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Chapter 24 - The Great Depression and the New Deal 

 

         Hard timeso   The bull market

  Stock market resembled a sporting arena         Millions following stock prices

  Business leaders and economists told Americans it was their duty to buy stocks  John J. Raskob

         Chairman of the board of GM         Wrote an article stating that a person who invested $15 in a good common stock per month would have $80,000 within 20 years

  Bull market of the 1920s         Stock prices increased at twice the rate of industrial production         Paper value outran real value

  4 million Americans owned stocks         Had been lured into the market through margin accounts

o   Allowed investors to purchase stocks by making a small down payment and borrowing the rest from a broker

o   The Crash  The Wall Street crash if 1929 was not a one or two day catastrophe

         It was a steep slide  Bull market peaked in early September

         Prices lowered  October 23

         Dow Jones industrials lost 21 points in one hour         Large investors concluded that the boom was over

  October 28         Dow lost 28 points (13% of its value)

  October 29, “Black Tuesday”

         More than 16 million shares were traded as panic selling took hold

  The market’s foundation of credit crumbled         Based on margin debt

  Many investors with margin accounts had no choice but to sell when the stock values fell  Shares themselves represented the security for their loans

         More money had to be put up to cover the loans when prices declined

  Mid-November         $30 billion in the market price of stocks had been wiped out

  Half of the value of stocks listed in The New York Times was lost within 10 weeks  Political and economic leaders downplayed the impact of the crash  Andrew Mellon

         “It will purge the rottenness out of the system High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people”

o   Underlying Weaknesses                The economy after the crash became less resistant to existing problems

         Workers and consumers received too small a share of the enormous increases in labor productivity

o   1923-1929: manufacturing output per worker-hour increased by 32%o   Wages only rose 8% during the same timeo   Rise in productivity encouraged overproduction

  Farmers hadn’t regained their prosperity from the World War I years

         Suffered from declining prices, drop in exports, and large debts incurred by wartime expansion

  Unequal distribution of income and wealth         1929: top .1% of Americans had and aggregate income equal to the bottom 42%         Top 5% of Americans received 30% of the nation’s income         Bottom 60% got only 26% of nation’s income         80% of the nation had no savings         .5% of Americans owned 32.4% of net wealth of the entire population

  Manufacturers decreased their production and laid off workers         Layoffs brought further declines in consumer spending

o   Prompted another round of production cutbacks         Consumers had less to spend         Businesses were hesitant to expand

  Banks began to fail as depositors withdrew their uninsured funds         Thousands of families lost their savings

o   Mass Unemployment  Unemployment insurance did not exist; public relief was inadequate

         Loss of a job meant economic catastrophe for workers  Unemployment across America became a sign of a deepening depression  1930; Department of Labor

         9% of the labor force was out of work         Doubled by 1931         By 1933, more than ¼ of workers didn’t have jobs

  ***no statistics tell how long these people were without work or if they had part-time jobs***  Many Americans blamed themselves for their failure in finding work

         Feelings of shame, guilt, inadequacy, uselessness, and despair

  Joblessness was most difficult for men between 35-55         Family responsibilities were heaviest on these men

  Unemployment upset the psychological balance in many families by undermining the traditional authority of the male  Women found it easier to hold onto jobs

         Wages were lower  Summed up strains found in families

         “Fathers feel they have lost their prestige in the home; there is much nagging, mothers nag at the fathers, parents nag at the children. Children of working age who earn meager salaries find it hard to turn over all their earning and deny themselves even the greatest necessities as a result leave home”

o   Hoover’s Failure  Companies lacked the money and resources to deal with the worsening situation  Detroit and Chicago

         50% unemployment by 1932  Los Angeles

         70,000 nonresident jobless and homeless men  Hoover failed to respond to human suffering

         Administered large-scale humanitarian efforts during WWI with efficiency, but failed to face the facts of the Depression

  1931 State of the Union Address

         “Our people are providing against distress from unemployment in true American fashion by magnificent response to public appeal and by action of the local governments”

  Resisted calls from Congress         Wanted a greater federal role in relief efforts or public works projects         Worried about “injuring the initiative and enterprise of the American people”

  The President’s Emergency Committee for Unemployment (1930) and the President’s Organization for Unemployment Relief (POUR)

         Encouraged local groups to raise money to help the unemployed         Plan for recovery centered on restoring business confidence

  Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)         Based on the War Finance Corporation of the WWI years         Made government credit available to banks, railroads, insurance companies         Stimulated economic activity         Assumed the credit problem was one of supply rather than demand

  1932; Democrats pushed through the Emergency Relief Act         Authorized the RFC to lend $300 million to states that had exhausted their own relief funds         Hoover reluctantly signed the bill

o   Protest and the Election of 1932  March 7

         Communist organizers led a march of auto workers and unemployed for the Ford River Rouge factory

o   Ford-controlled police fired tear gas and bulletso   Killed four and wounded 50 others

         Farmers’ Holiday Associationso   Desperate farmers in Iowao   Aimed to raise prices by refusing to sell producto   1,500 farmers turned back cargo trucks outside Sious City

