1. Events After World War I and their Impact on Georgia
Day 2

2. Learning Targets
I can analyze the important events that occurred after World War I and their impact on Georgia.
--I can describe the impact of the boll weevil and drought on Georgia.
--I can explain economic factors that resulted in the Great Depression.
--I can discuss the impact of the career of Eugene Talmadge.
--I can discuss the effect of the New Deal in terms of the impact of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Agricultural Adjustment Act, rural electrification, and Social Security.

3. The Great Depression
1929 is most remembered as the “boom that went bust!”
People thought that the good times of the Roaring Twenties would last forever...
The Great Depression did not effect Georgia as much as other areas...because Georgia was already in an extremely poor state.

4. Image of Poor Georgians
“I could not become accustomed to the sight of children’s stomachs bloated from hunger and seeing the ill and aged too weak to walk to the fields to search for something to eat. In the evenings, I wrote about what I had seen during the day, but nothing I put down on paper succeeded in conveying the full meaning of poverty and hopelessness and degradation as I had observed it.” --Erskine Caldwell Excerpt from Tobacco Road

5. President Herbert Hoover was inaugurated.

6. Stock Market Crashed
Place where shares of ownership in corporations (stock) are bought and sold.
BLACK TUESDAY – On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the stock market “crashed”.
By the end of the day, millions of Americans had lost everything.

7. Causes of the Depression
People of US had borrowed more $ than they could afford to repay
Factories had produced more goods than they could sell.
High tariffs made it difficult for other countries to sell goods in the US to get $ with which to repay wartime loans and buy American products.
Speculation in the Stock Market – Forced stock prices up making them cost more than they were worth.
Too many people withdrew $ from bank causing the bank to collapse.
Laissez-Faire Attitude –Almost every government official believed the economy itself, not the government, would work out the problems.

9. Living Through the Depression
Unemployment
(1 out of 4 Americans was unemployed.)
Banks
(Over 9,000 banks closed/31 in Georgia.)
Homes
(People were forced out of the their homes and lived in shacks made of collected junk – Hoovervilles after the President who was powerless to help.)
Education
(With little cash and few taxes, many schools were forced to close or shorten schedules.)
Farmers
(Average Farmer’s Income Dropped from $206a year to $83; cotton prices fell to .05a pound)

13. Some Bright Spots Plane service from Atlanta to New York
Completion of highway from
Atlanta to Brunswick
Georgians could travel
to most of the state’s cities
using roads and bridges.
170 Miles = Paved Roads
673 Miles = Sand and Clay Roads
34 Miles = Graded Dirt Roads
28 Bridges

14. Georgia Athletes Ty Cobb – Major League Baseball Player
Theo (Tiger) Flowers – African American World Middleweight Boxing Champion
Bobby Jones – world class amateur golfer announced his intentions to build a golf course in Augusta

15. Federal & State Government Help
President Herbert Hoover was the first president to use the power of the federal government to help the economy recover.
Farmers
Government bought large amounts of cotton, wheat, and other commodities (crops).
Businesses
Government supported public works projects like post offices, parks, courthouses, and roads. Helped many unemployed men get back to work.

16. Local Agencies Help Red Cross and Salvation Army help.
Hospitals provided free lunch for the needy.
Local governments provided free lunch for needy children and paid men low wages to sweep streets, plant trees, drain swamps, cut firewood, and plant gardens.
Unfortunately, these were not enough...