Herbert Hoover

The Dust Bowl From 1930 – 36, a terrible drought, coupled with decades of damage to the topsoil from plowing, led to wind erosion and huge dust clouds Thousands of farmers lost everything and were forced to move west and work as migrant farmers

Dorothea Lange 1895 – 1965 Photojournalist Lange's photographs humanized the tragic consequences of the Great Depression and profoundly influenced the development of documentary photography

Lange’s Photos

John Steinbeck 1902 – 1968 Author of The Grapes of Wrath, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the tragedies which befell his fictional family of Oklahoma farmers during the Dust Bowl Also wrote Of Mice and Men, a story about the tragic relationship between two poor migrant farmers

Hoover’s Public Response After “Black Tuesday,” Hoover worked hard to assure Americans that the economy would recover quickly Hoover stepped up a propaganda campaign aimed at boosting consumer confidence

Hoover’s Private Response Hoover, however, knew that the economy was extremely unstable He held multiple meetings with business leaders trying to win pledges that factories would remain open, but to no avail

National Credit Corporation Hoover tried to ease the nation’s credit crisis with the creation of the NCC The NCC held a pool of private money that it could lend to banks so that banks could continue to offer loans; the NCC, however, never had enough cash to meet the demand and so was a failure

Reconstruction Finance Corporation When the NCC failed, Hoover resorted to government lending The RFC was created to make direct loans to banks & railroads Even the RFC could not meet the demands for loans, and the economy continued to fail

Emergency Relief & Construction Act In desperation, the government approved $1.5 billion in spending on public works projects and an additional $300 million to provide “direct relief” – money provided directly to families in need

Hunger Marches Crowds of the unemployed and hungry began to hold large-scale demonstrations across the US The largest was organized by the American Communist Party in Washington DC; protesters chanting “Feed the hungry, tax the rich” were blocked from marching by the police

Farmers Revolt Meanwhile, desperate farmers began to destroy their crops and produce in an effort to increase prices Some even resorted to burning their crops for heat in their home Anger continued to grow as more and more farmers had their land foreclosed on by banks

Breadlines & Soup Kitchens As unemployment approached 30%, many people began to rely heavily on soup kitchens and breadlines run by churches, charitable organizations, & some city governments in order to survive

Hoovervilles In large cities, as people could no longer afford to pay rent, they were forced into homelessness Many began to live in homemade shacks that they built in any open space available – whole villages of such shacks began to appear, mockingly referred to as “Hoovervilles”

Hobos Hundreds of thousands of homeless, jobless men began to live a nomadic lifestyle, moving from place to place usually by illegally hiding on freight trains Often lived in temporary Hoovervilles called “hobo jungles” along the railroad tracks

The Bonus Army In 1924, Congress had promised to pay every WWI veteran a $1000 bonus in 1945 May 1932 – over 15,000 vets arrived in DC to lobby Congress to move the bonuses up – Congress voted against the idea

Hoover Responds to the Bonus Army After the vote, much of the Bonus Army remained in Washington, living in Hoovervilles and vacant buildings Pres. Hoover ordered them dispersed; after the DC police failed, Hoover sent in US Army, who used tear gas and bayonets to clear the Bonus Army out

Election of 1932 Republicans nominated Hoover, while Democrats ran NY Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Hoover continued his mantra that recovery was just around the corner, while Roosevelt pledged himself to a “new deal” for the American people Roosevelt won easily

Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1882 – 1945 32nd President (1933-45) President throughout most of the Great Depression and WWII Roosevelt had been paralyzed from the waist down from polio since 1921, making him our only physically disabled president, however, he carefully controlled his public appearances so that the public wasn’t constantly reminded of his disability