  Dumped milk and other perishables into ditches

         Bonus Armyo   Protest descending on Washington D.C. in 1932o   Veterans who were given bonds after WWI demanded immediate payment of the bonus in casho   By the summer, they camped out all over the capital city

o   House passed a bill for immediate payment  Senate rejected the bill, most of the veterans left

o   July  General Douglas MacArthur forcibly evicted the remaining veterans from their encampment

o   Provided the most disturbing evidence of the failure of Hoover’s administration

         1932; Democrats nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt as their candidate

o   “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people”o   Roosevelt’s plans for recovery were vagueo   Roosevelt won the election by a landslideo   Democrats won big majorities in both the House and the Senate

         FDR and the First New Dealo   FDR the man

  Born in 1882 in Dutchess Country, New York  Was an only child  His mother, Sara Delano, was the dominant figure in his childhood  Roosevelt’s education reinforced the aristocratic values of his family

         Groton         Harvard         Columbia Law School

  He believed in:         A strong sense of civic duty         The importance of competitive athletics         Commitment to public service

  In 1905, FDR married Eleanor Roosevelt  (distant cousin)         Niece of Theodore Roosevelt

  Elected as a Democrat to the NY State Senate in 1910  Was assistant navy secretary from 1913-1920  Summer of 1921:

         FDR gets polioo   Was told he would never walk again without support

         Eleanor encouraged him to fight his handicap and continue his political career         “Once I spent two years lying in bed trying to move my big toe, anything else seems easy”

  Governor of New York in 1928:         Instituting unemployment insurance

         Strengthened child labor laws         Provided tax relief for farmers         Provided pensions for the old         Set up a Temporary Emergency Relief Administration         Set up a group of key advisers; the “brains trust”: rejected the old progressive dream of re-creating an ideal society

o   Raymond Moleyo   Rexford G. Tugwello   Adolf A. Berleo   Samuel Rosenmano   Basil O’Connoro   Felix Frankfurter

o   Restoring Confidence  Roosevelt conveyed a sense of optimism

         Helped restore the shaken confidence of the nation  Called for a four day “bank holiday”

         Help the country’s ailing financial system         More than 1,300 banks failed in 1930         Contemporary investigations revealed…

o   Illegal loans to bank officialso   Tax evasion that helped erode public confidence in the banking system

         Between election day and the inauguration the bank system had come close to shutting down altogether

o   Due to widespread bank failures and hoarding of currency

  Fireside chat         Radio broadcasts that became a standard part of Roosevelt’s political technique         Were enormously successful         Gave courage to Americans         Communicated a sense of compassion from the White House

  Emergency Banking Act         Gave the president broad powers over all banking transactions and foreign exchange         Authorized healthy banks to reopen under licenses from the Treasury Department         Provided greater federal authority to be present in managing the affairs of failed banks

o   The hundred days  March to June 1933

         “The Hundred Days”         FDR pushed a number of acts through Congress

o   Designed to combat various aspects of the Depression

         New Deal was no unified program to end the Depressiono   Improvised series of reform and relief measures

  Some contradicted each other         Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

o   Unemployment relief efforto   Provided work for jobless young men in protecting and conserving the nation’s natural resources

  Road construction  Reforestation  Flood control  National park improvements

o   Workers received room and board and $30 a month         Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

o   $500 million given from Congresso   ½ the money went as direct relief to the stateso   The rest was distributed on the basis of:

  A dollar of federal aid for ever three dollars of state and local funds spent for relief

o   Establishment of work relief projects was left to state and local governmentso   Harry Hopkins

  Former NYC social worker  Driven by deep moral passion to help the less fortunate  Emerged as a key figure for New Deal relief programs

         Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)o   Provided immediate relief to the nation’s farmerso   Established a new federal role in agricultural planning and price settingo   Established parity prices for basic farm commodities

  Corn, wheat, hogs, etc  Parity pricing

         Based on the purchasing power that farmers had enjoyed during the prosperous years of 1909-1914

o   Incorporated the principle of subsidy  Farmers received benefit payments in return for reducing acreage or cutting production where surpluses existed

o   Landlords often failed to share their AAA payments with tenant farmers

  Frequently used benefits to buy tractors and other equipment that displaced sharecroppers

         Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)o   One of the most unique projects of the New Deal erao   Built dams and power plantso   Produced cheap fertilizer for farmerso   Brought cheap electricity for the first time to thousands of peopleo   Stood as a model of how careful government planning could dramatically improve the social and economic welfare of an underdeveloped region

         National Industrial Recovery Acto   Each industry would be self-governed by a code hammered out by representatives of business and laboro   Led by General Hugh Johnsono   Symbolized by the Blue Eagle stampo   Almost all the NRA codes were written by the largest firms in any industry

         Public Works Administration (PWA)o   Led by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes

  Authorized $3.3 billion for the construction of roads, public building, and other projects

o   Idea was to provide jobs  Stimulate the economy through increased consumer spending

o   “priming the pump”  The government had to prime the economy with jobs for the unemployed

o   PWA spent more than $4.2 billion building roads, schools, post offices, bridges, courthouses

         Left Turn and the Second New Dealo   Hundred Days Legislature package tried to offer something for everybody.o   Washington brought reassurance that the nation was back on track, although the Depression made millions of people think otherwiseo   The New Deal had critics that complained that FDR ruined the traditional boundaries of government action while others argued that Roosevelt hadn’t done enough

         Roosevelt’s criticso   Republican newspapers and the American Liberty League denounced Roosevelt and his advisors.

