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Unit 13 Notes Rheanne Carbonilla Kaan Period 2 February 4, 2016 Stock Market Boom pg 668 ●
Average price of stocks increased over 40% between May 1928 & Sept. 1929 ­ Trading went from 2­3 million to over 5 million → As many as 10­12 milli. ­
Autumn of 1929, Great Bull market began to fall apart ­
Oct. 21st & 23rd, alarming declines in stock prices “Black Tuesday” ●
Oct. 29th efforts to save the market failed ❏ 16 milli. shares of stock were traded ❏ Stock co. became virtually ❏ Industrial index dropped 43 points ➔ Did not fully recover for over decade Causes of the Depression Lack of Diversification 1.
Lack of diversification in the American Econom​
y ●
Prosperity depended on construction & automobiles (ect…) ➔ In the late 1920s, industries began to decline ❏ Automobiles fell by more than ⅓ in the 1st 9 mos. of 1929 ❏ Newer industries weren’t developed enough to compensate for the decline in other sectors ➢ Such as petroleum, chemicals, plastics Maldistribution of Wealth 2. Maldistribution of purchasing power, which leads to the weakening of consumer demand ●
Industrial & agricult. production increased ➔ Proportion of profits for farmers, workers was to small to create a market for the goods the economy produced ➢ Demand didn’t keep up supply ●
Industries layoffed workers when demand declined & when expanding industries 3.​
​
Credit structure of the economy ●
Small banks were in trouble (Especially those in agricultural econ.) ❏ Customers defaulted on loans ●
Large banks ❏ Some of the nation’s biggest banks invested recklessly in stock markets or making unwise loans Declining Exports pg 669 4. America’s position in international trade ●
Euro. demand for Amer. goods declined ➔ Euro. nations (Germany) was having financial difficulties & couldn’t buy goods overseas ➔ Euro. industry & agricult. were becoming more productive 5.​
​
International debt structure emerged after WWI ●
Euro. econ. was destabilized Unstable International Debt Structure pg 670 ●
Amer. govt. refused to forgive or reduce debts Euro. nations had to pay ➔ Debts & reparations were being paid only by piling up new & greater debts ➔ Amer. protective tariffs made it difficult for them to sell goods in Amer. markets → Began to be default Banking College pg 671 ●
Over 9,000 banks went bankrupt or closed to avoid bankruptcy between 1930­1933 ➔ Led to a nation’s money supply decreased → Decline in purchasing power ●
Manufacturers & merchants began reducing prices ­
Cut back on production ­
Laid off workers Belief in Personal Responsibility pg 672 ●
Increasing # of families were turning to state & local public relief systems ➔ Only served a small # of indigents ➔ In many places reliefs collapsed ❏ Private charities attempted to supplement public relief efforts ➔ Too much to handle ❏ Many public officials believed that an extensive welfare system would undermine the moral fibers of its clients ❖ Breadlines stretched for blocks outside Red Cross & Salvation Army kitchens ❖ People sifted through garbage cans ❖ Traveled in trains from city to city living as nomads “Dust Bowl” pg 674 ●
Beginning of 1930, N. of Texas to the Dakotas experienced a decline in rainfall & increase in heat ­
Continued for a decade & turned farms into fertile deserts ­
Summer temps. averaged over 100 degrees ❖ Dust storms ­ “Black Blizzards” swept across the plains, blotting the sun out & suffocating people and livestock outside “Okies” ●
Farm prices fell so low that few growers made any profit at all on their crops ●
Families from the Dust Bowl were known “Okies” → Most came from Oklahoma ➔ Traveled to CA & other states to find better conditions ➔ Many worked as agricultural migrants African­American Suffering ●
Whites in Southern cities began to demand that all blacks be dismissed from their jobs ❖ An organization called the Black Shirts organized a campaign w/ a slogan, “No Jobs for Niggers Until Every White Man Has a Job!” ­ Atlanta, 1930 ­
Other areas whites used intimidation & violence to drive blacks from jobs ­
1932 over half the blacks in the S. were unemployed ➔ North was found less blatant discrimination, w. little conditions being better ➔ 2 million African Americans were on some form of relief by 1932 Scottsboro Case pg 675 ●
March 1931, 9 black teengers were tken off a freight train in AL & was arrested for vagrancy & disorder ➔ 2 white women who also was riding the train accused them of rape ➢ There was no evidence tht the women were raped at all ●
All white jury in AL convicts all 9 of the boys & were sentenced 8 of them to death ●
All defendants gained their freedom ­ ❏ 4 b/c of paroles ❏ 4 b/c charges were dropped ❏ 1 b/c he escaped ➔ Last of the Scottsboro defendants did not leave prison until 1950 NAACP’s Changing Role ●
NAACP began to work diligently to win position for blacks within the emerging labor movement ­
