U. S. History I the Shaping of North America

-scaled back U.S. war debts and reparations demands (not very effective)

-however, U.S. is essentially paying itself – makes situation worse later on

Election of 1928

Republican – Herbert Hoover (well-liked)

Democrats – Al Smith “Happy Warrior” (Catholic)

Herbert Hoover wins easily; however, a year later, the world crashes down on Hoover

-Head of Food Administration

-Secretary of Commerce

-Saves Belgium from starvation

-Quaker (first one to become president)

Secretary of State – Henry Stinton

Secretary of Treasury – Andrew Mellon

[Oct. 1929] Stock Market Crash – the spark that leads to the Great Depression

[Oct. 24, 1929] “Black Thursday”

• 
  Responding to the rise in interest rates by Great Britain, many speculators begin to panic and sell their stocks
  
• 
  Stock prices begin falling very rapidly
  
• 
  Investors begin rapidly selling their stocks
  
• 
  J.P. Morgan Jr. and other Wall Street investors spend $20 million to try to help save the market
  
• 
  Losses accumulate to about $3 billion
  

• 
  Tension and panic grips Wall Street
  
• 
  People begin to rapidly sell their stocks
  
• 
  By end of the day, 16 410 030 shares of stock are traded in one day (sold at depressed prices)
  
• 
  Total losses equal about $32 billion
  

1. 
   Buying on Margin
   
   • 
     Speculators buy stock in the 1920s on margin – they put down as little as 10% for the stock and the bank pays the rest
     
   • 
     But when the market goes down, people become unable to pay back the banks
     
2. 
   Buying on Credit
   

• 
  Consumers buy using installment methods
  

3. 
   Income Gap
   

[1923-1929]

-the upper 1% had an increase in disposable income of 63%

-but 93% of Americans saw their disposable income decrease by 4%

4. 
   U.S. Tariff Policy
   

[1930] Hawley-Smoot Tariff raises tariff rates 60% on some products

-closes the U.S. off to the world market

-European nations put in place their own tariffs

Result – Global Depression

-nations turn inward

-25% world unemployment

5. 
   Bank Failures
   

• 
  Loans cannot be paid back from businesses, people, etc.
  
• 
  Banks begin to fail and close
  
• 
  “Bank runs” – people rush to get their money out before the bank closes
  
• 
  if a bank closes, your money is gone
  

6. 
   Agricultural Failure
   

• 
  Farm prices decrease throughout the 1920s
  
• 
  Farmers respond by overproducing – makes the situation worse
  
• 
  Farmers fail to pay mortgages – banks take the property
  

7. 
   Business Failure
   

[1931] 28 000 businesses go bankrupt

add to unemployment

8. 
   Business Cycle
   

Hoover believes in “Rugged Individualism”

-the belief that people can solve their own problems and crises without the need for government intervention

[1929-1931]

1. 
   Encourages private charities and local governments to help people in need
   

2. 
   Hoover encourages business leaders to keep pre-crash levels of production and employment – fails
   
3. 
   Emergency Committee for Employment
   

4. 
   National Credit Cooperation
   

-fails to help

[1930-1931]

-Democrats take control of the House of Representatives

-Democrats take 8 additional Senate seats

-formation of bread lines

-“Hoovervilles” – makeshift towns of homeless people

-unemployment is rising [1931] 15% of U.S. is unemployed – [1933-1934] becomes 25%

Hoover continues to say that the end of the depression is near

-by this time, Hoover is extremely unpopular

[by 1931] Hoover realizes his hands-off approach to the situation is not working

[1932] Hoover begins to use the federal government

-many people call this “creeping socialism”

1. 
   Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
   

2. 
   Public Works Programs
   

too little, too late.

1. 
   Farmers withhold grain and livestock from market in an attempt to raise prices and get the federal government to help – does not work
   
2. 
   Bonus Army
   

-Congress votes against the bill

• 
  many Bonus marchers go home
  
• 
  a few thousand set up a Hooverville
  

3. 
   Election of 1932
   

Republicans – Herbert Hoover (easily re-nominated)

Platform: anti-depression measures

Democrats – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Platform: NOT Hoover

Roosevelt wins! – electoral votes 472 to 59

• 
  Born in Hyde Park, NY in 1882
  
• 
  Born into a wealthy family – dates back to 1648
  
• 
  Teddy Roosevelt’s 5^th cousin
  
• 
  An only child
  
• 
  Harvard graduate
  
• 
  State senator in NY [1911-1913]
  
• 
  Resigns the senate position – Assistant Secretary of the Navy [1913-1920]
  
• 
  [1920] runs for vice president with James Cox – defeated
  
• 
  [1921] contracts polio and loses the use of his legs – humbles FDR
  
• 
  his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt (TR’s niece), convinces him to stay in politics
  
