Objective Questions
What were the causes of the stock
market crash of 1929?
 How did the Great Depression affect
American workers?
 Why was the Great Depression less
severe in Texas than in other parts of
the country?

The Great Depression in Texas
The Depression was not as severe in Texas as in other parts of the
country.
 Few Texans owned stock. Few lost their savings in the crash.
 Texas had little industry. Few Texans lost their jobs when factories
closed.
 Much of Texas had been rural and poor before the crash. Many
people felt little change in their lives after the crash.
 An oil boom in East Texas in 1930 and 1931 helped that part of
the state.
About 400,000 Texans were out of work by 1932. Women, African
Americans, and Hispanic Americans had the highest unemployment
rates.
The Great Depression in Texas
Some people turned to crime to solve their problems.
 Bonnie and Clyde, two of America’s most famous criminals,
came from Texas.
Government leaders in Texas took steps to provide relief
during the Depression.
 They created state jobs.
 They passed a law in 1935 to provide pensions for the
elderly. A pension is a grant of money paid to someone who
has retired.
Throughout the 1930s, Texas governors tried a variety of
programs designed to boost the economy. None had the
power to pull Texas out of the Depression.
The Great Depression
Causes of the Great Depression
 Wealth in the United States
was spread out unevenly. A
small group of rich people
held most of the nation’s
wealth.
 Most people did not have
enough money to buy goods
to keep businesses going.
 Farmers faced hard times
during the 1920s.
 Foreign trade slowed in the
late 1920s.
Impact of the Great Depression
 One out of four workers was
unemployed by 1932.
 President Hoover offered
government loans to help
business and agriculture. The
loans were not enough to help
the economy recover,
however.
 Depression - a period of low
economic activity and high
unemployment.
World Wide Depression
Throughout the 1920s, while the American
economy was booming, European countries
had been suffering economic hard times. They
were still trying to recover from the impact of
WWI.
 Also, the U.S. passed high tariffs on imported
goods to give an advantage to American
industries, which restricted international trade.
 When the depression hit the U.S., our trading
partners around the world could not help us.

Stock Market Booms





Stock prices rose steadily during the 1920’s.
Dow reached as high as 381 points.
People were eager to take advantage of the
“bull market”.
Bull market was a period of rising stock prices.
American rushed to buy more stocks and
bonds.
Price Speculation
People began buying on speculation, meaning buying on a chance of a
quick profit while ignoring the risks.
 They also began buying on margin, paying a small percentage of a stock
price as a down payment and then borrowing the rest.
 This created unrestrained buying and selling and the market skyrocketed.
 Practice of buying on Margin led to major bank failures

Causes of the Great Depression
 Tariffs
and War Debt policies cut down the
market for goods to be sold in foreign
markets.
 The Crisis in the Farm sectors
 The Availability of easy credit.
 Unequal Distribution of Income.
Economic Troubles
Background:
 Many people became wealthy while others
couldn’t earn a decent living.
 Farmers and Consumers were steady going
into debt.
Industry Trouble
Key Industries such as the railroads, textiles and steel had barely
made a profit.
 Railroads had lost money due to new forms of transportation
such as buses, cars, and trucks)
 Mining and Lumber were no longer needed.

 3. Coal Mining was going out of style
because of new forms such as
hydroelectric power.
 4. New Houses being built started to
slow down and people stopped
buying houses.
Uneven Distribution
 The
rich got richer, the poor got poorer.
 More than 70% of the nations families earned
less than $2500 per year.
 People bought a new outfit only 1x per year.
Unequal Distribution of Income
Economic fact- poor people don’t hoard
their money- they spend it on
necessities
 rich people can only spend so much
money on luxuries - then they invest
their money
 Not enough people had money to spend
on luxuries and necessities to keep the
consumer industry going

Consumers
 They
had less money to spend.
 Higher Prices created less spending.
 People were living beyond their means.
 Credit became really big during this time: people had
trouble paying off debts
Overproduction of Consumer Goods
Market
for consumer goods
saturated- by 1929
Hoover Becomes President
Election of Herbert Hoover v.
Alfred E. Smith.
 Election of 1928- Hoover won
because he had a major advantage:
he could point to years to
Republican prosperity.
 Overwhelming Hoover victory.

