Hoover & the Great Depression

2. Hoover & the Great Depression • “The key to recovery is confidence” • Blamed world economy • Believed it was beyond his control • Encouraged confidence, patience • Voluntary controls by businesses • Didn’t work • Simply couldn’t maintain wages • Didn’t believe in Hoover’s plan

3. Hoover & the Great Depression • Pressure to do SOMETHING • Agriculture marketing act (1929) • Provided relief for farmers by forming the Federal Farm board, which was designed to stabilize crop prices • Ultimately failed • TURNIGN POINT: Congressional majority shifts • Public works to create jobs • Increased gov’t spending • i.e. Hoover Dam • Hawley-Smoot Tariff • Highest import tax in history • Backfired, European economy tanked

5. Hoover & the Great Depression • Pressure to do SOMETHING • Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) • Gave gov’t credit to certain industries and banks • Similar to today’s “bail-out” • “trickle down” theory, helped those at the top • Home Loan Bank Act • Discounted mortgage rates • Designed to help people keep their homes • Hoover supported these programs

6. Hoover’s views • Insisted state & local governments should handle relief • Believed federal intervention destroyed people’s self-respect • Bonus Army debacle • H.O.R. agrees to early payment, Senate does not • Spelled disaster in the election

9. Venn Diagrams • Read the Hoover and Roosevelt Biographies • As you read, keep an eye out for: • Background information that shapes their political careers • Achievements • Defining moments of their administration • Etc.

10. DO-NOWFDR’s Inauguration Speech March 1933 http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=DEFF5161-9896-48C1-8F0D-10CD1DD3EB75&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US# http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstinaugural.html • As you listen to the speech, underline parts which stand out. • Prepare reactions, comments, analysis, etc.

13. The New Deal Parts: First One Hundred Days Second New Deal Critics of New Deal Last Days of New Deal

14. The New Deal Era

15. New Deal • FDR promised Americans a New Deal to help ease effects of the Depression • Two parts to the plan: 1.The “Hundred Days” 2.The Second New Deal

17. The “Hundred Days” Launched programs to provide: • RELIEF • RECOVERY • REFORM Essentially, sought to: relieve the suffering of the GD create jobs stimulate the economy

19. The first hundred days • Some of the goals for part 1 of the new deal: • Banks regulated • Jobs created through public works programs funded by government • E.g. Civilian Conservation Corps • “Brain Trust” key advisors who helped FDR draft policies • Relied on his wife • FDR appointed first women to a Cabinet post & many African Americans to policy-making positions

20. Second New Deal • Period after first 100 days where the economy was still faltering & FDR expanded government programs • Included: • more social welfare benefits • support for labor • stricter controls over business • 1935 established Social Security System to provide financial security for retirees, unemployed, and disabled.

21. Extra Credit • By Monday, find an example of a New Deal agency which still exists today. • Provide a photo and brief report on the example. • How did it come about? • What purpose does it serve today? • E.g. Bass River State Park

23. Below: A group photo of CCC boys from Bass River State Forest. Right: CCC boys wait in line for dinner at a camp in New Jersey. (photos taken by John Nisky, a CCC enrollee - circa 1937)

24. Among the projects conducted by the CCC in New Jersey’s state parks and forests, was Lake Absegami in Bass River State Forest as well as the shelters still used by campers today. (photos courtesy of the State Park Service)

25. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 75th Anniversary The CCCorps was created during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "The Hundred Days,“ at the beginning of his first term, a time of massive legislative efforts to deal with the paralyzing effects of the Great Depression. The CCC put needy young men to work and sent a large portion of their pay back to their families. The fact that only 37 days elapsed between FDR's swearing in and the induction of the first CCC enrollee on April 7, 1933 reflects the importance of this program. By the time the program ended in 1942, due to World War II, over three million unemployed young men had been enrolled, planting over three billion trees and completing many other conservation projects including building much of the infrastructure at Bass River State Forest. • The CCC camp at Bass River State Forest, Camp S-55, lasted from 1933 to 1942, throughout the entire life of CCC. The CCC members performed wide range of conservation work, from building park roads, trails, bridle paths, bridges for vehicles, ponds for fish and waterfowl, lookout towers, nature observatory shelters, picnic areas, cabins, fireplaces, campgrounds, recreational lakes, to landscaping. The most noteworthy feat was the creation of the 67-acre Lake Absegami, by damming two streams flowing through the forest. The foundations of Camp S-55 and the CCC Memorial are part of a self-guided trail. Brochures are available at the Forest Office and at the beginning of the trail near the parking lot on East Greenbush Road. Stop in at the Forest Office to see artifacts from our Camp as well as a list of members from our Camp. • Check to see if your family member or relative was a CCC Camp s-55 member at Bass River between 1933 and 1942.

27. New Deal Agencies

29. Critics of the New Deal

30. The Last Days of the New Deal • New Deal led to improvement, but in 1937 the economy collapsed into recession. • Due to cuts in New Deal spending • People had less $ to spend • Some expensive work programs were cut back to slow national debt. • FDR did expand some programs after 1937 & economy began to improve. • New Deal protections helped labor unions grow • Many strikes (sit-down) erupted in violence. • Provided jobs for unemployed artists

31. Cultural Life During Depression