1. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl Chapter 21
How did the Great Depression happen, and how did Americans respond to it?

2. Causes of the Depression Section 1
How did the prosperity of the 1920s give way to the Great Depression?
Vocabulary:
-Herbert Hoover business cycle
-speculation Great Depression
-Black Tuesday Hawley-Snoot Tariff

3. Standards
SSUSH17
The student will analyze the causes and consequences of the Great Depression.
Element: SSUSH17.a
Describe the causes including over production, under consumption, and stock market speculation that led to the stock market crash of 1929 and Great Depression.
Element: SSUSH17.b
Explain the impact of the drought in the creation of the Dust Bowl.
Element: SSUSH17.c
Explain the social and political impact of widespread unemployment that resulted in developments such as Hoovervilles.

4. Causes of the Depression
Prosperity Hides Troubles
Main Idea: In the late 1920s most Americans were confident in the economy, but financial problems were starting to appear.
The Stock Market Crashes
Main Idea: By October of 1929, the stock market began to slide downward and finally crashed, causing investors to lose millions of dollars.
The Great Depression Begins
Main Idea: The stock market crash led to bank failures, business shutdowns, unemployment, and eventually impacted the world economy.
What Caused the Great Depression?
Main Idea: A combination of factors led to the Great Depression, but there is still debate on the exact cause.

5. Danger Signs!

6. Herbert Hoover Mining engineer
Secretary of Commerce for Harding and Coolidge
Believed in cooperation between labor and management
Elected in 1928 as a Republican
Economy seemed robust, but problems were under the surface

7. Farm Problems Farmers made up ¼ of workforce
Falling farm prices mean farmers could not pay off debts incurred during World War I!
Production remained high due to mechanization
A series of draughts and other problems mean that farmers have a very hard time surviving!
Rural depression in the 1920s with farmers unable to buy new consumer goods

8. Workers’ Problems
Workers work long hours with wages inching up only 8%
Rich became much richer, while industrial workers were less poor

9. Uneven prosperity of the 1920s
The rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer
In 1929, 200 companies controlled 49% of US industry. No free market competition!
71% of Americans earn less than $2500/year

10. Income Distribution, 1929

11. Too many goods, too little demand
Warehouses are full of goods that can’t be sold in a saturated market. Which, by the way, is not helped by isolationist approaches to international diplomacy!
Overproduction slows industry - without markets for goods, producing more is just silly. So, we produce less

12. Buying on credit
Americans are buying goods whose value is more than they can afford!
Installment plans allow consumers to buy a good and pay for it over time
This increase of personal debt makes consumers more dependant on an income – if there’s no income, than they won’t be able to pay for the goods they’ve already “bought”.

13. The Age of Credit Buying Begins in the 1920s Remember that your monthly income is about $200, and you must pay for rent, food, car, gas, utilities, etc. !!!
Vacuum Cleaner, $28.95
$2 down, $4 a month
Refrigerator, $87.50
$5 down, $10 a month
Washing Machine, $97.50
$5 down, $8 a month
Bedroom Suite, $228.00
$15 down, $15 a month
Easy Chair, $38.50
$5 down, $5 a month
Sofa, $74.50
Piano, $445.00
$15 down, $12 a month
Phonograph, $43.50
Large Rug, $148.50
$10 down, $15 a month
Corner Cabinet, $37.95

14. Consumer Debt,
GRAPH
Graph: Consumer Debt

15. Political Cartoons: Stock Market Crash
TRANSPARENCY
Political Cartoons: Stock Market Crash

16. Playing the Stock Market
The market was advertised to new investors as a way to “get rich quick”
New investors did not learn about the potential risks involved, and did not realize that the stocks they owned could be devalued and were less safe than if they had money in a bank!

17. Why is 1929 the year everything bad happens?
Speculation – investors gambling in stock market by buying on margin
Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the bottom fell out of the stock market
Stock market collapsed in the Great Crash
Business cycle – periodic growth and contraction of the economy
Crash market the beginning of the Great Depression, a period lasting from 1929 to 1941

18. “Everybody ought to be rich”
Dow Jones Industrial Average moves from 91 to 313 by March, by September DJIA is up to 381
Black Thursday – October 23. The stock markets experience a $3 Billion loss in a single day!
Bankers pool their money to buy more stock. Stability is important and they hope they can help..
Black Tuesday – October 29. Investors pull all their money out of the market if possible.
Total Loss = $30 Billion

20. After the Great Crash…
Comes the DEPRESSION!!!

21. Banks Close
-Banks closed their doors when they could not return the money that people had deposited there…
-But there was no consumer protection if money was in a failed bank, so many people just lost all their money and couldn’t do anything about it.
-Misguided monetary policy – Federal Reserve had too little money in circulation, resulting in banks forced to close

23. Progress Monitoring Transparency: Section 1PM
TRANSPARENCY
Progress Monitoring Transparency
Answer C A
Progress Monitoring Transparency: Section 1

24. Businesses Close and Unemployment Rises
Businesses closed plants and laid off workers
In 1931, Ford closed several factories, putting 75,000 workers out of work
Consumers spent less, so businesses cut production even more
By 1933, 25% of American workers were out of work

25. Other Problems of President Hoover
Hawley-Smoot Tariff – highest import tax in history backfires! Other countries raise their taxes also, results in a slowdown of international trade
Bonus Army – WWI veterans march on Washington, DC. They wanted payment of bonus promised in 1945.

