Effects and Influences of the
Great Depression and
World War II
in Georgia
SS8H8 THE STUDENT WILL ANALYZE THE IMPORTANT EVENTS
THAT OCCURRED AFTER WWI AND THEIR IMPACT ON
GEORGIA.
SS8H9 THE STUDENT WILL DESCRIBE THE IMPACT OF WWII ON
GA’S DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICALLY, SOCIALLY, AND
POLITICALLY.
The 1920's were a
prosperous time
known as the Roaring
Twenties, the Jazz
Age, and the Age of
Wonderful Nonsense.
It was a PARTY!
There were many
different and
interesting things that
occurred during the
1920s in America.
Who Am I?
Prohibition
• In 1919, the 18th Amendment
passed the Act of
Prohibition, which made the
making, transportation, and
the selling of alcohol illegal.
• The intent of the Amendment
was to lower the crime rate
and to improve the general
way of life, but the opposite
happened.
• Numerous illegal bars called
Speak Easies were created
Gangsters profited
during this decade by
smuggling alcohol and
distributing it to
different illegal
businesses.
Al Capone from
Chicago was one of
these gangsters.
He made $105 million a
year smuggling
alcohol.
Boom of the roaring 20’s
New inventions and lifestyle improvements:

Ford Assembly, Home radios

Buying on credit makes life a little easier and more convenient

New “convenient foods” were now being frozen and packaged

Many things were now delivered to you: milk, butter, ice for the
new ice box, even your doctor made house calls

Electricity becomes readily available, as well as electric
appliances, including the radio which becomes very popular

Gas ranges replaced coal and wood stoves so cooking becomes
easier and quicker

The assembly line becomes a popular method for manufacturing
Well-known inventions
of the decade included:
PROGRESS for Women
• Women received the right to vote by the 19th Amendment
• Women became more assertive (WWI helped).
• They took the same jobs as men, but still fought for
equality in the workplace.
Men took their fashion ideas from the sports or gangster heroes
of the day. Men wanted to appear “dapper”: baggy pants,
polished shoes, and a handkerchief.
They wore the new flapper style of clothing. Flappers were
considered reckless rebels (short sleek hair, shorter shift
dress, wore make-up and put it on in public).
Meanwhile back
in Georgia……
Georgia’s economic problems of the 1920’s
While the rest of the country was enjoying the
boom of the 1920’s Georgia was suffering
from an early depression era due to:

Boll weevil (1915-1923)- small long-snouted beetle that destroys cotton
(the primary cash crop) and cut production by over 75%

Major Droughts starting in 1924- ruins most of Georgia’s other crops

Farmers move out of Georgia

Banks fail and lose money- since many farmers could not pay back loans
due to their crop losses, many banks and farm-related businesses close

Georgians had to rebuild, diversify crops and production, reinvent
economy
The (evil) Boll Weevil
Herbert Hoover was
President of the United
States from 1928-1932.
He was a millionaire
businessman and a
successful public
official. Seven months
after becoming
president the stock
market crashed and
the Great Depression
began.
Causes of the Great Depression
 Behind
most of the causes are the
overindulgences of the 1920’s
 People borrowed more money than they
could afford to repay
 Banks and businesses then did not get
repaid from individuals
 Factories and farmers overproduced
and sales slowed due to excess supplies
Causes Continued
Crop prices declined due to overproduction
 Surplus supplies caused new production to
slow down which then lead companies to
lay off workers (unemployment rises to 25%)
 High tariffs prevent international trading to
grow, other countries had trouble repaying
WWI debts
 Huge losses from stock market speculation
and the crash of the market
 Black Tuesday: Oct. 29, 1929

Widespread
Unemployment
of the Great
Depression
GA Stories: The Great Depression (7:30)
Banks Collapse