• 
  goes on to become Governor of NY [1929-1932]
  
• 
  [1932] Democratic Convention – “I pledge you, I pledge myself, a New Deal for the American people”
  

Harold Ickes – Secretary of Interior [1933-1946]

• 
  Doubles the acreage of national parks
  
• 
  Works hard to save farmland from overuse
  
• 
  Public works projects
  
• 
  Fair and honest
  

• 
  Involved in FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Association)
  
• 
  Head of CWA
  
• 
  Puts 2 million people to work
  
• 
  Dishes out ~$10 billion in aid
  

• 
  Helps cut farm production
  
• 
  Conserve soil
  
• 
  Sets up warehouses and silos for surplus crops
  
• 
  Invented the food stamp
  

Raymond Moley

Adolf Berle

Francis Perkins – Secretary of Labor

• 
  First female Cabinet member
  
• 
  Sets the minimum wage
  
• 
  Helps end child labor and corruption in the labor department
  
• 
  Helps to establish social security
  

• 
  Serves as the “eyes, ears, and legs” for FDR – proves to be very influential
  

All New Deal programs deal with the three R’s:

• 
  Relief
  
• 
  Recovery
  
• 
  Reform
  
  1. 
     Banking
     

-closes every bank in the U.S.

-reopens the structurally sound ones

[March 9, 1931] Emergency Banking Relief Act

-gives FDR power over all banks in the U.S.

Glass Steagull Act – Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

-money is insured – government is guaranteeing your money

2. 
   Unemployment
   

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – bring cheap electricity to a poor region

3. 
   Direct relief
   

4. 
   Agriculture
   

5. 
   Industry
   

-National Recovery Administration (NRA)

– the blue eagle

– help unemployment, increase union membership

-Public Works Administration (PWA) – public works projects

6. 
   Inflation
   
   • 
     FDR orders that all gold be given to the federal government in exchange for paper money
     
   • 
     Try to take U.S. off the gold standard
     

7. 
   Mortgages
   

-give money to help pay off mortgages

• 
  Unemployment drops to 22% (from 25% in 1933)
  
• 
  The New Deal is extremely popular with the people
  
• 
  Some opposition to the New Deal, some anger towards FDR’s foreign policy
  

• 
  The NRA is experiencing problems – eventually termed unconstitutional
  
• 
  Still, FDR’s popularity is soaring
  

-warmly received by the press

-ends Prohibition

Midterm elections of 1934 – Democrats gain more seats in the House and the Senate

-Inspires FDR and the Brain Trust to create the Second New Deal

The Second New Deal

1. 
   Expanded relief for the unemployed
   

Gives FDR $5 billion to give away as he pleases

-Works Progress Administration (WPA)

1. 
   Employs 8 million people
   
2. 
   $11 million back to economy
   
3. 
   650 miles of road are built
   
4. 
   124 000 bridges are built
   
5. 
   125 000 buildings, public buildings
   

-Federal Theater Project – tours the country

2. 
   Help the rural poor
   

-gives money to farmers to buy land

-or allows them to resettle

Rural Electrification Administration

-gives loans to electrical companies to help bring electricity to rural areas

3. 
   Help organize labor
   

• 
  Guarantees collective bargaining
  

• 
  Permits closed shops
  

-no spying or blacklisting labor unions

4. 
   Social Welfare benefits
   

• 
  Creates pensions for older workers
  
• 
  Survivor’s benefits
  
• 
  Unemployment insurance
  
• 
  Aid for dependent mothers of children with a handicap or some kind of disability
  
• 
  Paid for by taxing workers’ incomes
  

5. 
   Stricter business regulations
   

-gives the Federal Reserve more control over the banking industry

Public Utilities Holding Company Act

-regulates electricity

-limits electric and gas companies to certain regions of the country

6. 
   Tax the wealthy
   

-increases taxes on upper incomes

-increases corporate taxes

Election of 1936

Republicans – Alf Landon (Governor of Kansas) – 16 million popular votes

Democrats – FDR – 27 million popular votes

FDR wins easily, with 523 to 8 (Maine and Vermont) electoral votes

Second New Deal is paid for by creating a federal budget deficit

Keyne’s economic theory

Federal government borrow money – sell bonds

Opponents of the New Deal

1. 
   American Liberty League
   
   • 
     Made up of disgruntled Democrats
     
   • 
     Led by Al Smith
     
   • 
     Argued that the New Deal restricted individual freedoms and was leading the U.S. to socialism
     
2. 
   Father Charles Caughlin
   

• 
  Catholic priest from Canada
  
• 
  Audience of 40 million (on radio)
  
• 
  His ideas were called “social justice”
  