Hoover
 After
the crash, Hoover tried to reassure Americans
that the nations economy was sound.
 He believed the Americans should remain
optimistic and go about their daily lives.
Hoover
 Hoover felt
that the government should pay a limited
role in helping to solve problems.
 He believed in Rugged Individualism, the idea that
people should succeed through their own efforts.
Hoover
 Hoover opposed
any form of federal welfare or
direct relief of the needy.
 Said it would weaken people’s self esteem and
moral fiber.
 Hoovers responses to the Great Depression shocked
and frustrated suffering Americans.
Hoover
 Called
together key leaders in business, banking and
labor to try and find a solution to the economy.
 Asked employers not to cut wages or lay off workers or
go on strike.
Hoover
 He
created a special organization to help
private charities to generate contributions for
the poor
(NO ONE HAD MONEY!)
 None of the things he did made a difference.
Stock Market

Oct 24, 1929, the stock market plunged.
 People began to dump stock very quickly.
 This is known as Black Thursday.

Oct. 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday, the day that the
bottom fell out.
 Everyone was selling everything at this point
 16.4 Million shares of stock were dumped that day.
Stock Market Crash
 Many people began to invest in the
Stock Market despite the bad economy.
 It became the most visible symbol of a
prosperous American economy.
Stock Market on Oct. 29, 1929
The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange just after the crash of 1929. On Black
Tuesday, October twenty-ninth, the market collapsed. In a single day, sixteen million
shares were traded--a record--and thirty billion dollars vanished into thin air.
Westinghouse lost two thirds of its September value. DuPont dropped seventy points. The
"Era of Get Rich Quick" was over. Jack Dempsey, America's first millionaire athlete, lost $3
million. Cynical New York hotel clerks asked incoming guests, "You want a room for
sleeping or jumping?"
Stock Market Crash
Practice
of buying on Margin
led to major bank failures
Black Thursday- October
24,1929
Black Tuesday - October
29,1929
The Stock Market Crash



It is often assumed that the
Great Depression was
caused by the “Great Crash”
in the fall of 1929, but this is
an oversimplification.
The stock market crash was
just one of the causes.
There were other serious
weaknesses in the U.S.
economy.
The Crash
 Sept. 1929, stock market peaked
and fell.
 Confidence wavered
 People began to pull money out.
 People who bought on credit were
stuck with huge debts.
 Most people lost their savings.
 Investors lost about $30 billion.. The
same amount spent on WW1.
Financial Collapse
 Stock Market signaled the
beginning of the Great Depression.
(1929-1940)
 Economy plummeted and
unemployment skyrocketed.
 However, the crash did not alone
cause the Great Depression.
Banks and Business Failure
 People panicked and withdrew money from
banks.
 Banks had invested lots of money so people
couldn’t get their money
 1929-600 banks closed.
 Government did not protect or insure bank
accounts, millions lost all their money.
Bank Failures
Thousands of bank
failures contributed to
the Great Depression.
 Rumors often led bank
customers to panic and
withdraw all their funds.
This is called a “run on the bank.”
 When the bank ran out of funds, the other
depositors lost all their money and the bank
went bankrupt.

Bank Failure cont
 Unemployment leaped from 3% to 25%.
 1 out of every 4 workers.
 1930- Congress passed the Hawley Smoot
Tariff Act was established the highest
protective tariff in US History.
 Tariff made unemployment worse in
industries.
Police stand guard outside the entrance to New York's closed World Exchange
Bank, March 20, 1931. Not only did bank failures wipe out people's savings,
they also undermined the ideology of thrift.
Unemployed men vying for jobs at the American Legion
Employment Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great
Depression.
Hardships and Suffering
 People lost their jobs and were evicted
from their homes. Most ended up on the
streets.
 Shantytowns began to rise. They were
towns consisting of shacks.
 Food and Bread lines (soup kitchens)
became a common sight.
Income and Spending
Consider this . . .
Cuts in
production lead
to lay-offs
The decline in
consumer
spending
forces businesses
to cut production
Unemployment
decreases
buying power
In this manner,
the U.S. economy
became steadily
worse between
1929 and 1933.
Not
enough people had
money to spend on luxuries
and necessities to keep the
consumer industry going
Business Failures




