US History Notes - The 1930s
The United States in the 1930s
The Great Depression (1929-1941)
A severe period of unemployment and economic instability throughout the majority of the major nations of the world.
Unemployment Rate:
The graph shows the US unemployment rate from 1890-2009.
The Great Depression occurred between 1929 and 1941.
Based on the graph, the unemployment rate was around 25% at its peak during the Great Depression.
Migrant Mother
Dorothea Lange photographed Florence Owens Thompson and her children in Nipomo, California, in February or March 1936.
Lange was photographing migratory farm labor for the Resettlement Administration.
Lange's account of the experience:
She approached the hungry and desperate mother, drawn by a magnet.
The mother asked no questions and seemed to know that the pictures might help her.
The mother was 32 years old and had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields and birds that the children killed.
She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food.
American Stock Market "CRASH" - October 1929
Savings and personal finances were reduced or eliminated due to debts owed to banks and rising interest rates on loans.
Over-investing in the Stock Market produced financial losses in stock values when many manufacturing companies could no longer rely on consumers' demands or abilities to purchase.
Wealthier investors sold stocks and withdrew their personal finances from the banks.
Large percentages of workers were laid off from jobs as companies went out of business or were bought out by larger surviving firms.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Graph depicting Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1900-2000.
1930s and Frustration
Image of unemployment during the 1930s includes the phrase "Free soup, coffee & doughnuts for the unemployed".
The graph showing the US unemployment rate from 1890-2009 is also present.
Alcohol Prohibition
The 1930s engaged politicians and voters demanding a repeal to the 18th amendment and relegalizing alcohol.
Flaws and Drawbacks from 18th Amendment:
Empowered organized crime to sell alcohol illegally (cannot then be taxed by the U.S. government).
"14 years without a drink" combined with economic stresses.
Tax revenue lost from alcohol only sold illegally.
Criminal courts were overcrowded with consumer violators and $5 fines.
Flaws and Drawbacks Inspired Constitutional Reform
21st Amendment (1933):
Repealed the 18th amendment to the Constitution.
Anti-Cannabis Propaganda
As one drug was made legal, another soon was made illegal.
Quote from Harry Anslinger about a case where an entire family was murdered by a youthful addict in Florida who had been smoking marihuana.
Scenes depicted in Reefer Madness (1935):
Hit and run accident
Manslaughter
Suicide
Rape
Main characters descent into madness
Harry Anslinger
Harry Anslinger (1892 – 1975)
William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon (1921-1933)
Marihuana Tax Act of 1937
Original spelling was "…huana."
Possession or transfer of mariuana made illegal throughout U.S.; excluded medical and industrial uses that required an expensive sales tax.
U.S. propaganda racialized the substance
Marijuana: spelling was changed to include the more Hispanic style-spelling and attach the drug to immigrant use
Quote from Dr. Malik Burnett and Amanda Reiman on the demonization of the cannabis plant and its connection to the demonization of Mexican immigrants.
El Paso, TX borrowed a play from San Francisco's playbook, which had outlawed opium decades earlier in an effort to control Chinese immigrants.
The idea was to have an excuse to search, detain and deport Mexican immigrants.
Claims were made about marijuana's ability to cause men of color to become violent and solicit sex from white women.
This imagery became the backdrop for the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 which effectively banned its use and sales.
Marihuana Tax Act of 1937
1937-1940: 500,000 Mexican immigrants deported back to Mexico largely because of marijuana arrests and violation of the Marihuana Tax Act (1937).
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 - 1945)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) or FDR
1932: NY governor Roosevelt was elected U.S. President (Democrat)
FDR helped kick-off a political realignment in the Democrat Party (1930s – 1960s)
Roosevelt's Condition
Roosevelt's condition helped establish:
The new Democratic Party platform
Increase government spending on social and minority programs (started with social security in 1935 and culminated in 1960s with Medicare and Medicaid)
Prioritize working class interests
Established new Northern support-base
Maximum Income Tax Rate
Graph showing the maximum income tax rate from 1920-1990
Roosevelt's Condition
Roosevelt's condition helped establish:
The realigned Democratic Party was inspired by:
1921: Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio
1924: Roosevelt relocated to Warm Springs, Georgia
Warm Springs was known as a "spa town"
Warm mineral springs and swimming pools were gaining reputation for increasing strength in polio-stricken legs
Warm temperatures allowed Roosevelt to swim all day and enable him to stand independently while in the water
For the rest of his life, FDR was only able to stand with the help of braces, a cane and the arm of a family or staff member.
1932 Presidential Election: FDR vs. President Herbert Hoover
Roosevelt and Democrats
Roosevelt and Democrats blamed the Great Depression on:
tax cuts during 1920s
overproduction from industry influenced by overly optimistic speculation
lack of small business competition
bank failure
March 1933
March 5: Roosevelt declared all U.S. banks for the purposes of government inspection.
After meeting with Congress (March 9):
Congress passed a law to finance federal inspections
March 13: first several (more-stable) banks reopened
Later: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established and guaranteed $5000 insurances to banks.
2/3 of the banks reopened shortly after
November 1933
Civil Works Administration (CWA) provide employment to build:
roads
airports
national parks
Late 1933
Public Works Association (PWA) employed workers for government projects on dams and rivers.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employed workers for land and agricultural development.
Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)
U.S. government agency that regulates stock activities.
Most importantly, it investigates corruption and fraud within the Stock Market.
Social Security Act
August, 1935: Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, which guaranteed (through taxation) pensions for retired workers (aged 65 or older), victims of work related accidents, unemployment, and aid for physically handicapped.
FDR's Other Controversial Measures
1933-1935:
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
Government agency that protected manufacturers' establishment of minimum wages & maximum hour codes & right to organize labor unions
NRA rules were written by big companies, which hurt small businesses
Declared unconstitutional (1935)
FDR's Other Controversial Measures
1933-1936:
Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
Agency that paid farmers to take land out of production in order to raise crop prices
AAA hurt tenant farmers
Declared unconstitutional (1936)
FDR's Other Controversial Measures
1937:
Judicial Procedures Reform Act (a.k.a., “court-packing scheme")
Proposed law to add 1 Supreme Court judge for every current judge over 70 ½ years old.
(5 judges were over this age around this time)
FDR wanted to nominate additional judges he could control
Congress rejected the proposed law based on it being considered unconstitutional
The Major Solution
U.S. entry into World War II (1941-1945)