1932-1939 USA

1. Great Depression
Causes and Consequences
1929-1939

2. Black Tuesday
• October 29, 1929:
• Stock Market Crash
marked beginning of
Great Depression
• Over inflated stock
values driven by
Buying on Margin

3. • Causes of Great Depression
• tariffs and war debt policies cut worldwide
consumption of USA goods (Hawley-Smoot
Tariff)
• USA Farming industry having economic
problems
• Availability of easy credit /
• BUYING Stocks ON MARGIN
• Unequal distribution of income – more money
reached the rich and less to the poor

4. Consequences of Great
Depression
• Banks and
Businesses Collapse
• 11,000 of the USA’s
25,000 banks closed

5. Stock ticker

7. Consequences of Great
Depression
• Unemployment
skyrockets during the
G.D.
• Unemployment
reached 30%

9. The Great Depression (1929-1941)

10. Bread Lines and Soup Kitchens
feed millions of jobless hungry
Americans

11. Question
• What were the four worst years of
unemployment during the Great
Depression
• See next slide for the answer

13. Hoovervilles
• Evicted from
their homes,
many Americans
lived in shabbily
built houses
made of
discarded wood
and trash.

14. Herbert Hoover
Seemed to
be
UNCARING
Great
Depression
Starts in
1929
Attacked the
BONUS
ARMY
Veterans
RESULT:
HOOVER Loses the election of 1932
to FDR

15. Farm Families hit especially hard
during the Depression
• What was the DUST
BOWL ?
• Area of the American
midwest whose
topsoil eroded and
caused huge clouds
of dust to form
• Farmers from this
area often left for
California
• “OKIES”

16. DUST BOWL
• WHAT STATES were
a part of the DUST
BOWL?
• See page: 680
• New Mexico, Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas,
Colorado
• How many states
suffered damage?
• 12-13

17. Dust Bowl (page 680)
• How far away was
dust of the Dust Bowl
reported to have been
carried?
• 500 miles off the East
Coast
• How many states
were covered by Dust
in 1934’s dust storm?
• 19-20

20. No Food Stamps

22. There was no WIC program

23. No Social Security

24. No Section 8 Housing Projects

25. No Governmental Assistance

26. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931
They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right 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?
Once I built a railroad, I 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, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

27. Once in khaki suits, gee we
looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging
through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say, don't you remember, they called
me Al; it was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember, I'm your
pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits, gee we
looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging
through Hell,
And 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?

28. President Hoover
--Hoover was president at
the start of the Great
Depression
--Hoover caught most of
the blame

29. Hoover / F.D. Roosevelt

30. President Hoover blamed
• HOOVER’s Reaction to Great
Depression
• no direct relief = no cash
payments or food directly to
the needy / Hoover favored
“rugged individualism” and no
Federal welfare program
• indirect relief = urge
cooperation among business
leaders / help to charities but
not directly to the poor
• GOVT Sponsored GOVT
Projects: eg., HOOVER DAM

31. • Steps taken by
Hoover to end the
Depression
• Federal Home Loan
Bank Act
• Reconstruction
Finance Committee
• ---both too little too
late

32. • HOOVER
UNPOPULAR WITH
USA PUBLIC –
LOSES 1932 election
to FDR -
• Not visibly active
enough to stop the
Depression
• uses ARMY to break
up BONUS ARMY

33. BONUS ARMY
• Hoover’s did
not respond to
outcry for
DIRECT
RELIEF from
the government
• Bonus Army
dispersed at tip
of a bayonet
seemed to
show is dislike
for common
people.

35. Hoover takes cautious action
• Calls a meeting of business leaders to
voluntarily avoid worker layoffs and to not
lower wages.

37. Hoover’s Actions: too little too late
• Hoover Dam construction
• Federal Home Loan Act: lower mortgages
and stop foreclosures on farms and
homes
• Reconstruction Finance Corp: emergency
$$ for businesses, banks, other
employers..

38. FDR wins election of 1932

39. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s
New Deal
•3 r’s
•Relief
•Recovery
•Reform

40. New Deal = FDRs Plan
• Govt Programs to end Great Depression
• ALPHABET Soup of Programs
–AAA
–CCC
–FDIC
–NRA
–SEC
–TVA

41. The first 100 days FDR moved to
provide. . .
• Relief: Provide
immediate help to
poor and unemployed
• Recovery: bring
business back from
bankruptcy
• Reform: install
economic changes
that would prevent
future economic
depressions

42. FDR’s Fireside Chats
• FDR would explain
New Deal efforts to
the public
• built confidence in
the New Deal
• FDR was 1st
president to use the
radio

43. FDR’s plan for the Great
Depression
• Glass Steagall Banking Act: established
the (FDIC) – Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation/ Insured deposits up to $
2500.00
• (SEC) Security and Exchange
Commission: to police the stock market
• (FTC) Federal Trade Commission: police
up corporations.
• Banking Act: federal control of Banks

44. Banks regulated by FDR
• Bank Holiday All
banks close for four
days while Federal
Inspectors evaluated
the banks as strong,
wavering, or
hopeless.
• Emergency
Banking Act gave
US govt. power to
regulate banks

45. Alphabet Soup of recovery
agencies
• CWA – Civil Works Administration federal
effort provided work for over 4 million people:
building or cleaning roads, dams, parks,
schools, etc..

46. FDR’s New Deal
• (CCC) Civilian
Conservation Corps:
employment for
500,000 men in
making parks, road
construction, etc..

47. TVA
• (TVA) Tennessee
Valley Authority:
federal effort to build
dams and electrify
impoverished South

48. Alphabet Soup of Reforms

49. FDR’s NEW DEAL
• Unlike Hoover, FDR
called for direct relief
of Americans.
• MASSIVE
government
intervention in
business, banking,
and individuals’
economic situations.

50. NRA: National Recovery
Administration
• Regulated industry
• Set working
conditions and
ended child labor
• Allowed Unions

52. Social Security Act
• Social Security Act:
provided old age
benefits, disability,
unemployment

53. WPA
• WPA – Works
Progress
Administration: work
relief projects such as
highway construction,
flood control, flood
control, education,
health, etc..

58. New Deal Critics
• Critics of FDR fell into
two categories
• 1. those who thought
he did not do enough
• 2. those who thought
he did too much
• HUEY LONG
• Share-Our-Wealth
Plan

59. New Deal Critic: Father Coughlin
and Dr. Townsend
• Radio priest wanted
to nationalize banks
• Townsend wanted to
give ALL unemployed
persons over 60 $200
per month pension

60. American Liberty League
• Critics of FDR who thought he was
interfering with the free market place too
much

61. What was the Court Packing
Scheme?
• Supreme Court had
struck down some of
FDR’s NEW DEAL
programs
• FDR tried to “reform”
the court.
• Add justices
• Create an age
requirement
• Show: http://www.learn360.com/ShowVideo.aspx?
ID=479647

62. FDR ‘s Court Packing Scheme

68. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip
Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)
They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I
followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was
always there right 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?
Once I built a railroad, I 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, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and
lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you
spare a dime?

69. Once in khaki suits, gee we
looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly
Dum,
Half a million boots went
slogging through Hell,
And I was the kid with the
drum!
Say, don't you remember, they
called me Al; it was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember, I'm your
pal? Buddy, can you spare a
dime?

70. Once in khaki suits, gee
we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee
Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went
slogging through Hell,
And 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?