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HISTORY
19291938
THE GREAT DEPRESSION: 19291938 Copyright 2010 by Infobase Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McNeese, Tim. The Great Depression, 19291938 / by Tim McNeese. p. cm. (Discovering U.S. history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-357-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4381-3218-1 (e-book) 1. United StatesHistory19331945Juvenile literature. 2. Depressions1929United States Juvenile literature. 3. United StatesHistory19191933Juvenile literature. 4. United States Economic conditions19181945Juvenile literature. 5. Economic history19181945Juvenile literature. 6. World politics19331945Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series. E806.M47 2009 973.917dc22 2009022090 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com The Discovering U.S. History series was produced for Chelsea House by Bender Richardson White, Uxbridge, UK Editors: Lionel Bender and Susan Malyan Designer and Picture Researcher: Ben White Production: Kim Richardson Maps and graphics: Stefan Chabluk Cover printed by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Book printed and bound by Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN Date printed: April 2010 Printed in the United States of America This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.
Contents
Introduction: The Bonus March Map: The New Deal and Dust Bowl 7 16 19 32 51 68 80 97 107 118 124 128 130 132 133 136
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
A Deceptive Economy Hoovers Depression Launching the New Deal Extending the Reach The Second Hundred Days End of the New Deal American Culture of the 1930s Chronology and Timeline Glossary Bibliography Further Resources Picture Credits Index About the Author and Consultant
Introduction
n the early summer of 1931, 3 million veterans of World War I (191418) watched anxiously as a committee considered their immediate futures. That June a committee of the House of Representatives was holding a hearing concerning an extremely controversial subject: Whether to pay a bonus to U.S. servicemen who had been in uniform during World War I. Congress had established the Soldiers Bonus Act in 1924 with good intentions. The acts Adjusted Compensation Certificates were intended to serve as a combined form of pension and life insurance policy, but they were not to be paid until 1945, when many of the veterans of World War I would be approaching their late 40s or early 50s. The only exceptions to receiving the bonus sooner were the heirs of any vets who had already died. Many vets, however, now wanted the bonus early. In fact, many of them were relying on it as their only income.
A STACKED DECK
Veterans were summoned to testify at the House Committee hearings, but many believed the deck was stacked against them. President Herbert Hoover, a conservative Republican, did not support the bonus. Nor did a host of committee witnesses, including bank officials, insurance executives, and a field of business people. There were a few sympathetic congressmen, as well as a handful of veteran organization officials, who favored paying out the bonus that year. However, despite the number of opponents of the immediate bonus payout, much of their testimony was boring, laden with charts and statistics. The veterans gave the most compelling testimony, particularly one out-of-work vet from New Jersey who had walked from the city of Camden to the Capitol just to tell his story.
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The Bonus Army gathers outside the Capitol in June 1932. The World War I veterans demanded that Congress authorize payment of war bonuses. The police and army eventually dispersed the veterans.
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A FINAL CONFRONTATION
The Bonus Army did not leave the city. In fact, during the weeks that followed even more veterans showed up to add their support. Their numbers became difficult to estimate; perhaps 20,000, even 50,000, by July. But the bill was dead, and no amount of veterans living in a shantytown outside Washington was going to change that. The government did respond to the continuing presence of the Bonus Marchers, offering to pay their ways home with train fare or gasoline, plus 75 cents a day for any other expenses. Thousands accepted the offer, but thousands more would not give up or leave. On July 16, as Congress was preparing to adjourn, the Bonus Marchers once again marched on the Capitol, a force 7,000 strong. There a frustrated Glassford ordered the arrest of the marchers leader, Walter Waters. Only after several congressmen came out and intervened was the situation defused. Waters was released, and the army of angry Bonus Marchers dispersed. However, a large-scale confrontation was about to break to the surface. On July 28 that break opened up when Glassford ordered the D. C. police out to Anacostia Flats to close down the makeshift encampment and send the veterans home. President Hoover had tired of them and did not intend to negotiate with them in any way. There was angry resistance, which led to a riot, and two Bonus Marchers were killed. Hoover then ordered federal troops, under the command of the armys Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, to march
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Spokane
O
C
Montana
The New Deal was a government program to overcome the Depression. It was based on three RsRelief, Recovery, and Reform. It prompted the construction of highways across the country and built new dams that produced electricity. Its success was tempered by the Dust Bowl, which damaged the prairies and slowed recovery.
North Dak
Oregon
Y
Wyoming B L ACK H ILLS
Idaho
M
Salt Lake City
Nebras
Nevada
San Francisco
Utah
Colorado
California
T
Santa Fe
New Mexico
Los Angeles
Arizona
A
I
Fort
ALASKA
Te
0 0
Sa
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
0 0 500 Miles 500 Kilometers
0 0
16
Maine Vermont New Hampshire New York Massachusetts Boston Albany Rhode Island Connecticut Pennsylvania Philadelphia
North Dakota
ming
Buffalo
Milwaukee Chicago
Detroit
Omaha
Illinois
IA
Missouri
Colorado
Kentucky
St. Louis
Indiana
TA
Indianapolis
Ohio
IN
Virginia North Carolina
Nebraska
Cleveland Pittsburgh
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Jacksonville Miami
Richmond
sip
Mexico
pi
Louisiana
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Mi
Fort Worth
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Dallas
Alabama
Santa Fe
Birmingham
South Carolina
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P
Atlanta
LA
A
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Houston
New Orleans
Modern border of the U.S.A. Railroad Highway US1 Dust Bowl areas Other areas damaged by dust storms
Florida
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A Deceptive Economy
n 1928, after eight years of conservative Republican leadership, a generally contented American public stayed the course and elected a third such president. Overall, life in the United States had been good for many Americans, as the nations prosperity hit a stride that many people could not imagine ending. Some had even come to believe that the U.S. economy had fallen into an endless groove of permanent growth. The new president certainly seemed to think so. While still the Republican candidate, Herbert Hoover, who had served the Coolidge administration as secretary of commerce, gave a speech in August touting the great strides already made by a national economy on the rise: We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us. In the fall of 1928 such words seemed to ring true. The 1920s had hummed with growth, expansion, and prosperity.
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A Deceptive Economy
21
Buying on Margin
It is no wonder. During the 1920s a would-be investor could make his or her stock purchases largely on credit. Under the rules in place for the New York Stock Exchange, investors could purchase stock through a practice called buying on margin. It worked this way: An investor intent on purchasing $1,000 worth of stock at $10 per share could pay his broker (the person through whom the investor made his or her actual stock purchases) just one-tenth of the needed investment capital, or $100. The broker was all too happy to loan the investor the other $900, make the $1,000 investment, and wait for the profits to roll in. With many stocks increasing in value during the 1920s at an average rate of 25 percent annually, that initial investment of $1,000 might have accrued to a value of $1,250 after being invested for a year. Then the investor might order his broker to sell his shares, pay the broker a fee of $100, and pocket the remaining $150, plus the initial investment of $1,000. Through this speculative system, everybody could win. The investor made money, the broker made money, the money invested in the market made someone money, and the economy continued to hum along. Year after year during Americas Roaring Twenties, the gambles paid off. Suddenly regular folks, not just the wealthy, were making money by playing the stock market and each investment seemed to represent a sure thing.