-          They held the administration responsible for what they considered an attack on property rights, the growing welfare state, and the decline of personal liberty.

o   American Liberty Leagueo    dominated by executives of DuPont and General Motors

-          League attracted support from a group of conservative Democrats, including Al Smith-          Al Smith was the former presidential candidate who declared the New Deal’s laws “socialistic.”

o   League supported anti-New Dealers for Congresso   In the 1934 election, Democrats built up their majorities from 310 to 319 in the House and 60-69 in the Senate

         Roosevelt’s loyal supporters turned criticalo   Father Charles E. Coughlin

-          attracted a national radio audience of 40 million listeners with sermons attacking wall streets, international bankers, and “plutocratic capitalism”-          supported Roosevelt and the New Deal at first and tried to build a relationship with the president-          In 1934, he was frustrated with his limited influence on the administration and began attacking FDR.

o   New Deal policies were part of a Communists Conspiracy-          Threatened community autonomy with centralized federal power.

o   Couglin broke from the FDR and founded the National Union for Social Justiceo   The movements on the left were very troublesome for Roosevelt for they thought the New Deal was too timid in its measures

         End Poverty in Californiao   Upton Sinclar

-          Well known novelist and socialist-          Entered the 1934 Democratic primary party for governor by running EPIC-          Proposed a $50 a month pension for all poor people over 60-          Campaign emphasized the government system of “production for use” workshops for the unemployed-          Lost a close general election only because the republican candidate received heavy financial and tactical support from Hollywood studio executives and frightened regular Democrats.

         Old Age Revolving Pension plano   Created by Francis E. Townsend

-          Retired doctor-          Created a large following among citizens with this plan-          He called for payments of 200 dollars per month to all people over 60, but had to be spent within 30 days

o   Attracted a nationwide following of more than 3 million by 1936         Huey Long

o   posed as the greatest potential threat to Roosevelt’s leadershipo   Long captured LA’s governor ship in 1928 by attacking  the state’s oil industryo   He significantly improves public education, roads, medical care, and other public serviceso   Long first supported Roosevelt but in 1934, his own presidential ambitions and his impatience with the pace of the New Deal measures led it a break with Roosevelt

         Share Our Wealth Societyo   Organized by Huey Longo   Its purpose was to “break up the swollen fortunes of America and to spread the wealth among all our people.”o   homestead worth $5000 and a $2500 annual income for everyone was promised by Longo   Long’s economics were not clearo   A secret poll of the summer of 1935 stunned the Democratic National Committee by showing that Long might attract three or four million voteso   Long’s third-party candidacy was prevented due to his assignation in that September

         New Deal in the South and West         Southern Farming and Landholding

o   Impact on South and West  Farm programs moved agriculture away from sharecropping and tenant farming  Wage labor and agribusiness  Dam building projects created electricity for Southerners  West got the most payments for welfare, work relief, and loans  New Deal – rational resource use

o   Farming in the South  1930 – less than half of farmers owned land

o   Sharecroppers  ¾ African American farmers were sharecroppers  Half of white farmers  About $100 annually if any  Cotton and tobacco

o   AAA  Agricultural Adjustment Administration  Boosted prices by paying farmers to “plow under”

         Take land out of production  Went to mostly large landowners  Planters did not usually share payments with sharecroppers and tenants

o   STFU  Southern Tenant Farmers Union  Founded in 1934

  Protested AAA policies         Protested evictions         Called for strikes for higher wages         Challenged landlords for fair share of payments

  Six southern states  About 30,000 farmers

         Half black  Drew attention but did not change national farm policy

o   Labor-saving machinery  Tractors  Mechanical harvesters

o   Impacts of Cash Infusion  Lower demand for labor and higher eviction rate  Many migrated to cities in search of work

o   Help of New Deal  Destroyed old sharecropping and tenant system  Helped landowners prosper  Access to government funds

         Diversify crops         Consolidate holdings         Work land more efficiently

  1 to 2 million sharecroppers would move to bigger cities         Memphis, Birmingham, Chicago, Detroit, etc.

         Rural Electrification and Public Workso   Early 1930s – 3% of southerners had electricityo   Farmhouses

  No electric lighting  No indoor plumbing  No refrigerators of washing machines

o   Tennessee Valley Authority  Made electricity available for the first time  Public investment and government planning  Built 16 dams across 800 miles of Tennessee River

         Brought flood control and electric power to hundreds of thousands of families         7 southern states

  Reduced consumer electric rates  Created landscaped parks  Built public libraries and better school systems  1944 – largest power producer in US  Provided luxuries for farmers and families

         Radio         Electric lights

         The Dust Bowlo   Disaster in the Great Plains in the mid-1930s

o   Droughts through early 1930so   Violent dust storms during droughts

  Result of stripping the landscape of vegetationo   Great Plains became “vast wheat factory”o   Great Plains suited for:

  Mechanized farming  Gasoline-powered tractors  Harvester-thresher  Disc plows

         All increased productivityo   In 1830, it took 58 hours to ship an acre of wheat to granary

  In 1930s, it took less than three hourso   Farmers broke more land to compensate for low wheat prices in 1920so   Nothing to prevent soil erosion

