The Great Depression New Deal 1929 1941 Origins

The Great Depression & New Deal, 1929 -1941

Origins and Causes Extreme wealth inequalities Ballooning stock market Over reliance on unprotected loans Too much speculation & borrowing Overproduction and uneven distribution capabilities Stock Market crash was a symptom Banks lacked money, people lost savings, debts were called in, no cash o Production stopped, workers fired, no $, consumption declined, no profits, more workers fired o o o o

President Hoover o o o Herbert Hoover Progressive War Reconstruction Opposed direct federal aid Self-help & volunteerism Self-help cooperatives

“Hoover’s America” o Anti-tax views & opposition to gov’t support deepened depression o Texas legislature vetoed a bond measure for relief o Oklahoma governor William Murray called out the national guard to enforce segregation in OK City o Colorado Senator Ed Costigan wanted federal government to help states in relief efforts

Hoovervilles

Seattle, 1931

The Bonus Army/March o o o o o World War One veterans Gov’t denied their pensions Marched on Washington, 1932 Congregated around White House Gen. Douglas Mac. Arthur Military evicted them from D. C. Deep anger at gov’t Deep class divisions http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=xqev d. BZCbc. Q

Roosevelt and the New Deal o Frederick Delano Roosevelt (FDR) o Programs to address the Depression o “Relief, Recovery, Reform” o Debt spending o Consume our way out of the depression o Role of government

Immediate Responses, 1933 o Federal Emergency Relief Act n Federal funds for relief o National Industrial Recovery Act n Fair work and competition codes n Administration to enforce codes n Guaranteed labor’s right to organize

New Deal Programs Civilian Conservation Corps Soil Conservation Service Soil Erosion Planting trees Irrigation and range management o http: //www. youtube. com /watch? v=qol. Pq. XNGW 3 I o o o

Tennessee Valley Authority Flood control, Electricity, Irrigation, work

Works Progress Administration WPA o Biggest agency o 1935 employed 8 million and $2 billion fund n Bridges, reservoirs, irrigation, sewage, schools, playgrounds, education, training o Work Programs paid minimum wages, pulled them off charity and soup lines o “We Work Again” n http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Gk 0 Sp TOi 9 Aw

1935 Social Security Act Safety net for all Americans Percentage of paycheck Based on shorter life-span Intended to supplement (not replace) income o Less inclined to “retire” o o

Financial System o Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) n Insured individual bank deposits o Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) n Regulated trading practices in stocks and bonds

Problems with New Deal o Relief based on race: Tucson scaled payments based on race o Favored large industries and business o Hurt some small farmers o Local agencies administered relief and ran programs

Propaganda/Education o Government Promotional Film o http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Aq 5 Ui. Gdje 8 U

The Dust Bowl o Economic and environmental disaster o Overproduction, monocrops o Plowed up grasses for farms to meet the needs of a booming wheat market o Soil exhaustion, soil erosion o Drought and winds o 1935: Blew winds from CO and NE, blackened the sky across the plains, into the East and Atlantic Ocean

Responses o Killed millions of animals, burned millions of tons of food o Taylor Grazing Act n Federal control of grazing

Migrants: Okies o Poor whites and sharecroppers o Evicted from OK, TX, MI, ARK o Going to CAL o L. A. Police Chief “bum blockade”

Mexican and Okie Farmworkers

Mexican Repatriation o Mexican & Mexican Americans sent to Mexico o Nearly 1 million o L. A. County deported 12, 000 o Colorado deported 20, 000

The Indian New Deal o o John Collier Progressive Pueblos Preserve cultures

The Indian New Deal o Multi-faceted legislation n n n Education Politics Religion Land Culture Language

Indian Reorganization Act o IRA, 1934 n Economic & political assistance n Business Councils n Tribal Constitutions n BIA, Interior n Over half rejected it

Women o Eleanor Roosevelt o Work & aid o Patriotic home economics conserve, recycle, help America “as a woman”

African Americans o Jobs in gov’t o Sharecropping o 100, 000 blacks evicted by AAA o No loans from FHA o Mary Mc. Cloud Bethune o http: //www. youtube. c om/watch? v=Gk 0 Sp. T Oi 9 Aw

“Share the Wealth” o o o Huey Long Populist Gov. in LA Use of radio and sensational claims Rhetoric of poverty / class tensions Senator Share the Wealth o Social Justice o http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=mdz. Abxsj. PRA&NR=1

Public Art and Culture o Federal Writers Project o Theater o Oral histories of slavery, folk lore, Indian stories, Mexican Revolution, cowboys, frontier life, etc o National cultural resources and heritage o Federal Arts Program n http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=PKsm 3 Sm BBKU&feature=related

Federal Theatre Project

Writer’s & Theater Project

WPA Posters

Travel through the West

New Deal Work Mural

End of the Depression o Federal spending on an unprecedented level failed to stop it o The largest entrance of the federal government into the American economy o Made the federal government into a “broker state” between labor and capital o Social programs and “safety net” o Brought fed gov’t into the lives of nearly all Westerners o WWII ended the Depression

Comparisons with the Present? Wealth inequalities Deregulation Bad Home mortgages Massive individual debt Inflated costs & uncontrolled speculative investments in commodities o Collapse of investment-debt-loan system o A Vicious Cycle: o o o n Retraction of loans, increase in job losses, fall in investments, layoffs, decline in consumption, reduced production, layoffs, no consumption…