90,000 businesses went bankrupt
between 1929 and 1933.
One reason for this was that many
industries had failed to adjust their
high production rates to the declining demand in the late
1920s.
This was especially true with what are called “durable
goods,” things that last a long time, like refrigerators,
washing machines, and automobiles.
These surplus goods were already being stockpiled in
company warehouses before the depression hit. Without
buyers, companies could not afford to make more of these
items. Factories had to close down.
Unemployment



The closing of factories led to millions of layoffs. This sharp increase in the unemployment
rate was the most obvious symptom of the
Great Depression.
Many industries that were able to stay open
were forced to decrease their overall
production. They often had to turn full-time
employees into part-time employees or lay off
a portion of their workforce.
The resulting unemployment or underemployment had a profound impact on the
American economy.
John L. Lewis

Formed the
Congress of
Industrial
Organizations
(CIO) because of
the AFL’s exclusion
of unskilled factory
workers
The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of
a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made in February or
March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a
month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for
what was then the Resettlement Administration.
Kids and the Depression
Poor diets and lack of money for healthcare, led to
serious health problems.
 No milk led to malnutrition and diet related
diseases.
 Schools began to shorten their school year and some
school closed because no one could pay their school
taxed. Kids went to work instead.

Farmer and sons, dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936. Photographer: Arthur Rothstein.
The drought that helped cripple agriculture in the Great Depression was the worst in the
climatologically history of the country. By 1934 it had desiccated the Great Plains, from North Dakota
to Texas, from the Mississippi River Valley to the Rockies. Vast dust storms swept the region.
Porch of a sharecropper's cabin, Hale County, Alabama, Summer 1936.
Photographer: Walker Evans. The marginal and oppressive economy of
sharecropping largely collapsed during the great Depression.
A sharecropper's yard.
Hale County, Alabama, Summer 1936.
Squatter's Camp, Route 70, Arkansas, October, 1935.
Part of an impoverished family of nine on a New Mexico highway. Depression refugees from Iowa. Left Iowa in 1932
because of father's ill health. Father an auto mechanic laborer, painter by trade, tubercular. Family has been on relief
in Arizona but refused entry on relief roles in Iowa to which state they wish to return. Nine children including a sick
four-month-old baby. No money at all. About to sell their belongings and trailer for money to buy food. "We don't
want to go where we'll be a nuisance to anybody." Children of migrant workers typically had no way to attend school.
By the end of 1930 some 3 million children had abandoned school. Thousands of schools had closed or were operating
on reduced hours. At least 200,000 children took to the roads on their own. Summer 1936. Photographer: Dorothea
Lange.
Bud Fields and his family. Alabama. 1935 or 1936.
Photographer: Walker Evans.
Migrant Mother….
Hooverville in Central Park, NY
Waiting for the semimonthly relief
checks at Calipatria, Imperial Valley,
California. Typical story: fifteen years
ago they owned farms in Oklahoma.
Lost them through foreclosure when
cotton prices fell after the war. Became
tenants and sharecroppers. With the
drought and dust they came West,
1934-1937. Never before left the county
where they were born. Now although
in California over a year they haven't
been continuously resident in any
single county long enough to become a
legal resident. Reason: migratory
agricultural laborers. March 1937.
Photographer: Dorothea Lange.
Hooverville in Oregon
Unemployed workers in front of a shack with Christmas tree, East 12th Street,
New York City. December 1937. Photographer: Russell Lee. Tattered communities
of the homeless coalesced in and around every major city in the country.
African Americans and Latinos
were the lowest paid and dealt
with increasing hatred of the
whites who were also competing
for the same jobs.
Hobo’s
 Hobo’s were “invented” at this time.
 They were people who wandered
around the country, hitching rides
on railroad box cars and sleeping
under bridges.
Social and Psychological Effects
 Many people lost their will to live.
 Suicide rates rose more than 30%.
 Adults stopped going to the doctor
or dentist because they couldn’t
afford it.
The Farming Crisis
Before the Great Depression, U.S
farmers had been suffering from a
depression in the farm economy due to
overproduction.
 The resulting low prices for farm
products made it hard to make a profit.
 They became deeply in debt and
many farms were repossessed and
sold at auction.
 In the early 1930s, farmers in parts
of the U.S. were hit by a severe
drought that came to be called the . . .