26. Note Taking: Reading Skill: Recognize Causes

27. Effects on the World
No American Investment in Germany meant they could not make reparations payments, which meant the Allies weren’t paying their debts.
Europeans could no longer afford to buy American goods
Started a downward spiral in the global economy…

28. Diagram: Worldwide Depression

29. Note Taking: Reading Skill: Recognize Sequence

30. Americans Face Hard Times Section 2
How did the Great Depression affect the lives of urban and rural Americans?
Vocabulary:
-bread line Dust Bowl
-Hooverville Okies
-tenant farmer repatriation

31. Americans Face Hard Times
Misery and Despair Grip America’s Cities
Main Idea: Millions of Americans lost their jobs and were affected by poverty and hard times during the depression.
Poverty Devastates Rural America
Main Idea: Droughts caused those in rural areas to suffer even more during the depression and many farmers who lost their land were forced to migrate to new regions.
Few Americans Escape Hard Times
Main Idea: The depression touched almost all Americans in some way, as poverty and suffering spread across the country.
Continued…

32. If there’s no way like the American way, then what’s behind this box?

34. Graph: The 1930's American Economy

35. Infographic: Effects of the Great Depression

36. Effect on Families -Families all moved in together
-The divorce rate significantly decreased; people could not afford to live apart from their families
-Companies would not hire women whose husbands did not have jobs – they figured that they’re more likely to move for the husband to find work and did not want to invest in an employee who would be temporary
-bread lines - handouts

37. Hoovervilles
The people lowest on the economic ladder took the hardest hit.
In 1932, they estimated the homeless in NY City alone was 15,000.
Homeless people built shanty towns with tar paper, cardboard, or scrap metal. These came to be known as Hoovervilles.
The people blamed the president for the crisis.

40. Poverty in Rural America
Commodity prices plunge
Many farmers lost farms and moved
Between 1930 and 1934, nearly one million farmers lost their farms
Some became tenant farmers

41. The Dust Bowl
-Extreme drought and dust storms through much of the 1930s significantly harmed agricultural interests
-Living in the Midwest became extremely difficult!
-Okies – name for Dust Bowl refugees; most Okies went to California, Oregon, or Washington
-Commercial farms grew
-Dams on western rivers brought irrigation to the Great Plains

46. Progress Monitoring Transparency: Section 2PM
TRANSPARENCY
Progress Monitoring Transparency
Answer C A
Progress Monitoring Transparency: Section 2

47. Chart: The Great Plains 1929-1939

48. Transparency: The Dust Bowl

49. Minorities
U.S. government tightened the rules to obtain a visa, targeting Mexican Americans
More than 300,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans were coerced into leaving the U.S. between 1930 and 1935
African Americans were “were the last to be hired and the first to be fired”

50. Note Taking: Reading Skill: Categorize

51. Hoover’s Response Fails Section 3
Why did Herbert Hoover’s policies fail to solve the country’s economic crisis?
Vocabulary:
-localism Hoover Dam
-RFC Bonus Army
-trickle-down economics
-Douglas MacArthur

52. Hoover’s Response Fails
Cautious Response to Depression
Main Idea: Hoover originally responded to the depression by encouraging volunteerism and asking local governments to intervene, but these methods failed.
Hoover Adopts More Activist Policies
Main Idea: Hoover took stronger action and gave federal money to banks and businesses, but little of this money reached the people.
Americans Protest Hoover’s Failures
Main Idea: Many Americans were unhappy with Hoover's response to the depression. One group, known as the Bonus Army, led a protest march in hopes of getting help from the government.

53. Herbert Hoover Hoover followed a hands-off policy
Volunteerism: asked businesses to keep employment at current levels
Asked government to reduce taxes, lower interest rates, and create public-works programs; volunteerism failed

54. Note Taking: Reading Skill: Identify Supporting Details

55. Transparency: Building the Hoover Dam

56. Graph: Hoover Dam Energy Use

57. Protests Some rejected capitalism and accepted socialism or communism
Bonus Army marched on Washington; World War I veterans who sought a bonus promised to them in 1945
20,000 camped out in Washington
Hoover ordered General Douglas MacArthur to clear the veterans; used force, causing injuries
Ended Hoover’s chance for reelection in 1932

59. Infographic: The Bonus Army

60. Electoral College Votes
Election of 1932
% of the Popular Vote
Electoral College Votes
Roosevelt
57.4
472
Hoover
39.7 59
Roosevelt wins in 42 states with votes from upset citizens, while Hoover only won 6 states!

62. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address: March 4, 1933
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…

63. Roosevelt’s “New Deal”
His proposal to relieve the stresses of the Depression with government involvement and several new agencies to protect consumers and investors.
(more info coming later…)

64. Roosevelt’s Secret Weapon…
His wife Eleanor – a very public figure involved in participating in the life of the country and talking to the people
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent…
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face…

65. Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats
A series of Sunday night radio addresses to the nation
Gave info on policy, diplomacy, and current issues

66. Transparency: The Great Depression

67. Progress Monitoring TransparencyPM
TRANSPARENCY
Progress Monitoring Transparency
Answer C A