The Great Depression

 Herbert Hoover ◦ Republican ◦ Foreign policy experience ◦ Used the Radio well  Albert Smith ◦ Democrat, NY Governor  Landslide victory for Hoover

 Stock prices rising  September drops  Hoover sells stocks  “Hard times are coming”  Black Thursday, Oct. 24, 1929 ◦ $9 billion lost

 Florida land boom  Hurricane, 1926 ended it  Turn to stocks  Aggressive advertising  Less taxes  500 millionaires

 Buy on Margin  10-15% down  Sell for profit  Fake companies built  Kolster Radio  $95 a share to $3  Government regulation minimal

 million investors  Well to do sell  Nobody to buy  Stock prices decline rapidly  Gross National Product ◦ 88 billion to 76 billion

 Most income with top 5%  No Reinvestment  Profits go to stocks  Agriculture prices drop  World debt after the war  Banks not insured  Smoot-Hawley Tariff ◦ Raise tariffs ◦ Led to World wide problems

 Disarmament  “good neighbor” policy  No foreign trade  Bank failures soar  Promises to Hoover broken  More lay offs

 Unemployment ◦ 1931, 8 million, 16% ◦ 1933, 13 million, 25% ◦ Food for animals, not farmers  Everyday life ◦ Children working ◦ Foreclosures ◦ Whites take Blacks jobs ◦ Women lose jobs

 Farms ◦ Agricultural Marketing Act ◦ Federal Farm Board ◦ Prices fall, farmers hurt ◦ Mexicans deported, 82,000  Homeless ◦ Hoovervilles ◦ Depression pork, Armadillos ◦ Bread riots ◦ Communist forecast the system is toppling

 Manchuria ◦ Japan takes for resources ◦ Fake explosion ◦ Japan invaded  The U.N. ◦ No real power ◦ Criticize Japan  Germany ◦ Economic depression, Treaty of Versailles ◦ Hitler comes to power

 Hoover ◦ Reconstruction Finance Corporation ◦ $2 billion, save banks ◦ To little, too late  Roosevelt ◦ 1930, Democrats pick up seats in Congress ◦ Wealthy ◦ Secretary of the Navy ◦ Relations to Teddy

 Polio  Governor of NY  Public persona a façade  Political genius  Beat out Al Smith  Went to the Convention  A “New Deal”  “Happy days are here again”  Still used today

 Higher taxes  People can’t spend  Hoover blamed  Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932  Labor helped  “Yellow dog” contracts outlawed

 War Veterans March on Washington  “Bonus March”  Military moves in  Marchers shot  General MacArthur directs the attack  Caught on film

 FDR, Republican  Hoover, Democrat  Norman Thomas, Socialist Party  FDR, play the moderate  Offered hope  Hoover defeated  Carried 7 states