Monday:
Started our presentation on the Great Depression.
Herbert Hoover
- Was Born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa
- Both of his parents Died, while he was a kid
- Went to Stanford and got a degree in Geology
Hoovers fight against the great depression
- Generally believed to have done nothing
- Encouraged people to be patient
- Federal Farm Bond
- Norris - LA Guardia Act
- Mexican Repatriation - Mexican immigrants were encouraged/forced to go back to mexico
- Revenue Act of 1932 - increased taxes so US gov't had $$
Tuesday :
Reconstruction Fiance Corporation (RFC)-1932
- Gave loans to banks, state and local gov't and business' to create projects/ jobs for people
- Gave states loans for emergency relief
- Started under Hoover
- Not as successful as Hoover had hoped for
FDR Background Check
- Born into a wealthy family
- Married his distant cousin
- US state senator for New York
- During WWI was Assistant Secretary of the Navy
- Had Polio
Wednesday:
Federal Emergency Relief Act
- Enacted in 1933
- Main function was to create the Federal Emergency Relief Administration
- FERA distributed more than 20 million dollars in direct act to aid the unemployment
- FERA had three primary objectives
- 1. provide work for employable people
- 2. direct relief measures
- 3. provide many different types of relief programs
Public Works Administration
- Established in 1933
- Created as many jobs as possible in many different varieties
- Great example of FDR's "priming the pump"
- Between July 1933 and March 1939 the PWA funded the constitution of more than 34,000 projects including airports, dams, aircraft carriers, bridges.
- War responsible for 70% of the new schools and 33% of the hospitals built between 1933-1939
Civil Works Administration (CWA)
- Established in 1933 to create jobs for millions of the unemployed
- The CWA created construction jobs, mainly improving or constructing buildings and bridges
- In just one year, the CWA cost the gov't over $800,000,000 and was canceled
Thursday:
Works Progress Administration
- Established in 1935
- Largest and most comprehensive New Deal Agency
- The WPA built 650,000 miles of roads.
- 78000 bridges.
- 125000 buildings
- 7000 miles of airport runway.
- presented 225,000 concerts and produced almost 475000 works of art
Securities and Exchange Commission
- Established in 1934 and is still around today
- This organization regulates the stock market therefore making the market more secure and safer for people's money
Fair Lavour Standards Act
- Established a national minimum wage - 40 cents/ hour
- Established the 40 hour work week
- Guaranteed time and a half for overtime in certain jobs
- Prohibited most child labor
- Still exists today
Friday:
Agricultural Adjustment Act. (AAA)
- Established in 1933
- Restricted production during the New Deal by paying farmers to reduce the amount of crops planted
- Its purpose was to reduce crop surplus so prices would go up
- The AAA oversaw a large- scale destruction of existing crops and livestock in an attempt to reduce surplus
- For example, six million pigs and 220,000 sows were slaughtered in the AA's effort to raise prices
- Cotton farmers plowed under a quarter of their crop
- Due to the nature of the Great Depression, many United States citizens saw the AAA as cruel.
- While people in the cities were starving, the federal government was destroying crops and livestock in the country
- The AAA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1936 because it taxed one group (food processors) to pay another
Farm Security Administration (FSA)
- Granted small farmers and tenant farmer money to purchase farms
- The Dust Bowl forced a lot of farmers off their farms
- Many farmers brought tractors with money from the AAA thus forcing the farmers off the land.
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