Farmers lost money in the 1920s
Roadside stand near
Birmingham, Alabama, 1936.
A man in the midst of a
dust storm
A Dust Storm in Eastern Colorado
Sand covering a farm after
a dust storm
Another Dust Storm
Farmer and sons, dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936.
The drought that helped cripple agriculture in the Great Depression was the worst in the
climatological history of the country. By 1934 it had dessicated the Great Plains, from North
Dakota to Texas, from the Mississippi River Valley to the Rockies. Vast dust storms swept the
region.
An abandoned farm in Kansas.
In one of the largest pea camps in
California. February, 1936.
People lived in tent cities
Another mother and her child living
in a lean-to tent
Question of the Day



Describe what
you see in this
picture. What is
happening here?
What is unusual
about the family
in this picture?
What reasons
can you think of
for why they are
in this situation?
Kitchen in house of Floyd Burroughs, sharecropper, near
Moundville, Hale County, Alabama. Summer 1936.
People living in miserable poverty, Elm Grove,
Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. August 1936.
Leland, Mississippi, in the Delta area, June 1937.
Part of the daily lineup outside the State Employment
Service Office. Memphis, Tennessee. June 1938.
The unemployment rate was high
Many Tejanos were out of work
Young boys waiting in kitchen of city mission for soup which is given out
nightly. Dubuque, Iowa. April 1940.
For millions, soup kitchens offered the only food they would eat.
Durham, North Carolina, May 1940.
Upstairs bedroom of family on relief, Chicago,
Illinois. April 1941
Children at Hill House, Mississippi.
Sharecropper house on dirt. Dirt log cabin on right is much older than attached
frame cabin on left. Both have halfstones. Note dog run and flowering plants in
tin can and tubs. This is typical of Negro dwellings. Log build visible. Through the
back door is the corncrib. Near Olive Hill, North Carolina.
An African-American maid.
Mississippi Delta children.
Plantation cotton cabin.
Mississippi Delta, near Vicksburg.
Tenant family near Greensboro, Alabama.
Part of the daily lineup outside the State
Employment Service Office.
Memphis, Tennessee. June 1938.
The unemployment rate was high
Many Tejanos were out of work
Hoovervilles
Peddler who slept in a cellar
4/13/2015
108
Blind Peddler
4/13/2015
109
Police Station Lodger- a
plank for a bed
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110
Men’s
Lodging
In West
47th St.
Station
4/13/2015
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Women’s
Lodging
In the
47th St.
Station
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112
Home of an Italian Ragpicker
4/13/2015
113
Young boys waiting in kitchen of city mission for soup which is given out
nightly. Dubuque, Iowa. April 1940.
For millions, soup kitchens offered the only food they would eat.
Durham, North Carolina, May 1940.
Houses in Eutaw, Alabama.
Church near Paradis, Louisiana
Feet of children on a farm near
Greensboro, Alabama.
Greensboro, Alabama
Main street.
Greensboro, Alabama.
Miss Teal, nurse, brings hookworm medicine to Lewis
family, R.R. (Rural Rehabilitation) clients. Coffee
County, Alabama.
Part of RR (Rural Rehabilitation) family: children have
hookworm, mother has pellagra and milk leg, according to
nurse's report. Father works on WPA (Work Projects
Administration).
Coffee County, Alabama.
Unemployed workers in front of a shack with Christmas tree, East
12th Street, New York City. December 1937. Photographer: Russell
Lee. Tattered communities of the homeless coalesced in and around
every major city in the country.
This woman, wife of an ex-farmer now living on relief, had pellagra in an advanced stage. She has
had some treatment and shown great improvement but there were still evidences of mental
disturbance. She was the mother of twelve children. The child in her arms has malaria as have
probably the entire family. Jefferson, Texas.
Courtroom of the
old Monroe County Courthouse
The American Liberty League
Formed by the DuPont family , the
American liberty League was formed
for the sole purpose of opposing
“FDR’s reckless spending spree of the
New Deal.” They believed that these
socialist programs and dictorial policies
attack free enterprise and were
unconstitutional.
A collage of newspaper headlines
from the Dust Bowl
1931-1939
How many states
were partially in the
region most affected
by the Dust Bowl?
Dust Bowl
 Dust Bowl brought dust that traveled a
hundred miles.
 The hardest hit areas were Kansas, Oklahoma,
Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.
 Many left the Great Plains and headed west
following the Route 66 to California. They
became known as Okies.
Dust Bowl
 It was a drought that began in early
1930’s that wreaked havoc on the
Great Plains.
 It was caused by the plowing of the
Plains, which had removed a thick
protective layer of prairie grass.
The Geographic Impact of the Dust Bowl
Lack of rain led wells to dry
up and trees to die.
 High winds carried off the
loose topsoil, damaging the
land for future farming.
 This would lead many
farmers in the region to give
up their farms and move to
states on the west coast
seeking work.

