then & now...dust bowl • the dust bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged...
TRANSCRIPT
• In the 1920’s Texas economy was very strong. It was
based on 3 major industries. Oil, cotton & lumber.
• During the 1920’s the state’s population increased to
5,824,715, representing a gain of more than one
million people, or almost 25% from the previous
decade.
• Among major cities in Texas, Houston led with
292,352 people, Dallas had 260,475, San Antonio
231,542, and Fort Worth 163,447
Houston:
Then & Now
Houston Population 1920:
292,352 Modern day
Houston population:
2,239,558
Stock Market Crash of 1929
• Stock Market- A place for
buying & selling stocks.
Ex: New York Stock Exchange
• Stocks (also called shares),
represent ownership claims on
businesses. People can buy stocks
in most U.S. companies today.
Examples of a stock certificates
Stock Market Crash of 1929The stock market, centered at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall
Street in New York City, was the scene of reckless speculation, where 2% of
Americans, from millionaires to cooks and janitors poured their savings into
stocks.
October 29th 1929, known as ‘Black Tuesday.’ Stock prices fell, & the
stock market crashed. The crash started the Great Depression that lasted from
1929 to 1945. Because stock prices fell so low, investors were unable to repay
their loans. This led business activity to decline & large numbers of banks
began to go out of business. Factories closed, the unemployed had no money
to buy goods, so even more businesses & factories were forced to shut down.
There began to be little demand in the housing market, which led to a decline
in the lumber industry & many other industries.
(Republican) President Herbert Hoover• Hoover did not believe the Great Depression would last long. On October 24, 1929–
only seven months after Hoover took office–a significant drop in the value of the U.S.
stock market sent the economy spiraling downward and signaled the start of the
Great Depression. He thought that businesses of the U.S. should solve the problem
& didn’t believe that the Federal Government should get involved in helping
unemployed people. He relied on state & local governments, churches, charities, &
wealthy individuals to provide the unemployed with help.
• Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people. He was widely
viewed as being insensitive toward the suffering of millions of desperate Americans.
As a result, Hoover was easily defeated in the 1932 presidential election by a
Democrat, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
31st president;
Served 1928-1932
Did You Know?
On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a law that
made "The Star-Spangled Banner," based on an 1814 poem by
Francis Scott Key, America's National Anthem.
1932
‘48 star flag’
How much did things cost in the 1930s?
Money and Inflation 1930'sTo provide an estimate of inflation we have
given a guide to the value of $100 US
Dollars for the first year in the decade to
the equivalent in today's money-
If you have $100 Converted from 1930 to
modern money it would be equivalent to
approximately $1200 "If You Had 1 million
dollars then it would now be worth 12
million dollars."
In 1930 average new house cost $7,145.00
and by 1939 was $3,800.00
1929
Stock
Market
Crash
1941
U.S.
enters
WWII
factory
production
up 50%
1929-1932
10,000+
banks fail.
Many
Americans
lose their life
savings
3 day dust
storm blows
approximately
350 million
tons of soil
away
19341931
Food Riots
began in
Minneapolis
by the
unemployed
National
Recovery
Administration
(NRA) begins.
27,000 men
work in CCC
camps
1933
1935-1938
Works
Progress
Administration
(WPA) helps
employ
Americans
1935
“Black
Blizzards”
begin on the
Great Plains
1932
Dust Storms
on the Great
Plains
increase
1940
Rains
return on
the Great
Plains
1930
Drought
begins on
the Great
Plains
25%Americans
are
unemployed
The run on America’s
banks began
immediately following
the stock market crash
of 1929. Overnight,
hundreds of thousands
of customers began to
withdraw their deposits.
With no money to lend
and loans going sour as
businesses and farmers
went belly ‘up,’ the
American banking crisis
deepened.
By 1933, 11,000 of the
nation’s 25,000 banks
were out of business.
Did You Know
On January 1, 1934, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC) was established, and since that time, not one depositor
has lost insured funds.
Prior to the fall of 2008, FDIC insured bank accounts up to
$100,000. George Bush’s Administration changed those levels to
$250,000.