  Dust storms blew away tens of millions of acres of topsoilo   Economic and psychological losses for those who stayed

  Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico  Denver journalist called calamity the “Dust Bowl”

o   Difficult for humans and livestock to breathe  “Dust pneumonia” and other respiratory infections

o   Destroyed crops and treeso   Travelers stuck in automobiles and trainso   Worst storms – Spring 1935o   Intervention from federal agencies

  Resettlement Administration         Direct emergency relief to families

  Crop and seed loans  Moratoriums (freezes) on loan payments  Works Progress Administration

         Provided temporary jobs  1/5 to 1/3 applied for relief

         90% in hardest-hit cities  Agricultural Adjustment Administration

         Paid wheat farmers millions of dollarso   Farmers could not grow what they could not sello   Diversion of soil for different crops

o   Governmental policies  Designed to

         Alter land use patterns         Reverse soil erosion         Nourish the return of grasslands

  Department of Agriculture         Led by Henry A. Wallace

o   Secretary of State         Designed to change farming practices

  Soil Conservation Service (SCS)         Researched controlling wind and water erosion         Set up demonstration projects         Offered equipment, supplies, and assistance to farmers in conservation work         Pumped funds into Great Plains

o   Created soil conservation district  Administered conservation regulations locally

o   Dust Bowl reduced by 1940  From 5 million acres to 4 million acres  New Deal restricted market forces in agriculture  SCS techniques abandoned due to heavy rainfall and WWII

         Long-term farming reduced concern for lando   Policies and organizations had little effect on sharecroppers and tenants

  Thousands of sharecropper and tenant families forced off land  Became “Okies”

         About 300,000 people that migrated to California in the 1930s         Included victims of the Dust Bowl but most came from blue-collar and businessmen workers looking to improve economic lot         California had better opportunities

o   More jobso   Higher wageso   Higher relief payments

         Most only found low-paying agriculture jobs in fertile areaso   San Joaquin and Imperial Valley districts

         Discriminated as “poor white trash”o   Struggles to create communities within migrant labor camps

         Improved situation through WWII and demand for laboro   Competition for Mexican laborers

  By 1936, 85-90% of migratory workers were white Americans         Less than 20% before Great Depression

  Mexicans who were still employed had decreases in their wages  Southwestern communities sought to deport Mexicans and Mexican Americans

         Supported by:o   Employerso   Private charitieso   Immigration and Naturalization Service

         Little effort to distinguish citizens from alienso   Most deported children were actually citizens

         Most aggressive campaign in Los Angeles County

o   Shipped out over 13,000 Mexicans by boxcar from 1931-1934o   About 1/3 of LA’s 150,000 Mexicans left the city in the early 1930s

  Nearly half a million (500,000) total left the United States in the 1930s

         Water Policyo   Large-scale water irrigation projects due to New Deal

  Designed for cheaper power and flood preventiono   Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior

  Established under the national Reclamation Act of 1902  Originally purposed to create dams and irrigation works

         Encourage growth of small farms in arid regions in West         Unsuccessful until 1920s

  Focus changed to multipurpose dams to control entire river systems         Boulder (Hoover) Dam

o   Designed to harness Colorado River  Wildest and most isolated Western river

o   Had many anticipated effects:  Flood prevention  Irrigation of Imperial Valley in California  Domestic water for southern California  Cheap electricity for Los Angeles and southern Arizona

o   Hoover opposed public power aspect  Government should not compete with private companies

         Contrary to most Westernerso   Believed cheap public power was critical for development

         Roosevelt’s support for public power gained political backing of West in 1932

o   Completed in 1935o   Funds from Public Works Administration

  Total cost was $114 million         Offset by cost of hydroelectric power

         Los Angeles aqueducto   259 mileso   $220 milliono   Channel water to growing populationo   Lake Mead

  Created by construction of dam  World’s largest artificial lake

         115 miles up canyon

  Helped make Imperial Valley one of the most productive agricultural districts in the world

         Boulder Dam transformed Bureau of Reclamation into major federal agency

o   Huge resourceso   Completed All-American Canal in 1938

  80 mile channel  Connects Colorado River to Imperial Valley  130 mile branch to Coachella Valley  $24 million  Carried flow of water equal to Potomac River  More than 1 million acres of desert land open for cultivation

         Fruits         Melons         Vegetables         Cotton

  Irrigation projects promised to repay cost of canal in 40 years

         Interest-free loan was government subsidy to private growers

o   Central Valley Project (CVP)  Watershed that stretched through California interior  500 miles long and about 125 miles wide  Brought water from Sacramento River in North to arid lands of San Joaquin Valley in South  Completed in 1947  Cost $2.3 billion  Stored and transferred water  Provided

         Electricity         flood control         municipal water

  cost paid by         federal government         local municipalities         buyers of electric power

  proved a boon to large-scale farmers in Sacramento and San Joaquin River Valleys

o   Grand Coulee Dam  Northwest of Spokane Washington  Completed in 1941  Designed to

         Convert power of Columbia River to cheap electricity         Irrigate uncultivated land         Stimulate economic development of Pacific Northwest

  Employed tens of thousands of workers  Pumped millions of dollars into depressed economy

