The Great Depression & New Deal (Part 3)

Tennessee Valley Authority Flood control, Electricity, Irrigation, Water supply, Work program

Works Progress Administration WPA Largest government agency and largest employer in the U.S. at the time 1935 employed 8 million Bridges, roads, reservoirs, irrigation, sewage, schools, playgrounds, education, training Work Programs paid minimum wages, pulled people off charity and soup lines “We Work Again” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk0SpTOi9Aw

1935 Social Security Act Safety net for all Americans Percentage of paycheck Federal old-age pension program Funding for the States to administer: Disability benefits Mother and child benefits Unemployment insurance Public health programs

Financial Reforms **Glass-Steagall Act (Re: 2008?) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Insured individual bank deposits Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulated trading practices in stocks and bonds

Problems with, and resulting from the New Deal Local agencies administered relief provided by Feds and ran programs (deserving vs. undeserving model, sometimes race and class-based) Conservatives and Republicans complained about the bloated bureaucracy (1 million government employees by 1943, compared to only 600,000 in 1932)

Problems with New Deal (cont’d) However comprehensive the ND programs were, they failed achieve their goal of ending the Depression Unemployment rate was still 19% by 1939, and gap between rich and poor remained largely unchanged National debt rose from 23 billion at the end of Hoover’s term to 48 billion by 1940 (making conservative economists howl!)

The Dust Bowl Economic and environmental disaster Overproduction, monoculture farming Plowed up grasses and cleared trees during WWI for farms to meet the needs of a booming wheat market Resulted in soil exhaustion, soil erosion Drought and winds 1935: Dust flew on wind from CO and NE, blackened the sky across the plains, reaching the Eastern seaboard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OdDieuD1OA

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

Mexican and Okie Farmworkers

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

The Indian New Deal John Collier Progressive Reverse assimilation policies Restore land rights Focus on self government and tribal government Preserve cultures

Indian Reorganization Act IRA, 1934 Economic & political assistance Tribal Constitutions overseen by the BIA Out of 252 tribal groups, 174 voted “Yes” and 78 voted “No”