THE GREAT DEPRESSION

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THE GREAT DEPRESSION The New Deal

• Chapter 14/15

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The Human Impact of the Great Depression

• Millions of people found themselves jobless,
  homeless, penniless.
• Hungry people lined up at churches soup
  kitchens.
• Many slept on park benches or in makeshift
  shelters (Hoovervilles)

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Conditions

• Thousands of men sneaked onto empty railroad cars
  and road from town to town looking for work.
• Psychological impact
• Suicide rates soared during the 1930s.

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The Human Impact of the Great Depression

• Dust Bowl (caused by severe draught)
• Impact of commercial farming
• Exodusters or Okies uprooted farmers and
  families from the South and Midwest who moved to
  California. (800,000)

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The Human Impact of the Great Depression Culture

• The Golden Age of Radio and Film
• Programming
• 1920s movies radio undermines establishment
  (gangsters)
• 1930s movies radio good guys win effort to
  show struggles of common people return to
  traditional values

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The Hoover Depression Program

• No individual aid from government.
• Wants private sector to solve problem.
• Near the end of his administration he does begin
  limited public works programs (Hoover Dam) and
  lends money to states and financial institutions
  and agricultural coops.
• Cooperation with private sector rather than
  direct government intervention.

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The Bonus Army

• WWI veterans marched on Washington wanted 1945
  bonus (pension) early Congress grants half now,
  half later.
• Bonus Army cleared out by U.S. army

Bonus Army Camp Library of Congress
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The Election of 1932

• 1932 electionFranklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.) beats
  Hoover (FDR uses radio during campaign)

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Restoring Hope

• His upbeat personality communicated joy and hope-
  as did his campaign song, Happy Days Are Here
  Again.
• He was much more flexible and willing to
  experiment than Hoover.
• I pledge myself to a new deal for the American
  people. - FDR

President Roosevelt in Bismarck N.D.
Library of Congress
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Roosevelt RespondsNew Deal

• Two ways to view New Deal radical or
  conservative threat to capitalist system or
  preservation of system
• Does not give in to communism or socialism.
• New Deal is not cohesive, efficient, or well
  organized no overall blueprint.
• Two goals Relief and reform

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The First New Deal(1933-1935)

• First 100 days
• Saving the Banks
• Emergency Banking Act
• 4 day Bank holiday stabilizes system
• Federal Deposit Insurance Commission
• FDRs fireside chats assured banks safety
• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
• Abandons the Gold standard to raise prices
• Ends Prohibition
• SEC (Securities and exchange commission) effort
  to regulate stock and bond market

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The First New Deal(1933-1935)

• Relief for the Unemployed - Government relief
  (welfare) distributed through states

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The First New Deal(1933-1935)

• Relief for the Unemployed
• Work relief Civilian Conservation Corps
• Tennessee Valley Authority

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The First New Deal(1933-1935)

• Planning for Industrial Recovery
• Public Works Administration
• Construct bridges, buildings, tunnels, etc.
• National Recovery Administration (NRA)
• Effort to control wages, forty-hour workweek, end
  child labor, etc.
• Doesnt work well and is eventually found
  unconstitutional by Supreme Court (1935)

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The First New Deal(1933-1935)

• Planning for Agriculture
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
• Lowers production to raise prices
• They attempted to raise commodity prices (and
  thereby farm incomes) by paying farmers to reduce
  crops and herds.
• Farm income increased and federal farm programs
  came to dominate the nations agricultural
  economy.

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Voices of Protest

• Supreme Court rules NRA and AAA unconstitutional
• Industrialist (right)
• Socialists and Communists (Left)
• Father Charles Coughlin, the radio priest
• Huey P. Long from Louisiana
• Share our Wealth program income
  redistribution helped push FDR to Social Security

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A Second New Deal (1935)

• Work Progress Administration (WPA)
• Work relief for the jobless
• Built buildings, airports, schools, etc.
• Creates jobs for writers, artists, historians,
  etc.
• Social Security Act (SSA)
• Pension fund for retired people over the age of
  65
• Unemployment insurance, welfare, etc.
• National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
• Gives workers the right to strike / join unions
• Revenue Act of 1935 (Wealth tax)
• Raised tax rates on the wealthy and corporations

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A New Deal for Women

• Redefined the role of a presidential spouse
• Served as FDRs eyes and ears, as well as his
  conscience.
• Crisscrossed the nation in support of womens
  causes, humanitarian causes, and minority rights.

Eleanor Roosevelt Library of Congress
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Second Administration

• The Election of 1936
• Blacks vote Democrat for 1st time
• FDR pushes through a federal anti-lynching law
• FDR appoints some (few) blacks to public office
• Problems
• Court Packing Plan FDR seen as undermining
  system of checks and balances
• Recession of 1937

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A Second New Deal
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The Decline of the New Deal

• Recession of 1937
• John Maynard Keynes Government can spend its
  way to recovery
• FDR initially ignores this and the economy slumps
• New Deal does not end Great Depression
• WWII would return the American economy to full
  production and full employment by massive
  government spending.
• Foreign affairs begin to consume more of FDRs
  time

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Legacy of the New Deal

• New Deal changes governments role
• The power of the national government greatly
  enlarges.
• Emergence of broker state, mediating among
  interest groups.
• The government has the responsibility to ensure a
  minimum level of well-being for all Americans.

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Significant Events
? 1928 Herbert Hoover elected president
? 1929 Great Crash of stock market
? 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff chokes off world trade
? 1931 Temporary Emergency Relief Administration
? 1932 Reconstruction Finance Corporation created
Bonus Army marches on Washington
? 1933 Roosevelt inaugurated Hundred Days
legislation enacted
? 1934 SEC created
Huey Long organizes Share Our Wealth Society to
redistribute wealth
? 1935 WPA created
? 1937 Roosevelt announces his court-packing plan
? 1939 War in Europe breaks out