Unit 11 The Great Depression and The New Deal

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Unit 11The Great Depressionand The New Deal

• 1929-1941

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The Great Depression 1929-1941

• Stock Market Crash
• October 29, 1929
• 1930
• U.S. enters worst depression in its history
• Economic hard times

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The Great Depression 1929-1941

• 4 Main Causes of the Great Depression
• 1) Overproduction
• Farms factories
• Too many goods, too few buyers

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The Great Depression 1929-1941

• Causes of the Great Depression
• 2) Weakness in banking system
• Borrowers who invested in stock market could not
  repay loans
• Banks could not give depositors their money
• Banks were forced to close
• Depositors lost money

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The Great Depression 1929-1941

• Causes of the Great Depression
• 3) Economy slid downhill
• One disaster triggered another
• Stock market crash ? ruined investors ? no money
  or capital for businesses ? businesses could not
  grow expand ? troubled banks could not make
  loans ? businesses cut back on production ? wage
  cuts employee layoffs ? workers had no money to
  spend ? businesses went bankrupt

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The Great Depression 1929-1941

• Causes of the Great Depression
• 4) Worldwide depression
• European banks failed when U.S. banks stopped
  making loans
• Worldwide economic collapse
• Depression spread from nation to nation

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Worldwide depression
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Soaring unemployment

• By early 1930s, 1 in every 4 workers were
  unemployed
• Workers still employed work shortened hours or
  took pay cuts
• Many of the jobless lost their homes

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Families in crisis

• Marriage birth rates dropped
• Some families split up
• Fathers older children left home to hunt for
  work

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The homeless

• People drift from town to town looking for work
• Some rode the rails living in railroad cars
  hitching rides on trains
• Homeless built shacks out of wooden crates, scrap
  metal, cardboard, or lived in tents

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• Lowered peoples standard of living
• People lost faith in themselves
• People felt ashamed

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• President Hoover
• Predicted better times ahead
• Did not think government should get directly
  involved in helping businesses
• At first, he was opposed to government relief
  programs
• Relief giving help to the needy
• Called on businesses private charities to help
  Americans

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• Private charities did what they could
• Churches and groups such as the YMCA fed the
  hungry at soup kitchens
• The numbers of needy soon overwhelmed private
  charities

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• President Hoover created
• Public works program
• Government hired workers for projects
• Constructed schools courthouses, build dams,
  and paved highways
• If people earned money ? spend wages on goods ?
  demand would increase ? businesses would expand ?
  lead to economic recovery
• Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
• Loaned money to railroads, banks, and insurance
  companies to keep them in business
• Keep workers on their jobs

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• President Hoover did more to reverse the
  depression than any previous President
• His efforts had little effect
• Depression grew worse
• Many people blamed Hoover for doing too little
• Shacks where homeless lived were called
  Hoovervilles

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• After WWI, Congress had voted to give veterans a
  bonus (sum of money) to be paid in 1945
• In 1932, gt20,000 jobless veterans marched on
  Washington to demand the bonus right away
• Some brought wives children
• They were called the Bonus Army

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• Bonus Army camped along Potomac River for 2
  months
• Senate rejected a bill to pay the bonus to
  veterans immediately
• Thought the cost would destroy any hope for
  countrys recovery
• Many veterans went home, but thousands remained
• Local police tried to force veterans to leave
• 4 veterans died in battles with police

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• President Hoover ordered Gen. Douglas MacArthur
  to clear out the veterans

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• MacArthur used cavalry, tanks, machine guns, and
  tear gas, and burned the Bonus Army camp to the
  ground

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Great Depression 1929-1941

• Americans are shocked at Hoovers action
• President Hoover lost what little support he
  still had
• Americans turned to a new leader

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• 4 terms 1933 1945
• Democratic Party
• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
• New Deal
• End of Prohibition
• WWII

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• Married his cousin Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of
  Theodore Roosevelt

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• FDR, Assistant Secretary of the Navy during WWI
• Summer of 1921 struck with polio, left his legs
  paralyzed
• Afterward, was able to walk only with aid of
  heavy leg braces and crutches

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• Elected Governor of New York in 1928
• Nominated as Democratic candidate for President
  in election of 1932
• I pledge myself to a new deal for the American
  people.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• 1932 Election
• Defeated Hoover in landslide victory
• Inaugurated March 1933

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FDRs Vice Presidents

• 1933-1941 1941-1945 1945
• John N. Garner Henry A. Wallace
  Harry S. Truman

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• Brain Trust
• Nickname for FDRs advisors
• Urged his staff to take a method and try it. If
  it fails, admit it and try another. But above
  all try something.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• First challenge nations banking system
• 2nd day in office, FDR closed every bank in the
  country for 8 days
• Emergency Banking Act
• Passed March 9, 1933
• Only banks with enough funds to meet depositors
  demands could reopen
• Banking system grew stronger

