Chapter 11 The Great Depression & The New Deal

The End of the Roaring 1920s

• The Stock Market Crash was a sign of worst things to come

• Part of the reason for the Stock Market Crash was the buying of great amounts of stock on margin

• By 1927 there were signs the boom was ending

Hoover’s Passive Efforts

• Hoover asked businessmen to maintain wages and layoffs in order to keep purchasing power strong

• By early 1933, 13 million were out of work

Hooverville

Midterm Elections of 1930

• In the 1930 elections the Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives

• Hoover’s critics called his measures “trickle-down” theory

Veterans Protest: The Bonus Expeditionary Force

• The marched on D.C. in an attempt to get immediate payment of a veterans’ bonus that Congress had approved in 1924

• Hoover sent the U.S. Army to evict them from their Hooverville

The Election of 1932• Republicans nominated

Hoover again, but were not that hopeful

• Democrats nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt

• FDR’s campaign song was “Happy Days Are Here Again”

• FDR won by a landslide, 23 million to 16 million votes

• 472 to 59 in the Electoral College

Hoover FDR

The Depression in 1932-1933• 25% of Americans were

unemployed• 500,000 people had lost

their homes or farms b/c they could not pay their mortgages

• Thousands of banks had failed therefore millions lost their life savings

• There was world-wide depression helping the rise of fascism & communism

20th and 21st Amendments

• The 20th Amendment changed the date of the president being sworn in to January 20th and the newly elected Congress to January 3rd

• The 21st Amendment ends the Prohibition of alcohol

The First 100 Days

• One of the first things the FDR did was to declare a bank holiday

• Emergency Banking Relief Act

• “fireside chats”• Congress passed 15

major proposals with unprecedented speed

Help to Property Owners and Getting Confidence Back

• Emergency Farm Mortgage Act & Farm Credit Act

• Home Owners’ Loan Act• The Banking Act & The

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• Securities ad Exchange Commission

Relief Measures

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

• Civil Works Administration (CWA)

• Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Recovery Through Regulation• The Agricultural Adjustment

Act & the (AAA)• The National Industrial

Recovery Act (NIRA)• The NIRA created the Public

Works Administration (PWA)• NIRA created the National

Recovery Administration (NRA)

• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Continuing Hardships• By 1939, still 9.5 million

workers (17%) of workers unemployed

• Petty theft on the rise, street begging, homelessness, & prostitution

• Low divorce rate but fathers deserted their families

• 900,000 children homeless tramps

The Dust Bowl• In the Southern Plains of

the Midwest and the Mississippi Valley there was a environmental catastrophe in the 1930s

• By 1938 over 25 million acres of prairie land had lost most of its topsoil

• 800,000people left and headed for the Far West where they believed there was work

Minorities And the New Deal

• The Great Depression was very traumatic on disadvantaged groups

• FDR failed to fight racism in the South b/c he didn’t to lose the Southern Democrats

• Mexican Americans suffered as well

Popular Culture in the 1930s• Outlets for Escapism • Radio Programs: “fireside

chats,” soap operas, verity shows, & dramas

• The “talkies”—70 million people saw at least one movie every week

• Popular movies were gangster films, animated cartoons, musicals, comedies and horror films

Criticism on the Right & the Left

• On the Right the Republicans and Conservative Democrats formed the American Liberty League

• To FDR’s Left there was Huey Long, Francis E. Townsend and Father Coughlin…hucksters of panaceas

“Kingfish” Huey P. Long

Francis E. Townsend Father Coughlin

Eleanor Roosevelt

• FDR was more popular b/c of his wife

• B/C of FDR’s affair with Lucy Mercer she had a independent life

• She wrote a syndicated column and held regular press confs.

• She fought for women’s rights, black rights, & for youth.

The Second New Deal

• FDR decided to move to the left to stop the possible split of the party.

• The National Labor Relations Act

• The Social Security Act of 1935

• The Revenue Act of 1935

The Election of 1936

• Republicans nominate Governor of Kansas Alfred M. Landon

• Senator Long is assassinated

• FDR wins in a landslide• Plus the Democrats

dominate Congress: 328 to 107 in the House & 77 to 19 in the Senate

FDR Landon

The Court-Packing Plan• The Schechter Poultry

Corporation v. U.S., the Supreme Court overturned the National Industrial Recovery Act

• The Court had ruled against New Deal programs 7 of 9 times

• In 1937, FDR proposed to reform the Supreme Court by adding 6 justices

A New Direction for unions• B/C of the NIRA’s demand

that every industry code affirm the workers’ right to organize—the Unions translated this that FDR wants you to join the union

• Unions grew in the 1930s• In the General Motors

Plant in Flint the “sit-down strike” was successful

• And Union workers became Democrats

Economic Slump & Elections of 1938• Concerned about federal

deficits FDR ordered sharp cuts in spending in 1937 which caused an economic slump

• The conservative Democratic opposition to the New Deal was heaviest in the South

• FDR attempts to purge the Democratic party were unsuccessful in the elections of 1938

A Halfway Revolution

• FDR and the New Dealers went beyond the concept of regulation of capitalism by insisting that government not simply respond to social crises but also take positive steps to avoid them.