• 
  Extremely anti-New Deal, but he is also anti-Semetic (this brings him down)
  

3. 
   Dr. Francis Townsend
   

• 
  He wanted to give all retired Americans $200 a month with the stimulation they spend it in 30 days
  
• 
  This would have bankrupted the U.S. in less than half a year
  
• 
  Still, has support, especially from the older Americans
  

4. 
   Huey “the Kingfish” Long
   

• 
  Governor of Louisiana [1928-1932]
  
• 
  Senator from Louisiana in 1932
  
• 
  Very charismatic and a great orator
  
• 
  “Share our Wealth” program
  

-paid for by taxing the wealthy

• 
  has about 7.4 million supporters
  

-dies at the age of 42

-clears the path for FDR’s re-election

5. 
   Supreme Court
   

• 
  Declared NRA (National Recovery Administration) and AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) unconstitutional
  
• 
  FDR is angry at the Supreme Court for a few reasons
  

-Not reform-minded

-Very old – 6 of the 9 justices are over 70 years old

• 
  Court Packing Plan
  

• 
  To his surprise, Congress votes against the plan, and people are outraged at the Court Packing Plan (violates checks and balances) – this is FDR’s biggest political blunder
  
• 
  Despite this, FDR gets his way (eventually) for a more liberal court – he appoints 4 new justices (after 4 retire/die) – the Supreme Court begins to change on is own and becomes more liberal
  
• 
  Charles Evans Hughes is Chief Justice
  

[1936] Steel Workers Organizing Committee – strike for recognition

[March 1937] U.S. Steel recognizes the union – grants a wage increase and a 40-hour workweek

[Dec. 1936] thousands of GM workers stops work – stops production in Flint (peaceful)

GM fought unionization – threatened with police

-Roosevelt refused to mobilize federal troops

[Feb. 11, 1937] GM recognizes United Automobile Workers (UAW)

But, domestics and agricultural laborers are untouched/unaffected by unions

Labor success – federal government no longer helps companies in labor disputes

Henry Ford fought unions

-serves as a form of escapism for the people

-the people do not want to hear about harsh realities

Radio – soap operas, comedy shows

Movies – very popular

Gangster films – “Public Enemy”

Screwball comedies, slapstick comedies – Marx Brothers (satirized authority)

Mae West (top female star)

“Wizard of Oz” – political commentary on the 1930s

Music

-Big Bands – Glen Miller, Benny Goodman

-Swings

Literature

-portrayed real life pretty accurately

-Photography

-Theaters

-Jazz

-Streamlining – sleek, smooth edges, neat, fast-looking

-“utmost simplification in terms of function and form”

New York World’s Fair of 1939 “The World of Tomorrow”

-Trylon and Perisphere (700 ft needle “lofty purpose”, smooth globe 200 ft in diameter)

-a benign, smoothly functioning technological utopia

-depression

-dust storms

-erosion

People leave for the West – California

“Okies”, “Arkies”

FSA (Farm Security Administration) sets up camp for “Oakies” – leads to jobs in CA

-divorce increases, marriages decrease, birth rate decreases (can’t afford children)

-high school enrollment increases – better chance for jobs later on

Quality time – radio with FDR, strengthened mutual help – sharing

Psychological effects – after the Depression, people become pack rats – save $ constantly

Art

Folk artists paint landscapes – Georgia O’ Keefe, Grandma Moses

Patriotic themes – Red, white, blue

-WPA gave the artists these jobs

-murals – public areas – post offices, train stations

Dorothea Lange – Great Depression photographer – took pictures to document harsh life

-low pay, low status jobs

-as jobs decrease, they are the first pushed out, along with minority groups

-still, the crisis may have accelerated the women-into-the-workplace movement

-made less money than men (up to 18% - 20% less)

African-Americans

Deep-seated racism, discriminatory union policies – due to fierce job competition

Urbanization drops in the 1930s

-the North offers fewer jobs than before

Scottsboro Boys – five black men were convicted for rape by an all-white jury in AL

-jailed with no fair trial – due to discrimination

Depression was a distraction from the racial norms

Hispanic-Americans

-Two million – many were citizens, others were immigrants

-Manual laborers

-Many return to home countries – wanted to or had to

-Strikes for higher wages [1933-1936]

-Difficult labor conditions

“Zoot suits” – pinstripe suits, broad-brimmed hats, big, flowy pants, boxy shoulders

Native Americans

-world of poverty, scant education, poor health care

Dawes Act of 1887 had dissolved tribes

[1923] John Collier founded American Indian Defense Association

[1933] funds to construct schools, hospitals, irrigation systems

-renewed tribal life? -sparked angry opposition in western states

Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

-halted the sale of tribal lands

-enabled tribes to regain title to their unallocated lands