There was a downturn in spending and investment in American
companies which led factories and other businesses to slow down
production and begin firing their workers to reduce expenses.
Some 6,000
street vendors
walked the
streets of New
York City in 1930
trying to sell
apples for 5
cents each.
As the Depression worsened and millions of urban and rural
families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their
homes. Desperate for shelter, homeless citizens built shantytowns called
Hoovervilles, in and around cities across the nation.
Hoovervilles
They were named after
Herbert Hoover, who
was President of the
U.S. during the
beginning of the Great
Depression and was
widely blamed for it.
* One of the largest
Hoovervilles in the
nation was built in 1930
in St. Louis. It had its
own mayor, churches
and social institutions.
The shantytown was
funded by private
donors and existed until
1936.
No two Hoovervilles were quite
alike, and the camps varied in population
and size. Some were as small as a few
hundred people while others, in bigger
metropolitan areas such as Washington,
D.C., New York City, & St. Louis boasted
thousands of inhabitants.
Whenever possible,
Hoovervilles were built near rivers for the
convenience of a water source.
Some Hoovervilles were dotted with
vegetable gardens, and some individual
shacks contained furniture a family had
managed to carry away upon eviction
from their former home. However,
Hoovervilles were typically unsanitary.
They posed health risks to their
inhabitants as well as to those living
nearby, but there was little that local
governments or health agencies could
do.
Al Capone (American gangster who
made a fortune during prohibition though
bootlegging) started one of the first soup
kitchens. The kitchen employed a few
people, but fed many more. These
kitchens provided the only meals that
some unemployed Americans had. They
rose to prominence in the U.S. during the
Great Depression. One of the first and
obvious benefits of a soup kitchen was to
provide a place where the homeless and
poor could get free food and a brief rest
from the struggles of surviving on the
streets. 120,000 meals are served by
Capone Free Soup Kitchen” the Chicago
Tribune headlined on December 1931. Al
Capone’s soup kitchen became one of
the strangest sight Chicagoans had ever
seen. An army of ragged, starving men
assembled three times a day beside a
storefront, feasting on the generosity of
Al Capone. The men told the
newspapers that Capone was doing
more for the poor than the entire U.S.
government.
Al Capone, sometimes known by the
nickname "Scarface", was an
American mobster, crime boss, and
businessman who attained notoriety
during the Prohibition era as boss of
the Chicago Outfit.
• What % of Americans were unemployed at the beginning of the Great
Depression in 1929?
• What year was the worst year of the Great Depression in terms of the
unemployment rate?
Modern Day U.S. employment rate 4-5%
By 1933-
15 million
Americans were
unemployed.
You are a news reporter covering events during the Great
Depression: Write a few sentences about what you think is going
on in the images above.
• At the beginning of the Great Depression a very large oil discovery is made in East
Texas by C.M. ‘Dad’ Joiner.
• Unfortunately, with such a large supply of new oil , the price of oil will drop from
$1.00 a barrel to .13 cents. Drillers then produced even more oil to try to make up for
the lost profits. Eventually the Texas Railroad Commission had to regulate the
amount of oil that could be drilled in Texas oilfields.
• How could high unemployment rate be linked to lower amounts of oil being
consumed by the American population?
Law of Supply & Demand
• If the supply of oil is greater than the demand, what happened to the price of oil?
• The decline of cotton prices continued into the 1930s. Farmers were not
getting the prices they were in the 1920s. To make up for the lower price,
many farmers produced more cotton. The supply was greater than the
demand & the price of cotton continued to fall. Some state governments
passed laws to limit production in hopes of increasing crop prices.
• Cotton reached a record low of approximately 6 cents a pound in 1930. With
prices this low, many farmers lost their land because they couldn’t make
their payments.
Law of Supply & Demand
If the supply of cotton is greater than the
demand, what happened to the price of cotton?
Dust Bowl• The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that
greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the prairies
of the Great Plains. During the 1930s; severe drought and
a failure to apply dry farming methods to prevent wind
erosion caused this catastrophe to occur.
The 150,000-
square-mile area,
encompassing the
Oklahoma and
Texas panhandles
and neighboring
sections of Kansas,
Colorado, and New
Mexico, has little
rainfall, light soil,
and high winds, a
potentially
destructive
combination.