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CORPORATE PROFITS
What was behind this drive in stock values during the 1920s? One answer is clearcorporate profits. Between 1916 and 1925 the profits gleaned by Americas largest manufacturing
A Deceptive Economy
companies amounted to an annual average of $730 million. That figure nearly doubled, to $1.4 billion, in the period from 1926 to the latter months of 1929! During 1929 alone corporate profits were actually three times what they had been in 1920. The stock prices simply reflected this everincreasing level of corporate profit. Just as corporate profits tripled during the 1920s, so stock prices tripled during those same years. Another reason why stock prices rose so significantly during the decade was that banks and brokerage companies were encouraging stock investment through their practice of buying on margin. A typical stock purchase in the 1920s involved a broker or bank loan of half the stocks value. Such loans climbed from $1 billion in 1920 to $6 billion in 1928. Through this practice 1.5 million families became stock market investors, almost doubling the previous number and creating the largest number of investors to that point in U.S. history. Furthermore trading was constant and heavy, with 236 million shares traded in 1923, compared to 1.1 billion shares in 1928. Finally, the stock market took on the appeal of a legitimate get rich quick scheme. Americans wanted to get in on the boom that the market seemed to represent. They listened to important movers-and-shakers in the corporate world, such as the director of General Motors and chairman of the Democratic Party, John J. Raskob. In 1928 he said the stock boom would continue for years, and that wealth was within the reach of nearly anyone who saved some money regularly to invest in the market. Writing an article for the Ladies Home Journal (Everybody Ought to Be Rich), Raskob stated, notes historian Dixon Wecter: If a man saves fifteen dollars a week and invests in common stocks, at the end of twenty years he will have at least $80,000 and an income from investments of around $400 a month. He will be rich.
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An unlucky Wall Street speculator, Walter Thornton of New York, offers to sell his car for way below its purchase price after the stock market crash of October 1929.
A Deceptive Economy
For hundreds of thousands of Americans, the formula for easy money and financial security was just too appealing to pass up.
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A Deceptive Economy
Actually, Wall Street suicides became part of the myth of the Great Depression. New York Citys chief medical officer reported on November 13, 1929, that just 44 suicides had taken place during the previous month, which included Black Tuesday, a lower number than the 53 suicides reported during the same period a year earlier.
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2
signs
oF
DisasTer
in 1928 Brookhart stated to expert witness Joseph Stagg Lawrence, a Princeton University economist, his opinion that the United States was headed for the greatest panic in the history of the world, notes historian David A. Horowitz. Professor Lawrence dismissed Brookharts claims as the curious emissions of a provincial mind. Among the others who spotted signs of coming disaster was a Minnesota senator, Henrik Shipstead, who noted before the Crash that 3,500 small banks had closed their doors across the country between 1920 and 1925. Herbert Hoover also saw it coming, and sold off most of his stock long before the bottom fell out of the market.
For many Americans, the stock market collapse in October 1929 was a shock. So many had considered the economy to be bullet proof, experiencing a boom that might continue without end. But reality caught up with the nation that fateful fall. Yet, for some people, the collapse came as no surprisea few Americans had seen it coming. Some of them were in positions of power. One such was Smith Wildman Brookhart, a Republican senator from Iowa who was elected in 1920 and again in 1926. Brookhart was considered an Insurgent Republican, because he was often critical of the economic politics of Republican presidents Harding and Coolidge. During a Senate hearing
A Deceptive Economy
sible, ultimately cutting the nations market for new automobiles. With drops in building and automobiles, dozens of feeder industries were impacted, including electronics, rubber, lumber, cement, and steel.
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A Deceptive Economy
help the country recover from the war and become a viable trading partner for the future.
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Hoovers Depression
hen the Great Depression finally hit, it hit hard and quickly. Following the collapse of the stock market, every other loose end in the economy unraveled. It was difficult, at first, for many in America to understand what was happening. Wall Street may have imploded, but they could still see the nations factories, mines, and foundries ready to maintain production. They could see millions of farms, the land still intact, ready to produce their annual harvest. But, with the crush of each passing month, many parts of the great U.S. economic machine either slowed down or ground to a complete standstill.
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Hoovers Depression
small business owners sold less, as factories produced less or closed their doors and padlocked their gates. Farmers lost markets for their produce, causing them to make less profit, and making them fall behind on their mortgage payments. Banks, also in fervent need of cash, called in farm mortgages, house mortgages, and auto loans, leaving some of their clients homeless, farmless, stranded. Millions of Americans lined up at countless teller windows demanding to withdraw their hard-earned savings. But soon enough the money was gone. It actually was never all there to begin with. While a depositors savings passbook might state that he or she had $50, $100, or $500 in that bank, the bank could not produce all its deposits at once, for so much of that money had been invested or loaned out. With so many people demanding to withdraw their savings, the banks could only admit that the money was held symbolically in this house loan and that farm mortgage, but was not actually sitting in the banks vault. Quickly, banks began to fail. With banks going out of business, those who tried to remain in business found it difficult to secure future loans. Builders had to stop construction, for example, because they could not get enough working capital to continue.
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Hoovers Depression
down. Without work, they could not buy anything. If they could not buy, others who still had jobs had fewer customers to make things for, which put their jobs at risk as well. The consequential effect caused unemployment to spread rapidly and widely like a plague. The new jobless were not the old-line poor who had always struggled at the bottom of the economic ladder. Many of the newly unemployed had always been solid citizens, middleclass workers such as bank tellers, factory men, female telephone operators, garage mechanics, and office clerksthose who had represented the backbone of the U.S. economy for decades. They lost their jobs, farmers lost their farms, and the great instruments of prosperity stopped playing. Many in the rural areas left for the cities, where they thought they could find work, or simply packed up everything they had left after losing their farms and headed down the road in search of work. Larger numbers of Americans than ever in the nations history were living in poverty. Families became desperate for just the necessities. In 1939 American writer John Steinbeck described these desperate circumstances on the pages of his most famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath. He drew a hard picture of those who piled their families in a Ford Model-T and lit out in search of work: And then the dispossessed were drawn westfrom Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restlessrestless as ants, scurrying to find work to doto lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cutanything, any burden to bear, for food.
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HOOVER RESPONDS
When Herbert Hoover was inaugurated on March 4, 1929, as the nations third conservative Republican president in a row, the vast majority of the Americans could not have been happier. His message to a crowd of 50,000 gathered on that rainy day in Washington, as well as to a larger radio audience, was prophetic: We are steadily building a new racea new civilization great in its own attainments Ours is a land rich in resources; stimulating in its glorious beauty; filled with millions of happy homes No country is more loved by its people I have no fears for the future of the country. It is bright with hope. When the Crash came in the fall of 1929 and the country began to slide into an economic morass, Hoover, who had only been in office for eight months prior to Black Tuesday, remained, at least publicly, optimistic. He had believed for several years that the stock market had been in need of a serious adjustment, a return to reality. He insisted that, despite such downturns, the U.S. economy was fundamentally sound. Depressions had happened before in the nations historyin 1807, 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, and 1893and this depression would not last forever. Hoover used the word depression to describe the economic downturn, rather than the previously used terms panic or crisis to try to steer people away from panicking. Recovery would take place, Hoover assured, possibly even arriving sooner than circumstances would indicate. In the meantime, he took several overt steps to utilize the power of the federal government in fighting the Depression. Despite the traditional view that President Hoover did nothing to meet the challenges of the Depression, he began making moves within days or weeks of the stock market crash. He summoned the heads of major U.S. corporations to the White House, calling on them to cooperate with the
Hoovers Depression
government by maintaining, as much as possible, a continued level of production, employment, wages, and limited labor conflicts. He threw together a raft of emergency federal agencies and bureaus to focus on the primary problem of increasing unemployment and the need for direct relief. Hoover also supported large-scale construction projects for city and state government buildings and other public works, requesting $150 million from Congress to build new government facilities. But these steps only had a marginal impact on the nations declining economy.
