APUSH
Chapter 34: The Great Depression and the New Deal
The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, 1928
• Herbert Hoover won the election of 1928 in a landslide.
• The Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 - intended to be a mild tariff, but
Congress tacked on several amendments, turning it into a bill that
raised the tariff to 60%.
• This was the nation's highest protective tariff during peacetime.
Herbert Hoover
The Great Crash Ends the Golden Twenties
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The stock market crashed in October 1929.
On "Black Tuesday" of October 29, 1929, millions of stocks were sold in a panic.
As a result of the crash, millions lost their jobs and thousands of banks closed.
This crash led to the Great Depression.
Hooked on the Horn of Plenty
• One of the main causes of the Great Depression - overproduction by farms and
factories.
• Over-expansion of credit also contributed to the depression.
• A drought scorched the Mississippi Valley, causing thousands of farms to be sold.
• Hoovervilles: a nickname for tin-and-paper shantytowns.
Hoover Battles the Great Depression
• President Hoover convinced Congress to allocate $2.25 billion for useful public works. (ex:
the Hoover Dam)
• Hoover opposed any projects that he viewed as "socialistic."
• Congress passed the Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act in 1932 - outlawed anti-union
contracts and barred federal courts from stopping strikes, boycotts, and peaceful picketing.
Routing the Bonus Army in Washington
• WWI Veterans - The "Bonus Expeditionary Force" (BEF) demanded
that Congress fully pay their deferred bonuses early (not supposed
to get until 1945)
• President Hoover sent in the army to evacuate the group. Negative
publicity for Hoover.
FDR: Politician in a Wheelchair
• Franklin D. Roosevelt - good public speaker. Called for a balanced budget
and social and economic reforms.
• FDR's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, very active her husband's political career.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Presidential Hopefuls of 1932
• Democrat FDR supported a New Deal for the
"forgotten man."
• Republican Herbert Hoover - reaffirmed faith
free enterprise and individualism.
Hoover's Humiliation in 1932
• Franklin Roosevelt won
• Blacks became a vital part of the Democratic Party, especially
in the urban centers of the North.
• FDR maintained S. Democrats as well
FDR’s Coalition
• Northern Liberals
• African Americans
• Western Farmers
• Women
• Southern Democracts (Dixiecrats)
• Blue Collar Workers
• FDR – Master politician, maintained many different
factions without fracturing the party.
FDR and the Three R's: Relief, Recovery,
Reform
• March 6-10, Roosevelt’s “Banking Holiday”
• The Hundred Days Congress/Emergency Congress
• Relief, Recovery, and Reform - Many of the programs
declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
• Embraced progressive ideas
“It is common sense to
take a method and try it.
If it fails, admit it frankly
and try another. But
above all, try
something.”
~ FDR
Roosevelt Manages the Money
• Emergency Banking Relief Act of 1933, gave the President power to regulate
banking transactions
• “Fireside Chats" - soothed the public's confidence in banks.
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) with the Glass-Steagall
Banking Reform Act. Insured individual bank deposits
Creating Jobs for the Jobless
• FDR attempted to create jobs with federal money
A Day for Every Demagogue
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Despite New Deal efforts, unemployment continued to plague the nation.
Father Charles Coughlin preached anti-New Deal speeches over the radio.
Senator Huey P. Long - "Share Our Wealth" program
Dr. Francis E. Townsend - each citizen over the age of 60 would receive $200 a
month.
A Day for Every Demagogue
• Congress passed the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935 - providing
employment for useful projects (i.e. the construction of buildings, roads, etc.).
• Taxpayers criticized the agency for paying people to do "useless" jobs such as
painting murals.
Helping Industry and Labor
• Women begin holding jobs in the federal government (Frances Perkins)
• National Recovery Administration (NRA) - "fair" business practices
• The NRA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935 (Schechter
vs. United States)
• Congress repealed prohibition with the 21st Amendment in late 1933 raise federal revenue and provide employment.
Paying Farmers Not to Farm
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
attempted to reduce crop surpluses.
• The AAA unconstitutional in 1936, stating
that its taxation programs were illegal.
• Exclusively taxed businesses processing farm
products.
• Replaced in 1938.
Dust Bowls and Black Blizzards
• Late in 1933, the Dust Bowl struck many states in the trans-Mississippi
Great Plains. It was caused by drought, wind, and over-farming of the land.
• Suspension of foreclosures on farms for 5 years in 1934
• Struck down by SCOTUS in 1935
Battling Bankers and Big Business
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) created in 1934. It
provided oversight of the stock market.
Joseph P. Kennedy – First
Chairman of the SEC
TVA Harnesses the Tennessee
• Electric-power industry accused of charging too much for electricity.
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) designed to construct dams on the Tennessee Riverto
provide cheap electricity.
• Conservatives limited the TVA-style of management to the Tennessee Valley.
Housing and Social Security
• Laws passed to give loans to homeowners
for the purpose of improving their homes
and to lend money to states for low-cost
housing developments.
• The Social Security Act of 1935 provided
federal-state unemployment insurance.
A New Deal Labor
• National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner
Act) to help labor unions.
• Unskilled workers began to organize under
leadership from John L. Lewis.
• The Committee (later Congress) for Industrial
Organization (CIO) in 1935. The CIO led a
series of strikes, including the sit-down strike
at the General Motors automobile factory in
1936.
First convention
of the CIO 
Landon Challenges "the Champ"
• Election of 1936 (Alfred Landon against FDR)
• FDR had support from those that had benefited from the New Deal programs
– easily reelected.
Nine Old Men on the Bench
• The Supreme Court - attempted to stop
many of the "socialistic" New Deal
programs.
• Four Horsemen
• FDR argued that the Supreme Court needed
to get in line with public opinion -1937
Court-packing plan.
• Faced with negative backlash
The Twilight of the New Deal
• After First New Deal (1933-1937),
unemployment still ran high and recovery had
been slow. Another economic downturn
(1937).
• Keynesianism Economics: government money
is used to "prime the pump" of the economy
• Deficit Spending
John Maynard Keynes
New Deal or Raw Deal?
• Opponents of the New Deal charged the
President of spending too much money on his
programs.
• The Federal government became much more
powerful under FDR.
• The New Deal did not end the depression; it
just gave temporary relief to citizens.
• Not until World War II and after was the
unemployment problem solved.
• FDR - Hamiltonian in that he supported big
government and Jeffersonian in that he
supported the "forgotten man."
Historians and the New Deal
David M. Kennedy
Alan Brinkley