The Human Impact of the Great Depression
Subsistence incomes– “We lived lean”; survival primary goal
Marriage and family—marriages/births decreased; “poor man’s divorce”
Fathers and mothers—fathers more affected than mothers
Psychological impact—shame, self-doubt, self-blame
Programming—radio, a lifelineGeorge Burns and Gracie Allen; Jack Benny;
marquee for the first “talkie” The Jazz Singer;
Orson Welles broadcasting The War of the Worlds.
Dust Bowl—ecological man-made disaster
Impact of commercial farming—farm families replaced by corporate consolidation and mechanization
Exodusters—hope in California dashed Cesar Chavez—37 schools;
“following the crops” Repatriation
—out-migration of Hispanics
One of the Great Plains dust storms pursues a truck down
the road.
An “Okie” vehicle takes a break by
the side of the road on the way to
California.
“Black Blizzards”
LULAC and ethnic identity—Hispanic civil rights
organization anti-Mexican?
Father Divine and Elijah Muhammed—afterlife of full equality; Black Muslims: separate nation?
Scottsboro boys—rapes of two white women: one
admitted frame job
END OF READINGThe Scottsboro boys and a moment
during their trials.
The Tragedy of Herbert Hoover
Private charity—overwhelmed by the tremendous
need: only 6% of relief funds City services—overwhelmed;
states in the red
TERA—New York first state to even attempt unemployment relief and that was in 1931 (Roosevelt governor)
A Hooverville,
where people might be
using Hoover Blankets.
Things will naturally, eventually correct themselves.
Reconstruction Finance Corporation—government lending to banks, insurance companies, railroads: good but not enough—“rescues banks but not people”
Unemployment relief—a little; Hoover feared the dole would ruin people’s independence, initiative
Farm Holiday Association—dumping milk; radical ideas gaining popularity
Communist party—revolution never a danger, but some listening
Veterans of the U.S.
Army now part of the
Bonus Army who went to Washington to get their
bonuses early, but
were forced out.
The Early New Deal (1933-1935)
Recovery, relief, reform—election in Nov./inauguration in March; flurry in “100 Days”
Franklin Roosevelt—polio: arrogance
to compassion
The Brains Trust—lawyers, professors
Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt transformed
the Presidency
and the nation.
Emergency Banking Act– “Bank
Holiday,” then reopen the solvent, use
“conservators” for the rest
Federal Deposit Insurance Work relief—CWA, CCC
Roosevelt giving one of his “fireside chats,” such as when he declared a
“Bank Holiday.” There was no fireplace in the room where he
delivered his “chats.”
A Civilian Conservation Corps worker plants trees; Civil Works Administration
workers (below) build a sewer line.
But CWA workers were also hired to teach music (right) or perform or create art as a way
of keeping those skills alive as well.
Tennessee Valley Authority—work
relief to revitalize a whole region
Public Works Administration National Recovery Administration
– “codes of fair
practices” to
control
competition
The symbol for the Tennessee Valley Authority and a power plant built by
TVA.
A restaurant showing its support of the
National Recovery Administration.
Schecter decision– “Sick Chicken Case” declares NRA an unconstitutional over-regulation of commerce
Agricultural
Adjustment
Administration—producers agree to
limit production/
government pays them
not to produce: prices
go up (flaws,
unconstitutional,
reworked)
END OF READING
A Second New Deal (1935-1936)
Liberty League—conservative right: million dollars in Anti-FDR ads
“End Poverty in California”—give poor idle land, factories: this and below were simplistic solutions
Huey Long– “Share the Wealth” and make “every man a king” by limiting fortunes
Charles Coughlin—banks to blame: nationalize them, inflate currency, spread jobs
Francis Townsend—pension for 60+ who quit jobs and spent it in 30 days
Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, who ran for governor of California with the slogan, “End Poverty
in California,” but smeared and lost
election.
Huey Long, the “Kingfish, ” who promised that every man would be a king. He was a
radical, but Federal government seemed to be taking responsibility for welfare of all.
Works Progress Administration—spent billions on wages, BUT couldn’t compete with private industry: arts, public buildings, etc.
Social Security—help those who couldn’t help themselves—aged, infirm, dependent children, unemployed—and maintains consumption (reaching 65 an accomplishment then)
National Labor Relations Act—Unions not only okayed, but protected
Roosevelt Coalition—the South, lower rung ethnics and African Americans, unions: 30 yr. Democratic reign
FDR signing the Social Security Act. The first woman
cabinet member Labor Secretary Frances Perkins is in
the background.
The American People under the New Deal
Rural Electrification Administration—farms electrified: 10% 1935 to 90% 1950
African Americans—party switch from Rep. to Dem.
Mexican Americans—political inexperience left them
largely untouched by New
Deal benefits
The Boulder Dam under construction;
Mary McLeod Bethune was a
member of FDR’s “Black Cabinet.”
John Collier’s Indian Reorganization Act—tribal life promoted, assimilation discarded: Indians divided pro and con
CAWIU farm strike—California migrants, Mexicans rise up, put down
Congress of Industrial Organizations—unskilled workers snubbed by skilled AFLers went their own way
John Collier posing with a couple of Native
Americans.
John L. Lewis, the combative leader of
the United Mine Workers.
Sit-down strikes—effective for
CIO against lockouts, police, scabs
Union gains—near equal player
Rivera and Orozco—New Deal
arts programs
Documentary realism—as it is
Fisher Body workers count down the days during their sit-down strike; the cast from the movie The Grapes of Wrath; paintings by Orozco (left) and
Rivera.
The End of the New Deal (1937-1940)
Roosevelt’s plan—pack the courts to
dilute anti-New Deal influence: bad idea
John Maynard Keynes— “pump-
priming”: spend way out of depression, tax
to pay debts in prosperity—FDR followed
reluctantly
Recovery abroad—Keynes theory
worked in Europe where they ran up
much larger deficits
British economist John Maynard Keynes liked the idea of deficit government
spending, thinking that when prosperity returns taxes can be raised to make up
for the deficit.