         Washington ranked first in per capita federal expenditures from 1933 to 1940

  Provided cheapest electricity in US in the long run  Attract new manufacturing to area of previously just lumber and metals

o   Environmental and human cost  Grand Coulee and other dams reduced Columbia River  Tens of thousands of workers, mostly Mexican, now worked in fertile fields for very low wages

         Health suffered from contact with pesticides  Colorado River no longer empties into Pacific Ocean

         Built up salt depositso   Water unfit for drinking or irrigation

         Water pollution still plagues river today         A New Deal for Indians

o   Important changes for Indians  1933 – Indians lived on reservations

         About 320,000 people in about 200 tribes         Mostly in Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, and South Dakota

  Indians suffered from poverty worse than any other group         Infant mortality rate was twice that of white people         Diseases were more prevalent on the reservation

o   Alcoholism, measles, tuberculosis, etc.         Half of Indians on reservations were landless

o   Lived with relatives insteado   BIA

  Bureau of Indian Affairs  Oldest federal bureaucracy in West

         Corruption and mismanagement         Tried to assimilate Indians through education

o   Interfered with religious affairs and tribal customso   Merriam Report

  1928  Prepared by Institute for Government Research  Critiqued BIA management

         Scathing and widely public  No effort from Hoover to reform BIA

o   John Collier  Appointed by Roosevelt in 1933  Roots in service and community organizations in eastern slums  Interested in Indians

         Spent time with Indians in Taos, New Mexico

         Involved with struggle to help Pueblo Indians hold onto tribal lands

  Executive secretary of American Indian Defense Association  Driving force behind IRA

o   IRA  Indian Recognition Act of 1934  Reversed allotment provisions of Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

         Weakened tribal sovereignty         Shifted land from tribes to individuals

  Permitted restoration of surplus lands  Allocated funds for purchase of additional land  Sought to restore tribal structure

         Wanted to make tribes part of federal governmento   Tribes that ratified IRA could elect tribal council as legal tribal government

  Congress wanted to change Collier’s original plano   IRA approval from Indians

  Mixed feelings on reservations  Linguistic barriers made support and communication difficult

         Ex. Papagos from Arizona had no word for “budget” or “representative”

o   “law,” “constitution,” “charter,” and “rule” were all the same wordo   “reservation agent,” “king,” “president,” and “Indian commissioner” were all the same word

  Approved by 181 tribes  Rejected by 77 tribes

o   Navajos  Nation’s largest tribe

         More than 40,000 members  Rejected IRA  Protest against BIA forced reduction of livestock

         Part of soil conservation programo   Blamed Navajo sheep for erosion

  Threatened to make Lake Mead and the Boulder Dam inoperable

o   Navajos believed erosion was due to lack of water and acreage

         Navajos took anger out on Colliero   Sensitive BIA

  BIA more sensitive to Indian culture  Increase in Indians employed in BIA

         1933 – a few hundred         1940 – over 4,600

  Indian political autonomy

         BIA and Congress interfered with reservation governmentso   Especially in money matterso   Dictated and underfunded tribes

o   Margold Opinion  Nathan Margold

         Lawyer for Department of the Interior         Wrote legal opinion of tribal governments in 1934

o   Sovereignty except for when limited in Congress Act  “Margold Opinion” upheld in United States

         Led to restoration of tribal rights and land for Indian people in the West

         Depression-Era Cultureo   American culture in the 1930s, like all other aspects of national life, was profoundly shaped by the Great Depression.o   A New Deal for the Arts

  The Depression hit America’s writers, artists, and teachers just as hard as blue-collar workers

         In 1935, the WPA allocated $300 million for the unemployed in these fields         Federal Project No. 1

o   “Federal One”o   An umbrella agency covering writing, theater, music, and the visual arts which proved to be one of the most innovative and successful New Deal programso   Offered work to desperate artist and intellectuals, enriched the cultural lives of millions, and left a substantial legacy of artistic and cultural production

         Federal Writers Projecto   At its height, employed 5,000 writers on a variety of programso   A popular series of state and city guidebooks, each combining history, folklore, and tourismo   “Life in America”

  Included valuable oral histories of former slaves, studies of ethnic and Indian cultures, and pioneering collections of American songs and folk tales  American writers helped by the Writers Project:

         Ralph Ellison         Richard Wright         Margaret Walker         John Cheever         Saul Bellow         Zora Neale Hurston

         Federal Theater Project (FTP)

o   Reached as many as 30 million Americans with its productions under the direction of the dynamic Hallie Flanagan of Vassar Collegeo   Sought to expand the audience for theater beyond the regular patrons of the commercial stageo   Successful productions:

  “Living Newspaper”  T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral  Maxwell Anderson’s Valley Force  Orson Welle’s Macbeth

o   Brought vital and exciting theater to millions who had never attended before

         Federal Music Projecto   Under Nikolai Sokoloff of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestrao   Employed 15,000 musicians and financed hundreds of thousands of low priced public concerts by touring orchestras.o   The Composers’ Forum Laboratory supported new works by American composers such as Aaron Copland and William Schuman

         Other painters who received government assistance through the FAP:

o   Willem de Kooningo   Jackson Pollocko   Louise Nevelson

         Holger Cahillo   Director of the FAP

o   Documentary impulse  Documentary Impulse

         A deep desire to record and communicate the experiences of ordinary Americans         During the 1930s, an enormous number of artists, novelists, journalists, photographers, and filmmakers tried to document the devastation wrought by the Depression in American communities; they also depicted people’s struggles to cope with, and reverse, hard times.         Mainstream media also adapted this stance

