Prohibition, Stock Market Crash, Depression, New Deal, Dams

1920-1939

Prohibition

• Prohibition was the period from 1920-1933

in U.S. history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor was made illegal. (notice that it didn’t say “drinking”)

• It led to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed.

Prohibition

• The Temperance Movement blamed alcohol for many of society's ills, especially crime and murder.

• Amendment 18 was passed in January 1920, making alcohol illegal.

Prohibition

• A new breed of gangster arose during this period.

• These people took notice of the amazingly high level of demand for alcohol within society and the extremely limited avenues of supply to the average citizen.

• Gangsters saw profit. • Al Capone in Chicago is one

of the most famous gangsters of this time period.

Prohibition Ends• Prohibition became increasingly

unpopular during the Great Depression, especially in large cities.

• On March 23, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a law allowing the manufacture and sale of certain kinds of alcoholic beverages.

• This led to the December 5, 1933, ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.

The Roaring 20s• The 1920’s were a time of

peace and great prosperity.• After World War I, the

“Roaring Twenties” was fueled by increased industrialization and new technologies, such as the radio and the automobile.

• Air flight was becoming widespread, as well.

• The economy benefited greatly from the new life changing technologies.

Stocks 1920-1929• When you own a share of stock, you are a part owner in the

company with a claim (however small it may be) on every asset and every penny in earnings.

• When the company is making a profit, you can sell your stocks for more than you paid for them (make a profit!).

• Stocks were seen as extremely safe by most economists, due to the powerful economic boom.

• Investors mortgaged their homes, and foolishly invested their life savings in hot stocks, such as Ford and RCA.

• Few people actually studied the fundamentals of the companies they invested in.

• To the average investor, stocks were a sure thing.

Tuesday, October 29, 1929

• Then all of a sudden, on Black Tuesday, the rug was pulled out from under the feet of the market.

• The masses lost faith in the value of stocks and opted to sell -- all at the same time!

• This caused a panic.

Black Tuesday

• The value of stocks started to decline quickly, leading to more selling.

• Investors couldn’t pay the interest on their margin accounts causing the banks that had loaned the money to go out of business.

A crowd on Wall Street, outside of the New York Stock Exchange on October 29, 1929

The Great Depression 1929-1939• The Great Depression was a

worldwide economic collapse.• It lasted throughout the 1930s.• People who had saved their

money in the banks were now broke.

• Soon many factories and businesses closed because no one had money to buy anything.

• Thousands of workers lost their jobs.

To add insult to injury, there was a major drought in the farmlands of the mid-west. Many hard-hit farmers called it quits

and headed west to California, Washington, and Oregon.

Questions to Consider

• What is a depression?• What happened during the Great Depression?• What was life like for many people?

The Fate of Your Character…

• The unemployment rate in 1929 was 25%, or, 1 in 4 people lost their jobs.

• Draw a card from the deck.• If you draw a club, you (or your spouse) have

lost your job.• If you draw a Jack, you and your spouse have

separated.• If you draw a Joker, you have lost your job,

spouse, and house.

Possible Scrapbook Entries

• Write a detailed letter to a relative explaining what you and your family are going through right now.

AND/OR• Write a detailed budget for your family. What

are you spending money on? Do you have any money coming in?

Roosevelt’s New Deal

• The depression got worse in 1932.

• It was a presidential election year and the Democrats chose Franklin D. Roosevelt, governor of New York, as their candidate.

• He pledged himself and his party to a “New Deal” for the American people.

Civil Conservation Corps (CCC)• The New Deal programs put

people back to work.• The most popular New Deal

conservation effort was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

• Young men from every part of the nation were stationed in more than 200 camps throughout the Northwest.

• They earned from $30 to $45 a month, and received good food, education, and discipline.

• The CCC camps were commanded by army officers.

Roosevelt’s New Deal

• Roosevelt wanted people in the Pacific

Northwest to use forests and rivers wisely.

• He was also willing to use federal money to help them.

• The creation of OlympicNational Park in 1938 was aMajor New Deal project.

New Dam from the New Deal

President Roosevelt thought large-scale public works projects such as Grand Coulee Dam would provide immediate jobs for many of the destitute Dust Bowl migrants.

President Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor (in the car) toured the site of the Grand Coulee Dam.

He addressed a crowd of 25,000 people.

Grand Coulee Dam 1939

Power!

• Because of the dams,the Bonneville PowerAdministration (BPA),made low-cost poweravailable to public utilitydistricts and encouraged• The districts to takeover private companies.• A lot of the power was sold

to Aluminum-making companies.

Questions to Consider

– Why was the Grand Coulee dam built?– How many dams are on the Columbia?– How many were built in the 1930s and 40s?– What are some of the New Deal programs?– Which New Deal programs were in Washington?– How many people were able to get jobs because

of the programs?

Possible Scrapbook Entry

Design a “Want Ads” page from a newspaper to show all of the new jobs that would be listed.