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Thousands of unemployed migrants lived in this shantytown in Seattle in the early 1930s. They earned a few cents each day sorting bottles and cans. Such towns became known as Hoovervilles.
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A DEEPENING PROBLEM
Americas depression was also worsened by Europes economic collapse. In the spring of 1931 France, desperate for money, called for payment of loans that had been taken out by Germany and Austria, resulting in the collapse of Austrias largest bank. In the aftermath investors pulled their gold deposits from other German and Austrian banks, which forced France and Britain, along with other European nations, to abandon the gold standard. This led European investors to sell off their U.S. assets, while asking for gold in return. The result was a vast sell off of investment in the New York Stock Exchange and U.S. money markets, which
Hoovers Depression
ultimately led to the failure of 2,000 U.S. banks during the last six months of 1931. Tied to these trends, employment in the United States dropped by 12 percent, and wages for those who still had jobs fell by 30 percent. Many of these international circumstances were not under President Hoovers control. But, since they led to a worsening of the U.S. economy, he began taking greater steps to involve the power of the federal government in addressing the issues of the Depression. It should be said that Hoover was not at this stage considered by the American people to be the one responsible for the bad economy. He had said publicly that the Depression would run a natural course and eventually end. Most Democrats, in 1930, agreed. Even when the 1930 elections were held in November, the Democrats managed to win control of the House, although the Senate remained in Republican hands. At this stage few Americans were blaming Hoover or his party for the downturn in the nations economy. Nevertheless, things continued to get worse. For U.S. banks, times were crushing. In 1929 more than 600 U.S. banks closed their doors. The following year more than 1,000 more joined them. In 1931 a further 2,000 U.S. banks went out of business. For U.S. farmers, there seemed to be no end to their decline. In 1929 a bushel of wheat had sold for $1.03, but the price had dropped to just 36 cents by 1931. Unemployment was rising, although no one knew exactly how many Americans were without jobs because at that time the federal government did not keep such records accurately. Some experts put the number of unemployed at around 15 million. But that was only half the story. For many of those who still had jobs, they were receiving less pay. Many were only partially employed, leaving them under-employed. By 1932 the average industrial wage in America had slipped to just 50 percent of what it had been in 1928.
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A contemporary cartoon during the presidential campaign of 1932 shows an unemployed man contemplating President Hoovers optimistic assessment of the state of the country.
Hoovers Depression
41
No Federal Welfare
None of this was to Hoovers liking, of course. But as he faced this mountain of economic bad news, he became gloomy and perhaps even confused. He tried to project a publicly optimistic image as the nations leader. As late as 1932, he said to a group of businessmen: Prosperity is just around the corner. Privately, though, he struggled. Hoover was a humane individual, someone who did not like to see people suffer. He had seen plenty of that during World War I when he served, without pay, as the director of the U.S. food relief program that fed millions of starving Europeans. But he was convinced that the government should remain largely detached from the economy and not interfere in the natural tendencies of a capitalist state. Free enterprise, he continued to feel, would eventually bring the country back from the brink of economic ruin. Just as importantly, Hoover believed the federal government should not engage in direct relief by providing monies or other support to the poor, starving, or unemployed. For him, it was a moral issue. He said: It is not the function of the government to relieve individuals of their responsibilities to their neighbors, or to relieve private institutions of their responsibilities to the public. Direct federal welfare, he said, would weaken or ruin the moral fiber of the U.S. people.
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Hoovers Depression
That, the president insisted, depended on the federal government maintaining a balanced budget and showing fiscal restraint. To cover the cost of such programs as the RFC, Hoover insisted on raising taxes. That move only managed, notes historian David Horowitz, to deplete investment capital and purchasing power. While Hoovers steps toward government intervention on behalf of the U.S. economy were bolder than any taken by any previous president, he hamstrung his own programs and worked against their true potential. However, such moves as creating the RFC would lay the groundwork for the rebuilding efforts of the Roosevelt administration that would follow Hoovers presidency. Historian Amity Shlaes recalls the words of Rexford Guy Tugwell, a former economics professor, who became FDRs Under Secretary of Agriculture and a key New Deal architect: I once made a list of New Deal ventures begun during Hoovers years as secretary of commerce and then as president The New Deal owed much to what he had begun.
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A CONTINUING SLIDE
For three years Americans by the millions had tried to cope with the Depression, but circumstances continued to worsen. Forty million people had descended into poverty. In some U.S. cities, such as Akron, Ohio, unemployment stood between 60 and 80 percent. An estimated 1 million citizensincluding 200,000 childrenwere homeless, riding the roads, riding the rails, living in migrant camps, a world of drifters later described by Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath: And a homeless hungry man drove his old car into a town. He scoured the farms for work. Where can we sleep the night?
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PuTTing
The
DePression
To
Music
The Great Depression delivered hardships to millions of Americans, especially those working-class folks who saw themselves as victims of an economy that had imploded on them through no fault of their own. One talented musician who put a voice to much of that frustration was an American folk singer from Oklahoma, whom some referred to as a Shakespeare in OverallsWoody Guthrie. Guthrie was a teenager when the Depression hit in the late 1920s. Born in the Midwest in 1912 and named after President Woodrow Wilson, who became the Democratic Party nominee just a week before he was born, Guthrie grew up in rural Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.
His father was a part-time cowboy who taught his young son a host of western songs. But Woodys early years were filled with misery: His sister died after setting herself on fire; his father went broke and turned to alcohol; and his mother descended into insanity. At an early age Guthrie was on his own, drifting across the country, playing the guitar and harmonica. He had a natural affinity for the underclass of working Americans and wrote songs addressing the difficulties of the people he met riding in railway boxcars and sharing meals in migrant camps. He played his music anywhere he could, including such commonplace venues as carnivals, rodeos, and county fairs.
Hoovers Depression
tent, he went to the city dump and brought back cartons and built a house of corrugated paper. And when the rains came the house melted and washed away. He settled in Hooverville and he scoured the countryside for work, and the little money he had went for gasoline to look for work. Everywhere the misery spread. Between 1929 and 1932 an average of 100,000 workers lost their jobs each week. A writer for The Atlantic magazine described the prevailing
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Although privately Guthrie became so angry with the nations leaders that he talked of robbing banks, he wrote folk ballads instead. He wrote about the difficulties brought on by hard times, the Dust Bowl, and the perils of workers trying to organize labor unions. In time he became radicalized, a favorite of Socialist and Communist groups across the country; a performer who brought an angry soul of protest to so many of his folk tunes. He wrote hundreds of songs, including This Train Is Bound for Glory, Chain Around My Leg, Going Down the Road Feeling Bad, Hard Aint It Hard, and Dust Bowl Blues. In his Dust Cant Kill Me, Woody spoke for many Midwesterners who had experienced the silt-laden winds of the Great Plains:
That old dust storm killed my baby, But it wont kill me, lord. No, it wont kill me. Woody Guthries signature song would be his ballad, God Blessed America, which is remembered today by most people as This Land is Your Land. Its lyrics ring with poetic allusions, including endless skyways, golden valleys, diamond deserts, and wheat fields waving. Despite his hard-bitten distain for those who victimized the underdog, Woody Guthrie never lost his love for America. Throughout the Depression and until his death in 1967, he never lost faith in his country and remained a consistent voice on behalf of the nations underclass. And he provided inspiration for many new folk musicians, including Bob Dylan.
