History Quiz Crash/Depression/New Deal

Dorothea Lange

• Famous photographer during the GD

  • Showed the world the desperation and bravery of whole families reduced to picking peas in the sun and sleeping in cars or makeshift shelters

• Stirred public attention and helped win aid for workers

  • Farm Security Administration (FSA)

  • Worked for the FSA to document lives of migrant farmers

• Led to the creation of migrant camps

Herbert Hoover

• Following the crash, Hoover believed confidence was the key to recovery

  • maintain public confidence

• Blamed the GD on “world wide economic conditions beyond our control”

  • No blame on U.S. economy

  • Insisted things would get better

• Believed voluntary controls by businesses in the U.S. were the best way to end the economic crisis: “Voluntary Action”

• Promises to many businessmen to maintain wage rates

  • By 1931, many were cutting workers pay: Voluntary Action Fails

• He refused to give direct federal relief

  • believed state and local government should handle relief

• Negative publicity

• Blamed for the Depression

  • Hoovervilles

Frederick Delano Roosevelt

• Democrat

• Eleanor Roosevelt (wife) - experienced political worker

• Represented a spirit of optimism

  • Personable, friendly

• Disabled - polio

• NY governor

  • Set up unemployment and relief commission: first state agencies to aid the poor in the Depression era

  • Promised the country a “New Deal” with similar programs in mind

The Bonus Army

• Summer 1932

• 20,000 jobless WWI veterans encamped in Washington D.C

  • Demanded immediate payment of a pension bonus promised for 1945

• House of Rep: Agreed

• Senate: No

• Most of the Bonus Army went home, but a few thousand stayed living in shacks

Franklin Perkins

• Secretary of Labor

• First woman cabinet member in US history

• Appointed by FDR

The Great Depression

• Too many good, too little demand

• Trouble for farmers

• Trouble for workers

• Stock market hits an all time high in September 1929

  • Begins to slowly fall

• Black Thursday: October 24, 1929

  • Worried investors started to sell

  • Prices continued to fall

• Black Tuesday

  • Great Crash

    • Stock market collapses

    • People race to pull their money out of the market

    • 16.4 shares were sold

  • Overall losses between Black Tuesday and November were $30 billion

21st Amendment

• February 1933

  • Repealing Prohibition

  • Control of alcohol returned to the states

Election of 1932

• Republican Herbert Hoover vs. Democrat FDR

  • FDR is elected

• Long term effects

  • Change in the style of presidential leadership and government response to its citizens’ needs

  • Altered the way many Americans viewed their government and its responsibilities

  • Party Platform Switch

Voluntary Action

• Herbert Hoover believed voluntary controls by businesses in the US were the best way to end the economic crisis

• Businessmen cut many workers pay

  • Voluntary action fails

Hawley-Smoot Tariff

• 1930

• Protect domestic industries

• Highest import tax in history

  • Backfired: slowed down international trade

The New Deal

• Relief from immediate hardships

• Long term economic recovery

• Reforms to prevent future depression

• Aimed at combating problems caused by the GD

• Federal gov needed to play an active role

• FDR’s first 100 days

First 100 Days

• 15 bills were proposed and passed

• First New Deal

• Emergency banking bill

• Federal deposit insurance

• Agricultural adjustment act

• Tennessee Valley authority

• Civilian conservation corps

• National recovery administration

• Public works administration

Banking Holiday/Closing the Banks

• Declared a 4 day banking holiday

• Banks were ordered to close

• Closings gave banks time to get their accounts in order before they reopened for business

• Successful

• Fireside chats convinced Americans not to rush to withdraw their money from banks

1st Veterans March on Washington

• Hoover ordered the military to remove the veterans

• Used violent tactics - fatal

• General Douglas MacArthur burned camp

2nd Veterans March on Washington

• Veterans arrived December to protest for early payment of their bonuses

• Met with less resistance

• Eleanor Roosevelt spent time with the marchers

• Provided with food, coffee, shelter

• FDR came to an agreement with them

Indian Reorganization Act of 1934/Wheeler Howard Act

• Aimed at decreasing federal control of American Indian affairs and increasing Indian self-government and responsibility

Second New Deal

• Promote the general welfare and intervene to protect citizens’ rights

• Goals/aims

  • More social welfare benefits

    • Addressed problems of the elderly, the poor, unemployed, farmers

  • Stricter controls over business

    • Workers rights

  • Stronger supports for unions

  • Higher taxes on the rich

  • New public works projects

FDR Critics

• Fell short of many expectations

• White men received preference in many of the new jobs

• Women

  • Lower wages were permitted

  • Did not protect domestic servuce

• African Americans

  • Not offered jobs at the professional level

  • Lower pay for the same work

  • New Deal did nothing to end discriminatory practices

  • 1938 - a bill to make lynching a federal crime never went to a vote and was abandoned

• Republicans and Socialistics believed he did too much

• Social security

  • Punishment for successful hard working people

  • Assigning numbers: militaristic, regimented society

• Progressives and Socialists believed he was not doing enough

  • Redistribution of income

  • New economic system needed

• Upton Sinclair

  • Limited success in eliminating poverty

Brother can you spare me a dime

• One of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression

• Part of the 1932 musical revue Americana

• Became the best-selling record of its period, and came to be viewed as an anthem to the shattered dreams of the era

• Considered by Republicans to be anti-capitalist propaganda, and almost dropped it from the show; attempts were made to ban it from the radio

Hoovervilles

• Hardest hit were those at the bottom of the economic ladder

• Homeless in NYC alone was 15,000 people

• Shanty towns built with shacks of tar paper, cardboard, or scrap material

  • Shelters for homeless

• Name: mocking the president whom people blamed for the crisis

Empire State Building

• 1930-1931

• World’s Tallest Building

• 2500-4000 worked on it each day

• Symbolic: Sign of hope

Fireside Chats

• Informal radio speeches given by FDR

• Communicate with the American people

Civilian Conservation Corps

• Provided jobs for more than 2 million young men

• Replanted forests, built trails, dug irrigation ditches, and fought fires

• Became more inclusive as time when one

• FDR’s favorite program

Social Security Act

• Pension system for retirees

• Unemployment insurance

• Insurance for those who were hurt on the job

• Most popular and most significant of the New Deal programs