1930’s
SSUSH18 The student will describe Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal as a
response to the depression and compare the ways governmental
programs aided those in need.
a. Describe the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority as a works
program and as an effort to control the environment.
b. Explain the Wagner Act and the rise of industrial unionism.
c. Explain the passage of the Social Security Act as a part of the second
New Deal.
d. Identify Eleanor Roosevelt as a symbol of social progress and
women’s activism.
e. Identify the political challenges to Roosevelt’s domestic and
international leadership; include the role of Huey Long, the “court
packing bill,” and the Neutrality Act.
•When Bing recorded this song
Bing Crosby
in October, 1932, one out of
every four Americans who
wanted work could not find
work.
•The banking system was near
collapse.
•Record sales had plummeted
because Americans did not have
the money for such luxuries.
•No song captures the dark
spirit of the Great Depression
more than "Brother, Can You
Spare a Dime?"
•Bing recorded the song shortly
before President Roosevelt's
election and it went to No. 1 in
They used to tell me I was building a dream,
and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear,
I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream,
with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line,
just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, to the sun, brick,
mortar and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went marching through
Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say, don't you remember, they called me Al;
it was Al all the time.
Hey don't you remember, I'm your pal?
Buddy, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, to the sun, brick,
mortar, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went marching through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say, don't you remember, they called me Al;
it was Al all the time.
Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal?
Brother, can you spare a dime?
• Roosevelt’s 100 days was very
successful….FDR and Congress
went to work providing for
direct relief, recovery and
reform.
• From March of 1933 to June of
1933, Roosevelt sent 15
proposals to Congress and all 15
were adopted
• Congress and President tried
anything reasonable to
overcome the Great Depression.
Govt. programs which provided direct
relief to suffering Americans through
govt. spending………





Renew democracy
Restore confidence in the banking
Stimulate economy
Put people back to work.
Restore self confidence
Social Engineers
Brain Trust
How? FDR’s 3 R’s
Relief:
ease suffering of the needy
Recovery: begin economic growth
Reform: help prevent future
economic crises
25% to 40%
of workers
out of work
Was able to
lower it to
14%
Part of FDR’s New
Deal……Agencies created by
the US Govt. to bring about
the 3 R’s……Relief, Recovery,
and Reform.
alphabet
RELIEF:
Ease Suffering of the
Needy
WPA / 1933 to 1943
Works Progress Administration
Employed 8.5 million workers in
construction and other jobs, but
more importantly provided work
in arts, theater, and literary
projects.
alphabet
RELIEF:
Ease Suffering of the
Needy
CCC / 1933 to 1942
Civilian Conservation
Corps
•Sent 3 million young men to work camps to
build bridges, replant forests and other
conservation tasks.
•Develop job skills and improve environment.
• Removed surplus of workers from cities,
provided healthy conditions for boys, provided
money for families.
Planted trees, built public parks, drained
swamps to fight malaria, restocked rivers with
fish, worked on flood control projects and a
range of other work that helped to conserve
the environment.
RECOVERY: Begin Economic
Growth
TVA / 1933
Tennessee Valley
Authority
Federal government
built a series of dams to
prevent flooding and sell
electricity in the South.
RECOVERY: Begin Economic Growth
TVA / 1933
Tennessee Valley
Authority
•Federal government built a
series of dams to prevent
flooding and sold electricity.
•First public competition with
private power industries.
TVA MAP
TVA CRITICISM
REFORM:
Prevent Another Depressio
Wagner Act / 1935
National Labor Relations Act
Reaffirmed labor's right to
unionize, prohibited unfair
labor practices, and created
the National Labor Relations
Board.
REFORM: Prevent Another Depression
SSA / 1935
Social Security Act
It provided retirement
pensions,
unemployment
insurance, aid to blind,
deaf, disabled, and
dependent children.
REFORM:
Prevent Another Depressio
SSA / 1935
Social Security Act
Response to critics
(Dr.Townsend and Huey
Long), it provided pensions,
unemployment insurance,
aid to blind, deaf, disabled,
and dependent children.