Bonus March
World War I veterans block the steps of the Capital during the Bonus March, July 5,
1932 (Underwood and Underwood). In the summer of 1932, in the midst of the Great
Depression, World War I veterans seeking early payment of a bonus scheduled for 1945
assembled in Washington to pressure Congress and the White House. Hoover resisted
the demand for an early bonus. Veterans benefits took up 25% of the 1932 federal
budget. Even so, as the Bonus Expeditionary Force swelled to 60,000 men, the president
secretly ordered that its members be given tents, cots, army rations and medical care. In
July, the Senate rejected the bonus 62 to 18. Most of the protesters went home, aided by
Hoover's offer of free passage on the rails. Ten thousand remained behind, among them a
hard core of Communists and other organizers. On the morning of July 28, forty
protesters tried to reclaim an evacuated building in downtown Washington scheduled
for demolition. The city's police chief, Pelham Glassford, sympathetic to the marchers,
was knocked down by a brick. Glassford's assistant suffered a fractured skull. When
rushed by a crowd, two other policemen opened fire. Two of the marchers were killed.
World War I veterans block the steps of the Capital during the Bonus March, July 5, 1932 (Underwood and Underwood). In the summer
of 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, World War I veterans seeking early payment of a bonus scheduled for 1945 assembled in
Washington to pressure Congress and the White House. Hoover resisted the demand for an early bonus. Veterans benefits took up 25% of
the 1932 federal budget. Even so, as the Bonus Expeditionary Force swelled to 60,000 men, the president secretly ordered that its
members be given tents, cots, army rations and medical care. In July, the Senate rejected the bonus 62 to 18. Most of the protesters went
home, aided by Hoover's offer of free passage on the rails. Ten thousand remained behind, among them a hard core of Communists and
other organizers. On the morning of July 28, forty protesters tried to reclaim an evacuated building in downtown Washington scheduled
for demolition. The city's police chief, Pellham Glassford, sympathetic to the marchers, was knocked down by a brick. Glassford's
assistant suffered a fractured skull. When rushed by a crowd, two other policemen opened fire. Two of the marchers were killed.
Farmers
 Agriculture suffered the most…
 During WW1, there had been a high
demand of wheat and corn.
 Farmers had taken out loans for more
equipment and now it was no longer
needed and farmers went into debt.
Farmer’s slump
About
50% of nation were
farmers
 low crop prices since early
1920’s
bank foreclosures caused
loss of farms
World wide Economic Slump
 Fordney-McCumber
Tariff-
1922
 Hawley-Smoot Tariff-1930
 war debts- $10 billion couldn’t
sell their goods to get dollars
to repay the loans
1930’s
The
Red
Decade
Gellert, Hugo, 1924. Vote
Communist poster. During the
1920s the American Communist
Party was often a victim at once of
government oppression and of its
own sectarian struggles, but in the
mid-1930s it adopted a "popular
front" policy of alliances with
liberal organizations. Its
membership tripled, but more
important still were the thousands
of sympathizers who endorsed
party-supported causes.
Demonstration of unemployed, Columbus, Kansas.
May 1936. Photographer: Arthur Rothstein.
1930’s election
 More and More democrats were being
elected to the Congress and they gained
control of the House.
 People began calling the shanty towns,
“Hoovervilles”, as the homeless were calling
the newspapers they used as blankets as
Hoover blankets.
Dealing with the Great Depression
Between 1929 and 1932,
the Hoover’s administration
was unable to bring about
a real improvement in the
economy
 The public blamed Hoover
for the worsening situation.
 They elected FDR in 1932.
He promised Americans a
“New Deal.”