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Hoovers Depression
ing the summer the World War I veterans known as the Bonus Marchers had come out in force in Washington in support of legislation to pay them their bonus early, rather than at the scheduled date of 1945. Their hopes were dashed by a Senate vote against the bonus, followed by U.S. Army troops who drove them out of the nations capital. The state of affairs in the country was ugly, and many people were desperate.
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Roosevelt is Selected
The Democrats met in convention, optimistic of their chances of regaining the White House for the first time in 12 years. Eyeing victory in November, delegates at the convention chose New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt (sometimes known as FDR), a distant cousin of former president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was from an old Dutch family, a member of the wealthy, patrician class who had attended Harvard, and studied law at Columbia. He had served during Wilsons administration as assistant secretary of the navy, the same job his cousin Theodore had held when the SpanishAmerican War broke out in 1898. Roosevelt had been on the Democratic national ticket before, having run as the partys vice presidential candidate in 1920. The next year he had been struck down by an attack of poliomyelitis (polio), which paralyzed him and left him unable to walk unaided for the rest of his life. But Roosevelt had persevered and been elected as governor of New York for two terms, in 1928 and 1930. In the tradition of his progressive cousin, FDR had supported unemployment relief, banking reform, farm aid, conservation, and an expansion of his states capacity to produce hydroelectric power. He received the Democratic nomination on the third ballot. Roosevelts rhetoric had helped him gain his partys confidence. He had delivered a radio address on April 7, 1932,
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A Campaign of Optimism
Throughout the campaign Roosevelt rode a tidal wave of support. Hoover spoke out against FDRs promises, saying that lower tariffs would only guarantee that the grass will grow in the streets of a hundred cities and that weeds will overrun the fields of a million farms. For some listeners, Hoover seemed to be talking about the present rather than the future. As FDR campaigned, he appeared optimistica cheerful individual who exuded confidence. His physical disability never entered the campaign, because the press
Hoovers Depression
never reported that Roosevelt could not move about without leg braces or canes. Today only two photographs exist of FDR in a wheelchair. Both were taken at one of the Roosevelt homes, on the same day and by the same photographer, a female friend of the family. For three years Americans had listened to Hoovers encouragements about the economy, but they no longer believed in him. The result was a smashing victory for FDR, his vice presidential running mate, Texan John Nance Garner, and the Democrats. Roosevelt won with nearly 23 million votes over Hoovers 15.7 million (the electoral vote was lopsided at 472 to 59), representing victories in all but six states. In addition, the Democrats won control of both houses of Congress.
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A LEGISLATIVE STORM
What soon emerged from FDRs leadership was a flurry of legislation sent from the White House to Capitol Hill. All of it was designed to battle the Depression by arming the federal government with programs and agencies, each intended to target a particular problem. Roosevelt had spoken during the campaign of creating a New Deal for the American people. In 1932 he did not have a clear concept of exactly what that New Deal would include. But that spring he began to put some meat on the bone. His was largely an experimental approach. He said of his proposed programs: It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. Early in FDRs presidency a friend commented to the president that, if his answers to the Depression succeeded, he would go down as the greatest president ever; however, if the programs failed, his would be a presidency reviled by Americans everywhere. Historian Allen Weinstein recalls FDRs response: If I fail, I shall be the last. Ultimately, Roosevelts New Deal was less a carefully thought out set of studied answers, and more a jumble of creative, improvised programs, thrown together as quickly as possible, and backed with executive orders or as approved legislation that passed quickly through Congress. Through
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gives one of his Fireside Chats. During the Depression he regularly used radio broadcasts to alleviate Americans anxiety and explain how he would improve things.
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A recruitment poster for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) produced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was set up in 1935.
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1933
and fully equipped mess halls, where the vets received three meals every day, free of charge. FDR issued an executive order to provide funds for the entire setup. The Marchers still wanted their bonus, and they invited the president to come out and visit with them about it. He declined, stating: You know, I have been working really day and night; I dont believe I can get off. Instead, he sent his best representativehis wife, First Lady Eleanor. She had been interested in the Bonus Marchers, keeping up with their story in the newspapers. One day, without letting her know where she was going, an FDR advisor asked her to go on a drive with him
During Roosevelts Hundred Days the Bonus Marchers returned to Washington. Having been driven out of Anacostia Flats the previous summer, thousands of veterans of the Great War were now ready to seek their bonus from another president. By May 3,000 of them were in Washington. Roosevelt, who had stated during his campaign that Hoovers treatment of the Bonus Marchers had doomed his reelection, did not intend to make the same mistakes. He ordered the army to help set up an encampment for them outside the capital, at the site of an abandoned fort across the Potomac in Virginia. Tents were erected, along with latrines, showers,
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around Washington. He drove to the Bonus Marchers camp and told her that Franklin wanted her to talk to the vets. It had been 10 months since General MacArthur had ordered the Anacostia Flats camp destroyed. The First Lady was anxious and uncertain how she might be received. Writing later, Eleanor addressed her concerns: Very hesitatingly, I got out and walked over to where I saw a line-up of men waiting for food. They looked me over curiously, and one of them asked my name and what I wanted. When I said I just wanted to see how they were getting on, they asked me to join them. Soon, everyone in the camp knew the First Lady was there. She slogged around the camp, getting mud all over her shoes, as it had rained earlier. She
sat down and ate with them in one of the mess halls and talked about a visit she had made with doughboys in France back in 1919. They made her feel at home, she made them feel appreciated. Before she left, the First Lady led a group of Marchers in several old soldier songs. It was all such a far cry from the way they had been treated the previous summer. As Eleanor left, the Bonus men wished her good luck, and she said Good-bye and good luck to you! One vet summed it all up: Hoover sent the army; Roosevelt sent his wife. In the end, President Roosevelt did not sign the bonus for the vets, but he did offer them jobs in his new Civilian Conservation Corps. By June 1933, 2,600 of them had signed up.
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First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt inspects work at a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project site. The WPA was run by Harry Hopkins. He built it into the largest employer in the country.
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or most of those Americans who experienced the Great Depression, the 1930s represented the beginning. But many farm incomes had already dropped off during the 1920s, giving farmers a head start into bad times. In 1932 farmers were receiving 25 cents for a bushel of wheat, 7 cents for a bushel of corn, 10 cents for oats, a nickel for a pound of Southern cotton. A pound of sugar yielded 3 cents, beef and pork, 2.5 cents a pound. And a box of 200 good apples might be worth 40 cents. With mortgage interest at $3.60 an acre, along with taxes at nearly $2 per acre, wheat producers lost $1.50 for each acre grown. The last time farmers could remember flush times was during the years just prior to and during World War I. During the Depression the nations farmers, dairymen, and ranchers dreamed of parity, which would have valued their producewhether hogs, corn, milk, or other farm productsat a price relative to industrial prices as they had stood in 1914.
