The Great Depression Begins

Ch. 17.1 Causes of the Great Depression

Define

1. Alfred E. Smith – American democratic politician that ran against Hoover during the 1928 election. Lost the election b/c he was both Catholic and anti-Prohibition which divided Democratic voters

2. Stock market – buying and selling shares of companies

3. Bull market – long period of rising stock prices

4. Margin – paying a small down payment and they would pay 9 times that which you have to pay back

5. Margin call – demanding investors to repay loans at once

6. Speculation – buyers hoping to make a fortune overnight; taking risk that the market would climb

7. Black Tuesday – the deepest dive in prices which lost 15 billion (not the cause of depression)

8. Installment – paying a small down payment on a high cost item then paying the rest off over time

9. Hawley-Smoot Tariff – raised the average tariff rate to the highest level; hurt imports and exports

Answer

1. What campaign issues led to Hoover’s election to the presidency?

Campaign issues that led to Hoover’s election was Hoover favoring prohibition and Republicans taking credit for the prosperity of the 1920s.

2. What was the stock market like in the 1920s?

During the 1920s, people received more income and so they spent more. Billions of dollars were invested in the stock market as people believed they would make millions on the rising prices.

3. How did bank failures contribute to the Great Depression?

Banks invested deposits of customers into the stock market and when it crashed, the banks had no money for their customers and closed down.

4. How did the decline in worldwide trade contribute to the Depression?

The decline in worldwide trade contributed to the Depression because the US raised their tariff rate to the highest it has ever been which caused foreign countries to do the same, hurting American companies and farmers.

Ch. 17.2 Life During the Depression

Define

1. Bailiff – court officer responsible for executing decisions of a court

2. Shantytown – improvised buildings known as shanties or shacks that were typically made of mud and wood

3. Hooverville – people who blamed the president for their plight and referred to Shantytowns as Hoovervilles

4. Hobo – homeless and unemployed people who wandered the country

5. Dust Bowl – fields that could not hold the rainfall and the soil dried to dust

6. Walt Disney – produced the first feature-length animated film; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

7. Soap opera – short radio dramas that often-had sponsors that were makers of laundry soaps

8. Grant Wood – led a regionalist school that emphasized traditional American values, especially those of the rural Midwest and South.

9. John Steinbeck – a novelist that added flesh and blood to journalists’ reports of poverty and misfortune; wrote The Grapes of Wrath

10. William Faulkner – novelist that shows what his characters are thinking and feeling before they think; influenced literary style itself; wrote The Sound and the Fury

Answer

1. What chain of events turned the once-fertile Great Plains into the Dust Bowl?

   The chain of events that turned the once-fertile Great Plains into the Dust Bowl was farmers uprooting wild grasses that held the soil’s moisture and replacing them with wheat fields. Then, when crop prices dropped, they left many of the fields unattended and later a drought hit the plains. With no grass to hold the moisture the soil dried.

2. What movies and radio shows entertained Americans during the Great Depression?

   Movies and radio shows that entertained Americans during the Great Depression were Snow White, the Wizard of Oz, and Gone with the Wind.

3. How did artists, photographers, and writers, such as John Steinbeck, reflect the characteristics of the 1930s?

   Artists, photographers, and writers such as John Steinbeck reflected the characteristics of the 1930s by using homelessness and unemployment as their subjects.

Ch. 17.3 Hoover Responds

Define

1. Public works – government-financed building projects

2. Reconstruction Finance Corporation – a corporation to make loans to banks, railroads, and agricultural institutions

3. Relief – money that went directly to impoverished families

4. Foreclose – taking possession of a place and evicting the families

5. Bonus Army – Veterans who set off on a month-long march to pass the legislation for a $1,000 bonus for each veteran

Answer

1. Why did Hoover oppose deficit spending?

   Hoover opposes deficit spending because he feared that it would delay an economic recovery.

2. Why did Hoover oppose the federal government’s participation in relief programs?

   Hoover opposed the federal government’s participation in relief programs because he believed that only state and city governments should dispense relief.

3. How did Americans react as the Depression continued?

   As the Depression continued, some people started hunger marches, farmers began destroying their crops in an effort to raise prices by reducing supply, and WWI veterans lobbied Congress to pass a bill that would give them the $1,000 bonus they were meant to receive in 1945.