Supporting the formation of Congress of Industrial Organizations ­
Helping to break down racial barriers within labor unions ➔ More than half a million blacks were able to join the movement Discrimination Against Hispanics pg 676 ●
Most relief programs excluded Mexicans from their rolls or offered them benefits below available to the whites ­
Many had no access to American schools ­
Fewer institutional supports ●
Signs of organized resistance by Mexican Americans themselves (most in CA) ­
Some formed a union of migrant farmworkers ➔ Harsh repression from local growers & public authorities allied w. them prevented organizations from having much impact Japanese American Citizens League pg 677 ●
Japanese Americans encouraged themselves to become more assimilated ➔ Formed the Japanese American Citizens League in 1930 to promote their goals ­
1940 had nearly 6,000 members ●
Chinese Americans continued to work in Chinese­owned laundries & restaurants ­
Going outside of Chinatowns made it difficult to find jobs Popular Disapproval of Women's Employment ●
There was a belief that no women whose husband is employed should accept a job ●
In the 1930’s, Both single & married women worked despite what others said ➔ Need money for themselves or their families Increased Female Employment ●
End of depression, 20% more women were working than had been in the beginning ➔ Few obstacles women faced ❏ Professional opportunities for women declined as more unemployed men moved into professions ­ teaching, social work ❏ Female industrial workers were more likely to be laid off or have wages reduced ●
Largest new group of female workers: Wives & mothers ●
Non professional jobs women held: salesclerks stenographers service positions ●
Black women suffered massive unemployment due to the reduction of domestic service jobs in the South Retreat from Consumerism pg 678 ●
Depression forced many families to retreat from the consumer patterns developed in the 1920s ­
Women preserved their own food & sewed their own clothes for themselves and their families ­
Households began to include more distant relatives ●
Depression declined birth, marriage rates, & divorce rates Depression Values ●
Prosperity & industrial growth helped shape America’s values in the 20’s ­
In response to the Depression many responded to hard times by redoubling their commitment to familiar ideas & goals Persistence of the “Self Blame” ●
Economic crisis worked to undermine the tradition “success ethic” in America ➔ Many people began to look to the govt. for assistance ­
Many blamed corporate moguls, internat. bankers, “economic royalists” & others for their distress Self Blame ●
Many people became hopeless & blamed themselves on ●
Dale Carnegie’s self­help manual ​
How to Win Friends and Influence People (​
1936) ­
One of the best­selling books in the decade ­
Message was to make people feel important ●
Harry Emerson Fosdick ­ Protestant theologian who preached the virtues of positive thinking & individual initiative ­
Attracted large audiences with his radio addresses “Discovery” of Rural Poverty pg 679 ●
Most effective in conveying the dimensions of poverty was a group of documentary photographers ­
Most employed by the Federal Farm Security Administration in the late 1930s ➢ Traveled through the South recording the life nature of agricultural life ­
Men such as: Roy Stryker, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn ­
Women such as: Margaret Bourke­White, Dorothea Lange ➢ Produced memorable studies of farms & their surroundings Depression Literature ●
Many writers went away from their personal concerns & devoted themselves to exposes of social injustice ●
Erskine Caldwell’s ​
Tobacco Road ​
(1932) ­
Expose of poverty life in the rural South ­
Became a Broadway play ●
Richard Wright ­ African American novelist ­
Wrote ​
Native Son ​
(1940) ➔ Exposed the plight of the residents in urban ghetto Radio’s Impact pg 680 ●
Radio provided Americans w/ their 1st direct access to important public events, radio news, & sports divisions grew rapidly to meet the demand ●
Some of the most dramatic moments of the 1930s were a result of radio coverage of celebrated events ❏ World Series ❏ Major college football games ❏ Academy awards ❏ Political conventions/inaugurations ➢ Radio was important for how it drew the nation together by creating the possibility to share experiences & access to culture & information John Dos Passos pg 681 ●
John Dos Passos’s ​
U.S.A t​
rilogy (1930­1936) ­ Attacked what he considered materialistic madness of American culture ●
Nathanael West’s ​
Miss Lonelyhearts ​
(1933) ­ Story about an advanced columnist overwhelmed by the sadness he in the lives of those who consults him popular front??????????? Spanish Civil War pg 682 ●
War in Spain pitted the fascists of Francisco Franco against the existing rep. party ­
