The Great Depression

  • Causes of the Great Depression:

    • WW1

      • Europe is already in a depression

      • Trade with Europe declines

    • Overproduction and underconsumption by factories

      • As many products were built to last, less consumers needed to consistently refresh their supplies of various products, causing them to need to be produced less

      • Layoffs of men

        • Many men who worked manual labor jobs like in factories were laid off due to the factory collapsing

        • Women were often able to keep their jobs

        • The pay imbalance and skill imbalance make men taking women’s jobs unlikely and uncommon

    “Simply fire all the women, who shouldn’t be working anyway, and hire the men. Presto! No unemployment.”

    • Norman Cousins

    • The stock market crash

      • Bankers sent by the House of Morgan prevented the first, large stock market crash

      • Before the crash, brokers often went all-in on most stocks, which only really changes after the second crash prompts the depression

      • Both major stock crashes involved violence and suicides

      • Black Tuesday

        • (October 29th, 1929)

        • Investors attempted to trade about 16million shares of stock and degraded their values so much that all stocks lost value

      • Black Thursday

        • (October 24th, 1929)

        • The most stocks sold at once in American history

        • The market lost ~11% of its value

        • The market was then calmed by bankers, but collapsed again a few days later

  • Effects of the Great Depression

    • Unemployment reaches ~¼ of Americans

    • ~½ of African American men were unemployed

    • By 1933, more than 11thousand of America’s 25thousand banks had collapsed as people attempted to withdrawal money from their banks

    • Varying factors leave single parents more normal

    • Many African-American women who worked more manual jobs (“men’s jobs”) were laid off

  • The Dust Bowl

    • A drought in ~1930s

    • The Great Plains region’s farms were ruined

    • Banks began feuding with farmers

      • Banks would try to call in farmer’s loans (particularly mortgages on houses), this didn’t make people happy

      • Banks would send armed guards to enforce that people payed their loans

      • Farmers wanted state or federal interference, which Hoover denied

      • Banks ran over farmhouses with bulldozers?????? Girl??????? Anger management issues much???????

  • Lou Hoover

    • Very disconnected from the middle class

    • Herbert Hoover’s wife

  • Herbert Hoover

    • The “Savior of Belgium”

    • Lou Hoover’s husband

    • Really liked the Red Cross

    • Was incredibly out of touch with many working classes, though he thought he was incredibly in-touch with them

    • He won against Alfred E. Smith

    • The KKK heavily campaigned against him

    • Encouraged volunteerism

    • Economists HATE this ONE SIMPLE trick!!!!!!!! (and then everyone’s poor)

    • Believed it was up to private businesses to right the economy

    • Thought the Great Depression ended in 1930

    • Created the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act

      • Raised heavy tariffs on imported goods, which caused other countries to retaliate with their own tariffs

      • 1thousand economists wrote to Hoover and begged him not to pass the act, but he did anyway

    • Positive actions taken by Hoover:

      • Organized the CRB, which secured food for civilians in German-occupied Belgium

      • Organized the ARA, which delivered food to impoverished Soviet families

      • Donated his whole presidential salary to the Red Cross

      • Oversaw the building of the Grand Coulee Dam

      • Standardized sizing for companies

      • Added ~5thousand acres to national parks

      • Ordered the Federal Farm Board to cut taxes

    • Negative actions taken by Hoover:

      • Deported ~300thousand Mexican-American citizens

      • Left it up to the state on whether lynching should be legal

      • Worked to remove African-American leadership in the South

      • Created the High Wage Doctrine

        • It was supposed to “stimulate demand” in the economy

        • Horrible for small businesses

        • Creates an awful lot more unemployment

      • Refused federal crop loans to farmers

      • Established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation

        • Was incredibly ineffective 

        • Would have loaned banks money to reestablish consumer trust

        • Didn’t push the government as far as it needed to be pushed

      • Forcibly removed protesting veterans from the white house lawn using the military—or, “Bonus Army”

  • Hoovervilles:

    • Communities of dehomed people who lost their homes in the Great Depression

    • Were prosecuted by local police 

    • There was violence within the hoovervilles

  • Dorothea Lange:

    • Photographed ‘Migrant Mother’

      • The woman photographed is 32

      • The woman and her children had lived off frozen vegetables from nearby fields and dead birds

  • Franklin Roosevelt:

    • Defeated Hoover in the 1932 election, as people were fed up with Hoover

    • Gives such an inauguration speech

      • Claims to want to take “Broad Executive Power” against congress if they do not work with him

      • Wants to use federal power to end the depression

    • Recieved many letters

      • People wrote to him and his wife asking for assistance

  • Eleanor Roosevelt:

    • Was very popular, received many letters

    • People turned to her for donations and help

  • New Deals:

    • (1933-1935)

      • Shuts down the bank for 4 days (people don’t know what to do, so they just have a parade)

      • Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933

        • Gives the president emergency powers to seize all American banking systems

      • Repeals prohibition

      • Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933

        • Insures bank deposits up to a certain amount

      • Agricultural Adjustment Act

        • 1933

        • The federal government ensures that farmers will have people to buy their own crops

      • Federal Emergency Relief Act

        • 1933

        • Provides financial assistance to states for local relief efforts

      • Civilian Conservation Corps

        • 1933

        • Put unskilled, unemployed young men (18-25) to work on rural farms

        • Came about due to worry about men joining gangs

      • Tennessee Valley Authority

        • 1933

        • Planned river basin development

        • Generated electricity through a dam

      • Public Works Administration

        • 1933

        • Paid private contractors to begin large projects

      • Improves public moral exponentially

    • (1935-1936)

      • Social Security Act

        • 1935

        • Was started as an old age pension fund

        • Pay-it-forward

      • Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

        • 1938

        • Was there to stop dishonesty within advertisement of products

        • Lash Lure oooh blindness!!!

  • American Chamber of Horrors:

    • An exhibit that advocated for transparency in product advertising by showing a collection of products and their discrepancies in advertising

    • Was created by Arthur Kallet and Frederick Schlink

    • Was incredibly successful

  • The Fireside Chats:

    • Roosevelt would talk over the radio to families across the country

    • Helped humanize Roosevelt to others