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Migrant workers on the road in Crittenden County, Arkansas, in 1936. Sometimes they would get picked up on the road by a farm truck and taken many miles for a days work. Then they were back on the road.
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An ex-farmer and worker for the Work Projects Administration with his child outside their living quartersa shackin Circleville, Ohio. This photograph was taken August 1938.
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installed, and extensive landscaping was added to the grounds on Bedloes Island. The new and improved Statue of Liberty was reopened to the public in December 1938. Meanwhile, out on the West Coast, San Franciscos new Aquatic Park near Fishermans Wharf was dedicated the following month. Another WPA project, the park had cost $1.5 million. The facility provided a place for such water-related activities as boating and swimming. There were new grandstands that looked out over downtown San Franciscos only beachfront, alongside a modernist new building that included restaurants, the whole complex adorned by several WPA murals. Through its nearly two years of construction, the park had employed 782 workers and artists.
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VOICES OF OPPOSITION
What could not be kept under wraps were the sometimes loud voices of public opposition, which came from a variety of camps. While the opponents were many, three men took the forefronta senator from Louisiana, a Catholic priest, and a retired medical doctor.
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A cartoon, The Three Musketeers, shows New Deal critics Gerald L.K. Smithan associate of the late Senator Huey LongFrancis E. Townsend, and Father Charles Edward Coughlin. They were uncertain who should lead their new Union Party for the 1936 presidential campaign. The party was soon disbanded.
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Unionized strikers fight with a group of scabs or nonunion replacement employees as they try to cross the picket line at a factory. The strikers regarded the scabs as Fascists, who opposed the governments employment strategies.
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Social Security
Following the NLRA came the Social Security bill. Since the days of the Progressive movement a generation earlier, the living conditions and financial security of Americas elderly had been of concern. They had always been viewed as the visible poor, and their numbers included not just the elderly, but dependent children and the handicapped. Again New York Senator Wagner sponsored the bill, along with Congressman David Lewis of Pennsylvania. Roosevelt signed it on August 15, 1935.
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Changing Acts
The Supreme Court also struck down other parts of the New Deal, including the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). On January 6, 1936, the Court ruled by a vote of six to three that the AAA was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Roberts, arguing for the majority, stated that farming was not a national activity and that states, not the federal government, should have jurisdiction over the agricultural activities within their borders. At the heart of the decision, though, the Court declared that the AAAs regulatory taxation provisions were unconstitutional. In the aftermath of the AAAs demise, the New Deal Congress quickly passed the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 as an alternative. The U.S. court system gave the New Deal a drubbing in 1934, with individual judges filing injunctions against some of the new federal laws. More than 1,000 cases concerning New Deal laws were in litigation that year. One of the problems was the overreach of the Roosevelt administration. In addition, only three out of every 10 federal judges were fellow Democrats. On the Supreme Court, the average age of the justices was 78, and the majority of them were conservative.
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A family in Kansas fixes its car as it prepares to abandon its farm destroyed by drought and windstorms.
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In 1934, at the height of the drought, a black blizzard hits the town of Lamar in Colorado. The dark clouds of dust often turned day into night and people complained of being able to see no more than a few feet in front of them.
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Black Whirlwinds
The Roosevelt administration saw its first great dust storms on Armistice Day of 1933, when the winds began to blow in South Dakota and the sky turned dark as night. People breathed in dust until they actually vomited dirt. When the storms passed, farm fields were covered with dust and sand. Great dunes of topsoil lay piled up alongside barns and houses, covering farm machinery. Roads disappeared. As the wind pushed the dust along, cities from Minneapolis to Chicago to Albany, New York were shrouded in black whirlwinds. And the winds continued throughout 1934 and into 1935. It all produced conditions of extremestoo much wind and dust; not enough snow, rain, or earth-containing grasses. The storms spread out like locust across a wide swath of the Midwest. However, there was a geographic epicenter of the Dust Bowl. Between 1930 and 1936 the hardest hit counties were in southwest Kansas and the panhandles of both Oklahoma and Texas. Every farmhouse and small hamlet became a battle zone, as beleaguered residents fought the dust and wind. Historian William Manchester writes how whole counties were transformed into shifting Saharas. Wives packed every windowsill, door frame, and keyhole with oiled cloth and gummed
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ith New Deal programs having fanned out in every direction to meet the challenges of the Great Depression, even those who were critical of various programs could not accuse FDR of having failed to put government power and resources to work. Millions of people had been put to work and direct relief had been applied from Wall Street to Main Street. In 1936 Democrats generally felt positive about the presidential election. At their convention, party delegates renominated Roosevelt.
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A NEW MANDATE
The president had staked everything, both personally and politically, on the New Deal. Through his efforts to meet the Depression, he had either retained or gained the support of
A banner for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Nance Garner for president and vice president for the 1936 presidential election. The photograph was taken in Harwick, Vermont, for the Farm Security Administration.
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A DIMINISHED LEGACY
The New Deal, in time, became a shadow of its former self. By 1943, the heart was removed from the aging and increasingly irrelevant New Deal. When the 78th Congress came into session following the 1942 elections, they began to dismantle several longstanding programs, including the National Youth Administration, the Works Progress Administration, and the youth-oriented, faithful servant of conservation, the Civilian Conservation Corps. With full employment brought on by manufacturing and the supplying of food and resources for World War II, such programs were no longer needed. The Farm Security Administration and the Rural Electrification Administration, which had brought great social change, lost nearly all their federal funding.
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Greece, Romania, Denmark, Chile, and Finland were seeing recovery. When Roosevelt entered the White House, he unleashed federal power, relying on his New Deal programs and agencies to regulate various aspects of the economyindustrial output, small businesses, banks, monetary policywhile providing safety nets of aid and relief to various groups considered in need. He approached this strategy with the belief that the government needed to mobilize as if going to war, with the Depression as the enemy. Some programs were efficient, effective, even inspiring, such as the Civil Conservation Corps or banking reform. The results included denting unemployment and stabilizing parts of the economy. But other New Deal programs were destructive. The NRA was misplaced, its rules and codes so narrowly defined and restrictive that businesses were ultimately hurt. Employers hated to hire under the NRA, and the program kept many from investing in new businesses or expanding their operations. Part of
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AsiaFascists, Communists, strident Socialists, and militaristic warlords. In the end, the New Deal did not end the Depression or destroy U.S. democracy. And Roosevelt had remained, at his core, a capitalist. That same government spent $20 billion in six yearsa sum equivalent today to half a trillion dollars. In the meantime the national debt had skyrocketed thanks to FDRs application of Keynesian economics (deficit spending), from a gigantic $19.5 billion in 1932 to an astronomical $40 billion by 1939. (These numbers, however, would soon be dwarfed by the high level of government spending during World War II.) Money had been thrown at problem after problem, creating an artificial economy based on government-financed work programs, only to see those same problems continue. Meanwhile industry struggled along, unable to close the gap between what to produce and what consumers were willing or able to buy. Ultimately, the nations economy and its sluggish unemployment problem would have to wait until World War II to be solved.
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A poster for the 1931 movie Pardon Us, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. The movie was produced by Hal Roach Sr., who went on to be one of the most successful film and television producers to date.
