The Great Depression 1929-1941

1. The Great Depression1929-1941 A Mother of Seven Children By Dorothea Lange

2. Presidential Economic Policies • Republican Prosperity • Favored “hands-off” policy • Argued for tax cuts to big business • Progressive Era agencies aided big business Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge

3. Foreign Policies • 1921-1928 Washington Naval Conference: restrain arms race between US, Britain, France, Italy, Japan by limiting battleships • 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact: 62 nations swore to make war “illegal” • 1929 Young Plan scrapped 1920 Dawes Plan (attempt to regain German reparations)

4. Overproduction & Under Consumption • Companies overproduced consumer goods • Consumers did not have the money or credit to continue to purchase goods Causes

5. Decline in Farm Prosperity • Decline in the 1920’s contributed to the overall depression of the 1930’s • Early sign of economic weakness Causes

6. International Trade • Serious dislocations were a significant cause • Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 raised tariffs and triggered decline in trade of 40% within three years Causes

7. Causes of the Great Depression Over - production

8. Consequences of the 1929 Stock Market Crash • Loss of confidence in the stock market • Reduction in output of manufactured goods • Decline in investment of capital goods Causes

9. Social Consequences • By 1932 economy bottomed out: 25% unemployment • Petty theft, held up trains moving goods • Women often led protests • Gov’t officials often beaten = Gangsters become heroes

10. Rural Problems • Farmers hit with foreclosures & evictions • Dust Bowl hit: caused by erosion because of overproduction • Migrants move to Calif.: “Oakies” • Grapes of Wrath

12. Oakies

13. Urban Problems • Homeless lived in tents, shacks = “Hoovervilles” • Soup kitchens, sold apples • Boarding houses, took in laundry • More female heads of households

14. Minorities • Unemployment 2X • “Last hired, first fired” • Often unskilled • Hispanics barred from jobs in SW

15. Election of 1928 • (Rep)Easily won over (Dem) Al Smith (Catholic, Brooklyn, opposed to Prohibition) • Oversaw food production during WWI (reputation as good administrator) • Basic “laissez-faire” economic policies Herbert Hoover Elected in Prosperity Depression hit!

16. Bonus Army • 1932 Bonus Expeditionary Force (17,000 WWI vets + families) marched on D.C. • Wanted bonus promised by 1945 • Hoover used force (included McArthur, Eisenhower, Patton) • 4 killed, 1000+ injured (inc. police) Hoover’s popularity plummets!!!

17. Hoover’s Economic Policies • Voluntary private action rather than gov’t intervention • Get businesses to maintain wages • Presidential Organization for Unemployment Relief = raise private funds (exhausted) • Supported federal loans to private businesses + state/local gov’ts. • Reconstruction Finance Corp (RFC) • Cut taxes, increased federal works budget, BUT = Too little too late!

18. Election of 1932 • (Rep): Hoover vs. (Dem) FDR • Very little difference in platforms = FDR landslide • Wealthy, Harvard • Gov. of New York • Polio at 39 • “Fireside Chats” Franklin D. Roosevelt “The only things we have to fear is fear itself!”

19. FDR’s Economic Policies“Recovery, Relief, Reform” • Favored direct federal relief to individuals • Sought to reconstruct capitalism • Used deficit spending on public works programs to revive economy • Largest employer in 1943 Public works Artists/musicians Writers Literacy programs

20. FDR’s “New Deal”

21. First Hundred Days • Bank Holiday March 5-13, 1933: • “Saved Capitalism” • Following concerns addressed • Restore confidence in banking system • Reduce unemployment by creating jobs • Raise farm prices by restricting production • Provide mortgage support for homeowners • Create agency for modernizing certain areas Took immediate action with legislation

22. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Jobs for youth

23. Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) 1933 • Raise farm prices by limiting production • Nat’l crop controls: subsidies to farmers who limited specific crops • Unpopular: Hungry Americans furious with crop destruction

24. National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA) 1933 • Fostered gov’t – business cooperation • Suspended anti-trust • Business set prod. Quotas, prices, wages, working conditions • Section 7A: right to unionized • Declared unconstitutional 1935

25. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 1933 • Provide economic development in Tennessee Valley • Flooded Tenn. Valley to provide hydro-electric power • Used eminent domain to gain access to land

26. Critics of the New Deal • Conservatives: “weakened business”, were anti-socialist, vs. excessive spending on relief • Liberals: “favored business vs. little guy”, felt it didn’t enforce Section 7A • Unions increased from 325,000 in 1932 to 1.5 million in 1935 • Strikes violently put down, “scabs”

27. Individual Critics of the New Deal • Father Coughlin: (Detroit Priest) anti-semetic, mixed religion/social justice , had 30 million radio listeners • Huey Long: (LA) 1934, created “Share-Our-Wealth” society (socialist): plan to redistribute wealth to provide free ed., old-age pensions • 7 million members • Vs. Tulane = LSU • Assassinated (All the King’s Men)

28. FDR’s Second “New Deal”1935

29. Wagner Act Labor had right to organize + collective bargaining (Section 7A) Nat’l. Labor Relations Act Enforced Wagner Act

30. Social Security Act (SSA) • Retirement income for workers 65+ • Contributors: employee + employer • Unemployment, aid for dependents • Excluded ¼ of workers, no health insurance

31. Banking Act Shifted banking responsibilities to Federal Reserve & away from private banks Reserve Act of 1935 Graduated income tax, increased estate & corporate taxes

32. Soil Conservation Act • Prevent another Dust Bowl

33. Emergency Relief Appropriation Act • $5 billion, largest appropriation to date: public employment • WPA (Works Progress Administration): 9 mil. jobs • NYA (Nat’l. Youth Administration): part-time jobs to youth

34. Election of 1936 • (Rep): Alf Landon vs. (Dem) FDR • New Deal formed unprecedented coalition • Landon lost his own state (Kansas) Franklin D. Roosevelt

35. Court-Packing Scheme • Supreme Court declared parts of New Deal unconstitutional • FDR tried to “pack” (add more justices to) the Supreme Court • Goal: to insure New Deal laws would be found constitutional

36. New Deal & Black Americans • Never pushed Civil Rights bill • Programs helped black (still were segregated) • Eleanor Roosevelt popular

37. Labor • American Federation of Labor (AFL, segregated) + Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO, more radical) began series of aggressive strikes vs. GM in 1937 (Ford held out until 1941) • Membership jumped from less than 3 mil. (1932) to 9 mil (1939) "I have pleaded (labor's) case, not in the quavering tones of a feeble mendicant asking alms, but in the thundering voice of the captain of a mighty host, demanding the rights to which free men are entitled."- John L. Lewis (head of UMW, United Mine Workers)

38. Impact of the New Deal • Restructured American capitalism • Used gov’t. to enhance social welfare • Partially successful in reducing unemployment, reviving economy • Dem. Party emerged as majority party • U.S. did NOT emerge from Depression until defense contracts of WWII

39. Things it did NOT do: • Integrate the armed forces • Sponsor the Equal Rights Amendment • Include civil rights programs • Establish Bureau of Indian Affairs • Nationalize basic industry • Provide for legal recognition of unions for migrant workers