The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression

1
The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression

• Brother can you spare a dime?

2
Timeline of Events

• 1918
• World War I ends
• 1919
• More than 3,000 strikes occur in the U.S.
• Palmer Raids begin and continue until 1920
• 1920s
• Harlem Renaissance begins

3
Timeline of Events

• 1920
• Warren G. Harding is elected president
• Eighteenth Amendment goes into effect beginning
  the Prohibition Era which included speakeasies
  and organized crime
• Nineteenth Amendment passes giving women the
  right to vote
• Andrew Rube Foster founds the Negro National
  League

4
Timeline of Events

• 1921
• Chinese Communist Party is founded in Shanghai
• Sacco and Vanzettti are convicted of robbery and
  murder
• Federal Aid Road Act funds a national highway
• Emergency Quota Act is passed restricting
  immigration

5
Timeline of Events

• 1922
• Benito Mussolini is appointed Prime Minister of
  Italy
• Teapot Dome Scandal
• Louis Armstrong plays for King Olivers Creole
  Jazz Band in Chicago
• King Tuts tomb is discovered in Egypt

6
Timeline of Events

• 1923
• President Harding dies Calvin Coolidge becomes
  president
• German economic crisis
• Time magazine begins publication
• Mustafa Kemal becomes the first president of new
  Republic of Turkey

7
Timeline of Events

• 1924
• Calvin Coolidge is elected president
• Vladimir Ilich Lenin, founder of the Soviet
  Union, dies
• 1925
• A. Phillip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of
  Sleeping Car Porters
• The Scopes trial takes place in Tennessee

8
Timeline of Events

• 1926
• British laborers declare a general strike
• Hirohito becomes emperor of Japan
• Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles is
  established
• Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim
  the English Channel

9
Timeline of Events

• 1927
• Henry Ford introduces the Model A
• Holland Tunnel, the first underwater tunnel
  connects New York City to New Jersey
• Charles Lindbergh makes the first nonstop solo
  transatlantic flight

10
Timeline of Events

• 1927
• Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in one season
• The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson is released
• Bessie Smith, a female blues singer, becomes the
  highest paid black artist in the world

11
Timeline of Events

• 1928
• Herbert Hoover is elected president
• Joseph Stalin launches the first of his
  Five-Year-Plans for the USSR
• President Alvaro Obregon of Mexico is
  assassinated
• Steamboat Willie, the first animated movie with
  sound, was released by Walt Disney

12
Timeline of Events

• 1929
• National Revolutionary Party is organized in
  Mexico
• Woodbridge Cloverleaf, the first cloverleaf
  intersection is built in New Jersey
• The first Academy Awards are presented
• The stock market crashes on October 29th
• Hoover Dam begins construction

13
Timeline of Events

• 1930
• Army officers lead by Jose Uriburu seize control
  of Argentina
• More than 40 of the nations banks fail from
  1930-1933
• Congress passes the Hawley-Smoot Tariff
• Grant Wood paints American Gothic

14
Timeline of Events

• 1931
• Jane Addams shares the Nobel Peace Prize
• Japan invades Manchuria
• 8.02 million Americans are unemployed

15
Timeline of Events

• 1932
• The Bonus Army arrives in Washington, D.C.
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president
• Roosevelt launches the New Deal
• Ibn Saud becomes king of newly-united Saudi
  Arabia

16
Timeline of Events

• 1932
• From prison, Mohandas K. Gandhi leads a protest
  against British policies in India
• Federal Home Loan Bank Act is approved by
  Congress
• Reconstruction Finance Corporation is approved by
  Congress

17
Timeline of Events

• 1933
• Century of Progress Exposition begins
• The Twenty-First Amendment ends prohibition
• Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party take power in
  Germany
• Japan withdraws from the League of Nations

18
Timeline of Events

• 1933
• Frances Perkins becomes the 1st woman cabinet
  member serving as Secretary of Labor
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
• Public Work Administration (PWA)
• Civil Works Administration (CWA)

19
Timeline of Events

• 1933
• Emergency Banking Relief Act (EBRA)
• National Recovery Administration (NRA)
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
• Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

20
Timeline of Events

• 1934
• Congress creates the SEC to regulate the stock
  market
• Indian Reorganization Act is passed
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

21
Timeline of Events

• 1935
• Congress passes the Social Security Act
• Mussolini leads Italian invasion of Ethiopia
• British Parliament passes the Government of India
  Act
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)
• National Youth Administration (NYA)

22
Timeline of Events

• 1935
• Banking Act of 1935
• Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
• National Labor Relations Board (Wagner Act)
• 1936
• President Roosevelt is reelected
• Civil war begins in Spain

23
Timeline of Events

• 1937
• Labor unions begins using sit-down strikes
• United States Housing Authority (USHA)
• Japan invades northern China
• Hindenburg disaster
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is released
• Zora Neale Hurston writes Their Eyes Were
  Watching God

24
Timeline of Events

• 1938
• Route 66 is completed, linking Chicago, Illinois
  to Los,Angeles California
• Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDC)
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• Orson Welles creates widespread panic with his
  radio show, The War of the Worlds

