THE GREAT DEPRESSION GRADE 4 SOCIAL STUDIES UNIT: 10 LESSON: 02 TESCCC

CAUSES: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  The Stock Market is an everyday term we use to talk about a place where stocks and bonds are bought and sold. People invest money in companies in hopes that they will earn more money. If a company does poorly, people lose money. If a company does well, people gain money. (It is like purchasing a little “piece” of a company.)  October 29, 1929 – known as Black Tuesday– the stock market “crashed” (stopped working to help people gain money).  Banks failed and people lost all their money.  Drought (no rain) conditions in the central U.S. caused agriculture to fail.

EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  $26 billion that had been invested in the Stock Market was lost!  25% of people in the U.S. were eventually unemployed.

EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  In 1930 Texans did not feel the impact right away.  Many Texans had farms or worked on farms, so they could grow food and not go hungry.  The oil industry was still flourishing.  Construction was still growing.

EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  However, in 1931, oil prices fell.  As the depression worsened across the United States in 1931 and 1932, Texans eventually had to recognize that the Great Depression was a worldwide economic crisis.

EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  Banks closed, people lost all their money, and some families found themselves homeless.  Cotton prices dropped to 5 cents a pound.  People lost their farms and their jobs.

HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  Private charities were set up to help the poor.  In major cities, soup kitchens and bread lines began to spring up where the homeless and starving could be fed.

HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  Civilian Conservation Corps, (CCC)  Government funded work relief program for young men  Built recreational parks and worked in forest and soil conservation projects  Workers were given food, shelter, and $30 a month.  Workers lived in barracks much like a military camp.  $25 had to be sent home to their families.

HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  Public Works Administration (PWA)  Government funded work relief program for unemployed men  Hired to build canals, tunnels, bridges, highways, streets, sewage systems, as well as hospitals, schools, and universities  Housing was built for people in poverty.

HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  Works Progress Administration (WPA)  Government agency that hired workers to build public buildings and roads  Employed artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects  600,000 people in Texas were helped by the WPA.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION TESCCC  When World War II began, the effects of The Great Depression began to decline.  Millions of workers were hired to work in the factories that built war materials such as airplanes, guns, tanks, and ammunition.  Due to 17 million people being employed in the war effort, the economy began to improve.