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Walt Disney
Perhaps more significant as a trend in film during the 1930s was the animation produced by Midwestern artist Walt Disney. Disney began his career making crude animations in Kansas City for local advertisers, but moved to Hollywood to produce animated shorts for movie houses. His first was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927), followed by the original Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). More Disney animated shorts followed through the 1930s, in color, rather than the early black and white, but Disney changed the animation industry forever when, in 1937, he released his first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It soon became a classic.
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reD-BlooDeDaMericans
The Roosevelt administration met with constant criticism for its extensive use of the power of the U.S. federal government. FDR and his administrators did not ultimately abandon capitalism, but rather tweaked it a little. Yet radicalism was a part of the U.S. landscape during the Thirties. One of the signs of this was a rising membership in the American Communist Party. Leading the way in this trend was the Popular Front, a combination of political groups across the country that were anti-fascist, as well as anticapitalist. With support from Stalin and the Soviet Union, the Popular Front began praising FDR and his handling of the Depression. They tried to sway the minds of many Americans by adopting the slogan, Communism is twentieth-century Americanism. Under the organizations inuence, membership in the American Communist Party increased to 100,000 by the mid-1930s. Many intellectuals began taking the Communist Party seriously. When civil war erupted in Spain, with Fascists fighting to take over the government, 3,000 young Americans, many of them Communists, went to Spain to fight. The Communist Party organized rallies for the unemployed and a hunger march in Washington, D.C. in 1931. Union organizers were sometimes members of the American Communist Party. They even tried to organize a union of black sharecroppers in Alabama. Yet the American Communist Party was not a truly American institution. It had strong ties with Moscow, and American members were closely supervised by the Russians. This became clear in 1939, when the Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, signed an agreement with Germanys fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, under which both nations agreed not to attack one another. Following this, Communist leaders in Moscow ordered the American Communist Party to shut down the Popular Front and begin campaigning against the liberalism of the New Deal. This move puzzled and angered American Communist Party regulars, many of whom left the party, disillusioned. U.S. radicalism was struck a hard blow.
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A NEW LITERATURE
Just as the 1920s had produced a new era of serious writers, so the decade of the Depression did as well. Many of those who had written before the stock market crashed had focused on the materialism of the Twenties. The new literature of the Thirties did not fall prey to the economic despair of the era, but took on the voice of social conscience. John Dos Passoss U.S.A. trilogy (193036) continued the earlier literary focus on Americas obsession with material wealth. Some authors wrote of a coming revolution in the United States, with writer F Scott Fitzgerald even suggesting . that Communism might hold the answers for the countrys future. But much of that movement lost its steam and drive as reports emerged from the Soviet Union of the harsh control exerted by Josef Stalin and the brutal murders of tens of thousands of his opponents.
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A still image from The Wizard of Oz, a musicalfantasy movie made in 1939. The movie was based on a childrens novel written by L. Frank Baum in 1900.
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Chronology
1929 Throughout the year, more than 600 U.S. banks close
their doors March 4 Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as President of the United States September Dow Jones Industrial Index reaches a high of 452 October 24 Black Thursday: 13 million shares of stock change hands
TIMELINE
1929
Throughout the year, more than 600 U.S. banks close their doors
1933
February 15: A gunman attempts to assassinate Roosevelt
1933 1931
March 4: Roosevelt is inaugurated as President
1929
October 24: Black Thursday13 million shares of stock change hands
1929
1930
1929
October 29: Black Tuesday16 million shares are traded, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 43 points
1931
1931
September: U.S. unemployment rate is 17.4 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 140
1932
1932
July: Dow Jones Industrial Index hits bottom of 58
1933
1933
October: U.S. unemployment rate is 22.9 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 93
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Chronology
October 29 Black Tuesday: 16 million shares are traded,
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 43 points 1930 Throughout the year, more than 1,000 U.S. banks close their doors June 17 President Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising U.S. tariffs to the highest levels ever 1931 Throughout the year, 2,000 U.S. banks close their doors September The U.S. unemployment rate reaches 17.4 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 140
1932 February 2 The Reconstruction Finance Corporation is
1934
January 31: Roosevelt returns the dollar to the gold standard
1935
May 6: FDR establishes the Works Progress Administration (WPA) May 27: U.S. Supreme Court declares the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional
1938 1936
November 3: FDR wins a seond term, defeating the Republican Alf Landon of Kansas, and taking 46 of 48 states June: FDR signs the Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing a minimum wage and maximum work hours
1934
1934
1935
1935
1936
1937
1938
1938
January: U.S. unemployment rate is 21.2 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 100
July: U.S. unemployment rate is 21.3 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 119
1937
January: U.S. unemployment rate is 15.1 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 179
January: U.S. unemployment rate is 17.4 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 121
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Chronology
April 7 FDR delivers a radio speech, stating he is
campaigning for the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid May The Bonus Marchers arrive in Washington, D.C. seeking their early combined pension and life insurance payments July Dow Jones Industrial Index hits bottom of 58 July 28 Hoover orders the removal of the Bonus Marchers from their shanties at Anacostia Flats November 8 Franklin Roosevelt is elected President of the United States
1933 February 15 A gunman attempts to assassinate Roosevelt
but shoots Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak instead February 20 Congress proposes the Twenty-First Amendment to end Prohibition March 4 Roosevelt is inaugurated as President March 5 FDR orders a four-day bank holiday, which ends all bank transactions March 9 Roosevelt begins his first Hundred Days, during which his New Deal takes shape. The Emergency Banking Bill is sent to Congress and passed later that same day March 12 Roosevelt delivers the first of his Fireside Chat radio broadcasts March 31 Congress passes the Reforestation Relief Act, which creates the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). April 19 FDR announces that the United States will abandon the gold standard, lowering the value of the dollar overseas May 18 Congress passes a bill creating the Tennessee Valley Authority May 19 Roosevelt appoints Harry Hopkins to head the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Later
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Chronology
that month, Congress creates the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) May 27 Roosevelt signs the Securities Act of 1933 June 16 Marking the end of the Hundred Days, Congress passes the Farm Credit Act, the Banking Act of 1933 (which establishes the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), and the National Industry Recovery Act (which creates the National Industry Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration) August 5 Roosevelt establishes the National Labor Board October U.S. unemployment rate is 22.9 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 93 November The Civil Works Administration is established December 29 Dow Jones Industrial Average closes the year at 99
1934 January 31 Roosevelt returns the dollar to the gold
standard and signs the Farm Mortgage Refinancing Act. The U.S. unemployment rate is 21.2 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 100 April 27 Roosevelt signs amendment to Home Owners Loan Act of 1933 May 28 British economist John Maynard Keynes meets with FDR June 6 FDR signs the Securities and Exchange Act, which establishes the Securities and Exchange Commission June 12 Roosevelt signs Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act, allowing him to lower tariffs by 50 percent June 19 FDR signs Communications Act, establishing the Federal Communications Commission
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Chronology
June 28 Roosevelt signs the National Housing Act,
which establishes the Federal Housing Administration November 6 Democrats win significant gains in both houses of Congress. U.S. unemployment rate is 22.9 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 93
1935 April 27 Roosevelt signs bill to create the Soil
Conservation Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture May 6 FDR establishes the Works Progress Administration (WPA) May 11 FDR establishes the Rural Electrification Administration May 27 U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States case and declares the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional July 5 FDR signs the Wagner Act, establishing the National Labor Relations Board. U.S. unemployment rate is 21.3 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 119 August 14 Social Security Act becomes law
1936 January 6 Supreme Court rules that the Agricultural
Adjustment Act is unconstitutional February 17 Supreme Court upholds Tennessee Valley Authority November 3 FDR wins a seond term, defeating the Republican Alf Landon of Kansas, and taking 46 of 48 states December U.S. unemployment rate is 15.3 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 182
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1937 January 20 Roosevelts second inauguration. U.S.