• When drought struck in the 1930’s, the soil lacked the stronger root system of grass as an anchor, so the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense dust clouds, called “black blizzards.” These dust storms wreaked havoc, choking cattle and pasture lands and driving 60 percent of the population from the region.
During the Dust Bowl years, the weather destroyed nearly all the crops farmers tried to grow on the
Great Plains. What few crops did survive sold at such low prices that farmers could not earn a
living. Farmers who rented the land and farmhouse couldn't pay rent, and farmers who owned their
land couldn't make payments. Parents packed up their children and belongings and moved West.
Most migrants moved to California, hoping to start a new life. Each year during the 1930s, the
number of children going to school went down. During this era millions of kids were not going to
school.
A New President & Vice President
Herbert Hoover Charles Curtis
President Vice President
Franklin D. Roosevelt John Nance Garner
Served 1928-1932
Elected in1932
President Roosevelt
is commemorated on
the dime.
John ‘Cactus Jack’ GarnerJohn Nance Garner
• Texas lawyer & County Judge.
• Congressman for over 30 years.
• During his service, the Texas Congress was selecting a state flower for Texas. Garner really wanted the prickly pear cactus to be the state flower, and thus earned the nickname "Cactus Jack." (The Bluebonnet was chosen.)
• Garner was popular with his fellow Congressmen in both parties. He held what he called his "board of education" during the era of Prohibition, a gathering spot for lawmakers to drink alcohol, or as Garner called it, "strike a blow for liberty."
• Regarded as one of the most powerful vice-presidents in history.
• Helped support ‘New Deal’ policies during the Great Depression.
• Retired in 1941, to his to his home in Uvalde, TX for the last twenty-six years of his life, where he managed his extensive real estate holdings, spent time with his grandchildren, & fished.
When President Franklin Roosevelt became President, he acted swiftly
to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were
suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of
experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, that
aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans.
1. Which New Deal Agency
was created to reform
the Stock Market?
2. Which New Deal Agency
was created to restore
American’s faith in the
Banking industry?
3. Which New Deal Agency
had the largest effect on
education during the
1930s?
4. Which New Deal
Agencies created jobs
for Americans?
New Deal- CCC CampsOne of the programs that FDR created in 1933 was the Civilian Conservation Corps, a
program for unmarried young men aged 17 – 28 who needed employment during the
Great Depression. Over the 9 years it was in place, the CCC employed over 3 million
young men, providing them with shelter, clothing, and food and paying them $30 per
month, requiring that they send $25 of their wage back to their families to help at home.
New Deal- CCC in Texas
Parks & Historic Sites Developed or Improved by the C.C.C.Abilene
Balmorhea
Bastrop
Big Spring
Blanco
Bonham
Buescher
Caddo Lake
Cleburne
Daingerfield
Davis Mountains
Fort Parker
Garner
Goliad
Goose Island
Huntsville
Indian Lodge
Inks Lake
Lake Brownwood
Lake Corpus Christi
Lockhart
Longhorn Cavern
Meridian
Mission Tejas
Mother Neff
Palmetto
Palo Duro Canyon
Possum Kingdom
Tyler
San Antonio river walk
San Jacinto Monument
WPA was the largest and most ambitious American New
Deal agency, employing more than 8 million people
(mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects,
including the construction of public buildings and roads.
These are a couple of WPA completed projects in Texas
during the Depression.
New Deal- Soil Conservation on the Great Plains• The Soil Conservation Service formed in 1935, to promote farmers changing their practices.
Working on the local level, the government instructed farmers to plant trees and grass to anchor
the soil, to plow and terrace in contour patterns to hold rainwater, and to allow portions of
farmland to lie unused each year so the soil could regenerate. The government also purchased
11.3 million acres of land to keep it out of production. After 6 years of the conservation efforts
much of the land was back to the way it should be.
What is something that Americans learned from this problem?
• List 6 details in this picture
• What do you think the American dream is?
• Have you ever been in need? In your opinion, is government’s
responsibility to support those that need help?