January 20th 2012

[5Ashley]

Today we did blog discussion again.

1. 1928 Election(466)- Republican Candidate: Herbert Hoover Democratic Candidate: Al Smith

Herbert Hoover Won. Republicans had been in the White House and the economy was booming

Al Smith was against prohibition

Al Smith was Catholic and there had never been a president that was Catholic.


2. Stock Market in the 1920's(466-468)- buying and selling of shares in a company. This period of time was known as the Roaring Twenties.

Dow Jones is the top 30 publicly owned companies' stocks. If the Dow Jones is going up then it usually means that most stocks will be going up in value. Charles Dow created the Dow Jones. Some of the companies that make up the Dow Jones are Coca Cola, McDonald's, Verizon, Walt Disney, Walmart, AT&T, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson.

3. Story of the stock market crash-not the causes(467-469)- The Roaring Twenties lead up to the Stock Market Crash. Stock prices ended up quadroupling. In March 1929, the was a day where the stock prices dropped pretty significantly. Charley Mitchell loaned people money for stocks and he saved the day. On Thursday October 24, Charley Mitchell and J.P. Morgan loaned people money with low interest rates and they believed they could pull the stock market out of the slump. The stocks were falling little by little up until Tuesday when the Stock Market crashed.

4. Banks and business' collapse(469)- In my assigned blog.

5. Effect stock market crash had on other countries(469-471)- The first country that was affected was England and they had already been having unemployment issues. They started using the gold standard which affected South Africa's economy. Germany took the Depression very hard because the U.S. could no longer lend them money.

6. Depression in the cities(472-473)-Farmer's had to move into cities to find jobs since their farms were forclosed on. Extended families lived together and it was very crowded. "Hoovervilles" were formed because people were so poor. They were called this because they blamed president Hoover for all of it.
Breadlines- hand outs of food; president Hoover did not believe in breadlines because he believed that people were lazy. Only men stood in these breadlines. Reselling of things like apples for a few cents more expensive than they bought them for.

7. Depression in the rural areas(473)- Prices for crops were really low so farmers didn't make any money which caused banks to forclose on their farms and houses.

8. Dust Bowl(474)- In 1930s, mainly from 1935-1938, 100 million acres of crops were lost in the Great Plains area. The dust killed all of the livestock. People got pneumonia from all of the dust. Farmers were encouraged to rotate crops and plant trees.

9. Men in the Streets(475)- Throughout the 1930s, a lot of men abandoned their families because they lost everything and hitchhiked their way to cities to find odd jobs and were homeless. Some men became hoboes and hopped on train cars from city to city. There was also male prositution.

10. Women struggle to survive(475-476)- Women struggled to find jobs. Women were forced to do household chores as jobs like cooking and cleaning. Women wouldn't go to breadlines or beg on streets because they were too ashamed of not having any money.

11. Children suffer hardships(476)- A lot of kids developed health problems and were malnurished. Many kids developed rickets and other diseases due to not getting enough food. Teenagers wanted to get away from hardships so they jumped on freight trains to go elsewhere to find jobs. About 3,000 schools shut down.  So, kids worked in factories and did not get paid well at all. Kids dreams were shattered because of not being able to attend college or further their education.

12. Social and psychological effects(477)- Men had the theory that good things happen to people that deserve it. So, when men lost their jobs they felt like they didn't deserve anything and that they were worthless. This led to 30% more suicides. There were also more people in mental institutions due to depression, 3 times as many people to be exact.

13. Hoover's background- Hoover was the first and only U.S. president from Iowa. He was from Westbranch, Iowa. He never went to highschool. Both of his parents died by the time he was nine years old. He set up humanitarian efforts. Hoover dam was named after him. He became president in 1928. He was a quaker.

14. Hoover's philosophy/Cautious steps(479)- He wanted to help the citizens but he wanted them to come together as a nation to help each other. He helped out the banks. He never directly gave money to people or organizations because he believed in rugged individualism and laissez faire. Fiscally responsible means were going to take care of our money.

15. Boulder Dam(480)- was later named after Herbert Hoover as the Hoover Dam. It is one of the biggest dams in the world. It's the world's tallest dam and the world's 2nd largest. Hoover liked this project because it was going to create jobs for people and it would bring back money eventually and it will end up paying for itself and make a profit on it through the hydroelectric power.

16. Democrats win 1930 Congressional elections(480)- Political tide turned against Hoover and the Democrats won. Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives. Americans showed their anger in a number of ways. The Democrats were losing their majority in the Senate.

17. Hoover takes action(481)- Hoover took on the Boulder Dam project, reconstruction finance corporation which is the Trickle Down Theory to a tee. Gave 2 billion dollars to big local government and banks and businesses which he was hoping would create jobs for people. Federal home loan bank act it helped people to keep their homes and their farms. National Credit corporation which made large banks loan money to smaller banks in tough times to avoid more banks closing. Federal farm board buyed up farm surpluses and stored those goods until the prices go up, then they sold them.

18. Bonus Army(482-483)- World War I Veterans were going to be given a bonus. Patman Bill was trying to get passed by these veterans and they wanted to get their bonus check early to get food on the table. The bill didn't pass. Veterans were upset about this. Used teargas to drive them away from the White House.