25
Timeline of Events

• 1939
• The Wizard of Oz is released in movie theaters
• Germany invades Poland
• Gone with the Wind is released on film
• John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath
• 1940
• President Roosevelt is elected a third time

26
Economic Troubles

• Industry
• Basic industries
• railroads, textiles, and steel
• Barely made a profit
• New forms of transportation
• Trucks, buses, and automobiles
• Railroads lose business
• Mining and lumbering
• No longer in big demand

27
Economic Troubles

• New forms of energy take away from coal
• huge profit losses due to new forms of energy
• Hydroelectric
• Fuel oil
• Natural gas
• By 1930s supply more than ½ the energy that had
  come from coal

28
Economic Troubles

• Boom industries weaken
• Automobiles, construction, and consumer goods
• Housing industry weakens key indicator
• Housing starts to fall so do jobs in related
  industries
• Furniture manufacturing and lumbering

29
Forms of Energy
30
Farmers Need a Lift

• Agriculture suffered the most
• During WWI prices rose and international output
  for crops like wheat and corn soared
• Planted more crops
• Borrowed money for more land and equipment
• Demand fell after WWI and crop prices fell by 40
• Farmers planted more but this caused a greater
  drop in prices
• 1919- 1921 annual income drops from 10 billion
  to 4 billion
• Farmers are in debt and having problems paying
  back loans

31
Farmers Need a Lift
32
Farmers Need a Lift

• Farmers in trouble
• Many lost their farms due to foreclosure
• Many defaulted on their loans and rural banks
  began to fall as well
• Auctions were being held to recoup losses
• Congress
• McNary-Haugen (price legislation) bill
• Called for federal price supports for key
  products like wheat, corn, cotton, and tobacco
• Government would buy surplus crops at guaranteed
  prices and sell them on the world market
• Coolidge vetoed the bill twice

33
Consumers Spend Less

• Incomes fall people have less to spend on goods
  and services
• Late 1920s Americans are buying less
• Rising prices
• Stagnant wages,
• Unbalanced distribution of income
• Overbuying on credit
• Production expanding faster than wages

34
Living on Credit

• Americans in the 1920s were living beyond their
  means
• Bought goods on credit
• Paid on the installment plan with interest
• Credit was easily available and encouraged
  Americans to go into debt
• Many had trouble paying back their debts
• Consumers begin cutting back on spending

35
Living on Credit
36
Uneven Distribution of Income

• The rich are getting richer and the poor are
  getting poorer
• 1920-1929
• Wealthiest 1 of Americans income rose 75
• Rest of Americans income rose 9
• 70 of nations families earned less than 2,500
  per year
• Families earning twice that much could not afford
  luxuries
• Unequal distribution meant most Americans could
  not participate fully in the economic advances of
  the 1920s

37
Uneven Distribution of Income
38
Election of 1928

• Herbert Hoover

• Alfred E. Smith

• Republican
• Secretary of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge
• Never held public office
• Mining engineer from Iowa
• Quiet and reserved
• Major advantage years of prosperity under
  Republican presidents

• Democrat
• Career politician
• 4 term governor of New York
• Personable and enjoyed being in the limelight

39
Election of 1928

• Hoover won by an overwhelming margin
• America was happy with Republican leadership

Hoover wins!
40
Dreams of Riches

• Economist warned of weaknesses in the stock
  market
• Stock market was the most visible symbol of
  American prosperity
• DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average most widely
  used indicator of the stock markets health
• Dow is based on the stock prices of 30 large
  firms trading on the NYSE
• 1920s stocks rose steadily reaching an all time
  high of 381 points
• Many (about 4 million Americans) took advantage
  of the bull market

41
Dreams of Riches

• Trouble was looming
• Speculation (over-speculation) the buying of
  stocks and bonds on the chance of a quick profit
• Buying on the margin paying a small down
  payment and borrowing the rest
• Money easily available to investors
  unrestrained buying and selling fueled the upward
  spiral
• Government did not help in discouraging these
  risky undertakings

42
And It All Comes Crashing Down

• September 1929
• Stock market peaks and then falls
• Confidence fell in the market and some investors
  sold their stocks and pulled out
• October 24, 1929
• Stock market takes a plunge
• Panicked investors sell their shares
• October 29, 1929
• Black Tuesday
• The bottom fell out of the market
• 16.4 million shares were dumped that day
• Investors sold as quickly as possible

43
And It All Comes Crashing Down
44
And It All Comes Crashing Down
45
And It All Comes Crashing Down

• November 1929
• Investors lost about 30 billion
• The bubble burst and it all came crashing down
• The Stock Market Crash
• Signaled the beginning of the Great Depression
• People panicked and withdrew their money from
  banks
• Some could not get their money because banks had
  invested it in the stock market
• In 1929 600 banks closed
• By 1933 11,000 of the nations 25,000 banks
  failed
• Millions of people lost their life savings

46
And It All Comes Crashing Down
47
The House of Cards Tumbles

• 1929 1932
• GNP (Gross National Product) the nations total
  output of goods and services
• went from 104 billion to 59 billion
• About 90,000 businesses went bankrupt
• Including automobiles and railroad companies
• Million of workers lost their jobs
• Unemployment skyrocketed
• 1929 3
• 1933 25
• 1 out of 4 workers lost his/her job and those who
  kept them faced pay cuts and shorter hours

