1. The Great Depression

2. The Bonus Army Part II (The Sequel)
A 2nd Bonus March in 1933 at the start of the FDR administration
Roosevelt arranged for his wife Eleanor to visit the veterans & listen to them.
"Hoover sent the army, Roosevelt sent his wife".
FDR offered jobs in the CCC. Most accepted.
Those who chose not to work for the CCC were given transportation home. 
In 1936, Congress overrode President FDR’s veto & paid the veterans their bonus nine years early.

3. New Deal Politics

4. Problems with New Deal
Relief based on race: Tucson scaled payments based on race
Favored large industries and business
Hurt some small farmers
Local agencies administered relief and ran programs

5. A. BIG BUSINESS!!!! (Gov’t doing too much!)
Critics of the New Deal
A. BIG BUSINESS!!!! (Gov’t doing too much!)
1. Gov’t Can’t tell us what to do
B. FDR, not doing enough:
1. “Share Our Wealth”, Huey Long Gov. Louisiana
a. Heavy Tax on the wealthy
b. Give everyone- Home, Car, $$
c. Assassinated in 1935
2. Father Coughlin, “Radio Priest”
a. Mad at FDR for not being tough enough on big business
b. Hates communists, Unions, Jews
3. Francis Townsend
a. Give pensions to anyone 60+, would get jobs to younger people

6. “Share the Wealth” Huey Long Populist Gov. in LA
Use of radio and sensational claims
Rhetoric of poverty/class tensions
Senator
Share the Wealth
Social Justice

7. Court Packing Scheme 1. 11 New Deal Plans Ruled Unconstitutional
A. Supreme Court Reacts
New Deal Plans Ruled Unconstitutional
2. Roosevelt Reacts: “Court Packing Scheme”
a. Wants Court raised from 9 to 15
-President chooses new judges
-New judges would favor New Deal
3. Friends & Enemies Very Upset!!!
a. FDR wants TOO much POWER
b. Congress with all friends won’t pass the law FDR Wins Anyway- By 1938 New Judges
a. 1 Justice switches, 1 Justice retires

8. Propaganda/Education
Promotional Film

9. Water and the West Bureau of Reclamation Hoover Dam
Water for L.A., Imperial Valley, Phoenix, & power for region
Central Valley Project harnessed the Sacramento River
Water storage, irrigation, hydro-electricity
Federal-corporate alliance
$2.5 billion by 1935

10. Hoover Dam

11. Grand Coulee Dam Columbia River, 1941
Largest concrete structure in the world
Created a 150 mile lake
Too much power
Bonneville Power Administration
Powered 70% of Northwest

12. Mexican and Okie Farmworkers

13. Mexican Repatriation Mexican & Mexican Americans sent to Mexico
Nearly 1 million
L.A. County deported 12,000
Colorado deported 20,000

14. Indian Reorganization Act
IRA, 1934
Economic & political assistance
Business Councils
Tribal Constitutions
BIA, Interior
Over half rejected it

15. Women Eleanor Roosevelt Work & aid
Patriotic home economics conserve, recycle, help America “as a woman”

16. Women in Film Wizard of OZ Message to Women
“There’s no place like home”

17. African Americans Jobs in gov’t Sharecropping
100,000 blacks evicted by AAA
No loans from FHA
Mary McCloud Bethune

18. Public Art and Culture Federal Writers Project Theater
Oral histories of slavery, folk lore, Indian stories, Mexican Revolution, cowboys, frontier life, etc
National cultural resources and heritage
Federal Arts Program

19. End of the Depression
Federal spending on an unprecedented level failed to stop it
The largest entrance of the federal government into the American economy
Made the federal government into a “broker state” between labor and capital
Social programs and “safety net”
Brought fed gov’t into the lives of nearly all Westerners
WWII ended the Depression

20. Comparisons with 2008? Wealth inequalities Deregulation
Bad Home mortgages
Massive individual debt
Inflated costs & uncontrolled speculative investments in commodities
Collapse of investment-debt-loan system
A Vicious Cycle:
Retraction of loans, increase in job losses, fall in investments, layoffs, decline in consumption, reduced production, layoffs, no consumption…