Criticisms of New Deal
US government and President too powerful
Violated laissez faire
Supreme Court declared NIRA and AAA
unconstitutional
Critics:
Father Charles Coughlin
Dr. Francis Townsend
Al Smith
Huey Long
Deficit spending: Govt. spends $$$ to stimulate the
economy and help people even if it means US Govt.
goes into debt.
Welfare state----Created a population of Americans
who relied on the US Govt. to live
Successes of New Deal
AMERICANS IN 1939 WHO WANTED THE NEW DEAL TO CONTINUE
WAS 55%….. 37% REGARDED IT AS A BAD INFLUENCE AND WANTED
A NEW PRESIDENT…………...
Stimulated the economy
Put people back to work….
Improved morale and self-confidence of the people
US Govt’s. role changes and became directly
involved in helping people
WWII ended the Great Depression not FDR’s New
Deal
• The Kingfish
• Share the Wealth Plan
– Limit annual income to one million
dollars each
– Limit inheritances to five million dollars
each
– Guarantee every family an annual
income of $2,000
– Free college education and vocational
training
– Old-age pensions for all persons over
60
– Veterans benefits and healthcare
– A 30 hour work week
– A four week vacation for every worker
• “Every man a king, but no one wears a crown”
• Assassinated in 1935 by Dr. Carl Weiss
• Southern Demagogue
–
a political leader who gains power by appealing to people's emotions,
“God,
instincts, and prejudices in a way that is considered manipulative,
represents common people
don’t let me die. I have so much to do.”
Senator Long before the U.S. Senate on
January 14, 1935
• But my friends, unless we do share our
wealth, unless we limit the size of the big
man so as to give something to the little
man, we can never have a happy or free
people. God said so! He ordered it.
We have everything our people need. Too
much of food, clothes, and houses. Why not
let all have their fill and lie down in the ease
and comfort God has given us. Why not?
Because a few own everything—the
masses own nothing.
Ev'ry man a king, ev'ry man a king
For you can be a millionaire
But there's something belonging
to others
There's enough for all people to
share
When it's sunny June and
December too Or in the winter
time or spring
There'll be peace without end
Ev'ry neighbor a friend
With ev'ry man a king
Words by H. Long and C. Carazo
Huey Long and Family
The shooting of Huey Long
painting by John McCrady
Supreme Court
Congressional opposition was beginning to grow; many of his
laws, including the WPA, were taking a long time to get passed
and met resistance.
• Schechter v. United States
– The Schechter brothers had a poultry business in Brooklyn.
– They had been convicted in 1933 of violating the NIRA’s Live Poultry
Code; they had sold diseased chickens and violated the code’s wageand-hour provisions.
– Known as the “sick chicken case.”
– The Supreme Court said that the Constitution did not allow the
Congress to lend its powers to the executive; the NIRA was
unconstitutional.
– This suggested that the Supreme Court would make similar decisions in
regards to the New Deal.
•Supreme Court was
striking down New Deal
legislation.
•Roosevelt proposed a
bill to allow the president
to name a new federal
judge for each who did
not retire by age 70 and
1/2.
•6 justices over age limit.
•Would have increased
the number of justices
from 9 to 15, giving FDR a
majority of his own
appointees on the court.
•The court-packing bill
was not passed by
Congress.
The National Labor Relations Act
• The National Labor Relations Act
– also called the Wagner Act
– It guaranteed workers the right to organize unions without interference
from employers and to bargain collectively.
– The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which organized factory
elections by secret to determine whether workers wanted a union.
– The NLRB then certified successful unions.
– The new law also set up a process whereby dissatisfied union members
could take their complaints to binding arbitration, in which neutral party
would listen to both sides and decide issues.
– The NLRB was authorized to investigate the actions of employers and
had the power to issue “cease and desist” orders against unfair practices.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
• Photographer (Walker Evans)
and journalist ( James Agee) to
describe accurately the lives of
three families of tenant farmers
in rural Alabama in 1936.
• Farm Security Administration
project
• Work addressed the challenges
of social responsibility and the
salvaging of human dignity in
the midst of the Great
Depression.
