Simon Leek
Unit 13
Feb 2017
493 Causes of Great Depression (GD)
● Wall Street Crash
○ Stock market had been rising in 20s
○ Crashes in 1929
● Black Thursday
○ People sold like crazy on thurs, investors spent a bunch of $, kept market alive
for friday, monday people sold again, ​Black Tuesday
○ Stocks decrease for years following
● Causes of Crash
○ Wage gap
○ Too much stock market speculation
■ Investing to make $ not to be part of company
○ Advertising => high credit
○ 494 Overproduction
■ Poor, unsuccessful farms
○ Pro-US tariffs hurt farmers + int trade
● 495 Effects
○ Long, horrible (didn’t end until 1939)
○ Income of nation declined by > 50%
○ Unemployment crazy high
○ Esp tough for those (like farmers, AA) who never made $$$ from the 20s
● 496 Hoover’s Policies
○ Hoover slow to act, cautious
■ Public help should come from local gov, not fed
● Responding to Worldwide Depression
○ US depression hit rest of world
○ Hoover signs the ​Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)
■ Highest tariffs ever
■ Businesses wanted protection from foreign comp
● Euro countries just raised tariffs on US products
● Tariff War
○ Less trade between nations, bad for world
○ Debt Moratorium
■ Hoover asked for a suspension of war debt payment
● France messes it up
● Loan defaults all over the world
497 Domestic Programs
● Fed Farm Board
○ Hold surplus goods in storage
●
■ not big enough to help w overproduction
Reconstruction Finance Corp
○ Gov $ to help save key businesses
Despair and Protest
● 1932 ​unrest in farmers/unemployed
○ Farm Holiday Assoc tried to bring prices up by not bringing grain to market
● Bonus March
○ WWI vets w/out jobs march to DC for the $ promised to them by 1945
○ Hoover uses army after police incident
■ Tanks and tear gas on vets made Hoover look bad
The Election of 1932
● 498 Democrats nominate FDR
○ “New Deal”
■ X prohibition
■ Aid for unemployed
■ X extra gov spending
○ Big time win for FDR
○ 20th Amendment (​ lame-duck amendment) pushed inaugation from March to January
FDR’s New Deal
● Related to TR, but a dem not a repub
● 499 Had polio since 1921
○ Gov of NY 1928
○ Married to Eleanor Roosevelt (very active first lady)
● New Deal Philosophy
○ Three R’s
■ Relief (​unemployed)
■ Recovery (​for businesses)
■ Reform (​ of econ inst)
○ Had a brain trust help in policy creation
● The First Hundred Days
○ Bank Holiday-​closed banks 1933 and told people it was to reorganize
○ Repeal of Prohibition
■ Beer Wine Revenue Act
■ 21st Amendment
○ Fireside Chats
■ FDR talking to public
● Ensuring safety of reopened banks
○ Financial recovery programs
■ Emergency Banking Relief Act-gov can examine finances of banks, decide if
safe
■ Fd Deposit Insurance Corp-people can deposit $5,000 insured by gov
■ Home Owners Loan Corp-refinancing of homes (x Foreclosures)
■ Farm Credit Admin-low interest farm loans (x Foreclosures on farms)
○ Relief for the unemployed
■ Fed Emergency Relief Admin-fed $ for soup kitchens + other relief
■ 501 Public Works Admin-fed money to state govs to build things
● Created a lot of jobs
■ Civilian Conservations Corps-fed $ to young men + their families
● biracial
■ Tennessee Valley Authority-public works stuff in TN Valley creating power and
selling it for cheaper
○ Industrial recovery program
■ Nat Recovery Admin-worked to create fair wages+hours
■ SC calls NRA unconst (​Schechter v. U.S.)