  The “documentary impulse” became a prominent style in 1930s cultural expression  Photograph

         In 1935, Roy Stryker, chief of the Historical Section of the Resettlement Administration gathered a remarkable group of photographers to help document the work of the agency

         Stryker encouraged them to photograph whatever caught their interest, even if the pictures had no direct connection with RA projects         Photographers:

o   Dorothea Langeo   Walker Evanso   Arthur Rothsteino   Russell Leeo   Ben Shahno   Marion Post Wolcott

         THE SINGLE MOST SIGNIFICANT VISUAL RECORD OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

o   Photographers traveled through rural areas, small towns, and migrant labor camps and produced powerful images of despair and resignation as well as hope and resilience

         The double vision ^, combining pain with faith, could be found in many other cultural works of the period

o   John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (1939)  Sympathetically portrayed the hardships of Oklahoma Dust Bowl migrants on their way to California

o   Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 bestseller Gone with the Windo   Elizabeth Noble

  “With real events looming larger than any imagined happenings, documentary films and still photographs, reportage and the like have taken the place once held by grand invention

o   James Rorty, in Where Life Is Better (1936)  Was encouraged by his cross-country trip

o   Waiting for Lefty  Capitalism

         For some, the capitalist system  was the culprit responsible for the Great Depression

  Communism         Relatively few Americans became Communists or Socialists in the 1930s – at its height, the Communist Party of the United States had perhaps 100,000 members—and many of these remained active for only a brief time         Marxist analysis, with its emphasis on class conflict and the failures of capitalism, had a wide influence on the era’s thought and writing         Some writers joined the Communist Party believing it to be the best hope for political revolution         Soviet Union

o   An alternative to an American system that appeared mired in exploitation, racial inequality, and human misery.

         Communist writerso   Writers:

  Michael Gold (novelist)  Meridel LeSueur (poet)  Granville Hicks (editor)

o   Sought to radicalize art and literature and celebrated collective struggle over individual achievement

         Intellectualso   A more common pattern for intellectuals, especially when they were young, was brief flirtation with communismo   African American writers, attracted by the Communist Party’s militant opposition to lynching, job discrimination, and segregation, briefly joined the party or found their first supportive audiences there

  Richard Wright  Ralph Ellison  Langston Hughes

o   Many playwrights and actors associated with New York’s influential Group Theater were part of the Communist Party orbit in those years

  Clifford Odets’s Waiting for Lefty         Depicted a union organizing drive among taxi drivers

         Left-wing influenceo   Reached its height after 1935 during the “Popular Front” period

  Alarmed by the rise of fascism in Europe, Communists around the word followed the Soviet line of uniting with liberals and all other antifascists  The American Communist Party

         “Communism is Twentieth-Century Americanism”         Communists became strong supporters of Roosevelt’s New Deal, and their influence was especially strong within various WPA arts projects         Abraham Lincoln Brigade

o   American volunteers against fascistso   Sense of commitment and sacrifice appealed to millions of Americans sympathetic to the republican cause

  Communists and other radicals, known for their dedication and effectiveness, also played a leading role in the difficult CIO unionizing drives in the auto, steel, and electrical industries

o   Film and Radio in the 1930s  Despite the Depression, the mass-culture industry expanded enormously during the 1930s

         Played an more integral role than ever in shaping the rhythms and desires of the nation’s everyday life         Moviegoing itself, usually enjoyed with friends, family, or a date, was perhaps the most significant development of all

  Film Genres         Gangster films did very well in the early Depression years

o   Little Caesar (1930), starring Edward G. Robinsono   Public Enemy (1931) with James Cagneyo   They depicted violent criminals brought to justice by society, but along the way they gave audiences a vicarious exposure to the pleasures of wealth, power, and lawbreaking

         Social disordero   Marx Brothers films

  Duck Soup (1933)  A Night at the Opera (1935)

o   Mae West’s popular comedies  She Done Him Wrong (1933)  I’m No Angel (1933)

         Movie musicalso   Busby Berkeley’s Gold Diggers of 1933, and 42nd Street (1933)

         Screwball comedieso   Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934)o   Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby (1938)

         Socially conscious view of the Depression erao   Warner Brothers studio

  I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)  Wild Boys of the Road (1933)  Black Legion (1936)

         Walt Disneyo   Moral tales that stressed keeping order and following the ruleso   Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1935)

         Frank Caprao   Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

o   You Can’t Take It with You (1938)  Radio broadcasting emerged as the most powerful medium of communication in the home, profoundly changing the rhythms and routines of everyday life.

