1. The Great Depression

2. Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzGlqFnV3qc

3. Election of 1928 Herbert Hoover – Republican
Head of Food Administration during WWI
Sec. of Commerce for 7 years
Alfred E. Smith – Democrat
Governor of New York
1st Roman Catholic to be nominated to run for president

4. Campaign Issues Prohibition Hoover “dry” (for) Smith “wet” (against)
Religion
Hoover – Quaker
Smith – Catholic
Would the Catholic Church run the US?
Prosperity of the 1920s
Republicans take credit for general wealth of nation, Smith can’t compete

5. The Election of 1928
Hoover wins in a landslide -Broadcast on radio worldwide

6. Roots of the Great Depression
More than just the Stock Market Crash

7. 1. Unequal Distribution of Income
5% of American households earned 30% of the nation’s income
People buy on installment plan, can’t buy more because too many payments

8. 2. Overproduction Making more than Americans could buy Cyclical Effect
Fewer cars sold
Less demand for rubber, textiles, steel, oil, glass, etc.
Fewer people can
afford to buy cars
Cyclical Effect
Unemployment
lower wages
Slowdown of industry

9. 3. Loss of Export Sales
Banks made loans to stock speculators instead of foreign companies
They buy fewer US goods
Hawley-Smoot Tariff – 1930
Highest in US history
Hurt overseas sales

10. 4. Mistakes by the Federal Reserve
Didn’t raise interest rates to curb speculation
Banks made risky loans
Business leaders thought economy still good
Raised interest rates after Depression hit
Made it harder to get a loan

11. The Long Bull Market Stock market established Bull market in 1920s
system of buying and selling shares of companies
Bull market in 1920s
long period of rising stock prices

12. Buying on margin PROBLEM
made only a small cash down payment – as low as 10% of the price
as long as stock prices keep rising, buying on margin was safe
PROBLEM
If prices began to fall – broker could issue a margin call – demanding the investor repay the loan at once

13. Before the late 1920’s prices generally reflected stock values
Late 1920’s – new investors drove up prices without regard to companies earnings and profits
engaged in speculation – hoping to make a profit overnight
Late 1929 – market running out of new investors, stock prices begin to decline
September – investors sensed danger and sell off their holdings

14. The Great Crash Monday Black Thursday Black Tuesday
October 21, 1929
Markets begin to fall
Lots of margin calls
Black Thursday
October 24, 1929
Stocks drop $5 billion
Black Tuesday
October 29, 1929
Prices took steepest drive yet
Stocks drop $10-15 billion
                                                 

15. Banks Crash hurt banks in 2 ways Some banks forced to close
Lost $$ on defaulted loans (from stock speculators)
Lost $$ invested in stock market
Some banks forced to close
Government did not insure bank deposits
People lose confidence in banks
Run on banks – depositors want to withdraw their money at one time
3,000 close in 2 years

16. 30,000 companies out of business in 1932
Depression Worsens
30,000 companies out of business in 1932

17. Depression Worsens By 1933 – more than 9,000 banks failed
12 million workers unemployed
Average family income dropped from $2,300 in to $1,600 in 1933

18. People without jobs often went hungry.
Breadlines private charities
Soup kitchens that provided meals
Bailiffs – court officials that ejected the nonpaying tenants from their homes

19. Bread Lines and Soup Kitchens
High unemployment caused many to wait in long lines for food

20. Evictions
People & belongings were ejected from their homes when they couldn’t pay

21. Hoovervilles
Name given to shantytowns that sprung up on unused or public land

22. Hoovervilles

23. Hoboes
Hobos
Homeless wanderers who would “ride the rails” looking for jobs

24. The Dust Bowl Farmers soon faced a new disaster
Farmers left many of their fields uncultivated in the 1920’s b/c of falling farm prices
Drought struck the Great Plains in
From the Dakotas to Texas, America's pastures became a vast “Dust Bowl”

25. The Dust Bowl

26. Okies
Farmers from Great Plains (Oklahoma) moved West to California

27. Escaping the Depression – Movie Stars
Greta Garbo
Shirley Temple
Groucho Marx
Clark Gable & Vivien Leigh – Gone With the Wind

28. Escaping the Depression - Movies
First feature length animated film – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1939

29. Escaping the Depression- Radio
Radio offered entertainment on a more personal level
Daytime radio dramas – soap operas
The Lone Ranger
George Burns
&
Gracie Allen
Jack Benny
The Green Hornet

30. The Source of Country Music
Art in the Depression
The Source of Country Music
Thomas Hart Benton
American Gothic
Grant Wood

31. Literature during the Depression
William Faulkner
John Steinbeck
Photojournalist – showed the ravages of drought