The Depression
“The Stock Market Crash of 1929 is the
second most traumatic event in U.S.
History…”
Do you agree with that statement?
Herbert Hoover in Office
During the Depression
• During President Hoover’s term in office, from
March of 1929 to March of 1933, he did not
commit to pay for social services
– He did not want an active government
• Henry Ford and other business moguls backed Hoover
– He blamed the economic crisis on the workers
WWI Veterans Demand the Promised
Cash Bonus From Hoover
• In 1932, 10,000 unemployed WWI veterans marched
on Washington to demand the cash bonus they were
promised after the WWI
• They camped out in the nation’s capital in tents and
shacks
– Tens of thousands more on their way
• The Senate rejected their demands
• They were seen as a symbol of larger, unemployed
groups in society
• Hoover ordered the army to evict them
– Concerned about Revolution
Forcible Repression of the
Bonus Army
• The Army’s repression of the Bonus Army was led
by General McArthur, Dwight Eisenhower and
General Patton
– Soldiers wore bayonets and gas masks, hurled tear gas
– Soldiers burned the tents and used tanks
– Hoover saw this as saving the country
• Most citizens saw this as government bullying
– Helped FDR to win the presidential election of 1932
Hoover and Citizen Homes
• Private Enterprise alone was not enough to
solve the nation’s housing crisis
• Hoover held a Conference on Home Building
and Home Ownership
– It was found that millions lived in overcrowded,
unhealthy urban slums or ramshackle rural
dwellings
• Hoover created a federally sponsored bank to
provide home loans
FDR and Citizen Homes
• Created the Home Owners Loan Corporation and
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and later
the Veterans Administration (VA)
– Home ownership became possible for tens of millions
of families
– Cheaper for most Americans to buy than rent
– Insured millions of long term mortgages issued by
private banks
• The federal government itself built thousands of
units of low rent housing
What was FDR’s Platform?
• Repeal of Prohibition (21st Amendment)
– This helped him win his landslide victory
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A pitch for active government
Pledged to build up permanent employment
Stated that no citizen should starve
Will provide temporary work wherever
possible
FDR’s New Deal
• To reorganize capitalism to make it more humane
– To stabilize the system as much as possible
• FDR established the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC)
– Supervision of broadcast airwaves and telephone
communications
• Created the Securities and Exchange Commission
– Banks had to operate under strict rules
– FDR named Joe Kennedy to be the first Chairman
FDR’s New Deal Cont.
• Emergency Banking Relief Act
– Government Supervision over the banking industry
• Federal Emergency Relief Act for state welfare
programs
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (ended 1935)A
– Raised prices by reducing the supply of goods
– Government paid farmers for land they would leave
fallow
• This hurt Black, Mexican and poor white sharecroppers
FDR’s New Deal Cont.
• 1934-1943: Works Progress Administration
– Thousands of buildings and bridges
– 500,000 + miles of road
– 600 + airports
– Stadiums
– Pools
– Sewage Treatment Plants
FDR’s New Deal Cont.
• 1934-1943: Works Progress Administration
• Artists decorated public buildings with murals
• Writers produced local histories and
guidebooks
• Writers recorded the stories of ordinary
Americans including hundreds of former
slaves
• Federal Theater Project put on plays
FDR’s New Deal Cont.
• 1934-1943: Works Progress Administration
• Federal Music Project: Established orchestras and
choral groups
• Federal Dance Project: Sponsored ballet and modern
dance programs
• Wagner Act
– Outlawed firing union organizers
– National Labor Relations Board to supervise elections for
union representatives
– Supported the idea that unionization and higher wages
would aid economic recovery by boosting the purchasing
power of ordinary Americans
FDR’s New Deal
• 1935: Social Security Act
– Unemployment Insurance
– Old Age Pensions
– Aid to the disabled, elderly, poor and families with
dependent children
– Paid for by taxes on employers and employees
– European countries had similar programs the U.S.
had copied
Documentary Photographer Dorothy
Lange and the Great Depression
• Became famous during the Depression
• Captured human suffering and rural poverty
• Pioneered “social documentary photography”
• All of the following photos are taken by Lange in
Washington State
• They are now kept in the Library of Congress
American Memory Collection for the Great
Depression in Washington State Project
Yakima, Washington
Revival Meetings held
in a Yakima shacktown
Unfinished Hotel near the center of town
Construction abandoned after the 1929 economic collapse
Seattle Hooverville Resident repairs
the roof of his shack with tarpaper
in 1939. Hooverville residents were
migratory and poor.
Seattle Hooverville
Camp of family with 9
children who have
been on the road for 3
years
Packing fresh prunes at night in
packinghouse during busy
season
Wages at 2 cents per box
Chris Adolf, his teams and 6 of his children on their new FSA farm
near Wapato, Washington
The FSA was created to improve the lives of sharecroppers, tenants
and poor farmers. It purchased submarginal land from poor farmers
and resettled them on land better for farming.
Family who traveled by freigh
Summer of 1939
By Dorothy Lange
Yakima Valley
“Migrant Woman, originally from Texas
Yakima, Valley, Washington”
Yakima, Washington
Stockade used as a
jail for striking farm
workers in 1933
Source: Library of
Congress American
Memory Collection
FDR’s New Deal Cont.
• The government took on a new role it has never
fully relinquished: The government bears
responsibility for the economy and the standard
of life for its people
• Depression did not end until the start of WWII
• Economic Nationalism led trade wars and then
world war
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http://www.history.com/topics/new-deal/pictures/new-deal-programs/streaming-water-on-thebonneville-dam
Supporting the Arts through the WPA Smithsonian Channel
FDR gives first Fireside Chat
Dust Bowl