48
The Dominoes Fall

• Other countries besides the U.S. were hit by the
  depression
• Great Depression limited the amount of European
  goods the U.S. imported
• Americans were having difficulty selling their
  products abroad
• 1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff passed by Congress
• Established the highest protective tariff in U.S.
  history
• Designed to protect Americans farmers and
  manufacturers from foreign competition
• Had the opposite effect causing world trade to
  drop by 40

49
Causes of the Great Depression

• Tariffs and war debt policies that cut down the
  foreign market for American goods
• A crisis in the farm sector
• The availability of easy credit
• An unequal distribution of income
• These led to falling demand for consumer goods
• Federal government kept interest rates low
  allowing companies to borrow easily and build up
  large debts
• Borrowed money was used to buy stocks which later
  led to the crash

50
Depression in the Cities

• People lost jobs, were evicted, ended up in
  streets
• sleeping in parks, sewer pipes
• wrapping themselves in newspapers to keep warm
• Many built makeshift shacks from scraps
• Shantytowns built up throughout cities
• Soup kitchens offered free or low cost food
• Breadlines offered free food provided by
  charitable organizations

51
Depression in the Cities
52
Depression in the Cities
53
Depression in the Cities

• African Americans and Latinos had difficulty
• Unemployment rates were higher
• Racial violence occurred when competing for jobs
  with whites
• 1933 24 African Americans were lynched
• Latinos
• Whites demanded that they be deported
• 1930s hundreds of thousands of people of
  Mexican descent relocated to Mexico
• Some left voluntarily and other were deported

54
Depression in the Rural Areas

• Farmers were also hit hard by the depression
• One advantage for farmers
• They could grow food for their families
• Most farmers lost their land because of debt and
  falling prices
• 1929-1932 400,000 farms were lost to
  foreclosure
• Farmers turned to tenant farming to survive

55
Depression in the Rural Areas
56
Depression in the Rural Areas
57
Depression in the Rural Areas
58
The Dust Bowl

• Drought hit in the early 1930s on the Great
  Plains
• Farmers used tractors to break up the prairie
  grasses but eventually they exhausted the land
  through overproduction
• Land became unsuitable for farming
• Windstorms scattered the topsoil leaving only
  sand and gravel
• 1934 wind storm carried dust hundreds of miles to
  east coast cities

59
The Dust Bowl

• Regions hit the hardest included
• Kansas
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• New Mexico
• Colorado

60
The Dust Bowl
61
The Dust Bowl
62
The Dust Bowl

• Thousands of farmers and sharecroppers left the
  area
• Packed up their families and headed west
  following Route 66 to California
• Migrants became known as Okies (originally a term
  for people from Oklahoma), but now a negative
  term
• Found work as farmhands
• End of 1930s thousands of farm families had
  migrated to California and other Pacific states

63
Route 66
64
Route 66
65
The American Family

• Families were the source of strength for most
  Americans
• Americans believed in traditional values and
  emphasized the importance of the family even
  during the depression
• Many families with money so tight stayed home to
  entertain themselves playing board games like
  Monopoly invented in 1933 or listening to the
  radio
• Sometimes families did break apart under the
  strain of trying to make ends meet

66
The American Family
67
Men in the Streets

• Men had difficulty coping with unemployment
• Many would walk the streets daily looking for
  work
• Some would become discouraged and others would
  leave their families because they could not cope
  with not being the bread winner
• 300,000 transients or hoboes wandered the country
• Hitching rides on railroads and riding in boxcars
• Sleeping under bridges
• Developed their own hidden language to help them
  cope as they wandered

68
Riding the Rails
69
Riding the Rails

• Hobo Symbols

70
Women Struggle to Survive

• Women worked hard to help their families to
  survive
• Canned food
• Sewed clothes
• Managed household budgets carefully
• Some women worked outside the home for less money
  then men
• They were often resented by males and many others
  who believed women, especially married women
  should not take work away from men
• Women suffered just as much as men did, they just
  did it privately

71
Women Struggle to Survive
72
Children Suffer Hardships

• Poor diet and lack of healthcare led to serious
  health problems
• Malnutrition and diet-related diseases like
  rickets ran rampant among young children
• Rickets a lack of vitamin D and calcium in the
  diet
• Schools shortened their school year or closed all
  together
• 2,600 schools closed by 1933 leaving 300,000
  children out of school
• Many went to work in sweatshops under horrible
  conditions

73
Children Suffer Hardships

• Hundreds of thousands of teenagers (boys and
  girls) hopped freight trains looking for work,
  adventure, and any escape from poverty
• Many of these wild boys fell victims to murder
  or beating by freight yard patrolmen
• 1929-1939
• 24,647 trespassers on the railroads were killed
• 27,171 were injured on railroad property

