The Depression BeginsWhy?
Superficial prosperity in the 20sFarmers & textile workers sufferedWealth distributionBusiness / employee profits
Consumer purchasing powerUnemploymentRampant speculation
Flawed financial systemsGlobal economic issues
World War IFederal Reserve Board
Tightened credit (opposite needed)
Hoover and the Great DepressionAggressive
responseConsulted business
leadersEncouraged public
worksFederal agencies
National Credit Corporation
Emergency Committee for Employment
Tax cutsUltimately failed
Economic DeclineDecline continuedIndustry
Cutbacks, closures, wage reductions, layoffs
Revolution?DespairAlteration of family
life
Global DepressionGerman financial
systemBritain → gold standard“Fall guy”
“Hoovervilles”Public works projectsReconstruction
Financing CorporationHome Financing
CorporationFederal Home Loan
Bank Act of 1932Federal Housing
Administration
The Bonus ArmyWorld War I veteransVeterans’ bonuses (loans)
House / Senate
“Hoovervilles”
Douglas MacArthur
Election of 1932Republicans
Unpopular HooverDemocrats
Franklin RooseveltNew York governorProgressive
Roosevelt’s campaignAmbiguous“New deal”
“Only thing to fear”“Fireside chats”
Roosevelt’s AdvisorsBipartisan
advisorsHarold Ickes:
InteriorHenry Wallace:
AgricultureFrancis Perkins:
LaborInformal “brain
trust”Eleanor Roosevelt
Editorialist SpeechmakerCivil rights?
The Banking CrisisMost pressing
concernTrust?“4-day holiday”Broad Executive
powersBanksStock Market
FDICEconomy Act21st Amendment
Relief MeasuresFederal Emergency
Relief Administration
Civil Works Administration
Public Works Administration
Agricultural Adjustment ActControl production
“Parity prices” – paid not to produce
Beneficial to large farmers
Later, unconstitutional
Industrial RecoveryNational Industrial
Recovery AdministrationRaise prices,
control production, and increase employment
National Recovery Administration
Labor organizationBeneficial to large
businessLater,
unconstitutional
Tennessee Valley AuthorityTheodore
Roosevelt?George Norris (R-
Neb)Flood-control
projectsElectricityLand reclamationDams
Critics of the New DealInitial alleviation of
concernsDepression loomedSocialism?Liberty LeagueCommunismFather Charles E.
CoughlinAnti-Semitic
Huey Long“Share the Wealth”
program
Work Relief and Social Security
WPAUnemployment
reliefSocially useful
projectsConstructionThe “arts”6,000 schools, 2,500
hospitals, 13,000 playgrounds
Social Security Act (1935)Old-Age, survivor,
unemployment insurance
The New Deal for LaborNational Labor Relations Act
Outlawed blacklisting“Right to organize”
American Federation of LaborOmission of farm laborers and
unskilled workersCommittee of Industrial
OrganizationJohn L. LewisAuto & steel workers
Sit-down strikes United Auto Workers
Expelled from AFLCongress of Industrial
Organization
America’s Minorities in the 1930s
Lynching“Scottsboro boys”Emigration to north
Northern ghettosSegregated New Deal
No anti-lynchingNo anti-poll tax”“Black cabinet”Eleanor RooseveltAsiansNative Americans
Indian Reorganization Act
The Election of 1936Republicans
Alf LandonCheap, efficient “new
deal” policies
DemocratsRoosevelt
Democratic SouthOrganized laborFarmersUrban votersAfrican Americans