         National Broadcasting Company (NBC)         Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

  The Depression actually helped radio expand         The well-financed networks offered an attractive outlet to advertisers seeking a national audience         Radio programming achieved a regularity and professionalism absent in the 1920s, making it much easier for a listener to identify a show with its sponsor         Older cultural forms

o   Eddie Cantoro   Ed Wynno   Kate Smitho   Al Jolson

         Amos ‘n’ Andyo   Adapted the minstrel “blackface” tradition to the new medium

         White comedianso   Freeman Gosdeno   Charles Corrello   Used only their two voices to invent a world of stereotyped African Americans for their millions of listeners

  Soap Operas                      Aimed mainly at women working in the home, these serials alone constituted 60% of all daytime shows by 1940.         Soaps

o   Ma Perkinso   Helen Trento   Clara Lou and Em

         Revolved around strong, warm female characters who provided advice and strength to weak, indecisive friends and relaives         Thrillers:

o   Inner Sanctumo   The Shadowo   Emphasized crime and suspense, made great use of music and sound effects to sharpen their impact

  Radio News         Arrived in the 1930s         Showed the medium’s potential for direct and immediate coverage of events

         Network news and commentary shows multiplied rapidly over the decade         Complex political and economic issues and the impending European crisis fueled a news hunger among Americans

 o   The Swing Era

  One measure of radio’s cultural impact was its role in popularizing jazz

         Pre-1930s, jazz was heard largely among African Americans and a small coterie of white fans and musicians         Broadcasts of live performances began to expose a broader public to the music

o   As well as radio disc jockeys who played jazz records on their shows

         Black Musicians began to enjoy reputations outside of traditional jazz centers like Chicago, Kansas City, and New York

o   Duke Ellingtono   Count Basieo   Benny Moten

         Benny Goodmano   The key figure in the “swing era” largely through radio exposureo   A white, classically trained clarinetist had been inspired by African American bandleaders Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman

  Purchased arrangements from them and attracted attention on late-Saturday-night broadcasts

o   In 1935, at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, Goodman made the breakthrough that established  his enormous popularity

  The young crowd roared its approval and began to dance wildly to Henderson’s arrangements  Goodman’s music was perfect for doing the jitterbug or lindy hop (dances borrowed from African American culture)

o   “The King of Swing”  Goodman helped make big-band jazz a hit with millions of teenagers and young adults from all backgrounds

         Big band music accounted for the majority of million-selling records

o   Goodmano   Basieo   Jimmie Lunceford

o   Artie Shaw         The Limits of Reform

o   In his second inaugural address, Roosevelt emphasized what still need to be done to remedy effects of the Great Depression

  Stunning electoral victory made social reform seem bright  By 1937, the New Deal was in retreat

o   Court Packing  May 1935, Schecter v. United States

         The Supreme Court found the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional in its entirety

  Early 1936, Butler v. United States         Court invalidated the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, declaring it an unconstitutional attempt at regulating agriculture         Court mostly composed of Republicans over 70 years old

o   Roosevelt began looking for ways to get more reform friendly judges on the court

  February 1937, FDR asked Congress for legislation that would expand the Supreme Court from 9 justices to a maximum of 15

         President empowered to make new appointments whenever an incumbent judge failed to retire upon reaching age 70         Roosevelt argued that age prevented justices from keeping up with their workload

o   Few people believed this logico   Newspapers denounced the “court-packing bill”

         Opposition of conservatives and outraged New Dealers in Congress

o   Ex. Democratic senator Burton Wheeler         President argued the purpose was to restore the balance of power among the 3 branches of federal government         Battle for bill dragged on, and FDR’s claims weakened         When justice Willis Devanter announced plans to retire, Roosevelt had the first chance to make a Court appointment

  Court upheld the constitutionality of some key laws from the Second New Deals

         Including the Social Security Act and National Labor Relations Act         In August, FDR backed off from his plan and accepted compromise bill that reformed lower court procedures, but left Supreme Court untouched         FDR won a more responsive Court

  Court fight weakened Roosevelt’s relations with Congress         More conservative Democrats felt free to oppose further New Deal measures

o   The Women’s Network  Great Depression and New Deal brought significant changes for women in American economics and politics

  Women continued to perform unpaid domestic labor within their homes

         Work was not covered by Social Security Acto   Growing minority worked for wages and salaries outside of the act

  1940, 25% of the workforce was female         Increase in married working women as a result of hard times         Sexual stereotyping still forced women into low-paying and low-status jobs

  New Deal brought measurable, but temporary, increase in women’s political influence

         New Deal opened possibilities to effect change for women associated with social reform

  “Women’s network” was linked by personal friendships and professional connections

         Made a presence in national politics and government         Most women in the network had been active in movements promoting suffrage, labor law reform, and welfare programs

  Eleanor Roosevelt was a powerful political figure in her own rights         Used her prominence as First Lady to fight for liberal causes she believed in         Revolutionized the role of political wife by taking a position involving no institutional duties, and turning it into a base for independent action         Enjoyed great influence with her husband         Her support for a cause gave the cause instant credibility         Strong supporter of protective labor legislation for women         Convened a White House Conference on the Emergency Needs of Women in 1933

o   Helped Ellen Woodward, head of women’s projects in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, find jobs for 100,000 women

  In jobs ranging from nursery school teaching to sewing

         Worked for anti-lynching legislation, compulsory health insurance, and child labor reform         Fought racial discrimination in New Deal programs         Guardian of “human values” within the administration

o   Buffer between Depression victims and political bureaucracy

         Testified before legislative committees, lobbied her husband and Congress, wrote a widely syndicated newspaper column

