Social Science Section 4 Academic Decathlon 25-26

Grover Cleveland

One of only Democratic presidents since Civil War

Free Silver Movement

William Jennings Bryan

Southern Democrats

Traditional

Dry Prohibitionists

White, native-born Protestants, often overlapped with KKK

Northern Democrats

Irish and Italian immigrants strengthen this faction

Catholic

Anti-Prohibition

Alfred E. Smith

Governor of New York

Prevented from running for President in 1924 by Southern Democrats, lost 1928 election

From Lower East Side, education from Tammany Hall

John Davis

1924 Democratic Presidential Candidate in place of Alfred E. Smith

Took 103 ballots to be nominated

Alfred E. Smith 1928 Presidential Campaign

1928 Presidential Campaign overshadowed by Irish Catholicism, claimed dual loyalty. Lost by 6 million popular votes, only gained 87 electoral votes.

Took Solid South (Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina) Massachusetts, and Rhode Island

Lost home state and flipped 5 former Confederate States

Flipped northern states with high immigrant populations - led populations away from Republican Parties

Herbert Hoover Pre-Presidency

Commerce Secretary under Harding

1921 Chair of the President's Conference on Unemployment

Managed radio regulations

Herbert Hoover, "Great Engineer"

Helped international mining company hit gold

Lived in Australia, China, and England

Worked in Africa, Central/South ASia, and Russia

Herbert Hoover, "Great Humanitarian"

Founded Commission for Relief Of Belgium

Relief efforts for Great Mississippi Flood

Great Mississippi Flood

Spring 1927

1,000 miles (Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, Louisiana), 50-100 feet wide, 1,000 dead, 1.5 million fled homes, $1 billion in damages

Relief led by Hoover for 3 months: 33,000 workers, $42 million (75% from private sectors)

Affected by racial segregation, with less tents, inability to leave, and forced labor

Effect of Great Mississippi Flood's racial segregation during relief

Hoover organized an advisory commission, took all advice

Allowed him to win majority of African American votes in 1928

Gave reputation of capable and inspiring in crisis

Kellogg-Briand Pact

August 27, 1928

Pledged to pursue peaceful resolution to international conflicts

Hoover's Beliefs

Limited government, as too much would lead to socialism

Encourage private entities to follow own course of action

Confidence in own abilities

American Individualism by Herbert Hoover

1922 Treatise

Civic mind of founders, Quaker community

Limited gov to nurture development

Agricultural Marketing Act

Issue of agricultural surpluses

Prosperity of Roaring Twenties

Believed to have entered an era

Increased productivity and efficiently, innovated, scientific management, and more accurate statistics

Hoover believed they were leaving poverty (seen as out of touch)

Americans and Stock Market

Often bought on margin

Only 8% of US owned stocks

Often controlled by baking corportations

1920 Stock Market

Little government regulation

Insider Trading

Investors pooled money to artificially increase value, then dumped before value fell (Drove RCA stock up 61 points in 4 days)

Goldman Sachs

Launched several massive investments

Could move 100s of millions in one day

Black Thursday

October 24, 1929

At the New York Stock Exchange

Over 13 million sales caused the ticketer to be 30 minutes behind

Drop in stock prices

PM Winston Churchill and the Stock Market

Purchased 20,000 pounds a few days before Black Thursday

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929

5 hour span, billions in stock value disappeared

Declined at an average of 37.5% and a total of $15.6 billion

Record point drop of stock market

38 points by Dow Jones Industrial Average

Value of stock market July 1, 1932

NYSE at $15.6 billion

Down 82$

Initial effect of stock market crash

Did not harm average American

Little news coverage until December 1929

Responses to stock market crash

Hoover- Everything is going to be okay

John D. Rockefeller (Oilman) - Ripe to invest

Andrew Mellon (Treasury Secretary) - Natural process, exposed corporation's with questionable practices

Effect of completion of Empire State Building

5th Avenue and 34th Street

One year post completion (1932), 64% of construction workers lost jobs (Also due to depression)

Drop in consumer spending

Occurred after stock market crash

Dropped 20% in 1930 in US

In Muncie, grocery fell 50% and retail 39%

Effect of drop in consumer spending

Companies overproduced and started firing people

Ford, sales halves 1930-31 and lost $37 million

Unemployment Rates

1930= 9%

1931= 16%

1931= 24%

General Motors: 100,000 of 260,000 employees (1929-31)

1930 Amount of Failed Businesses

26,555

Price of Cotton

1929= 16.8c /lb

1930= 9.5c /lb

1931= 5.7c /lb

Effect of Unemployment

Affected self worth

No income, no money to spend or pay off debts with

Home Foreclosures

1926= 68,000

1930= 150,000

1933= 1,000/day, 50% of homes defaulted

Unable to pay mortgages due to loss in jobs

Bank failures

1929= 569 banks, $250 million

1930= 1,352, $852 million

1931= 2,294, $1.7 billion

1 in every 5 banks closed

Bank runs

Rush to withdrawal deposits, led to bank closures

Collapse of Bank of United States

December 11, 1930, NYC

Left 400,000 people (mostly Jewish immigrants) without their $286 million worth of savings

Caused many banks to tighten credit and worsen deflation

US Payments to Germany

Sent money to Germany

Germany used money for reparation payments

Countries who received reparations used them to repay debt to US from war

Pausing of international debt payments

Summer 1931

Also done to Germany's reparations

US Foreign Investment

1928= $1.25 billion

1929= $628 million

1930-33= $360 million annually

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

June 1930

Made to protect domestic farmers of beet, sugar, and wool

Petition to stop - 1,038 people at the American Economic Association

Still passed

Effect of Smoot-Hawley Tariff

France: Auto tariff

Canada: 125 products taxed

Switzerland: Boycott of US goods

Social Effects of Great Depression

Alcoholism, domestic violence, and suicide rates increased

New Deal

By FDR

Unemployment insurance, social security pensions, government welfare programs

Rural Effects of Great Depression

1932, 42% of revenue from 1929

Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl

Sent many "Okies" to California

Hoover & The Great Depression

Refused to provide direct governmental aid to retain individualism

Hoover Dam

Created thousands of jobs & strengthened infrastructure during the Great Depression

Views on Hoover during Great Depression

Seen as callous / uncaring

Feb 3, 1931, statement defending himself

Also due to response to Bonus Expeditionary Force

National Debt in the Great Depression

Rose $3.3 billion

Mostly due to lack of tax revenue

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Great Depression

Governor of New York

$20 million for 300,000 families

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

January 1932

Hoovervilles

Bonus Expeditionary Force

"Bonus Army"

Marched on DC in spring of 1932 to demand war payment (scheduled 1945) immediately

Camped on National Mall & Pennsylvania Avenue - forced out by national guard