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The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience: • “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.” (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
Herbert Hoover v. Alfred SmithElection 1928 I love business! Roman Catholic Against Prohibition Quaker For Prohibition
Hoover Wins • Republicans were viewed as responsible for economic growth (Roaring 20s) • Many Americans were worried about Smith’s Catholic background…
How did the Depression Happen? • Some basics… • Stock Market (def.) a system for buying and selling shares of companies (stocks). • Bull Market – long period of rising stock prices • Jim Cramer
The Problems • Margin – I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter • (def.) Taking out a loan (borrowing money) to buy stock • Investors bought on speculation – (def.) betting on the market, not on a company • What does that mean?
If stock prices fall dramatically, how are you going to pay back the bank for stocks you bought on speculation? If you can’t pay back the bank, what can the bank do? What happens if the bank invested a bunch of money in the stock market? Went 2 bank. They were closed – 4EVER! My savings is gone!
The Crash • Black Tuesday – 10/29/29 • Within 2 weeks stocks plummet over 1/3 • Within 3 years the Dow Jones Industrial Average(DJIA) fell 89% • What is the DJIA?
DJIA Companies • Home Depot Incorporated • Honeywell International Inc. • Intel Corporation • International Business Machines • Johnson & Johnson • J.P. Morgan Chase & Company • McDonald’s Corporation • Merck & Company, Incorporated • Microsoft Corporation • Pfizer Incorporated • Procter & Gamble Company • United Technologies • Verizon Company • Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated • Walt Disney Company • 3M Company • Alcoa Incorporated • Altria Group Incorporated • American Express Company • American International Group • AT&T Incorporated • Boeing Corporation • Caterpillar Incorporated • Citigroup Incorporated • Coca-Cola Company • DuPont • Exxon Mobil Corporation • General Electric Company • General Motors Corporation • Hewlett-Packard Company
Tough Luck Herbie • Banks close; people lose their savings. • Fear, fear, fear
Other factors that led to theGreat Depression • Installment plans – paying for goods in monthly installments (payments) • Debt = payments = less $ to spend = less purchases = less sales = cut in salaries = firing of workers = unemployment = not good
What kept it going? • Tariffs • Hawley-Smoot Tariff – increased tax on imports • Protects American manufacturers • Keeps prices high for consumers • Federal Reserve • Money Supply – the amount of money in the economy
Money Supply • 3 Ways to increase or decrease the Money Supply • Change interest rates • Interest Rates on automobiles are at 8% and the Fed lowers the rate to 5%. • What’s going to happen? • Change the federal reserve ratio • Banks are told to keep 10% of all money loaned out in their vault. The Fed raises this rate to 20%. • What’s going to happen? • Buy or sell bonds • Bond – a formal contract to agree to repay a loan with interest
The US Federal Reserve can increase the money supply by selling US Treasury bonds to citizens. • True • False
The US Federal Reserve can increase the money supply by lowering interest rates. • True • False
Tariffs help US companies. • True • False Who do tariffs hurt?
Hoovervilles - name given to towns constructed by homeless people on unused/public land (shantytowns)
Stats (by 1932) 13 million lost jobs Unemployment is over 20% Farm prices down 53% 40% of banks have failed $2,000,000,000 in deposits have been lost
Today What is the current unemployment rate? How is it measured? You think we have it bad?
Dust Bowl • Long period of drought • Winds created dust storms • Farmers head west
Results 2 Dead, Very Bad Press
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Elected in 1932, 36, 40, & 44 (4 terms)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Chapter 18
Roosevelt Response • March of 1933 – 25,000 vets allowed to enroll in the Civilian Conservation Corp • 258 killed in Hurricane
FDR’s Background • Distant Cousin of Teddy • Harvard with Columbia Law Degree • New York State Senator • Wilson’s Asst. Secretary of Navy • VP candidate in 1920 • Polio in 1921 – paralyzed • Governor of New York • Wife Eleanor
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) • Civil and Woman Rights Leader • US Delegate to United Nations (1945-52) Chaired the committee that drafted the UN Declaration of Human Rights
The First New Deal • Hundred Days • 15 major economic laws passed • Fireside Chats – FDR’s radio addresses to the public, designed to ensure confidence
Changes • Emergency Banking Relief Act • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) • Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) • Paying farmers not to grow food • Hurt small farmers • Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) • 3 million in 1942 • Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) • Public Works Administration (PWA) • Civilian Works Administration (CWA)
Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) • Denver, CO – 1,250 workers employed
8.5 Million Workers • Works Progress Administration (WPA)
What did these programs do? • Jobs for the unemployed • $$$ for people to spend • Businesses make money • Programs put money into the economy
Where did the government get all of this money? • CWA cost $1 billion in first 5 months • The choice was borrowing money or increasing taxes • Deficit spending – borrowing money to pay for programs • No more balanced budget
Other Developments • Social Security Act – $$$ for retirees • Unemployment benefits • Welfare for those in need • No Child Labor • 40-Hour Work Week • 1st Minimum Wage • Government now assumed role of a safety net
Labor Problems • Sit-down strikes Flint, MI (1937)
Court Packing • Supreme Court declared some New Deal laws unconstitutional (EX: AAA) • Solution = change the Supreme Court • 10 yrs and over 70, retire or allow a new justice to be appointed • Challenged Separation of Powers • Mixed Results – put pressure on court, but ticked-off Congress