  Closest political ally was Molly Dewon         Dewon was director of the Women’s Division of the Democratic Party

o   Women for the first time played a central role in shaping the party platform and running election campaignso   Proved tireless organizer, traveled to cities and towns educating women about Democratic policies and candidates

         Dewon’s success impressed FDR, and he went to her for advice on political appointments         Dewon placed more than 100 women in New Deal programs         Persuaded FDR to appoint Frances Perkins as secretary of labor

o   The first woman cabinet member in US historyo   Veteran activist for social welfare and reformo   Served as FDR’s industrial commissioner in NY before appointmento   Perkins embodied the gains made by women in appointive officeso   Department was responsible for creating the Social Security Act and Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

  Both incorporated protective measures long advocated by women reformers

o   Defined feminism as the movement of women to participate in service to societyo   New Deal agencies were spaces for scores of women in the federal bureaucracy

  FERA, WPA, Social Security Boardo   Social work profession (roughly 2/3 female in the 1930s) grew rapidly in response to massive relief and welfare programs

o   New Deal for Minorities  African Americans

         Always around the bottom of the economic ladder         During the Depression, they suffered disproportionately

o   Black workers were the “last hired, first fired”o   Because jobs were scarce during the Depression, domestic service jobs (cooking, janitorial work, elevator opening) were coveted

         Roosevelt administration made little effort to combat racism and segregation in American life

o   Worked about offending the powerful southern Democratic congressman key for political coalitiono   Local administration of many federal programs meant most New Deal programs accepted discrimination

         CCC established separate workers for people with the same jobs

         NRA codes tolerated lower wages for black workers         TVA would not hire black Americans         AAA committees in the South reduced acreage and production to boost prices, thousands of black sharecroppers and laborers were forced off the land         Racism was also in the Social Security Act

o   Excluded domestics and casual laborers from old-age insurance

  Those holding these jobs were mostly African American

         FDR issued executive order in 1935 banning discrimination in WPA programs

o   Between 15-20% of WPA employees were blacko   The minimum wage of $12 a week was what allowed many African Americans to survive

         FDR appointed many African Americans to second level positions in his administration

o   “Black Cabinet”  Mexicans

         Great Depression reduced their demand for labor         Faced massive layoffs, deepened poverty, and deportation         During the 1930s, 400,000 Mexican nationals and children returned to Mexico

o   Often coerced by local officials unwilling to provide them relief, but happy to offer train fare to border towns

         Many native born Americans said deporting Mexicans could reduce unemployment for US citizens

o   Claims reflected deep racial prejudice         New Deal programs did little to help the Mexicans still in America

o   AAA benefited large growers, not stoop laborers         National Labor Relations Act and Social Security Act made no provisions for farm laborers         FERA and WPA at first tried to provide relief and jobs to needy, regardless of citizenship status

o   After 1937, these reliefs were eliminated  New Deal record for minorities was mixed

         African Americans in the cities benefited from the New Deal relief

o   Though assistance was not color-blind         New Deal made no attempt to attack deeply rooted patterns of racism and discrimination in American life         Deterioration faced by Mexicans resulted in a reverse exodus         By 1936, for the first time, a majority of black voters switched political allegiances to the Democrats

o   Evidence that they supported the direction taken by the New Deals

o   The Roosevelt Recession  Economy had improved by 1937

         Unemployment had declined to 14%         Farm prices had improved to 1930 levels         Industrial production was slightly higher than the 1929 mark

  Economic traditionalists called for reducing the federal deficit         Grown to over $4 billion in fiscal year 1936

  Roosevelt was uneasy about the growing debt, and called for large reductions in federal spending

         Particularly in WPA and farm programs  Federal Reserve System worried about inflation and tightened credit policies  Instead of stimulating business, the retrenchment brought a steep recession

         The stock market crashed again in August 1937o   Industrial output and farm prices droppedo   Big increase in unemployment

         As conditions worsened, FDR blamed the “strike of capital”o   Claimed businessmen had refused to invest because they wanted to hurt his prestigeo   In reality, the administration’s severe spending cutbacks were mostly responsible for the decline

  After 5 years, the New Deal had not brought economic recovery         Through 1937-1938, administration drifted         Roosevelt received conflicting advice

o   Some urged a massive antitrust campaign against monopolieso   Some urged a return to the strategy of stimulating the economy with more federal spending

         Republican gains in 1938 made new reform efforts tougher to gain

  1938 Fair Labor Standards Act         Established the first federal minimum wage and set a maximum workweek of 44 hours for employees engaged in interstate commerce

  National Housing Act of 1937 (aka Wagner-Steagall Act)         Funded public housing construction and slum clearance and provided rent subsidies for low-income families

  By 1938, the whirlwind of New Deal was over         Conclusion

o   New Deal did little to alter fundamental property relations or distribution of wealth

  Programs largely failed to help the most powerless groups in America

  Changed many areas of American lifeo   New Deal increased the role of federal government in American lives and communities

  Western and southern communities were transformed through federal intervention  Relief programs established framework for welfare state

o   Efforts to end racial and gender discrimination were modest at bestSubject: US History [1]

Subject X2: US History [1]

Source URL: http://www.course-notes.org/us_history/notes/out_of_many_5th_edition_notes/chapter_24_the_great_depression_and_the_new_deal#comment-0

Links[1] http://www.course-notes.org/subject/socialscience/us_history