The Great Depression and the New Deal

1. The Great Depression and the New Deal

2. Herbert Hoover
31st POTUS, 1929-1933
• global mining engineer
• “The Great Humanitarian”
• Head of Food Administration under
Wilson
• Secretary of Commerce under
Harding and Coolidge

4. Black Tuesday
October 29, 1929

5. Run on the Banks
It’s a Wonderful Life - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPkJH6BT7dM&feature=emb_logo

6. Bank Failures, 1929–1933

7. Unemployment, 1929–1942

8. Hoover’s Response
• rugged individualism
• Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of
1930
• public works – Hoover Dam
• Glass-Steagall Banking Act
of 1932

9. Hoover Dam

10. Conditions in the U. S.
Before the New Deal

12. Power farming displaces tenants.
Texas panhandle.

13. Farm Family

14. Sign Advertising
Farm
Foreclosure
Sale

15. Farm Foreclosure Sale

17. Dust Storm Approaching

18. Dust Storm

19. Dust Storm

20. Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm. Cimarron
County, Oklahoma.

21. Erosion from Dust Storm

23. Migrant pea pickers camp in the rain. California.

24. Squatter camp. California.

25. Migrant Worker,
Mother of Seven (photo
by Dorothea Lange)

28. Hooverville outside Seattle

29. Bread Lines

32. Bread line beside the Brooklyn Bridge approach.

33. Toward Los Angeles, California.

34. General Conditions -- Photo by Dorothea Lange

35. Unemployed men vying for jobs at the
American Legion Employment Bureau in Los Angeles
during the Great Depression.

36. General Conditions

37. A shanty built of refuse near the
Sunnyside slack pile, Herrin, Illinois.

38. “BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU
They used to tell me I was building a dream,
And so I followed the mob
When there was earth to plough or guns to bear
I was always there right there on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?

39. Once I built a railroad, made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad,
Now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, to the sun.
Brick and rivet and lime,
Once I built a tower,
Now it's done,
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Buddy, can you spare a dime?

40. Once in khaki suits
Gee, we looked swell
Full of that Yankee Doodle-de-dum.
Half a million boots went sloggin’ thru Hell,
I was the kid with the drum.
Say, don’t you remember, they called me Al
It was Al all the time
Say, don’t you remember I’m your Pal!
Buddy, can you spare a dime?

45. FDR’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
“This great Nation will endure as it has endured,
will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me
assert my firm belief that the only thing we have
to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to
convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of
our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor
has met with that understanding and support of
the people themselves which is essential to victory.
I am convinced that you will again give that
support to leadership in these critical days.”

46. FDR’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
“Our greatest primary task is to put people to
work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it
wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in
part by direct recruiting by the Government itself,
treating the task as we would treat the emergency
of a war, but at the same time, through this
employment, accomplishing greatly needed
projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our
natural resources.”

47. FDR’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
“ … we require two safeguards against a return of
the evils of the old order: there must be a strict
supervision of all banking and credits and
investments, so that there will be an end to
speculation with other people's money; and there
must be provision for an adequate but sound
currency.”

48. The Three R’s
1. Relief for the poor
2. Recovery of economy through
temporary programs & restart of
consumer demands
3. Reform of economic system to avoid
another crisis

49. First Hundred Days
• Fireside Chats
• Bank Holiday
• “Alphabet Soup”

50. Brain Trust
• “Unofficial
Advisors”
• Professors,
lawyers,
economists,
journalists, etc

53. AAA- Agricultural
Adjustment
Administration
• Reduce crop surplus
and raise crop prices
• Paid farmers subsidies
NOT to plant and to
kill livestock

54. CCC - Civilian Conservation Corps
• Jobs to 2.5 m. single men ages 18-25
• $25 of $30/mo. sent to parents.
• Planted 3 billion trees, constructed 800 parks, for
forest fires, and developed remote areas.