○ Farm prod control program
■ Agri Adjustment Admin-paid farmer to produce less
● SC declares unconst
● Other Programs of the First New Deal
○ Civil Works Admin-similar to PWA, temp const projects, paid by gov
○ Securities and Exchange Commission-avoid/predict another crash
○ Fed Housing Admin-insured bank loans for house const work
502 The Second New Deal
● 1934 Moving on from Recovery, FDR set out to work on Relief and Reform
● Relief Programs
○ Works Progress Admin (Harry Hopkins)-​used a ton of fed money to pay people to do
const, art, etc
○ Resettlement Admin- g​ ave loans to poor farmers and made fed housing camps for
migrant farmers
● 503 Reforms
○ 1935 National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)
■ Gave a worker the right to join a union + power of union to bargain
○ Rural Elect Admin-loans for power to be cheaper in country
○ Federal Taxes-income tax increase
■ Tax on parent to child large gifts
■ Capital gains tax-profits from sale
● Social Security Act-​taxes income to be paid bac at a later time
○ +unemployment compensation
● The Election of 1936
○ FDR beats Alf Landon by a crazy amount
○ Dem gain support of AA (first departure from Lincoln rep)
504 Opponents of the New Deal
● Liberals ​attacked the First New Deal for doing to much to help businesses
○ Wanted more aid for unemployed, and an anwer to other liberal agendas
● Conservatives ​said New Deal gave too much power to gov
○ Accusations of socialism, communism
○
Businesses worried about
■ More reg of businesses
■ Help for unions
■ Deficit financing (borrowing $$$ to pay for programs)
American Liberty League 1934
○
Demagogues
● Father Charles Coughlin-​priest founded the National Union for Social Justic
○ Following through radio broadcasts
● Francis Townsend-​proposed a fed sales tax to pay $200 a month to retired people
● 505 Huey Long-​wanted a heavy income tax to fund a minimum income for all people
The Supreme Court
● FDR thought reelection meant he had to get around courts
● Court-reorg plan​- would have let FDR place six new justices
○ Universal dislike, accused of trying to take power for himself
○ Afterwards court upheld const of Wagner Act and Social Security
■ A few justices retired anyway
506 Rise of Unions
● Wagner Act + Nat Ind Recovery Act made Unions legal
○ Membership skyrocketed in 30s
● Formation of the C.I.O
○ AFL was a union Voltron
○ Committee of Ind Orgs were part of AFL and wanted unskilled workers let in
■ Break away, change to Congress of Ind Orgs
● Organized unskilled workers
● Strikes
○ General Motors​ strike in Mich forced comp to recognize United Auto Workers union
○ US Steel ​recognized union, smaller comp didn’t initially
● Fair Labor Standards Act 1938
○ Min wage
○ Max work week 40 hrs
○ Child labor restrict for <16 yr olds
○ SC reversed its decision that prohibiting child labor was unconst
507 Last Phase of New Deal
● Econ began to decline again 1937
○ Causes-​soc security tax meant less spending
■ FDR was pulling some $ for public works (trying to reduce debt)
○ Keynesian Economics​ gov needs to spend above revenue to increase econ growth
■ “Priming the pump”
● Weakened New Deal
○ 1938 congressional elections weakened dem majority
○ Rise of Nazi Germ distracting
508 Life During Depression
● Women
●
●
●
●
○ More women needed to find jobs
○ Received less $ than men
Dust Bowl Farmers
○ Drought killed crops in Great Plains region
○ John Steinbeck
African Americans
○ Racial disc still rampant across US
○ FDR would not pledge support for civil rights issues because he needed white Southerner
democrat votes
○ 509 Improvements
■ New deal employed some AA
■ Eleanor Roosevelt and Sec of Interior supported AA
■ Appointed to pos in FDR admin
■ Fair Employment Practices Committee
● Help minorities get jobs
● A Philip Randolph had threatened march on DC
Native American
○ John Collier worked to expand New Deal to NA
○ Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act 1934
■ Repealed Dawes Act
■ Gave land back to tribes
Mexican Americans
○ White migrant workers moved into mex amer land
■ Discrimination of new deal pol means whites get jobs