74
Children Suffer Hardships
75
Social and Psychological Effects

• Demoralization causes loss of will to survive
• 1928 1932 suicide rate rose to 30
• Compromises and Sacrifices
• Adults stopped going to the doctor and dentist
• Many young people gave up their dreams of going
  to college
• Financial security became the primary focus in
  life
• Stigma of poverty and having to scrimp and save
  never left most people
• People started to show kindness to strangers
  during the depression
• Families shared their strengths and resources and
  bonded within their communities

76
Hoovers Reassurance

• Hoover tried to tell Americans that the nations
  economy want on a sound footing
• Believed that Americans should remain optimistic
• Experts believed the best course for the country
  to take was to do nothing and let the economy fix
  itself
• Hoover felt the government should play a limited
  role in helping to solve the problem
• Governments role was to encourage and facilitate
  cooperation, not to control it
• Hoover was cautious in his assistance with the
  depression

77
Hoovers Cautious Steps

• Hoover called together key leaders in business,
  banking, and labor
• Urged them to work together to find solutions to
  the nations economic problems
• Asked employers not to cut wages
• Asked labor leaders not to demand wage increases
  or to go on strike
• Created a special organization to help private
  charities generate contributions for the poor
• None of these ideas worked and the economy was
  still in dire straits

78
Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)

• Hoover proposed the a dam to be built on the
  Colorado River when he served as the secretary of
  commerce
• Hoover financed the building of the dam by using
  profits from sales of the electric power the dam
  would generate
• Arranged an agreement between the seven states
  that had water rights on the Colorado River basin
• Won approval in 1929 as part of a 700 million
  public works project
• Hoover able to authorize construction of the dam
  in 1929
• 726 ft high and 1,244 ft long worlds tallest
  and second largest

79
Hoover Dam
80
Democrats Win Congress

• 1930 Congressional Elections
• Democrats take advantage of anti-Hoover
  sentiments
• Republicans lose control of the House of
  Representatives but keep control of the Senate by
  1 vote
• Farmers grow more and more resentful
• Refuse to sell the crops at a loss so they burn
  them or dump the milk on the roads
• Some used force to keep from being foreclosed
  upon
• Some declared a farm holiday and did not work
  their fields

81
Hoovers Heartlessness

• Hoovervilles
• Shantytowns in American cities
• Hoover Blankets
• Newspapers people used as blankets to keep warm
• Hoover flags
• Empty pockets turned inside out
• People began to resent Hoover and believed the
  great humanitarian had become a cold and
  heartless leader
• Hoover refused to provide direct relief or other
  forms of federal welfare

82
Hoover Ditty

• Mellon pulled the whistle
• Hoover rang the bell
• Wall Street gave the signal
• And the country went to hell.

83
Hoover Takes Action

• Backs Cooperatives
• Federal Farm Board
• intended to raise crop prices
• members to buy crops and keep them off the market
  temporarily until prices rose
• National Credit Corporation
• Tried to prop up the banking system
• Persuaded nations largest banks to establish it
• Organization loaned money to smaller banks to
  help them stave off bankruptcy

84
Hoover Takes Action

• Hoover appeals to Congress to pass a series of
  measures
• reform banking
• provide mortgage relief
• Funnel federal money into business investments
• Federal Home Loan Bank Act 1932
• Lowered mortgage rates for homeowners
• Allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans to
  avoid foreclosure
• Glass-Steagall Banking Act
• Passed after Hoover left office
• Separated investment and commercial banking

85
Hoover Takes Action

• Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
• January 1932
• Authorized up to 2 billion for emergency
  financing for banks, life insurance companies,
  railroads, and other large businesses
• Hoover believed the money would trickle down to
  the average citizen through job growth and higher
  wages
• Unprecedented example of federal involvement in a
  peacetime economy
• Too little, too late

86
Bonus Army

• Bonus Expeditionary Force AKA the Bonus Army
• 10 to 20 thousand WWI veterans and their families
  arrived in D.C.
• Led by Walter Waters, an unemployed cannery
  worker from Oregon
• Came to support the Patman Bill which would
  authorize the government to pay a bonus to WWI
  vets who had not been adequately compensated for
  their wartime service

87
Bonus Army

• Money was to be paid out in 1945 in cash and life
  insurance
• Congressman Wright Patman felt is should be paid
  immediately
• Hoover respected the people and even gave them
  food and supplies, allowing them to assemble in
  sight of the Capitol
• June 17th Senate votes down the Patman Bill
• Hoover asks the Bonus Army to leave
• Most did, but about 2,000 refused

88
Bonus Army

• Hoover felt the groups should be disbanded
• July 28th 1,000 soldiers under the command of
  General Douglas MacArthur and his aide, Major
  Dwight D. Eisenhower came to remove the vets
• Infantry gassed more than 1,000 people
• 11 month old baby killed,
• 8 year old boy partially blinded by the gas
• 2 people were shot
• Many were injured

89
Bonus Army
90
Bonus Army
91
Election of 1932

• Americans were stunned and outraged by the
  gassing
• Hoovers popularity suffered again
• Election of 1932
• Hoover is facing Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Americans are ready for a change
• FDR was the Democratic nominee
• 2 term governor of New York
• Distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt
• Effective reform minded leader
• Possessed a can-do attitude
• Friendly and confident