Attracted a substantial group of Americans → More than 3,000 in all ➔ Formed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade & traveled to Spain to join in fight against the fascists ●
Ernest Hemingway ­ Correspondent in Spain, wrote novel ​
For Whom the Bell Tolls ​
(1940) ●
Communist Party ­ was active in organizing the unemployed in the early 1930s ­
Staged a hunger march in DC in 1931 ­
Party was virtually alone among political organizations in taking a firm stand in favor of social justice ­
Party members were the most effective union organizers in some industries ●
American Communist Party ­ Was under close supervision of the Soviet Union ­
Leaders took their orders from the Comintern in Moscow Southern Tenant Farmers Union pg 684 ●
Southern tenant farmers union supported by party & organized by a young socialist H. L, Mitchell ●
H.L. Mitchell attempted to create a biracial coalition of sharecroppers, tenant farmers, & and others to demand economic reform → Neither the STFU nor the party itself, made any real progress toward establishing socialism as a force in American politics The Grapes of Wrath pg 685 ●
The most successful chronicler was the novelist John Steinbeck ●
The Grapes of Wrath (1939) ­
Telling the story of the Joad family ­
Migrants from the Dust Bowl to CA ­
Encountered an unending string of calamities and failures → He offered a harsh portrait of the exploitive features of the agrarian life in the west, but also a tribute Failure of Voluntarism pg 686 ●
Hoover’s first response to the Depression was to attempt to restore public confidence in the economy ●
“The fundamental business of this country, that is, production and distribution of commodities” he said in 1930 ­
“Is on a sound and prosperous basis” → He summoned leaders of business, labor, and agriculture to the White House & urged them to adopt a program of voluntary cooperation for recovery Agricultural Marketing Act ●
April 1929, Hoover proposed the Agricultural Marketing Act ­ est. the first major government program to help farmers maintain prices ●
Federally sponsored Farm Board would make loans to national marketing cooperatives ­
Establish corporations to buy surpluses and thus raise prices ●
Hoover attempted to protect American farmers from international competition by raising agricultural tariffs Hoover’s Declining Popularity ●
Spring 1931 Hoover’s political position had deteriorated considerably ●
1930 congressional elections, Democrats won control of the House and made substantial inroads in the Senate by promising increased government assistance to the economy ­
Democrats urged the president to support more vigorous programs of relief and public spending → Shantytowns that unemployed people established on the outskirts of cities were called “Hoovervilles” Reconstruction Finance Corporation ●
January 1932 bill passed establishing the RFC, a government agency whose purpose was to provide federal loans to ❏ Banks ❏ Railroads ❏ Other businesses ●
It made funds available to local governments to support public works projects and assist relief efforts ­
Unlike earlier Hoover programs it operated on a large scale Farmers’ Holiday Association pg 687 ●
Endorsed the withholding of farm products from the market­­ in effect a farmers’ strike ­
Began in August in western Iowa ­
Spread briefly to a few neighboring areas, and succeeded in blockading several markets, but in the end it dissolved in failure Demise of the Bonus Army pg 688 ●
Dwight D. Eisenhower greatly exceeded the president’s orders ●
He led the Third Cavalry (under the command of George S. Patton) ❏ Two infantry regiments ❏ A machine­gun detachment ❏ Six tanks down Pennsylvania Avenue in pursuit of the Bonus Army → The veterans fled in terror FDR Nominated pg 689 ●
As the 1932 presidential election approached, few people doubted the outcome ●
The Republican Party dutifully renominated Herbert Hoover for a second term of office ­
The gloomy atmosphere of the convention made it clear that few delegates believed he could win ●
The Democrats gathered in Chicago to nominated the governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1932 Election ●
November to the surprise of no one, Roosevelt won by a landslide ­
He received 57.4 percent of the popular vote to Hoover's 39.7 ●
Hoover carried Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Main ­
Roosevelt won everything else ●
Democrats won majorities in both houses of Congress Banking Crisis ●
In February, a month before the inauguration, a new crisis developed when the collapse of the American banking system suddenly and rapidly accelerated ●
Depositors were withdrawing their money in panic: and one bank after another was closing its doors and declaring bankruptcy →
Hoover again asked Roosevelt to give prompt public assurances that there were would be no tinkering with the currency, no heavy borrowing, no unbalancing to the budget