Banks closed for many
reasons:
 Losses from lack of
loan repayment
 Bad investments in
the stock market by
bank executives
 Too many depositors
wanting their $
cashed out at the
same time
 “run on the bank”
 Millions still lost their
savings
The Great Depression
Laissez- faire
The economy
would work itself
out
People
borrowed more
$ than they
could repay
Run on the
banks- everyone
tried to withdraw
their $
Market Crashespeople find out
stocks are not
worth what they
are selling for
Stock market
speculation by
people and banks
that purchased
stocks on margin
Factories over
produced and
could not sell
the inventory
Businesses lost
money and laid
off workers
High tariffs left
foreign countries
unable to sell to the
US which prevented
them from making $
to pay off war debt
Farmers also
overproduced
= surplus crops
and prices fell
then farmers
could not
repay debts
New Deal (1932)
 Programs
created by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt to focus on “the three R’s”
1) Relieve the suffering of unemployment;
2) Recovery of the economy to normal levels
3) Reform of the financial system to prevent
a repeat depression
 Passed
by Congress in the early days of
Roosevelt’s presidency
 First move was to close all banks and only
reopen those that were found “sound”
after an investigation (Emergency Banking
Act)
New Deal Cont.
 There
were so many agencies that
his administration became known as
“government by alphabet”; see the
slides below on CCC, AAA, REA,
and Social Security (Alphabet Soup)
 Many
of the programs were later
declared unconstitutional
 Ultimately
did not end the
depression or end unemployment
Civilian Conservation Corps

Most popular New Deal
program

Provided jobs for young
single men 18-25

Focused projects like
building trails and roads in
parks, planting trees to
reforest and control flooding,
update forest fire fighting
methods, and built public
roadways in remote areas

GA projects included
Kennesaw National
Battlefield, Tybee Island’s
seawall, Macon’s and St.
Simon’s airports, and facilities
at FDR Park in Pine Mt.

Built by the CCC,

Pine Mountain, GA; FDR state park
Agricultural Adjustment Act

Created to stabilize crop
prices

Gave government
money grants (subsidies)
to farmer in exchange
for letting their fields go
unplanted

Hurt tenant farmers who
did not own the land but
worked it for the owners
(no crop = no income)
(May 28) Appearing before the
House Agricultural Committee
today, Secretary of Agriculture
Henry A. Wallace flatly endorsed
the proposed Agricultural
Adjustment Act of 1937
Roosevelt and REA:
Rural Electrification Act

REA loaned money to farmer’s
cooperatives to help them
afford to extend power lines
and buy wholesale power

This allowed farmers to now use
electric farm equipment (water
pumps, milking machines,
lights, and appliances)

Idea born from Roosevelt’s stay
in Warm Springs, GA.

His electric bill for the cottage
was more than that of his NY
mansion.

GA Stories: REA (10:57)
Chickamauga Dam and powerhouse.
Part of the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) power.
Social Security

Created in 1935

System of retirement and
unemployment insurance
(payments)

Designed to help relieve the
suffering of the poor and
unemployed

Originally most women and
minorities were excluded from
benefits

Today it serves as a social
insurance assistance program
for retirement, disability,
survivorship, death, and social
welfare programs
Meanwhile back in
Georgia…….
Richard Russell

Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.

November 2, 1897 – January 21, 1971

Georgia House of Representatives from 1921-1931

Governor from 1931-1933

Senator from GA 1933 until his death in 1971, where he was on
many important and influential Senate committees

He was the driving force that help create military bases in GA

He favored strong military preparedness and states’ rights

Combined the State Colleges and Universities into one Group

Advised 6 presidents
Eugene Talmadge

Became Governor in 1933, was very popular with
farmers and served two consecutive terms
(compared himself to Tom Watson!)

Served a 3rd term as Governor in 1940
(terms=2 years) and again in 1946 (but died)

Conservative, white supremacist that had the
support of the rural voters

Rejected many of the New Deal programs, used
the funding for roads rather than to help
unemployed

Did not like federal government intervention in
state affairs: opposed government debt, welfare
programs, relief efforts, and federal assistance.

Reduced GA property taxes, utility rates, and some
license fees

Replaced dissenters (who disagreed with him) with
supporters using Marshall Law

Blocked integration programs in schools = loss of
accreditation for GA universities
Ellis Arnall

Defeated Talmadge for Governor in 1942

Took office in 1943 (what was happening in
the world at this time?)

First GA Governor to serve a 4 year term
(under a Constitutional Amendment passed
under Talmadge – ironic?)

Restored Georgia university accreditation

Separated university and prison systems to
be independent from Governor control

Eliminated the poll tax

Helped design a new GA constitution (1945)

Designed the law that 18 year olds could
vote (if you could be drafted – you should
be able to vote!)