92
Election of 1932
FDR 23 million votes and Hoover 16 million
votes Senate Democrats - 2/3 majority House
Democrats - ¾ majority
93
Roosevelts Wait

• Roosevelt won in November 1932 but did not take
  office until March 1933
• 20th Amendment passed in February 1933 moving the
  inauguration date for the presidency to January
• FDR was not idle
• Carefully selected a team of advisors including
  lawyers, professors, and journalists Brain
  Trust
• Began to formulate a set of policies
• Three goals of the New Deal
• Relief for the needy
• Economic recovery
• Financial reform

94
The Hundred Days

• Lasted from March 9 to June 16, 1933
• Congress passed over 15 major pieces of New Deal
  legislation
• Laws that expanded the federal governments role
  in the nations economy
• First step
• Banking and finance reform
• On March 5th he declared a bank holiday closing
  all banks to prevent further withdrawals

95
The Hundred Days

• Emergency Banking Relief Act
• Authorized the Treasury Department to inspect the
  countrys banks
• Those that were sound could reopen at once
• Those that were insolvent were kept closed
• Those that needed help could receive loans
• Measure revived public confidence in banks
• Open banks were in good financial shape

96
Fireside Chat

• March 12th
• FDR gives his first fireside chat
• Talks in clear, simple language about his New
  Deal measures
• Made Americans feel the president was talking
  directly to them
• Explained how the banking system worked and
  because of this many Americans returned their
  savings to the banks

97
Fireside Chat
98
Banking and Finance

• Glass-Steagall Act
• Established the Federal Deposit Insurance
  Corporation (FDIC)
• Provided federal insurance for individual bank
  accounts of up to 5,000 (now 100,000)
• Also required banks to act cautiously with their
  customers money
• Federal Securities Act
• May 1933
• Required corporations to provide complete
  information of all stock offerings
• Made them liable for any misrepresentation

99
Banking and Finance

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• June 1934
• Regulates the stock market
• Prevents people with inside information about
  companies from rigging the stock market for
  their own profit
• Roosevelt persuaded Congress to approve a bill
  allowing the manufacture and sale of some alcohol
• Purpose was to raise government revenue by taxing
  alcohol
• 21st Amendment passes repealing prohibition by
  the end of 1933

100
Rural Assistance

• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) 1933
• Set up to raise crop prices by lowering
  production
• Government paid farmers to leave a certain amount
  of land fallow
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) 1933
• Focused on the badly depressed Tennessee Valley
• Renovated 5 existing dams and constructed 20 new
  ones
• Created thousands of jobs
• Provided flood control, hydroelectric power and
  other benefits to a poor region

101
Rural Assistance
102
Works Projects

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 1933
• Put young men 18 25 to work building roads,
  parks, planting trees, and helping in soil
  erosion and flood control projects
• 3 million young men worked for the CCC between
  1933 1942
• Wages 30 a month, 25 was sent home to the
  family
• Supplied food, lodging and clothing for the
  workers
• Public Works Administration 1933
• Part of the National Industrial Recovery Act
  (NIRA) 1933
• Provided money to states to create job chiefly in
  the construction of schools and other community
  buildings
• Civil Works Administration (CWA) 1933
• Built 40,000 schools and paid salaries of more
  than 50,000 school teachers in rural areas

103
Works Projects
104
Works Projects
105
Fair Practices

• National Recovery Administration (NRA) 1933
• Established codes for fair practices
• Set prices of many products to ensure fair
  competition
• Established standards for working hours and a ban
  on child labor
• Codes limited production and establish prices

106
Food, Clothing, and Shelter

• Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) 1933
• Provided government loans to homeowners who faced
  foreclosure because they couldnt meet loan
  payments
• National Housing Act 1934
• Created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
• Furnishes loans for home mortgages and repairs to
  this day
• Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) 1933
• Funded with 500 million to provide direct relief
  for the needy
• ½ the money was given to states for grants-in-aid
• Rest distributed to states to support work relief
  programs
• Headed by Harry Hopkins

107
Food, Clothing, and Shelter
108
New Deal Under Attack

• Roosevelt agreed to deficit spending
• Deficit spending spending more money than the
  government receives in revenue
• Believed it was a necessary evil to be used only
  at a time of great economic crisis
• New Deal did not end the depression
• Liberals believed the New Deal did not go far
  enough
• Conservatives believed the government was trying
  to control business and spending too much on
  direct relief

109
New Deal Under Attack

• Supreme Court boosts the Conservatives
• 1935 Court stated that NIRA was
  unconstitutional
• Declared the law gave legislative powers to the
  executive branch
• enforcement of industry codes within states went
  beyond the federal governments powers to
  regulate interstate commerce
• 1936 Court stated that the AAA was
  unconstitutional
• Stated that agriculture was a local matter and
  should be regulated by the states rather than by
  the federal government

110
Court Packing Bill

• 1937 Roosevelt asks Congress to enact a
  court-reform bill to reorganize the federal
  judiciary
• Wanted to appoint 6 new judges to the Supreme
  Court
• Many members of Congress and the press protested
  on the grounds that the president was violating
  principles of judicial independence and
  separation of powers
• 1937 a justice retires and Roosevelt appoints
  Hugo Black, a liberal shifting the balance of the
  
