjustment Act, May 1933 Subsidy paid to keep land idle Big farmers given precedence over little farmers Eviction of tenant farmers

Reduce agricultural production to control prices (wheat, pigs, corn, cotton, rice, tobacco, dairy)

Rural Electrification Commission Utility cooperatives

Regional Planning Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=tva+dams+map&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=QKvF59El9u-jhM&tbnid=lyvpxHemPFg0EM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://quadcitiesdaily.com.s140587.gridserver.com/?p=19581&ei=TFgtUZmyKpD09gSi2YDYCA&bvm=bv.42965579,d.eWU&psig=AFQjCNHRlbby_5v83gZvjJSEr_5ViCEUZA&ust=1362012607319058

AP PARTS

APPROPRIATION SECTION 1. For the purpose of enabling each State to

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

Warm Up

What connection is TIME making between the past and present day?

Helping the American Worker

National Industrial Recovery Act -1933 Allowed monopolist practices in exchange for

collective bargaining Public work spending Minimum wage, max. 40 hr week, no child

labor SC will later find unconstitutional

Public Works Administration Helped distribute $6 billion for dams, bridges,

roads, schools Most money given away b/w 1935 - 1938

Helping the Economy

US goes off the Gold Standard –May 1933 Glass-Steagall Act June 1933

Establishes FDIC & bank regulation, reorganizes larger banks first

Truth in Securities Act 1933 Est. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

Second New Deal -1935 Works Progress Administration (WPA) 1935-

1943 budget was 6% of GDP employed the uneducated & the over-educated

(artists, writers, actors, historians

Growth of Federal Relief

FERA –Federal Emergency Relief Act ($ to states)

CWA –Civilian Works Administration (shovel jobs)

CCC –Civilian Conservation Corps –national parks (young men only & segregated)

FHA –Federal Housing Administration –to help mortgage finance

Anti-New Deal Voices

American Liberty League –DuPont family & other Northern industrialists

‘Soak the rich!” Gov. Huey Long (LS)

– “Share our Wealth Society”

Fr. Charles Coughlin – ‘radio priest’ Both wanted greater

wealth redistribution

“Court Packing” & Retrenchment

FDR’s 1936 victory –uses mandate to try to prevent reform programs being struck down by the SC proposes to add 6 more Supreme Court justices &

overhaul federal court system Congress defeats proposal

Resolves to balance the budget 1936 cuts WPA by 1.5 bil

By 1937, 4 mil. More people out of work –RECESSION!

Minorities during the Great Depression

African-Americans More than 50% in South –whites get precedence for jobs More than 50% of working age were unemployed in 1933 Expansion of New Deal programs give aid regardless of

race –solidifies loyalty to Democrats Scottsboro Boys Case (Alabama) -8 of 9 black teens

convicted of rape w/o evidence & sentenced to death Women

About 20% of married women worked outside the home Few jobs programs for women discouraged by Sec. of Labor, Frances Perkins ‘to

work for pin money’ Single mothers could qualify for cash relief -AFDC

Growth of Organized Labor

“Broker State” –Gov’t acts as mediator b/w corporations and unions

AFL vs. industrial unions -all labor in an industry should organized by industry, regardless of job (UAW strike of 1937)

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) John L. Lewis –welcomed

blacks & women

The New Deal lives on

Social Security Administration , 1935 (SSA) –social insurance –inspired by Townsend Plan –Dr. Francis Townsend Destitute retirees Payroll tax based retirement fund Unemployment insurance

Wagner Act, 1935 National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Enforce collective bargaining

Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 National minimum wage + 40 work week,

end child labor

Document D

,Of course we're all keeping our heads and doing all we can to help’

Thesis:

FDR Hoover