The Great Depression Era
- With the Stock Market Crash of 1929, millions of Americans lost their jobs.
- Unemployment averaged 25%
- Cleveland 40% Toledo 80%
- Jobless minorities averaged +45%
*
FDR and the First 100 Days
- 1932 landslide – 57.4% to 39.7% = 472/59
- March 4, 1933 FDR Inaugurated
- Calls special session of Congress
- Goals:
– Recovery of the economy
– Relief for individuals
– Reform of govt. to avoid recurrence
By March ‘33, all banks closed
- Bank Reform – Congress argued for 20 minutes and no one knew what to do.
- March 9th, Emergency Banking Act
- Bank Holiday – close all banks (done!)
- Audits
- Strong banks reopened [3/4 over 3 days]
- $1billion poured back into the banks
- Many hurt from stock market (margins)
National Recovery Administration
- NRA created June 1933
- Bring about stability and recovery in the nations industry and manufacturing
- 1. suspends anti-trust laws
- 2. Industry representatives create “code” to govern practices – standards, wages, no child labor, minimum wage, etc.
- 3. NRA licensed the code
The 3 R’s and alphabet soup
- March 31st, FDR creates CCC
- Civilian Conservation Corps
— one of FDR’s favorite programs
250,000 young men, 18-25, $30/month and part of it went to your dependents
By 1941, over 2 million served
State Parks – retaining walls, bridges, paths, fire pits, picnic tables…..
- May 12th
- FERA created
Federal Emergency Relief Act
— $500 million = ½ to states for direct relief
— Harry Hopkins appointed director
— nation’s unemployment rate, avg. 25%
— Cleveland = 40% Toledo, Ohio = 80%
MORE TO FOLLOW…
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
- May 12th, AAA created
- Eliminate surplus agricultural products
- Stop the cycle = production controls
- Destroyed over 6 million pigs, milk, butter mountains, cotton plowed under
- Interest Group Democracy
- Soil Bank (after Supreme Court said no)
- Headed by Henry Wallace (Iowa)
African-American sharecroppers
*
Tennessee Valley Authority
- TVA
- Multipurpose Organization
- Flood control for Tennessee River farmers
- Produce electricity
- Recreational areas (develop later)
- Electric = consumer durable purchases
- “Priming the pump”
NRA – TVA – AAA
- All were meant to help out public, stabilize economy and recovery will come – BUT, until it does recover,
- Unemployment Relief Program (FERA)
— focused on work relief = govt. job
— good for training
— great for morale
— Harry Hopkins and the “deserving poor”
Harry Hopkins
and the “deserving poor”
- FDR brought him to DC from New York
- All unemployed were deserving (Massive!)
- 25% unemployed rested with banks and industry not the trained workers
- Largest non-military operation the US government has ever undertaken
- Hopkins – one of the greatest administrators in US history
Hopkins
- Firm with authority but in a kind way
- Sense of humor
- Good judge of people – understood people and used people’s skills where best suited
- Demanded honesty – programs fail if not
- Courageous – made the tough decisions and was responsible for them
(can’t please everyone all the time)
Public Works Administration
- Build roads, bridges, public buildings
- White collar – VP’s, writers, artists, etc.
- Works Progress Administration will be a similar offshoot (1935)
- Interest Group democracy
— WPA, AAA, NRA = people voted on their involvement, projects, etc…
Reform
- Bank holiday
- Banking Act of 1933 [Glass-Stegall Act]
— created FDIC to insure deposits ($2500)
— gave Federal Reserve Board more power
separated commercial & investment banking
— banks out of investment business
— restricts use of bank deposits
Securities and Exchange Commission
SEC created 6/6/34
The Second New Deal, 1935
- WPA established – +3 million work by 6/36
- REA – Rural Electrification Administration
— electrify rural areas, leads to elec. co-op’s
National Labor Relations Act (NLRB)
Social Security – govt. insists you save for retirement + opens jobs for younger workers, and primes the pump
Wealth Tax Act – “Soak the Rich Tax” 75%
Limits of Change
New Deal and American women
Expanded presence of women in federal government
Political decline in feminism
Depression-era resistance to women’s employment
Exclusion of blacks from key entitlements of welfare status
Reflection of southern Democrats’ power
Eleanor Roosevelt
Limits continued
Hardships for African-Americans
“Last hired and first fired”
Disproportionate rates of unemployment
Growing black focus on economic survival
“Black Cabinet”
Native American Indians
John Collier
Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
1930s Culture
- Hollywood:
- Bob Hope Marx Brothers Wizard of Oz
- Dick Tracy Superman
- Lone Ranger The Green Hornet
- Marian Anderson – Lincoln Memorial steps
- Communism and HUAC
- House Un-American Activities Committee
- Many intellectuals described hardships.
- Others sought escape, into the past or the future.
- Some described others’ wars and conflicts
- Some documented their personal struggles.
- Many artists were employed by WPA/PWA
American Intellectuals & Culture
- Woody Guthrie
- John Steinbeck “Grapes of Wrath” (1939)
- Aldous Huxley “Brave New World” (1932)
- Pearl Buck “The Good Earth”
- Margaret Mitchell “Gone with the Wind”
- Ernest Hemingway Carl Sandburg
- Thomas Wolfe “Look Homeward Angel,”
- “You Can’t Go Home” (1929 & 1940)
*
Black Sunday, April 1935
April 14, 1935 Texas
1935
Alf (Alfred) Landon
Alf Landon
- Only Republican to win Governor’s seat west of the Mississippi in 1932
- 26th Kansas Governor, 1933-37
- Republican party nominee for President against FDR in 1936
- Landon vs FDR, bad outcome – Landon not only did not win Kansas, he even lost his home county
- Still had close, working relations with FDR
Hi !