• Court
• 7 justices will be appointed
• by Roosevelt over the next
• 4 years

111
Roosevelts Critics

• 1934 American Liberty League formed by
  conservatives
• Opposed New Deal measures that it believed
  violated respect for the rights of individuals
  and property
• Father Charles Coughlin
• Broadcast radio sermons on economic, political
  and religious ideas
• Initially a supporter of the New Deal
• Favored a guaranteed annual income and
  nationalization of banks

112
Roosevelts Critics

• Dr. Francis Townsend
• A physician and health officer in Long Beach,
  California
• Believed Roosevelt wasnt doing enough to help
  the poor and elderly
• Devised a pension plan that would provide monthly
  benefits to the aged
• Huey Long
• A senator from Louisiana
• Wanted to be the president
• Created a nationwide social program called
  Share-Our-Wealth
• At the height of his popularity, Long was
  assassinated by a lone gunman

113
Roosevelts Critics
114
Second Hundred Days

• 1935
• Seeking ways to build on the programs established
  during the first 100 days
• Economy had improved in the first 2 years of
  FDRs administration
• Unemployment still high
• Production lagged behind 1920s levels
• New Deal had widespread popularity
• FDR launched 2nd New Deal
• Prodded by his wife, Eleanor, a social reformer

115
Second Hundred Days

• 1936 Presidential Election
• 2nd New Deal was under way
• Republicans Alfred Landon governor of Kansas
• Democrats FDR
• Overwhelming victory for the Democrats
• marked the first time that most African Americans
  voted Democratic
• was the first time labor unions gave united
  support to a presidential candidate
• vote of confidence for FDR and the New Deal

116
1936 Presidential Election
Winner!
117
Farmers Get a Hand

• Mid 1930s
• 2 out of 5 farms were mortgaged
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Written by John Steinbeck
• Described the experience of a tenant farmer and
  his family
• Won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1940
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (2nd) 1938
• Paid farmers for cutting production of soil
  depleting crops
• Rewarded farmers who practiced good soil
  conservation
• Brought back many of the features of the original
  AAA

118
John Steinbeck
119
Farmers Get a Hand

• Sharecroppers, migrant workers poor farmers
  received help under the 2nd New Deal
• Resettlement Administration
• Created by an executive order in 1935
• Provided monetary loan to small farmers to buy
  land
• Farm Security Administration (FSA) 1937
• Replaced the Resettlement Administration
• Hired photographers like Dorothea Lange, Ben
  Shahn, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, and Carl
  Mydans
• Used the photographs to create a pictorial
  history of the difficulties faced by rural
  Americans

120
Photographers
121
Extending Relief

• Works Progress Administration (WPA) 1935
• Created as many job as possible as quickly as
  possible
• Spent 11 billion to give jobs to more than 8
  million workers
• Built 850 airports
• Constructed 651,000 miles of roads and streets
• Put up more than 125,000 public buildings
• Women workers in sewing groups made over 300
  million garments for the needy
• Employed many professionals who wrote guides to
  cities, collected historical slave narratives,
  painted murals on walls of schools and public
  buildings and performed in theatre troops

122
WPA
123
Extending Relief

• National Youth Administration (NYA) 1935
• Created specifically to provide education, jobs,
  counseling, and recreation for young people
• Provided student aid to high school, college, and
  graduate students
• Students worked part time positions at their
  schools in exchange
• For graduates unable to find work or dropouts, it
  provided part time jobs like working on highways,
  parks, and public grounds of buildings

124
NYA
125
Improving Labor

• Fair Labor Standards Act 1938
• Set maximum hours at 44 per week (decreased to 40
  after 2 years)
• Set minimum wage at 25 cents an hour 40 cents
  an hour by 1945
• Set rules for employment of workers under 16 and
  banned hazardous work for those under 18
• Social Security Act 1935
• Created the social security system with 3 parts
• Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and
  their spouses
• Unemployment compensation administered at the
  state level
• Aid to families with dependent children and the
  disabled

126
Utilities

• Rural Electrification Administration (REA) 1935
• Established by executive order
• Financed and worked with electrical cooperatives
  to bring electricity to isolated areas
• 1945 45 of Americas farms and rural homes had
  electricity
• 1949 90
• Public Utility Holding Company Act 1935
• Took aim at financial corruption in the public
  utility industry
• Outlawed ownership of utilities by multiple
  holding companies
• Proved difficult to enforce

127
Utilities
128
Women and the New Deal

• FDR named several women to important positions in
  the government
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Was a driving force behind FDR bringing women to
  the work place
• Frances Perkins
• the 1st female cabinet member as the Secretary of
  Labor
• Played an important role in the creating the
  Social Security system
• Supervised labor legislation

129
Improving Labor

• Supreme Court in 1935 declared the NIRA
  unconstitutional
• National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) 1935
• Reestablished the NIRA provision of collective
  bargaining
• Federal government protected the rights of
  workers to join unions and engage in collective
  bargaining
• Prohibited unfair labor practices such as
  threatening workers, firing unions members, and
  interfering with union organizing
• Set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
  to hear about unfair practices