unemployment rate is 15.1 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 179 February 5 FDR announces his Supreme Court packing scheme in the form of the Federal Court Reorganization bill, which is not passed August U.S. unemployment rate is 13.5 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 187 December Autoworkers engage in sit down strikes at General Motors plants
1938 January U.S. unemployment rate is 17.4 percent and
Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 121 June 25 FDR signs the Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing a minimum wage and maximum work hours
Glossary
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) An agency created by Congress in 1933, during FDRs Hundred Days, to help destitute farmers. Arkies Uprooted farmers from Arkansas who migrated across the country in search of work. Black Thursday October 24, 1929, the day the stock market witnessed 13 million shares traded, and $9 billion no longer invested in the market. This was a signal of significant trouble for the economy. Black Tuesday October 29, 1929, the day the stock market dropped by 43 points. Bonus Army Veterans of World War I who marched on Washington, D.C. in 1932 and again in 1933. They were seeking the early payment of their bonuses, which were not due to be paid until 1945. Brain Trust A group of close advisors of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the early days of his first term. Their policy suggestions helped to mold much of the New Deal legislation. broker The person through whom a stock investor makes his or her stock purchase. Civilian Conservation Corps The New Deal program created in 1933 that put boys and young men to work planting trees and making general improvements in the nations parks. Court-packing plan An attempt made by President Roosevelt in 1937 to increase his power over the Supreme Court. He tried to push legislation through
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Glossary
Congress authorizing him to add additional justices to the Supreme Court. The plan was refused. Crash of 1929 The massive crash of the U.S. stock market on Black Tuesday, when investors sold more than 16 million shares of stock in one day. Dust Bowl A large area of the Midwest that suffered from recurring violent dust storms and drought during the 1930s. Fireside Chats A series of weekly radio addresses to the American people delivered by President Roosevelt, during which he explained what actions he had recently taken to fight the Depression. Hooverville A derisive name given to shantytowns that sprang up in the early years of the Depression and were occupied by migrants in search of jobs. They were named after Herbert Hoover, the president of the time. The Hundred Days President Roosevelts first 100 days in office, in the spring and early summer of 1932. During this period Congress passed 15 major bills that reshaped the U.S. economy. margin buying A practice of purchasing stock through a broker that was common in the 1920s. It allowed the investor to buy a portion of stock on credit, with the broker carrying the debt. National Industrial Recovery Act The New Deal act passed during FDRs 100 Days that was intended to drive up prices and provide jobs. The act created the National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration. National Recovery Administration Part of the National Industrial Recovery Act, the NRA was created to solve problems of economic instability, overproduction, and labor-management issues by carrying out economic planning through codes of competition.
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Glossary
New Deal The collection of agencies, laws, and administrative structures created by the Roosevelt administration which were designed to meet the challenges of the Depression by expanding the role of government in the economy, including the private sector, while providing direct relief and job programs to Americans. Okies Uprooted farmers from Oklahoma who migrated across the country in search of work. parity The prices farmers received for their produce, relative to industrial prices as they had stood just prior to World War I in 1914. Public Works Administration Part of the National Industrial Recovery Act, this agency oversaw public works projects that included new transportation facilities, hospitals, and public buildings. reparations Compensation payable to the victor by a nation defeated in war, especially the payments demanded of Germany after World War I. Second Hundred Days President Roosevelts second batch of New Deal proposals and programs, created in 1935. They included the Wagner Act, Social Security, the Rural Electrification Act, a stronger Federal Reserve Board, the National Youth Administration, and the Soil Conservation Act. Social Security A government program created in August 1935 and designed to provide a retirement fund for the elderly, unemployed insurance, and welfare grants for local distribution. Southern Renaissance An influential group of Southern writers, including William Faulkner and Tom Wolfe, who spawned a new style of fiction during the 1930s, based on realism and other modern influences.
Glossary
subsidy A government payment made to farmers to increase their income. Tennessee Valley Authority A government agency created to help the Tennessee River Valley with water management and flood control, and to provide hydroelectric power through the construction of water projects and dams. Twentieth Amendment A constitutional amendment which changed the date of an incoming presidents inauguration from March 4 to January 20. FDRs second inauguration, in 1937, was the first one to take place on the new date. Twenty-First Amendment A constitutional amendment, ratified in 1933, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and thus ended Prohibition. Works Progress (Projects) Administration A government agency created in January 1935 through which workers were hired for light construction projects, especially those related to the arts.
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Bibliography
Alter, Jonathan. The Defining Moment: FDRs Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006. Brands, H. W. Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New York: Doubleday, 2008. Cohen, Adam. Nothing to Fear: FDRs Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America. New York: The Penguin Press, 2009. Doak, Robin Santos. Black Tuesday. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, Inc., 2007. Dulles, Rhea Foster, and Melvyn Dubofsky. Labor in America: A History. Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1984. Hamilton, David E. Problems in American Civilization: The New Deal. Boston: Cengage Learning (Wadsworth), 1998. Hart, James D. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Heilbroner, Robert. The Economic Transformation of America, 1600 to the Present. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1994. Horowitz, David A. On the Edge: The U.S. in the 20th Century. Belmont, CA: West / Wadsworth, 1998. Kennedy, David. Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 19291945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Manchester, William. The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 19321972. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1973. Martin, James Kirby. America and Its People, 2nd edition. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993
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Bibliography
Remini, Robert V. A Short History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Shlaes, Amity. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007. Smith, Carter. Presidents: Every Question Answered. New York: Metro Books, 2004. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking Press, 1939. Sunstein, Cass R. The Second Bill of Rights: FDRs Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need it More Than Ever. New York: Perseus Publishing, 2006. Taylor, Nick. American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work. New York: Bantam Books, 2008. Tindall, George Brown and David Emory Shi. America: A Narrative History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. Wecter, Dixon. The Age of the Great Depression, 19291941. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1948. Weinstein, Allen. The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis From Settlement to Superpower. New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2002. Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward, Angel. New York: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2006. Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. (25th Anniversary Edition.)
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Further Resources
Burg, David F The Great Depression. New York: Facts on . File, Inc., 2005. Downing, David. Great Depression. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Library, 2001. Elish, Dan. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, Inc., 2008. Feinberg, Barbara Silberdick. Franklin D. Roosevelt. New York: Scholastic Library Publishing, 2005. Fitzgerald, Stephanie. The New Deal: Rebuilding America. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, Inc., 2006. Freedman, Russell. Children of the Great Depression. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006. . Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992. Grant, R. G. The Great Depression. Farmington Hills, MI: Cengage Gale, 2005. Hillstrom, Kevin. The Great Depression and the New Deal. Detroit: Omnigraphics, Inc., 2008. Landau, Elaine. The Great Depression. San Francisco: Childrens Press, 2007. Levinson, Jeff. Great Depression: A Nation in Distress. Orlando, FL: Discovery Enterprises, Limited, 1996. Mara, Wil. Franklin D. Roosevelt. San Francisco: Childrens Press, 2004. Meyers, Madeleine. Great Depression. Hoboken, NJ: History Compass, 2000. Nardo, Don. Great Depression. Farmington Hills, MI: Cengage Gale, Greenhaven Press, 2007. Woog, Adam. Roosevelt and the New Deal. Farmington Hills, MI: Cengage Gale, 1997.
