Part 1: The Great Depression
Part 2: FDR and the New Deal
Dr. Kevin B. Witherspoon
Lander University
The Stock Market Crash
 1920s background:
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Production
Tariffs
Credit
Farmers
The Stock Market Crash
 Prosperity
 The inflated market
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Buying on margin
Speculation
Holding companies
Overvalued
companies
 Utilities, railroads,
radio
 RCA: $11 1911, $450
1928
The Stock Market Crash
 The bubble bursts
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Oct. 24, 1929 “Black Thursday”
Oct. 29 - “Black
Tuesday”
Causes of the Crash
 Speeding the sell-off:
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Margin buying
Investigations
Poor banking
structure
Panic
1932, The Worst
Year
 Farmer’s Holiday Association
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Milo Reno*
1932, The Worst Year
 The Bonus Army*, 1932
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Bonuses for WWI veterans - 1924 Adj. Compensation Act
Anacostia Flats
Douglas Macarthur
1932, The Worst
Year
 1932, the worst year
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GNP = 1/2
Businesses went under
Banks closed down
1/3 population unemployed
Homelessness
NYC - 95 starvations 1931
Living in the
Depression
 Effects of the
Depression
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Unemployment
Partial employment
Gradual effects
Hoboeism
Health issues
Living in the
Depression
 Society during the
Depression
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The farm belt
 Dust Bowl
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Psychological impact
Coping with the
Depression
“We lived lean.”
Maintain normality
Neighborhood
associations
Living in the
Depression
 Society during the
Depression
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Families
Everyone worked
Divorces
Birth rate declines
Living in the
Depression
 Aid
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Federal?
Employers
Banks
Churches
Bread lines
Hoover and the
Depression
 Herbert Hoover*
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Background
Voluntarism
“trickle-down”
1932, Reconstruction
Finance Corporation
Public Works Bill
Tariffs
Tax increase
 FDR elected
Roosevelt*, the Man
 Crippled
 Elected 4 times
 Eleanor*, the First Lady
Roosevelt Biography
 Born 1882 Hyde Park
 Father & mother
 Early political career:
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1910 NY State Senate
1913 Asst. Secty. Of Navy
1921-24 Polio
1928 Gov. of NY
 Practice for New Deal
The First New Deal
 Relief and Recovery (1933-34)
 The 100 Days
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Emergency Banking Relief Act
Glass-Steagall Banking Act
Securities Act
The First New Deal
 Civilian Conservation
Corps* (CCC)
 Young men on federal
work projects
 $30/month
 500,000 jobs
The First New Deal
 Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA)
 Emergency Relief Administration, Harry Hopkins
 Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
 “Parity”
 Subsidies, crop reduction
 1935 unconstitutional
 U.S. v. Butler
The First New Deal
 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
The First New Deal
 National Industrial Recovery Act
(NIRA)
 National Recovery Administration
(NRA)
 Business/government cooperation
 Labor, form unions
 Hugh Johnson
 1935 “Sick chicken” case
The First New Deal Assessed
 1934, New Deal successes:
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Unemployment down
Wages up
Banks, stocks stable
 Limitations:
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Unemployment
Racism, sexism
Voices of
Protest
 From the Right:

Herbert Hoover
 Big government
 Curtail freedoms

American Liberty League
 New Deal anti-business
 President too powerful
 Taxes
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Newspapers
Voices of
Protest
 From the Left:
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Upton Sinclair
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Run for gov. of CA 1934
EPIC
Cooperatives
Campaign undermined
Voices of
Protest
 From the Left:
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Huey Long
 Gov., senator from LA
 Public works
 “Share Our Wealth”
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Free education
Food
Min. and max. salaries
Old age pensions
Veterans’ benefits
 Assass. By Dr. Carl Weiss
Voices of Protest
 From the Left:
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Father Charles Coughlin
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Catholic
Detroit
Radio
Political views
Dr. Francis Townsend
 Old age pensions
Second New
Deal
 Conditions:
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Popular support
Pressure from the left
Agencies in place
Frustration with the courts
Deficit spending
1935 Emergency Relief
Appropriations Act
 Works Progress Administration
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Harry Hopkins
$1.5 billion
 Resettlement Administration
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Rexford Tugwell
“Greenbelt” towns
 Federal Theater Project etc.
Wagner Act
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Robert Wagner
Unions
Strikes
Yellow-dog contracts
Agricultural workers
Social Security Act
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Frances Perkins
Payroll tax
Old age pensions
Unemployment compensation
Aid to dependent children
Limitations
Fair Labor Standards Act
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June 1938
Child labor
Minimum wage
Limit work hours
Election of 1936
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Popularity
“Roosevelt coalition”
Alfred Landon, KA
Pop. Vote:
 28 mil - 17 mil
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Elec. Vote:
 523 - 8
Court Packing
 Schecter v. US
 U.S. v. Butler
 The Plan
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Judges over 70
Allies:
 Court too powerful
 Ease case load
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Opponents:
 FDR too powerful
 No warning
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Defeated
FDR wins the war
Other
problems
 Labor clashes

Memorial Day Massacre
 The South

1938 elections
 The “Roosevelt
Recession”
The Roosevelt Recession
 The recession
 Causes:
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WPA cuts
Social Security tax
Labor tensions
Less $$ circulating
 Response
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$5 bil - “prime the pump”
Work relief
Tax cuts
The End of the
New Deal
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Republican rebound
Shortcomings:
 Blacks and women
 Economy
 Labor
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Successes:
 New Deal coalition
 Welfare state
 United the nation