Herbert Hoover
F. D. Roosevelt
The New Deal


Roosevelt declared a “bank
holiday,” closing U.S. banks
temporarily to restore public
confidence and prevent
further bankruptcies.
Congress cooperated with
the president to pass many
reform measures aimed at
relieving the symptoms of
the Great Depression.
Grew up wealthy-Hyde Park,
New York
Harvard educated -law degree
Columbia
New York Senator, Assistant
Secretary of Navy, Vice Pres.
candidate, Governor New York,
Ending the Great Depression
New Deal programs like the PWA, the WPA, the
NYA and the CCC were primarily aimed at putting
people to work. This would theoretically “prime
the pump” by increasing spending, which should
increase production and, ultimately, create more
jobs.
 Historians suggest that these programs, while
they served to improve public morale, were
insufficient to really turn the economy around.
 The Great Depression was finally ended by the
beginning of World War II and the full
employment it provided.

FDR’s Beliefs
The
only thing we have to
fear is fear itself
Fireside chats on the radio
Emergency Banking Relief
Act
Polio
Became
ill 1921 at age of
39
walked with aid of heavy
metal braces
Hundred days
15
major pieces of
legislation passed in the
first three months of FDR’s
administration
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)sets
out to restore a nation in trouble. He begins with
his “New Deal” promises. The first thing FDR has
to do is stop the panic. This is where he tells the
American people in his Inaugural Address, “the
only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This helps
to restore some confidence in the population. FDR
continued to address the populous in a series
called the “Fireside Chats.” The New Deal’s Design
was that of economic stimulus geared toward the
working class.
The New Deal
 Relief,
recovery and reform
 Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC)
 Brain trust
 An example of “pump priming” is
the use of government funds to
stimulate the economy, in
essence…the New Deal.
The New Deal





FDR’s 1st “100 days” in office was characterized by
action; FDR began a myriad of legislation.
1st he created a bank holiday to stop the landslide, it
lasted four days.
2nd He created the (EBA) Emergency Banking Act that
set up new procedures for the Department of the
Treasury to inspect banks
3rd The Glass-Steagall Act established the FDIC to
restore confidence in the banking system.
4th Next, they set out to regulate the stock market with
the Federal Securities Act. This was the predecessor
to the (SEC) Securities & Exchange Commission
which was designed to curb irresponsible trading
practices.
The New Deal




In 1933, the (AAA) Agricultural Adjustment Act paid
farmers to plow under their crops. In 1936, the
Supreme Court declared the agency unconstitutional.
The AAA Favored large landowners over tenant
farmers believing it would trickle down.
If one were to ask a question about the AAA, one might
say, “How could the government help reduce farm
surpluses and raise prices?”
The Government would place production limits and pay
farmers subsidies for leaving some of their land idle.
Farm prices were also to be subsidized up to the point
of parity.
The New Deal

In 1938, the (TVA) Tennessee Valley
Authority was a series of projects
designed to reduce electricity cost in the
Tennessee Valley region of 40,000
square miles stretching over 7 states;
Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North
Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, &
Mississippi by building hydro-electric
dams.
The New Deal

The (CCC) Civilian Conservation Corps
was created to put young men to work in
various types of construction like dams,
building bridges & planting trees.
The New Deal
Under (NIRA) The National Industrial
Recovery Act, Various types of public
works projects were created.
 Under (NIRA) The (NRA) was
established that set in place fair
standards for competition, banned child
labor, set standards for the work
place…etc.

The Supreme Court




It declared that both NIRA & the AAA were
unconstitutional.
FDR believed that the Supreme Court was too
conservative.
Because the New Deal Programs competed with
private industry, technically they are
unconstitutional.
The Court Packing Bill
 6 new justices wanted by FDR
 Many believed this was a violation of the Constitution.

Instead, FDR appointed a new Chief Justice in
Hugo Black plus seven other justices due to
resignations.
Recession of 1937

The severe recession in 1937 was
primarily due to a reduction of federal
expenditures for relief programs
Opponents of FDR

Supported the redistribution of wealth





Senator Huey P. Long – share-our-wealth
Father Charles Coughlin – radio priest
Dr. Francis Townsend – retirement benefits
Alfred Landon – Kansas Governor
Various Industrialists like the DuPont Family



Helped formed the American Liberty League
The League stated that it would work to "defend and uphold the Constitution" and to "foster the right to
work, earn, save and acquire property.”
They would support free enterprise and oppose the New Deal.
1936 Presidential Election

Alfred Landon Governor of Kansas
 Republican Presidential nominee who
opposed FDR.
 He only received 2 of the 48 states electoral
votes.