130
Women and the New Deal

• 2 other women became diplomats and another a
  federal judge
• Women faced discrimination in the work place
• 82 of America felt if a husband had a job a wife
  should not work

131
Women and the New Deal
132
African American Activism

• Activism by African Americans was on the rise in
  the 1930s
• A. Philip Randolph organized the first all-black
  trade union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
  Porters
• FDR appointed more than 100 African Americans to
  key positions in the government
• Mary McLeod Bethune
• Educator
• Head of the Division of Negro Affairs of the NYA
• Worked to ensure that the NYA hired African
  American administrators and provided job training
  and other benefits to minorities
• Helped to organize the Black Cabinet,
  influential African Americans who were advisors
  to FDRs administration

133
African American Activism

• William H. Hastie and Robert C. Weaver
• Appointees to the Department of the Interior
• Marian Anderson
• African American singer who performed at Lincoln
  Memorial on Easter Sunday in D.C. because the
  members of the DAR would not allow her to perform
  in their concert hall
• Civil Rights
• FDR did not promote civil rights for African
  Americans because he was afraid of upsetting the
  white Democratic vote
• Refused to approve a federal anti-lynching law
  and an end to the poll tax
• Many New Deal agencies discriminated against
  blacks but they supported him because they
  thought his ideas gave them their best hope for
  the future

134
African Americans the New Deal
135
African Americans the New Deal
136
Mexican Americans

• Received in fewer benefits than African Americans
• Settled mainly in the Southwest
• Found work laboring on farms
• Farm works who tried to unionize met with
  violence
• CCC and WPA did help some Mexican Americans
• Were also disqualified from some programs because
  they were migrant works and did not have a
  permanent address

137
Native Americans

• Received strong government support from New Deal
• Native Americans receive full citizenship under
  the law in 1924
• John Collier is appointed commissioner of Indian
  affairs
• Indian Reorganization Act 1934
• Moved away from assimilation and towards autonomy
• Mandated 3 areas economic, cultural, and
  political
• Economic Native American land belong to the
  tribe
• Cultural Native American children could attend
  school on the reservations
• Political tribes could elect tribal councils to
  govern the reservation

138
New Deal Coalition

• An alignment of diverse groups dedicated to
  supporting the Democratic Party
• Included Southern whites, various urban groups,
  African Americans, and unionized industrial
  workers
• Kept Democrats in control throughout the 1930s
  and 1940s

139
Labor Unions

• Labor Unions
• Union members had better working conditions and
  increased bargaining power
• FDR was a friend of labor
• 1933 1941 union membership increased from
  less than 3 million to more than 10 million
• Unionization of major groups began to occur
• Coal miners, auto workers, rubber and electrical
  workers
• Which would become dominant?

140
Labor Unions

• American Federation of Labor opposed industry
  wide unions
• Key Labor Leaders for a new union
• John L. Lewis United Mine Workers of America
• David Dubinsky International Ladies Garment
  Workers
• Form the Committee for Industrial Organization
• Signed up unskilled and semi-skilled workers
  gaining success
• Expelled from AFL in 1938
• Changed name to Congress of Industrial
  Organizations (CIO)
• Joined back with AFL to become the AFL-CIO in
  1955

141
Labor Leaders
142
Labor Disputes

• Sit down strikes
• one of the main bargaining tactics of the 1930s
• Workers did not walk off the job, the stayed in
  the plant but did not work
• Prevented the factory owner from hiring
  strikebreakers
• Very effective
• Republic Steel Plant Strike (Memorial Day
  Massacre)
• Memorial Day, 1937
• Chicago, Illinois
• Police attacked steel workers outside the plant
• 10 people killed, 84 wounded
• NLRB stepped in and required Tom Girdler, the
  head of Republic Steel to negotiate with the union

143
Election of 1936

• FDR Democratic nominee Alfred Landon
  Republican

Win 2!
144
Election of 1936

• FDR wins for the 2nd time
• New Deal coalition helps FDR to win
• Also includes urban voters
• Roosevelt carries the 12 largest cities in the
  U.S.
• Support came from various religious and ethnic
  groups including Roman Catholics, Jews, Irish,
  Polish and Slavic groups
• New Deal legislation aided the urban poor
• New Deal has a tremendous influence on American
  society and culture

145
Culture in the 1930s

• Motion Pictures
• Golden Age and profitable
• 65 of the population went to the movies once a
  week
• 15,000 movie theatres nationwide
• Radios
• 1930 13 million sold
• 1940 28 million sold
• 90 of American homes had a radio

146
Movies are the Rage

• All genres vied for attention including comedies,
  musicals, love stories, and gangster films
• New Stars on the rise
• Clark Gable
• Marlene Dietrich
• James Cagney
• Helped to launch a new era of glamour and
  sophistication in Hollywood
• Gone With the Wind (1939)
• Most popular movies of all time and the most
  famous during the era
• Starred Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh

147
Movies are the Rage
148
Movies are the Rage

• Flying Down to Rio (1933)
• Starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
  Americas favorite dance partners
• Light romantic comedy
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
• Monkey Business and Duck Soup
• Starring the Marx Brothers
• Had an escapist quality about them
• Little Caesar (1930) and The Public Enemy (1931)
• Gangster films sent on gritty street in urban
  America

149
Movies are the Rage
150
Movies are the Rage
151
Movies are the Rage

• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and Mr. Smith Goes
  to Washington (1939)
• Present the social and political accomplishments
  of the New Deal in a positive light
• Directed by Frank Capra
• Portrayed honest, kindhearted people winning out
  over the greedy special interests

152
Movies are the Rage
153
Radio Entertains

• Embodied the democratic spirit of the times
• Families spend hours around the radio listening
  to their favorite programs
• Radio is a direct means of access to the American
  people
• Offered a wide range of entertainment including
  dramas and variety shows
• The War of the Worlds broadcast by Orson Welles
• One of the most famous shows broadcast
• People actually believed that Martians were going
  to attack the Earth

154
Radio Entertains
155
Radio Entertains

• Many radio personalities made it to the silver
  screen including Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and George
  Burns and Gracie Allen
• Soap operas (named because they were sponsored by
  soap companies) played in the late morning and
  early afternoon
• The Lone Ranger, a childrens program aired in
  the afternoon
• A description of the crash of the Hindenburg was
  one of the first radio broadcasts aired worldwide

156
Hope, Benny, Burns and Allen
157
Hi Ho Silver!
158
The Hindenburg
159
The Hindenburg
160
The Hindenburg
161
The Arts in Depression America

• Art, music, and literature of the time very sober
  and serious
• Artistic work portrayed the American people
• Conveyed a message of strength of character and
  the democratic values of the American people
• Many artists received direct support from New
  Deal legislation
• Harry Hopkins, the head of the WPA stated it best
  Theyve got to eat just like other people.

162
Artists Decorate America

• Federal Art Project
• Branch of the WPA
• Paid artists a living wage to produce public art
• Aimed to increase appreciation of art and promote
  positive images of American Society
• Created posters, taught art in schools, and
  painted murals on public buildings
• Murals were inspired by the work of Mexican
  muralists like Diego Rivera who portrayed the
  dignity of ordinary Americans at work

163
Artists Decorate America

• Outstanding Painters of the New Deal
• Grant Wood American Gothic, 1930
• Edward Hopper Nighthawks, 1942
• Thomas Hart Benton The Arts of Life in America
  Arts of the City, 1932
• Federal Theatre Project
• Hired actors to perform plays and artists to
  provide stage sets and props for theatre
  productions
• Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty, 1935
  portrayed the labor struggles of the 1930s

164
Grant Wood
American Gothic, 1930
Grant Wood
165
Edward Hopper
Nighthawks, 1942
Edward Hopper
166
Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton
The Arts of Life in America Arts of the City,
1932
167
Clifford Odets
168
Woody Guthrie Sings of America

• Woody Guthrie
• Singer and songwriter
• Used music to capture the
• hardships of America
• Traveled the country in
• search of brighter
• opportunities and told
• his troubles in songs

169
Writers Depict American Life

• Federal Writers Project
• Gave Saul Bellow a future Nobel and Pulitzer
  Prize winner his first writing project
• Richard Wright Native Son, 1940
• Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching
  God, 1937
• John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath, 1939
• James T. Farrell Studs Lonigan trilogy, 1932-
  1935
• Jack Conroy The Disinherited, 1933
• James Agee and Walker Evans Let Us Now Praise
  Famous Men, 1941
• Thornton Wilder (playwright) Our Town, 1938

170
Writers Depict American Life
171
Writers Depict American Life
172
Impact of the New Deal

• 1937
• economy had improved enough to convince many
  Americans that the Depression was finally ending
• Economic troubles still occurred throughout the
  nation
• Congress wanted to scale back New Deal programs
  so FDR agreed
• Outcome
• Industrial production dropped
• Unemployment increased from 7.7 million in 1937
  to 10.4 million in 1938
• 1939
• New Deal is essentially over
• FDR more worried about Hitler and his rise to
  power in Germany

173
Supporters and Critics

• Opinions range from harsh criticism to high
  praise
• Conservatives Critics
• Made federal government too large and too
  powerful
• Government stifled free enterprise and
  individual initiative
• Liberal Critics
• FDR did not do enough to socialize the economy
  and to eliminate social and economic inequalities
• Supporters
• FDR struck a reasonable balance between
  unregulated capitalism and overregulated
  socialism
• Helped the country recover from its economic
  difficulties

174
Expanding Governments Role

• FDRs administration expanded the power of the
  government especially the power of the president
• Gave the president a more active role in shaping
  the economy
• Federal government put millions of dollars into
  the economy, created jobs, settled labor disputes
  and established many new agencies still used
  today
• FDIC and SEC regulate banking and investment
  activities
• New Deal did not end the Great Depression but did
  alleviate the suffering of thousands of people
• Gave people hope and allowed the to regain their
  dignity

175
Expanding Governments Role

• Federal government went deep into debt to help
  the American people
• Federal deficit
• 1934 2.9 billion
• 1937-1938 100 million