"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.” Will Rogers

Capturing the Great Depression  The Great Depression probably had a greater impact on American society than any other era except that of the Civil War.  Dorothea Lange, pictured at right, documented America working for the Farm Security Administration. She was given special access to suffering America…

Dorothea Lange Captures Depression…

Lange Continued…

Lange Continued… “Migrant Mother”  “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.”

Causes of the Great Depression  “Speculation fever”  Buying on margin  Failure of prohibition  Illusions of endless economic growth  Republican economic philosophy of the 20s  Stock Market Crash of October 1929 – see pg. 370  “Runs” on banks all over the nation  Weak farm economy  Overproduction of consumer goods  Global economic problems

Effects of the Great Depression  The GNP – the value of all goods and services produced by the nation in one year – dropped from 104 billion to 56 billion in four years.  The nation’s income dropped by 50% in four years.  Twenty percent of all banks closed wiping out 10 million savings accounts.  By 1933, unemployment is at 25% - not including farmers.  Farmers in the Midwest form the Farm Holiday Association attempting to reverse price drops.  The power of the federal government increases dramatically as Americans become desperate and open to new policies.

Effects Continued…  By 1930, 26,000 businesses collapsed  Next year… 28,000 more businesses  By beginning of 1932, 3,500 banks closed  Held billions in uninsured deposits  50% of Chicago unemployed  80% of Toledo unemployed  In 1933, ¼ of farmland in Spotsylvania “went under the hammer”

“Too Little, Too Late”  President Hoover backs the creation of the Federal Farm Board  Persuaded the banks to create the National Credit Corporation  In June 1930, he signs the Hawley-Smoot Tariff into law at the request of American industry only deepening the depression.  By 1931, President Hoover has completely changed course and in 1932 he signs the Federal Home Loan Bank Act into law.  He also signs the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, created by Congress in 1932, which was an unprecedented endeavor.

The Election of 1932  President Hoover warns the nation of a Democrat victory in the election.  Democrats nominate New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt at the convention who makes the following campaign promises:  A “new deal” for America  The repeal of prohibition  Aid for the unemployed  Cuts in government spending

F.D.R.  Governor of New York – instituted welfare reform and relief programs  Very wealthy family  Assistant Secretary to the Navy during WWI  Struck down by polio in 1921  Strained relationship with Eleanor  Use of the radio – restoring confidence  “The Brain Trust” and the “Three Rs”  “We didn’t admit it at the time, but practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started.” Rexford Tugwell

First Inaugural Speech  "the only thing to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.“  The only president elected to four terms  22 nd Amendment ratified in 1951 – limits president to two terms, or max. of ten years.  The country didn’t want to “change horse mid-stream.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

The New Deal Philosophy He promised in his campaign speech to help the “forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” The three “Rs” of his program were: Recovery – for business and the economy Relief – for people out of work Reform – for American economic institutions FDR appoints a very diverse administration with African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and women For advise on economic matters he relies on a group of university professors called the “Brain Trust”

The First Hundred Days  Immediately after being sworn in on March 4, 1933, FDR calls a special hundred- day-long session of Congress  They enact more major legislation than any other single Congress in American history  Called for a bank holiday March 6, 1933  Called for repeal of Prohibition – late 1933 ratification of 21 st Amendment  Emergency Banking Relief Act  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation  Home Owners Loan Corporation  Farm Credit Administration

The First Hundred Days  Programs for relief of the unemployed:  The Federal Emergency Relief Administration – outright federal grants to states and local govt  The Public Works Administration – allotted money to states and local governments for infrastructure  The Civilian Conservation Corps – employed young men on government projects and paid families small monthly sums  The Tennessee Valley Authority – hired thousands of people in one of the nation’s poorest regions – built dams, produced fertilizer, operated power plants, and controlled flooding and erosion

The First Hundred Days  Industrial and farm recovery programs:  The National Recovery Administration was created in 1933 to guarantee reasonable profits for business with fair wages and hours for labor – it suspended the anti-trust laws and gave workers the right to organize and bargain collectively  The Agricultural Adjustment Administration was created to pay farmers for every acre they plowed under in order to protect prices  Both of these acts were eventually deemed unconstitutional by a conservative Supreme Court saying Congress had exceeded its powers.