FDR
 Democratic incumbent
 Carried 60.8% of the popular vote
 Received electoral votes for 46 of 48 states
Father Charles Coughlin
Father Charles Edward Coughlin
was a Canadian-born Roman Catholic
priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's
National Shrine of the Little Flower
Church. He was one of the first
political leaders to use radio to reach a
mass audience, as more than forty
million tuned to his weekly broadcasts
during the 1930s. He blamed Jewish
bankers for the depression. Early in
his career Coughlin was a vocal
supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt
and his early New Deal proposals,
before later becoming a harsh critic of
Roosevelt.
Huey P. Long - A.K.A . – “Kingfish”
Louisiana governor Huey
P. Long created the Share
Our Wealth program in
1934, with the motto
"Every Man a King,"
proposing new wealth
redistribution measures in
the form of a net asset tax
on corporations and
individuals to curb the
poverty and crime resulting
from the Great Depression.
Dr. Francis E. Townsend
•In 1935, partly in response to the continued growth of
the Townsend Plan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
proposed his own old-age policy, which was less generous
than Townsend and Clement's proposal. The president's
policy included a program for poor older people with
matching payments from the federal government, known
as Old Age Assistance, and a national old-age annuity
program that later was called by all Social Security.
•The Townsend Plan was a proposal that the governor
would give $200/month to everyone over 60 to be spent
within a few weeks.
Harry L. Hopkins
Head of the Federal
Emergency Relief
Administration
(FERA) under FDR.
John Maynard Keynes
British economist
who believed that
government deficit
spending in a
recession could help
the economy recover.
This is roughly what
the U.S. did under
FDR.
Mary McLeod Bethune
Black educator
who was
appointed to the
advisory
committee of the
National Youth
Administration
under FDR.
Eleanor Roosevelt
• FDR’s Wife
• Without her influence, the Federal
Writers Project would have never
developed.
• Tirelessly worked for the equality
of all as a civil rights advocate.
• Co-founder of Freedom House.
•During her time at the United
Nations she chaired the committee
that drafted and approved the
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
Francis Perkins
Woman held the
highest position in
the New Deal
administration as
Secretary of Labor
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black defendants in a 1931
Scottsboro, Alabama rape case. The case was heard by the United
States Supreme Court twice in Powell v. Alabama and Norris v.
Alabama. These decisions established the principles that criminal
defendants are entitled to effective assistance of counsel and that
people may not be de facto excluded from juries because of their
race.
Second New Deal
The 2nd Hundred Days
Laws passed after congressional elections of
1934 in the year 1935
 The main reason for the new deal is the rise of
dissident challenges to the 1st New Deal
 (WPA) Works Progress Administration
 Headed by Harry Hopkins
 Created as many jobs as possible
 Paycheck with dignity
 It failed because it spent its money too

carefully and slowly.
 Employed 2 million at any given time.
The 2nd New Deal
The 2nd Hundred Days
National
Youth
Administration
 financial aid for education
 Students worked off loans
The New Deal
Wagner Act
 Defined unfair labor practices
 Established (NLRB) National
Labor Relations Board to
settle disputes between
employers & employees
The New Deal
Social
Security Act
 Established the Social Security
Administration
 Provided pensions for Retirement
 Unemployment compensation funded by
employer tax.

Provided aid to disabled
 Employees
and their Employers pay
for the Social Security program.
The New Deal

Rural Electrification Administration
 Helped to bring cheap utilities to outlying areas

Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935
 Attempt to attack holding companies – it failed
Lasting Impact of the New Deal
The New Deal expanded the government’s
role in the economy.
• The Glass-Steagall Act created the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)- which
insures banking accounts preventing bank
failures
• Security
and Exchange Commission (SEC)- regulates
and stabilizes the stock market
 The Social Security Administration provides:
• pensions for the elderly
• aid to families with dependent children
• unemployment compensation
• assistance for the handicapped

End of the Depression
 The
Rise of Hitler and WWII is
generally accepted as the end of
the Great Depression.
Significant Events




1929
 Hoover Elected President
 Stock Market Crash
 Agricultural marketing Act passed
1930
 Hawley-Smoot Tariff
 Dust Bowl begins
 Black Shirts in Atlanta organize against Blacks for jobs
1931
 Scottsboro Boys
 American Communist Party stages Hunger March on Washington
1932
 Glass-Steagall Banking Act Passed
 Reconstruction Finance Corporation Established
 Bonus March on Washington
 FDR Elected President