The Great Depression

The 1930’s

The Crash

• Black Tuesday • Boom market>increased

speculation>great sell-off Oct ‘29

• America enters the Great Depression

Effects

• Bottoms out in ’32?• Full recovery took a decade• Drop in GDP, bank runs, 25-30% unemployed by ’32

• End to Republican dominance• Reemergence of union movement & radicalism

The Depression Worsens

• Hoover’s Policies– Prosperity will return, part of the

cycle– Relief should come from states

and localities

Actions of Hoover

• Tariff war• Domestic programs

– Federal Farm Board• Hold surplus – too moderate to stabilize

prices

– Reconstruction Finance Corp• Loans to RRs, banks, insurance cos • Trickle down

Protest

• The Bonus Army– Summer of ’32– WWI vets march on Washington petitioning for army bonuses

– Tear gas, tanks, and the end of Hoover

• Farmers rise up• Hoovervilles

FDR & the NEW DEAL

• Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 w/60% of pop vote

• Calls for a new deal• Dem majorities in both Houses

New Deal

• The 3 R’s– Relief, Recovery, Reform– The 1st Hundred Days

•Bank Holiday– Closed until reorganized

•Repeal of Prohibition•Fireside Chats

1st Hundred

• Relief– FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration)– PWA (Public Works)– CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)– TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)

• Financial Recovery Programs– Emergency Banking Relief Act– FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp)– HOLC (Home Owners Loan Corp)– Farm Credit Administration

1st Hundred

• Industrial recovery program–NRA (National Recovery Admin)– Set wages, production levels– Unconstitutional (Schechter v U.S. 1935)

• Farm production control program

–AAA (Agr. Adjustment Admin)– Subsidies for non-production– Unconstitutional

The Dust Bowl

• The Dust Bowl - farmers crops literally blown away or buried

• OK, KS, CO• Okies head west but find few jobs (fruit picking, odd jobs)

•

Life During the Depression

• Women – lower pay, more working, family strain

• African Americans – hardest hit, excluded from relief programs, increase in lynchings, little support from FDR

Continued

• Mexican Americans – Discrimination in society & ND, increase in white migrant labor, some return to Mexico

• N. Americans – John Collier (BIA) brought CCC to reservations, NA included in WPA– Indian Reorganization Act 1934

• Repealed Dawes, NA culture ok, no real NA control

2nd New Deal

• WPA (Work Progress) 1935 – Harry Hopkins, bridges, roads, pub buildings

• Resettlement Admin – loans to small/sharecroppers, housing for migrants

• Nation Labor Relations Act (Wagner) 1935

• REA (Rural Electrification)• Increased taxes on wealthy• Social Security Act 1935

Election of 1936

• Landslide win for FDR• New Deal Coalition 1930’s-60’s

Critic of The New Deal

• Liberals – too much for business• Conservatives – socialism!!!• Demagogues – Father Coughlin (National Union for Social Justice)

• Dr. Francis Townsend – the Townsend Plan > SS

• Huey Long “Share the Wealth”– Assassinated will running for Pres