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Further Resources
Web sites
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ franklindroosevelt/ http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_v0zxM23Q (Film of FDRs first inauguration) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt9f-MZX-58 (Recording of FDRs first Fireside Chat, March 12, 1933) The Civilian Conservation Corps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H72vxNFjzSQ (Film of Washington State Parks Civilian Conservation Corps) The Depression: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htm http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blyindex depression.htm http://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsachtml/ http://www.amatecon.com/greatdepression.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jvbTwxdbvE (Still photos and music of the Depression) The Dust Bowl: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/dustbowl/ http://www.ccccok.org/museum/dustbowl.html The New Deal: http://newdeal.feri.org/ http://iws.ccccd.edu/kwilkison/Online1302home/ 20th%20Century/DepressionNewDeal.html The Work Projects Administration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk0SpTOi9Aw&feature= related (Archival film of WPA) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umxfo4eLOnM (Archival film of WPA)
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Picture Credits
Page 12: The Granger Collection, 24: 34: 37: 40: 55: 58: 63: 71:
NYC / TopFoto The Granger Collection, NYC / TopFoto Illustration by Gerald Wood TopFoto The Granger Collection, NYC / TopFoto The Granger Collection, NYC / TopFoto The Granger Collection, NYC / TopFoto The Granger Collection, NYC / TopFoto The Granger Collection, NYC / TopFoto
74: The Granger Collection, 83: The Granger Collection, 86: Getty Images/Hulton Archive 93: Illustration by John James 94: The Granger Collection, 99: The Granger Collection, 111: The Granger Collection, 115: Getty Images/Hulton Archive 136: www.abbottstudio.com
Abbott Studio, Inc. NYC / TopFoto NYC / TopFoto NYC / TopFoto NYC / TopFoto NYC / TopFoto
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Index
A Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA), 7072, 91, 100 Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), 89 Anacostia Flat camps, 1011, 1314, 61 Angelo, Joseph, 89, 14 arts, the, 7679 automobiles, 20, 2829 B banking, 3233, 34, 39, 52, 5456 Berle Jr., Adolph A., 62 Black Thursday, 25 Black Tuesday, 26, 27, 102 Bonus Marchers, 715, 47, 6061 Brain Trust team, 53, 54 Brookhart, Smith Wildman, 28 C cars, 20, 2829 cinema, 109112 Civil Works Administration (CWA), 7273 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 5762, 103 Commodity Credit Corporation, 70 Communism, 73, 113 construction industry, 2829, 33, 37, 5152, 6566 consumer goods, 20, 29, 30, 31 corporate profits, 2225 Coughlin, Father Charles E., 82 credit structure, 2930 crime, 107 D debts, from the war, 3031 Democratic Party, 14, 23, 39, 4748, 49, 53, 73, 97, 98 Disney, Walt, 112 Domestic Allotment Act (1936), 91 Dust Bowl, the, 16, 9296 E electricity, on farms, 6970 Ellison, Ralph, 77 Emergency and Relief Construction Act (1932), 42 Emergency Banking Relief Bill (1933), 54 European economic collapse, 3839 Evans, Walker, 77 F Farm Credit Administration, 70 Farm Security Agency (FSA), 77, 103 farming, 32, 33, 38, 39, 46, 51, 6872, 96 Faulkner, William, 117 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 5556, 106 Federal Home Loan Bank Act (1932), 46 Federal Housing Administration (FHA), 67
133
Index
Federal Reserve Board, 89 Fireside Chats (Roosevelt), 54, 55 G Garner, John Nance, 49 Glass-Steagall Banking Act (1933), 5556 Glassford, General Pelham D., 1011, 13 gold, 5657 Grand Coulee Dam, 66 Guthrie, Woody, 4445, 78 H Hitler, Adolf, 90, 113 Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), 67 homelessness, 43 Hoover, Herbert, 8, 10, 19, 22, 28, 3643, 46, 4849, 98, 104 Hoover Dam, 42 Hoovervilles, 37, 44, 46 Hopkins, Harry, 63, 72, 73, 75, 78 I Ickes, Harold, 65 incomes, 84 industry, 20, 27, 2829, 30, 31, 38, 5152 international economic situation, 3031 investment, 2027, 28, 32, 38, 102 J J. P Morgan and Company, 25 . Johnson, Edwin Boyd, 76 Johnson, General Hugh S. Ironpants, 64, 65 K Keynes, John Maynard, 7475 Kooning, Willem de, 76 L Landon, Alfred M., 9798, 99 Lange, Dorothea, 77 Lawrence, Joseph Stagg, 28 literature, 35, 4345, 7778, 110, 114117 Long, Huey, 8182 Lynch, Douglas, 76 M MacArthur, General Douglas, 1314, 61 magazines, 112114 Moley, Raymond, 54, 62 morality, 107108 motion pictures, 109112 musicals, 112 N National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), 62, 91 National Labor Relations Act (1935), 8587 National Recovery Administration (NRA), 6265, 80, 9091, 100, 104105 National Resources Board, 95 National Union for Social Justice, 82 National Youth Administration, 89 90, 103 New Deal, the, 16, 43, 5267, 6879, 8093, 98106 New York Stock Exchange, 2027, 38, 102
134
Index
O Old Age Revolving Pensions Limited, 8385 P Patman, Wright, 10 Patton, George S., 14, 64 pensions, 8385, 88 Pollock, Jason, 76 popular culture, 107117 Popular Front, the, 113 Public Works Administration (PWA), 62, 6566 R radio, 108109 Radio Corporation of America (RCA), 22 Raskob, John J., 23 Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), 4243, 46, 54 Reforestation Relief Act (1933), 57 Republican Party, 19, 28, 53, 73, 9798 Rizzo, Fiore, 59 Roberts, Owen J., 101 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 6061, 63 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (FDR), 1415, 4750, 5259, 6061, 62, 69, 80, 85, 87, 8990, 98102, 104105, 106, 113 Rural Electrification Administration (REA), 69, 89, 103 S Shahn, Ben, 76, 77 Share the Wealth plan, 8182 Shipstead, Henrik, 28 Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930), 38, 104 Social Security, 8789, 106 Soil Conservation, 70, 89, 91 Soldiers Bonus Act (1924), 7 Stalin, Josef, 113 Steinbeck, John, 35, 4345, 7778, 110, 115116 stock market crash, 2527, 28 stock prices, 2027, 38, 102 strikes, 73, 87 suicides, 2627 T Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), 69, 105 Townsend, Dr. Francis E., 8285, 88 Tugwell, Rexford Guy, 43, 62 U unemployment, 9, 3335, 39, 43, 45, 98, 102 V veterans of World War I, 715, 47, 6061 W Wagner Act, 8587 Wall Street suicides, 2627 Wallace, Henry, 59, 70 Wolfe, Thomas, 116 Works Progress Administration (WPA), 63, 74, 7579, 103 World War I (191418), 7, 9 Wright, Richard, 77, 116 Z Zangara, Giuseppe, 49
135
136