•When Bing recorded this song in
Bing Crosby
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 the
charts.
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?
Germany’s Great Depression
(Unemployment)
Japan’s Great Depression
(Unemployment)
Great Britain’s Great Depression
(Unemployment)
United States Great Depression
(Unemployment)
1. FDR goes to work-------First “100” Days
• New Deal
 3 R’s
 Alphabet Agencies
AMERICANS IN 1939 WHO WANTED THE NEW DEAL WAS
55%…37% REGARDED IT AS A BAD INFLUENCE AND WANTED A
NEW PRESIDENT…………...
6. Criticisms
 US Govt. and President became too powerful
 Socialism vs. laissez faire
 Deficit spending and Welfare state
7. Successes
 Renewed faith in democracy
 Put people back to work….
 Restored self-confidence
8. WWII ended the Great Depression.
6. FDR’s Court Packing
7. Legacy of the New Deal
 Criticisms and Successes
 Extension of power of federal government and President
 Criticisms of the New Deal
 The New Deal walked a tightrope between the extreme
positions of the left and right.
 Unconstitutional----socialism-----anti-laissez faire
 Huey Long---Father Coughlin---Francis Townsend
 Deficit spending
 Welfare state
 Unmanageable debt
• 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
Social Engineers
Put people back to work.
Brain Trust
Restore self confidence
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
FERA / 1933
Federal Emergency Relief Act
Distributed $500 million of direct
aid to unemployed workers such
as food, clothing and grants of
money to cities.
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.
alphabet
RELIEF:
Ease Suffering of the Needy
HOLC / 1933
Home Owners Loan Corporation
Prevented mortgage
foreclosures. US Govt. bought up
mortgages and refinanced them
so that homeowners could pay
their mortgages.
RECOVERY: Begin Economic Growth
NIRA / 1933
National Industrial
Recovery Act
Called the National
Recovery Act…..
Created NRA to
enforce codes of
fair competition and
minimum wages.
RECOVERY: Begin Economic Growth
NIRA / 1933
National Industrial Recovery Act
•Called the National Recovery Act…..
•Created NRA to enforce codes of
fair competition, minimum wages,
and to permit collective bargaining
of workers.
RECOVERY: Begin Economic Growth
AAA / 1933
Agricultural Adjustment Act
•Protected farmers from price drops and over
production..
• US Govt. Paid farmers (subsidies)
•not to grow crops, produce dairy products
such as milk and butter or raise pigs and
lambs.
•Prevent another Dust Bowl, teach farmers
methods of preventing soil erosion.
RECOVERY: Begin Economic Growth
AAA / 1933
Agricultural Adjustment Act
Protected farmers from price
drops by providing crop subsidies
to reduce production,
educational programs to teach
methods of preventing soil
erosion.
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 Depression
FDIC / 1933
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Created federally insured
bank deposits ($2500 per
investor at first) to prevent
bank failures.
REFORM:
Prevent Another Depression
FDIC / 1933
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Glass-Steagall Act created
federally insured bank
deposits ($2500 per investor
at first) to prevent bank
failures.
REFORM:
Prevent Another Depression
SEC / 1934
Securities and Exchange
Commission
Regulated stock market
and restricted margin
buying, and frauds.
REFORM:
Prevent Another Depression
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 Depression
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
LEFT
No Govt
Anarchy
CENTER
Socialism
Democrat
Green Party
Communism
Radical
Liberal
Independent
Reform
Moderate
RIGHT
Republican
Conservative
KKK
Reactionary
Dictator
Fascist
The New Deal walked a tightrope between the extreme
positions of the left and right.
Critics would claim it was unconstitutional, socialism,
anti-laissez faire and went too far to the left.
Others would claim the New Deal didn’t go far enough
to the left……
•A Roman Catholic priest.
•Radio Priest in Detroit Michigan.
•Criticized FDR in weekly radio
program.
•10 million listeners.
•Criticized FDR’s farm program
•Believed an international conspiracy of bankers
existed and FDR was influenced by them.
•He called for the nationalization of banks and utilities.
(US Govt. controls banks, Socialism)
•Fascist; Anti-Semitic overtones.
•He wanted the government to help
older citizens.
•Retired California Physician.
•Suggested a $200 per month
pension for people over 60.
(This is socialism)
•Open jobs for the younger
unemployed.
•Spending all $200 would also be required to boost
economic demand.
•Townsend Clubs created all over the nation.
•Influenced FDR’s creation of Social Security
• 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
–
“God, don’t let me die. I have so much to do.”
a political leader who gains power by appealing to people's emotions,
instincts, and prejudices in a way that is considered manipulative, represents
common people
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
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
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.
The Committee for Industrial
Organization
• The United Mine Workers union began to work with other unions to
organize workers in industries where unions did not exist.
• To do this, they formed the CIO
• They began with automobile and steel industries—two of the largest
industries
• In late December 1936, General Motors launched a sit-down strike
due to the first sit-down strike due to the demotion of two workers
• Violence broke out in Flint when police launched a tear gas assault
on one of the smaller plants.
• Afterward, GM broke down and recognized the CIO union, United
Auto Workers as its employees sole bargaining organization.
• This led to others using the sit-down strike as a method in other
industries.
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
Georgia O’Keefe
Frank Lloyd Wright,
Falling Waters
• 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.
• Movies
• Hollywood turned out movie after movie to entertain its
Depression audience
• the 30's are often referred to as Hollywood's "Golden Age".
• Movie goers wanted mainly escapist movies that let them
forget their everyday troubles for a few hours.
– Dramatic: Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, and
Errol Flynn.
– Comedy : W. C. Fields, Bob Hope, and the Marx
Brothers.
– Shirley Temple, child star “The Good Ship Lollypop”
• 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 twentiethcentury American journalists.