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• Fireside chats
• FDR spoke to Americans in radio broadcasts
• Began 1 week after taking office
• He spoke from a chair near a fireplace in the
  White House
• Families gathered around radios to listen

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• Hundred Days
• FDR sent many bills to Congress
• Congress passed 15 major new laws

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• FDRs programs to help Americans
• 3 main goals
• 1) Relief for unemployed
• 2) Plans for recovery
• 3) Reforms to prevent
• another depression

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• FDRs programs to help Americans
• CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)
• Hired unemployed single men ages 18-25
• Worked for 1 a day
• Planted trees, built bridges, worked on flood
  control projects, and developed new parks
• Conserved natural resources gave jobs to young
  people

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• FDRs programs to help Americans
• FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Admin.)
• Gave federal money to state local agencies who
  distributed the money to unemployed

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• FDRs programs to help Americans
• WPA (Works Progress Admin.)
• Created in 1935 by the Emergency Relief
  Appropriations Act
• Put jobless to work building hospitals, schools,
  parks, playgrounds, and airports
• Also hired artists, photographers, actors,
  writers, and composers

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• FDRs programs to boost industry farming
• Greatly expanded governments role in economy
• NIRA (National Industry Recovery Act)
• Control production working conditions,
  stabilize prices, keep workers on the job

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• NRA (National Recovery Admin.)
• Enforced new industrial codes
• Government encouraged people to do business only
  with companies displaying the NRA eagle

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• FDRs programs to help Americans
• PWA (Public Works Admin.)
• Hired workers for thousands of projects
• Built dams, public schools, aircraft carriers
• Did little to bring about recovery

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)
• Government paid farmers to
• Not grow certain crops
• Plow surplus crops under the soil
• Dispose of surplus cows pigs
• Americans outraged when people in cities were
  going hungry, yet the plan seemed necessary to
  help farmers

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• REA (Rural Electrification Admin.)
• Extended electric lines to rural areas
• Number of farms with electricity rose from 1 in
  10 to 1 in 4
• TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
• Built 40 dams in 7 states to control flooding
  provide cheap electric power
• Set up schools health centers

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)
• Insured savings accounts in banks approved by the
  government
• If a FDIC-insured bank failed, government would
  make sure depositors received their money
• SSA (Social Security Act)
• Set up a system of pensions for the elderly,
  unemployed, and people with disabilities

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• New Deal
• Truth-in-Securities Act
• Regulated stock market reformed banking system
• Designed to end the kind of wild speculation that
  led to the stock market crash

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• Supreme Court said some acts of Congress in the
  New Deal programs were unconstitutional because
  they gave too much power to the President and
  federal government

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt 32nd President

• FDR called for raising the number of Justices on
  the Supreme Court from 9 to 15
• He could then appoint 6 new Justices who
  supported his programs
• FDR was accused of trying to pack the Court by
  both supporters critics
• They saw this as a threat of separation of powers
• FDR withdrew his proposal

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Drought and Dust

• During much of the 1930s, states from Texas to
  the Dakotas suffered a severe drought
• Topsoil dried out
• High winds carried the soil away in blinding dust
  storms
• Much of the area of the Great Plains earned a new
  name the Dust Bowl

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Drought and Dust

• Dust storms buried farmhouses and forced drivers
  to use headlights in daytime
• Dust storms were widespread
• Winds blew off and on for 10 years
• 1932-1939, an average of 50 storms each year
• black blizzards

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Drought and Dust
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New Deal ReviewCauses
Effects

• Congress approves programs for relief, recovery,
  reform
• Supreme Court strikes down some programs
• Social Security and savings insurance continue to
  the present
• Role of government in the economy increases

• Great Depression deepens
• Banking system nears collapse
• Millions of people are jobless
• Many businesses are bankrupt
• FDR becomes President

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Opinions on the New Deal

• Conservatives
• Thought it made the government too large and
  powerful
• It stifled free enterprise and initiative
• Liberals
• President could have done more to socialize the
  economy
• Supporters
• Thought FDR did a good job of balancing
  capitalism and socialism.

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Expanding the National Government

• The New Deal expanded the power of the government
• Government had a more active role in the economy
• Put millions of dollars in the economy through
• Creating jobs
• Regulating supply and demand
• Settling labor disputes
• Creating agencies
• Regulating banking and investment

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Going into Debt

• New Deal caused the nation to go deeply into
  debt.
• Goes as high as 3.3 billion in 1934.
• New Deal did not end Great Depression.
• Deficit spending during World War II did.

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Deficit Spending

• Congress encouraged scaling back New Deal
  programs
• This caused a drop in production
• Increased unemployment
• FDR did not like deficit spending
• Spending more money than the government has

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So did the New Deal really work?

• It did help
• It brought hope and gratitude from those
  receiving services
• Also brought anger and criticism
• It was really World War II that brought us out of
  the Great Depression