57. CWA - Civil Works Administration
• created high paying construction jobs
• laid 12 m. feet of sewer pipe and built or improved 255,000
miles of roads, 40,000 schools, 3,700 playgrounds, 1,000
airports, and 250,000 outhouses

58. FCC- Federal Communications
Commission 1934
• Regulates radio and TV
broadcasting, interstate and
international telecommun-
ications

59. FDIC- Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation
1933
• Deposit insurance to
banks and regulated
nonmember banks

60. FHA - Federal Housing Administration
• Mortgage insurance during the period of large
bank failures.

61. HOLC - Home Owner's Loan Corporation
• Refinancing of homes to stem foreclosures
• Provided loans to over 1,000,000 people

62. NLRB- National Labor
Relations Board
• Wagner Act
• conducted elections for
labor union
representation and
investigated unfair
labor practices

63. NRA - National Recovery Act
• To eliminate destructive cut-throat
competition by bringing ind., labor
and gov. together to write “codes of
fair competition.”
• Helped workers by setting min. wages
and max. wkly hrs., as well as min.
prices for the sale of products.
• Declared unconstitutional in Schechter
Poultry Corp. v. US due to violation of
sep. of powers.

64. NYA- National Youth
Administration
• Paid high school and
college youth for
"work study" projects
• Also provided part-
time work that
included job training.

65. PWA - Public Works Administration
• designed to create public works – dams, bridges, water
treatment plants, etc.

66. REA- Rural Electrification
Administration
Promoted rural electrification:
• 1934: approx. 11% of US farms
• 1942: approx. 50% of US farms
• 1952: almost 100% of US farms
1949: REA authorized to develop
rural telephone lines

67. SEC- Securities and Exchange
Commission 1934
Regulates financial markets
and prevent corporate abuses

68. SSA - Social Security Act
• to combat poverty among
senior citizens
• provided income to retired
wage earners
• funded by current wage
earners and employers
• ratio of workers to
beneficiaries
• 1940: 159.4
• 2013: 2.8

69. TVA – TN Valley Authority
• Federally owned
corporation
• Developed economy of
Tennessee Valley region
by building dams and
roads
• Largest public provider
of electricity in the
United States

71. USHA- United States Housing Authority 1937
• lent money to construct low-cost housing for
about 650,000 low-income people

72. WPA - Works Progress
Administration
• largest New Deal Agency
• Create as many jobs as
possible as fast as possible
• $5 billion budget
• Construction of libraries,
schools, hospitals, etc.
• Teaching, writing, acting,
producing art and music

73. FDR v. The Supreme Court
• Thought many of
programs were
unconstitutional
• Fireside chat
March, 1937
– S.C. Judges retire at
70
– Increase the size of
the courts
– “Court-Packing”

74. “Sens. Kamala D. Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand, former
congressman Beto O’Rourke, and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg have
all expressed at least an openness to the idea, and the rest are being pushed by liberal
activists to consider it. ”

78. FDR Supporter:
Father Charles Coughlin
• “Roosevelt or Ruin.”
• “The New Deal is Christ's Deal.”
• “If Congress fails to back up the
President in his monetary program,
I predict a revolution in this country
which will make the French
Revolution look silly!”

79. FDR Critic:
Father Charles Coughlin
• National Union for Social Justice
• Considers FDR too friendly to bankers
• Wants a income guarantee, wealth
redistribution, & nationalization
(private gov ownership) of banks
• “We maintain the principle that there
can be no lasting prosperity if free
competition exists in industry.”
• pro-Nazi

80. • FDR not doing enough for elderly
• Townsend Plan
–$200/m for 60+ from the nat’l
sales tax
–Must spend $ w/in 30 days
• Overwhelming support from
people
• FDR based Social Security (SSA) on
this
Critics of FDR: Francis Townsend

81. • Controversial LA gov./US Sen.
• “Every Man a King”; “Share the
Wealth” – none too rich, none too
poor
• Joined with Coughlin & Townsend
to form the Union Party—
presidential hopes
• Assassinated– “God, don't let me
die. I have so much left to do.”
Critics of FDR: Huey Long

84. The Election of 1936