20th Century Texas Unit Survey

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20th Century TexasUnit Survey

• Modern Era (1900s) World War II (1940s)

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Texas Highway Department

• 1922 more than one million cars and trucks were
  registered in Texas, ending the horse and buggy
  era.
• Traffic laws were passed and police enforced
  them.
• Texas created the Texas Highway Department and
  became eligible for federal funds to build new
  roads.

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Great Depression Begins

• In 1929, early in Republican Herbert Hoovers
  presidency, the U. S. stock market collapsed.
• Many investors, hoping to make quick fortunes,
  drove up the price of stock.
• Some investors borrowed money heavily to buy
  stocks, and when stock prices fell, those
  investors and the banks that loaned them money
  were wiped out.

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Stock Market Crash of 1929

• Stock shares represent ownership in companies.
• People had driven up the price of stocks, and
  some investors borrowed money to buy them.
• When prices fell, both they and the banks were
  wiped out.

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Cause Effect
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Bad News Continues

• Factories closed
• Widespread unemployment loss of jobs
• Texas farmers income suffered Prices of
  agriculture products dropped
• East Texas timber workers were laid off people
  could not afford new houses

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Depth of Depression

• President Hoover greatly underestimated the
  severity, or depth, of the Great Depression.
• Called on local churches and charities to
  increase aid to the poor
• Asked people to hire unemployed neighbors to do
  odd jobs

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Too Much Oil

• Late 1920s - East Texas oil fields produced more
  oil than the rest of the state of Texas combined.
• Overproduction caused oil prices to drastically
  drop.
• April 1931 - Texas Railroad Commission issued an
  order for operators to limit production and by
  1935, oil prices stabilized.

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Cotton Crisis for Farmers

• 1930s - Cotton prices dropped and the Great
  Depression forced the prices even lower.
• The Texas Department of Agriculture urged farmers
  to reduce the number of acres planted in cotton.

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The Dust Bowl in Texas

• After World War I, when wheat prices were high,
  farmers tried to earn more money by planting more
  crops.
• But, during the 1920s, wheat prices dropped
  drastically from overproduction.
• Farmers plowed under the grasses of the plains
  to plant crops, but there was nothing to hold
  down the soil from strong winds.

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The Dust Bowl in Texas

• 1930s - A severe drought added to the problem as
  dust storms made the area into a Dust Bowl it
  lasted 7 years.
• People became ill from lung diseases and many
  families lost their farms because of hard times.
• The Dust Bowl covered a five-state area
  Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and
  Texas.

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Phoenix 2011
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Phoenix 2012
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A New Deal for Texas

• 1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential
  election, with almost 90 percent of Texans
  supporting him.
• After taking office in March 1933, he started
  reform programs called the New Deal.
• John N. Garner, former Texas Congressman and then
  the U.S. Vice President, helped push New Deal
  programs in Congress.

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FDR and John Garner
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New Deal Programs in Texas

• New agencies to deal with problems of the
  Depression were known as alphabet agencies
  because people called them by their initials.
• Agencies included Civilian Conservation Corps
  (CCC), National Youth Administration (NYA),
  Public Works Administration (PWA).

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Alphabet Agencies

• FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration)
  gave funds to states and local agencies for
  unemployed people
• CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided
  outdoor employment for young men and helped
  preserve resources
• NYA (National Youth Administration) hired high
  school and college students to perform clerical
  and maintenance jobs.
• PWA (Public Works Administration) built bridges
  dams, schools, and other structures of value to
  the state.
• WPA (Works Progress Administration) hired
  600,000 Texans during the Great Depression

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New Deal for Rural Texans

• New Deal programs tried to slow down soil erosion
  to help farmers in the Dust Bowl regions.
• New planting and contour plowing techniques
  helped farmers protect the topsoil from blowing
  away.
• The federal government paid farmers to plant
  trees as windbreaks, and by 1938, sand dunes
  around Dalhart were gone.

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Mexican Americans Fight for their Rights

• 1929 - The League of United Latin American
  Citizens (LULAC) is founded in Corpus Christi.
• They worked for Mexican American rights in
  courts, hiring, and education. They fought
  against school segregation of Mexican American
  children.