Walker
Evans,
Let Us Now
Praise
Famous
Men
From: Now Let Us Praise Famous Men
• “The children’s bed in the rear of the room
has a worn-out and rusted mesh spring;
…They smell old, stale and moist, and are
morbid with bedbugs, with fleas and , I
believe with lice. They are homemade.
Photographs that has become known as
"Migrant Mother" is one of a series of
photographs that Dorothea Lange made of
Florence Owens Thompson and her children 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
Migrant agricultural Photos By:
worker's family. Seven Dorothea
hungry children. Mother Lange
aged thirty-two. Father is
native Californian. Nipomo,
California
Left: Dorothea Lange in California
Right: Dorothea Lange took this picture of
farm workers washing in a hot spring in
California
Entertainment during the 1930’s
• Art
– Gutzon Borglum, was able to complete his Mount Rushmore Memorial
with funds supplied by the WPA
– Grant Wood
– Georgia O’Keeffe
– Edward Hopper
• Architecture
– Frank Lloyd Wright, Prairie Style, “Falling Waters” Open space, with nature
– Alexander Calder
• Music
• The Federal Music Project (FMP) supported the musical arts and
sponsored performances of both classical and popular compositions.
– Woody Guthrie
• in support of labor unions and wrote such songs as "I Ain't Got No Home",
inspired by visits to migrant labor camps
– Aaron Copland
• Popular Individuals and Groups
– Bing Crosby “Brother Can You Spare a Dime”
– Benny Goodman
– Duke Ellington
– Glenn Miller
– Tommy Dorsey
– George Gershwin
– Irvin Berlin
– Johnny Mercer
• Literature
– John Steinbeck, “Grapes of Wrath” “Of Mice and Men”
• chronicled the life of a displaced Oklahoma family who had lost its
farm to the drought of the Dust Bowl.
– William Faulkner “Absalom, Absalom!” (1936), perhaps his finest,
about the rise of a self-made plantation owner and his tragic fall
through racial prejudice and a failure to love
– Richard Wright – “Native Son”, African-American Literature, murder of
a white woman by African-American and his subsequent cover-up by
murdering his own girlfriend
– Erskine Caldwell – “Tobacco Road”, southern plantation life
– Dale Carnegie – “How to Win Friends and Influence People”
– Thornton Wilder – “Our Town” conveys positive American values. It has
all the elements of sentimentality and nostalgia -- the archetypal
traditional small country town, the kindly parents and mischievous
children, the young lovers.
1939 – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,
Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur
Shirley Temple
Clark Gable and Vivian Lee, GWTW
Bette Davis
Greta Garbo
Tallulah Bankhead
Errol Flynn
Who’s Who of the 1930’s
• Mary McLeod Bethune- a very
influential African American
woman educator and friend of
Eleanor Roosevelt who, as a
board member of the National
Youth Administration, was able
to extend benefits to African
Americans.
• Richard E. Byrd - a famous
explorer of the Antarctic and
Arctic whose 1933-35 expedition
to Antarctica conducted many
scientific search projects.
• Mildred “Babe”
Didrikson considered by many
to be the finest woman athlete
of all time, she won medals or
distinction in such varied sports
as baseball, basketball, track and
field, and golf.
• Amelia Earhart -an aviation
pioneer who was the first
woman and second person
to fly solo across the
Atlantic Ocean.
• Karl Menninger -an
American psychiatrist
whose book The Human
Mind had a great effect on
public attitudes toward
mental illness.
• Jesse Owens- African
American athlete who won
four gold medals in trackand-field at the 1936
Olympics in Berlin and put
to shame Hitler's Aryan
superiority message.
• Frances Perkins- the first
woman cabinet member
who advocated the 8 hour
day, stricter factory safety
laws, and laws for the
protection of women and
children in the labor force
• Will Rogers- homespun
philosopher who began
his career as an
Oklahoma cowboy. Well
loved and respected
radio commentator, film
actor, and author
• Walter Winchell - a
'gossip' columnist and
radio commentator
whose controversial
stands and scoops on
celebrities made him one
of the most famous
twentieth-century
American journalists.