The Great Depression 1929-1939 Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange: Florence Owens Thompson, 32, a poverty-stricken migrant mother with three young children, gazes off into the distance. This photograph, commissioned by the FSA, came to symbolize the Great Depression for many Americans. (Photo Credit: CORBIS)

Immediate Cause: Stock Market Crash: > "Black Tuesday" – Oct. 1929 - 16 mil shares sold on NY Stock Ex

People buy into stock market, prices inflated, prices of stocks fall quickly, Investors who had borrowed $ to buy share, went bankrupt in single day Losses due to over-speculation & “Buying on Margin” = Bad many people lost entire life savings

Background Causes: 1.Overproduction: Eg. overproduction of wheat = fewer sales to foreign markets decreased sales farmers not make $  higher unemployment

Background Causes cont. 2). High Tariffs - protectionism: U.S. raises tariffs, other countries respond by doing the same Slow down in world trade b/c fewer export opportunities

Background Causes cont. 3). Germany can’t pay reparations: German economy ruined, can’t pay Britain & France depended on these payments in order to repay their debts to the US

Background Causes: International Debt cont. Consequences: > countries lost ability to re-pay war loans > US loans to Germany; G repays Br/Fr /Belg as reparations > When US stops loans, Germany can't pay > Br/Fr can't pay war loans > economies collapse

Sustaining Causes: 1. Dust Bowl / Droughts/ wind storms > over farming wheat - no crop rotation

http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl/videos/black-blizzard#black-blizzard

Damage from Dust Storm in Oklahoma, 1936: In the 1930s, agricultural damage, coupled with drought and windstorms, resulted in the severe damage and destruction across the Plains states that became known as the Dust Bowl. (Photo Credit: CORBIS)

Sustaining Causes cont. 2. Locust Plagues > grasshoppers like hot, dry conditions. Millions descended on farms, eating entire crops, and even farm tools in hours. http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/pests_02.html

Effects on Canada: Canada depended on export of primary resources esp. wheat & newsprint Canadians lose jobs when demand decreases When US economy crashed, Canada’s crashed too b/c of major trade ties working class people most affected

Effects on Canada – cont. had to collect “pogey”  government relief payments applied for assistance, get food vouchers  humiliating soup kitchens

"Big Al's Kitchen for the Needy": In an attempt to clean up his public image, gangster Al Capone opened a soup kitchen to feed Chicago's needy. (Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

Lineup for soup kitchen

Church soup kitchen Montreal 1930

Effects on Canada – cont. by 1933 more than ¼ of Canadian workforce unemployed many young, unemployed men looking for work, travel by trains: - roof, “riding the rods” underneath

Dust Bowl Refugees: Many, but not all, of the Dust Bowl refugees hailed from Oklahoma. As they flooded the West Coast in large numbers in search of jobs, they were given the disparaging nickname "Okies." (Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

Effects on Canada – cont. shanty towns spring up  “jungles”

Effect on Prairies: - Prairies hit the hardest: droughts locusts falling wheat prices = farm bankruptcies

Disadvantaged: difficult for women to find work – paid very poorly Aboriginal families  $5 a month; expected to “live off the land” Chinese discriminated against; many starved. Jewish immigrants targeted Almost 10,000 immigrants deported from Canada in 1st half of Depression 1931, gov’t stop all immigration

Mackenzie King’s response to Depression: King unprepared, thought depr. temporary King said provincial & municipal gov’t responsible for people he would not give a “five cent piece” to Tory Provincial gov’t “LAISSEZ- FAIRE”

election in 1930- King loses, Conservative RB Bennet wins

RB Bennett’s response to the Depression: (Conservative Party) 1). raise tariffs  protect Canadian business from foreign competition 2).Gov’t feared men join Communist party > Gov’t ban party - mid-class Canadians scared of jobless drifting men.

RB Bennett’s response – cont. 3). Create work camps  unemployed, single men  isolated camps  work projects; roads, clearing land, ditch digging  paid 20 cents / day + room & board  bad food, bugs, nothing to do

Temporary housing conditions at Ontario relief camp

Relief camp outside Kananaskis

RB Bennett’s response – cont. 4). Bennett's (Little) New Deal 1935 - based on FDR's New Deal Called for: Taxes based on income Max # hours in work week Minimum wage Regulation of working conditions Unemployment insurance Health and accident insurance Support for farmers and seniors > revised Old Age Pension to help seniors 65+ >1935 Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act > created Canadian Wheat Board to regulate prices - Unemployment Relief Act – gave provinces money for work-creation programs

* things get worse  * Bennett targeted, blamed “Bennett barnyard” “Bennet blanket” “Bennett Buggy”

On-to-Ottawa Trek: 1935, over thousand men meet with Relief Camp Workers Union decide to take complaints to Ottawa Start in Vancouver ride trains across Prairies, more people join

On-to-Ottawa Trek – cont. By Regina, 2000 men part of the trek in Regina, RCMP keep them there, only leaders go to Ottawa Bennett not trust leaders, call them “criminal”, “thief” RCMP clear protesters out of Regina stadium protesters resist > REGINA RIOT 1 man killed, many injured, 130 arrested

Vancouver Protest: gov’t close relief camps 1937 gov’t reduce relief payments men hold “sit-ins”  occupy Vancouver Art Gallery & post office police use tear gas, much damage

1930 Election King’s attitude towards the Depression cost him the 1930 election R.B. Bennett, leader of Conservatives, becomes Prime Minister

Bennett’s Response to the Great Depression 1930-1935 Gave provinces $20 million for work-creation programs/relief such as relief camps and pogey Increased tariffs by 50% Prairie Rehabilitation Act Economy does not improve

Bennett’s (Little) New Deal 1935 Based on FDR’s New Deal Called for: Taxes based on income Max. # of hours in work week Min. wage Regulation of working conditions Unemployment insurance Health and accident insurance Support for farmers and seniors Too little, too late King referred Bennett's New Deal legislation to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (at that time Canada's court of final appeal), which in 1937 declared many of the reforms unconstitutional and outside of federal jurisdiction.