The Great Depression 1929 1939 Immediate Cause Stock

The Great Depression 1929 -1939

Immediate Cause: Stock Market Crash: > "Black Tuesday" – Oct. 1929 - 16 mil shares sold on NY Stock Ex

• People buy into stock market, prices inflated, prices of stocks fall quickly, • Investors who had borrowed $ to buy share, went bankrupt in single day • Losses due to over-speculation & “Buying on Margin” = Bad • many people lost entire life savings

Background Causes: 1. Overproduction: • Eg. overproduction of wheat = fewer sales to foreign markets » decreased sales farmers not make $ higher unemployment

Background Causes cont. • 2). High Tariffs - protectionism: • U. S. raises tariffs, other countries respond by doing the same • Slow down in world trade b/c fewer export opportunities

Background Causes cont. • 3). Germany can’t pay reparations: • German economy ruined, can’t pay • Britain & France depended on these payments in order to repay their debts to the US

Background Causes: International Debt cont. Consequences: > countries lost ability to re-pay war loans > US loans to Germany; G repays Br/Fr /Belg as reparations > When US stops loans, Germany can't pay reparations > Br/Fr can't pay war loans > economies collapse

Sustaining Causes: 1. Dust Bowl / Droughts/ wind storms > over farming wheat - no crop rotation

http: //www. history. com/topics/dustbowl/videos/black-blizzard#blackblizzard

Sustaining Causes cont. 2. Locust Plagues > grasshoppers like hot, dry conditions. Millions descended on farms, eating entire crops, and even farm tools in hours. http: //www. livinghistoryfarm. org/farmingi nthe 30 s/pests_02. html

Effects on Canada: • Canada depended on export of primary resources esp. wheat & newsprint • Canadians lose jobs when demand decreases • When US economy crashed, Canada’s crashed too b/c of major trade ties • working class people most affected

Effects on Canada – cont. • had to collect “pogey” government relief payments • applied for assistance, get food vouchers humiliating • soup kitchens

Effects on Canada – cont. • by 1933 more than ¼ of Canadian workforce unemployed • many young, unemployed men looking for work, travel by trains: - roof, “riding the rods” underneath

Effects on Canada – cont. • shanty towns spring up “jungles”

Effect on Prairies: • - Prairies hit the hardest: –droughts –locusts –falling wheat prices = farm bankruptcies

Disadvantaged: • difficult for women to find work – paid very poorly • Aboriginal families $5 a month; expected to “live off the land” • Chinese discriminated against; many starved. • Jewish immigrants targeted • Almost 10, 000 immigrants deported from Canada in 1 st half of Depression • 1931, gov’t stop all immigration

Mackenzie King’s response to Depression: • King unprepared, thought depr. temporary • King said provincial & municipal gov’t responsible for people he would not give a “five cent piece” to Tory Provincial gov’t “LAISSEZ- FAIRE”

• election in 1930 - King loses, Conservative RB Bennet wins

RB Bennett’s response to the Depression: (Conservative Party) 1). raise tariffs protect Canadian business from foreign competition 2). Gov’t feared men join Communist party > Gov’t ban party - mid-class Canadians scared of jobless drifting men.

RB Bennett’s response – cont. 3). Create work camps unemployed, single men isolated camps work projects; roads, clearing land, ditch digging paid 20 cents / day + room & board bad food, bugs, nothing to do

RB Bennett’s response – cont. 4). Bennett's (Little) New Deal 1935 - based on FDR's New Deal Called for: - Taxes based on income - Max # hours in work week - Minimum wage - Regulation of working conditions - Unemployment insurance - Health and accident insurance - Support for farmers and seniors - > revised Old Age Pension to help seniors 65+ >1935 Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act > created Canadian Wheat Board to regulate prices - Unemployment Relief Act – gave provinces money for work-creation programs

* things get worse * Bennett targeted, blamed “Bennett barnyard” “Bennet blanket” “Bennett Buggy”

On-to-Ottawa Trek: • 1935, over thousand men meet with Relief Camp Workers Union • decide to take complaints to Ottawa • Start in Vancouver • ride trains across Prairies, more people join

On-to-Ottawa Trek – cont. • By Regina, 2000 men part of the trek • in Regina, RCMP keep them there, only leaders go to Ottawa • Bennett not trust leaders, call them “criminal”, “thief” • RCMP clear protesters out of Regina stadium • protesters resist > REGINA RIOT • 1 man killed, many injured, 130 arrested

Vancouver Protest: • gov’t close relief camps 1937 • gov’t reduce relief payments • men hold “sit-ins” occupy Vancouver Art Gallery & post office • police use tear gas, much damage

1930 Election • King’s attitude towards the Depression cost him the 1930 election • R. B. Bennett, leader of Conservatives, becomes Prime Minister

Bennett’s Response to the Great Depression 1930 -1935 • Gave provinces $20 million for work-creation programs/relief such as relief camps and pogey • Increased tariffs by 50% • Prairie Rehabilitation Act • Economy does not improve

Bennett’s (Little) New Deal 1935 • Based on FDR’s New Deal • Called for: – – – – Taxes based on income Max. # of hours in work week Min. wage Regulation of working conditions Unemployment insurance Health and accident insurance Support for farmers and seniors • Too little, too late