Georgia was the first state with this law
Back on the World Stage …..
Shifting World Powers

Increasing tension in Europe from the world’s economic
depression and the rise of dictator power creates an unstable
and volatile situation

Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Emperor
Hirohito in Japan, and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union were
all trying to expand their power and territory

Germany invaded the Rhineland, Czechoslovakia and
Poland; Italy invaded the African nations of Ethiopia and then
Albania; Japan seized coastal areas of China; the Soviet Union
took Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and invaded Finland

Hitler and Stalin signed a “nonaggression pact” in 1939

Finally, England and France stopped their appeasement and
in September of 1939 they declared war and mobilized troops
U.S. Enters the Global War

The United States tries to stay out of the war overseas with
a policy of isolationism

Congress passed neutrality acts

Allowed the president to sell weapons to any warring
nation

Lend-Lease Act- in 1941 when the Allied Powers ran out of
cash Congress authorized the president to lend or lease
arms to them (included lend-lease aid to the Soviets too)

Roosevelt provided escorts for shipments and built bases in
Greenland and Iceland to make sure supplies got through,
(this also helped the U.S. keep track of German
submarines)
Pearl Harbor:
“A Day that Will Live in
Infamy” President Roosevelt







Japan was unhappy that the U.S. stopped exporting
metals, airplanes, aircraft parts, and gasoline/oil to them
Japan had already invaded Indonesia to capture badly
needed oil
It was a quiet Sunday morning, December 7, 1941 when
the Japanese planes filled the skies over Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii
In only two hours of bombing all 8 battleships stationed
there were destroyed or badly damaged
2,402 people were killed, over 1,282 were wounded, and
188 planes destroyed
On December 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan
and we entered WWII
Public support of isolationism ended
USS Arizona, Photo from the National Archives
Georgia helps war effort
Military bases

Georgia’s economy takes off
during the war due to the needs
and support necessary to sustain
the military bases


Aircraft and Ships

Georgia’s politicians influence
the location of these bases in
their home state
In Marietta, the B-29 bombers
were produced by Bell Aircraft
Company, by the end of the war
they had built 668 planes and
employed over 28,000

Ft. Benning in Columbus; Camp
Gordon in Augusta; Ft. Stewart in
Savannah; Warner Robins near
Macon; Glynco Naval Air station
near Brunswick; Ft. McPherson
and Ft. Gillem in Atlanta
In the port shipyards of Brunswick
and Savannah “Liberty ships”
were built and assembled, 99 in
Brunswick and 88 in Savannah

The shipyards employed more
than 30,000 Georgians, many of
whom were women
B-29 Bomber
With the men at war,
women went into the
workplace
Liberty Shipyard
Carl Vinson“Father of two-ocean Navy”

He served 25 consecutive 2 yr. terms
representing GA in the U.S. House of
Representatives (1914-1965)

He was the chairman of the House
Naval Affairs/Armed Services committee
and therefore he influenced legislation
for a strong national defense

Help promoted the countries military
readiness prior to the war, which resulted
in increasing naval aviation to 10,000
planes and 20 new bases

Helped loosen labor restrictions which
fostered ship production

Received the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 1964, and has an aircraft
carrier named for him.
The Holocaust

The systematic state
sponsored murder of
between eleven to
seventeen million people
by the Nazis during WWII

This genocide included the
deaths of many of the
Jews of Europe, gypsies,
Soviet prisoners,
homosexuals, people with
disabilities, and other
political and religious
opponents
Auschwitz concentration camp,
arrival of Hungarian Jews,
Summer 1944,
(German Federal Archive)
President Roosevelt in GA



Franklin D. Roosevelt
frequented Warm
Springs, to help
relieve the discomfort
in his legs from polio
He had arrived at the
end of March 1945 to
rest, however on April
12th, he complained
of a bad headache
and later died of a
massive stroke
An entire nation
mourned the loss
FDR’s the Little White House,
Warm Springs, GA
Review:





Georgia is in a depression before the rest of the
country
The world falls into a Great Depression
Roosevelt tries to help the unemployed with his
New Deal
War envelopes the world once again with WWII
and the U.S. is drawn in when Japan bombs
Pearl Harbor
Because industry and manufacturing had
boomed during WWII, by the end of the 1940’s,
more Georgians would be engaged in
manufacturing than in agriculture for the first
time in the state’s history.