2/6/17-2/10/17

[1Morgan]

Monday- continue 30's presentations

The Great Depression

• October 29 1929-1939

Impact of the Great Depression on people and our country

• Most rich people were not too affected, some were
• many incomes dropped dramatically
• Challenged American families- great economic, social, and mental strains and demands on families
  • couples split up
  • suicide
• Bank loans recalled
• People took money out of banks as quickly as possible- bank runs
• Divorce rates dropped- expensive
• Birth rates dropped
• Changed families in bad ways- suicide, anger
• Led good people to crime- stealing food, coal, etc. to survive
• Income dropped exponentially
• Hooverville- homeless shantytown
• Millions lost their jobs- 25% unemployed

How People Survived

• Sold apples on street
• Went to live with friends with houses
• Build shantytowns
• Families traveled wherever they could
• Clothing had to last- if it was ripped, you still had to wear it
• Had to be tight with money
• During heat waves, people went outside
• Traded when they had no money
• Everyone tried to get money- parents and kids
• Sold their things
• Did favors

Shantytowns (Hoovervilles)

• Called Hoovervilles- blamed Pres. Hoover for Depression
• Shantytown build by homeless people during the Great Depression
• Made of cardboard, tar, paper, glass, scrap wood, etc- whatever they could find

Dust Bowl

• Series of violent dust storms that greatly damaged US economy and agriculture
• Severe drought and a failure to apply farming methods
• Drought and dust storms in the Midwest forced many farmers to leave or lose their land and migrate west to find jobs
• Okies- Farmers from Oklahoma who moved to California- Oklahoma was hit hard
• Led to people using better farming methods- switching out crops every season, etc.
• "The Great American Desert" if it got much less rain, it would be an actual desert

Dorothea Lange

• Photographer
• Struggle of the people
• Photographed unemployed families who wandered the streets

President Hoover's attempt to help solve the Great Depression

• Policies to aid businesses
  • Businesses recover -> create jobs -> people recover
  • Didn't work
• Relief-
  • Federal Emergency Relief Act
    • Relief to unemployed
  • Public Works Administration
    
    • Build ports, schools, ships
  • Securities Exchange Act
    
    • Regulated stock changes
  • Reconstruction Finance Corporation- (1932)
    
    • Provided banks, railroads, and other financial businesses with money for loans- trickle-down theory- tried to create jobs
  • Glass-Steagall Act (1932)
    • Made getting credit easier and released 750 million dollars in gold reserves for business loans
  • Emergency Relief and Construction Act (1932)
    • Provided funds to the RFC act to make loans for relief to the States and added additional funds to assist eh local state and federal works

Tuesday- continue presentations

30's Presidential Elections

1932

• Right after Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) vs. Herbert Hoover (R)
  • Roosevelt had 472 electoral votes
  • Hoover had 59
  • Roosevelt had a popular vote of 57.4%
  • Hoover had a popular vote of 39.6%
• One of top 10 blowouts in history
• FDR won
• Blamed Depression on external events
• Hoover lost the election because the people said he didn't do enough to help.
  • He tried, but his rugged individualism, laissez-faire approach hand-tied him

1936

• FDR (D) vs. Alfred M. Landon (R)
  • Roosevelt had a popular vote of 60.8%
  • Landon had a popular vote of 36.54%
  • Roosevelt had every state except Vermont and Maine
• Took place as Great Depression entered it 8th year
• Roosevelt won
• Landon lost because people saw him as a tool of the reactionary ultra rich who would dismantle the New Deal if elected

Bonus Army

• 1924 congress voted to give a bonus to WWI
• $1.25 for each day overseas
• $1 for each day in the US but enlisted
• Wouldn't be paid until 1945
• 15,000 unemployed veterans went to DC to demand payment around 1932
• Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur
• Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as the liaison with Washington police
• Major George Patton led the cavalry
• People waited in DC to see if Congress would decide to pay them early
• When they found out the Congress wouldn't pay them early, they were upset and the police drove them out
• Did not help Hoover's popularity at all

The Tree R's

• Relief
  • helped unemployed
  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
  • Works Progress Administration (WPA)
    • Roads
    • Hospitals
    • Schools
  • Social Security Act (1935)
    • 50% of elderly in poverty
• Recovery
  • Helped economy after Depression
  • National Recovery Administration (NRA)
• Public Works Administration (PWA)
  • Built Public buildings
  • Roads
• Reform
  • Prevent the Depression from happening again
  • Closed banks for a while
    • Strengthen Federal Reserve
  • FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
    • Guaranteed savings deposits
  • SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)
    • Prevent fraud by banks and corporations
    • Protect investors from illegal financial activities by banks
    • Still around today
• FDR's plan

Wednesday- No school- snow day

Thursday- 

Deficit Spending

• Jump start the economy
• "Priming the Pump"
• Lower Taxes and Interest rate
• Incentive to spend money
• Temporary programs to increase consumer demand
• Spend a lot of money creating govt. programs
• A lot of stuff worked, but a lot of money was wasted

My presentation

Fireside Chats

• FDR gave about 30 speeches over the radio to give comfort and reassurance- called fireside chats
• Spoke on many things like banking to unemployment
• First president to speak to citizens over the radio

The First 100 Days

• First 100 days as president
• March 4, 1933- darkest hour of the Great Depression
• Stock market had crashed by 85% from its highest point in 1929
• Nearly 1/4 of the workforce unemployed
• Poor or less fortunate people were always lining up for soup
• Farmers whose land had been foreclosed were talking openly about a revolution
• The next 100 days it was one of the most intense periods of lawmaking

Friday- finish presentations

Critics and Failings of the New Deal

Huey Long

• Senator of Louisiana
• Criticized Roosevelt for not doing enough for the poor
• Proposed alternative to the New Deal was called "Share our Wealth"- a lot more communist than New Deal
• Promised to confiscate any personal fortune over $3,000
• Give each American family between $4,000 and $5,000 to buy a home and car

Caughlin

• Criticized New Deal for not completely ridding the economy of its problems by 1934
• Felt cheated and mislead
• By 1935 Roosevelt finally got rid of any threat posed by Caughlin

Townsend

• Promised to open up jobs for younger workers
• Became leader of a political movement- supported by 25 million+ Americans
• Roosevelt administration eventually adopted a more austere version of the Townsend Plan when it created the Social Security Program- helped the elderly

New Deal Programs that Helped Farmers

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

• May 1933
• Roosevelt signed the farm relief bill
• Supposed to reduce export surpluses and rising prices
• Controlled "Basic Crops"- corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, and milk
• Planted less, burned crops, spilled milk, killed animals

Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment

• Feb. 19, 1936
• Govt. payed farmers to reduce production to conserve soil and prevent erosion
• During the Dust Bowl in the 30's
• Hard due to Great Depression