1. 1930s
The Great Depression
Mr. Pagliaro
Seymour High School
@PagsAPUSH

2. Part 1: The Nation’s Sick Economy
Causes of the Great Depression

3. 9 Key Causes for Great Depression
Debt liquidation and distress selling
Contraction of money supply as bank loans are paid
High taxes on middle class
Larger decrease in net worths of businessbankruptcies
Decreased profits
Reduction in output, in trade, and in employment.
Pessimism and loss of confidence
Hoarding of money
Decreased interest rates; increased deflation

4. Causes for 1929 Market Crash
Stocks bought on margin
Liberal credit policies of 1920s
4/7 of all loans went unpaid at close of 1920s
Agricultural recession of 1920s
Inequality of production vs. consumption
5,000 banks collapsed
Unequal distribution of wealth
Declining real estate values
Introduction of Hawley-Smoot Tariff

5. Black Thursday Sept. 3, 1929-Dow reached all-time high-381
Dropped 17% over next month
Oct. 24, million shares traded
Bloc purchase of blue chips
Stop the bleeding
Day ended down 6.38 points

6. Black Monday & Tuesday Regular investors got out – huge losses
Total losses = $30 billion
Date
Change
% Change
Close
Monday, October 28, 1929
−38.33
−12.82
260.64
Tuesday, October 29, 1929
−30.57
−11.73
230.07

7. Stock Market Crash, Oct. 1929

8. Run on banks…

9. Consequences of Market Crash
Lack of confidence in stock exchange
Reduced industrial output
Declined investment in capital goods

10. Over-production & Under-consumption
Companies overproduced consumer goods
Consumers did not have $ to pay
American Industrial Production

11. International Trade
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930) raised rates on 20k goods
"The world is paying for its ruthless destruction of life and property in the World War and for its failure to adjust purchasing power to productive capacity during the industrial revolution of the decade following the war.”
Record high tariffs
Decreased trade by 40% in 3 years
European recession
End of Dawes Plan loans to Germany
Import quotas

12. Decreased International Trade
U.S. imports decreased 66% from US$4.4 billion (1929) to US$1.5 billion (1933)
exports decreased 61% from US$5.4 billion to US$2.1 billion

13. Unemployment

14. How about now?

15. Wealth Disparity

16. And today?

17. Decline in Farm Prosperity
Decreased production in 1920s and 1930s
Deflated prices on agricultural goods

18. The Dust Bowl 1930s era drought conditions of Great Plains
Farming techniques +drought 
Massive wind erosion
Dust Storms
Black Blizzards
Dust Bowl Resources

19. Migration westward “Okies” Moved to California Chronicled by:
Searched for work
Same poor conditions
Migrant workers
Chronicled by:
John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice & Men
Dorothea Lange

20. Part 2
Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

21. Hoovervilles

23. The Bonus Army
World War Adjusted Compensation Act – 1924 – Pension/Bonus
1932 – March on Washington
12-17,000 vets, families, supporters (43,000 total)
Supported by Senate candidate, Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler
July 1932 – Hoover called out army
Gen. D. McArthur marched soldiers on protestors; used gas

24. Hoover’s Economic Policy
Believed economic recovery depended on business
Care for unemployed? Emphasis on charities
Spirit of voluntarism
Supported Federal Loan program to support
State/local government
Private companies
Agricultural Marketing Act/Federal Farm Board
loans to farmers
buy crops

25. 1929-1932 >10,000 Banks closed (>40% of 1929) GNP down 31%
Farm values down 53% (after dropping 30-40% in 20s)
Unemployment at 23.6%

26. Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Provided $1.5-2 billion in loans to states, cities, infrastructure businesses (1932)
Did little to help lower classes
Unemployment continued to rise
RFC spent $1.8 billion in 1933 and 1934
Public opinion on Hoover dropped

27. Franklin D. Roosevelt – Dem.
1932 Election
Name
Electoral
Popular
FDR
472
22.8 mil.
Hoover 59
15.7 mil.
Franklin D. Roosevelt – Dem.
Herbert Hoover – Rep.

28. I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.
Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth... I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people... This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.
I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.