1. Hoover’s Efforts Chapter 22 Section 2 and 3

2. Free Food People w/o jobs were often forced to go hungry Bread lines – lines waiting on a free handout of food Soup kitchen – places to get free food Private charity set up bread lines and soup kitchens to give poor people a meal

4. Nowhere to Go Shantytowns – communities of shacks on unused or public lands for the newly homeless Also called Hoovervilles b/c they blamed President Hoover for the depression Hobos – homeless and unemployed Americans began to wander around the country

5. Denial and Escape To express his confidence Hoover favored formal dress and manners in the White House w/ or w/o guests Nicknames… People living in shantytowns, renamed them “Hoovervilles.” Newspapers used as bed covers were called “Hoover blankets.” An empty pocket turned inside out was a “Hoover flag.” Jackrabbits caught for food were “Hoover Hogs.”

6. Hoovervilles

8. The Land Dies Dust Bowl – 1932 A terrible drought struck the Great Plains area The soil dried to dust Okies – families from Oklahoma who lost their farms, packed up their belongings and went to California looking for a better life

9. The Dust Bowl

11. The “Okies” Hundreds of thousands of “Okie” migrants streamed out of the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Colorado, where chronic drought and harmful agricultural practices blasted crops and hopes. Parched, poor, and windblown, Okies migrated to the lush fields and orchards of California, congregating in labor camps. As one Okie said, “When they need us they call us migrants, and when they’ve picked their crops, we’re bums and we have to get out.”

12. Migrant Camp

13. Oklahoma Mother

14. Penny Auctions/Farm Foreclosures

15. Arkansas Sharecroppers

16. Promoting Recovery Hoover tried to convince industry to keep factories open and to stop slashing wages Hoover increased public works Public Works – Govt. financed building projects Construction jobs to replace those lost in the private sector He didn’t do enough to fix the problems He needed to massively increase govt. spending to create enough new jobs and he refused to do that

17. Footing the Bill Someone had to pay for public works projects, so who pays for it? If the govt. raised taxes to pay for projects it would take money away from consumers and hurt businesses If the govt. kept taxes low and ran a budget deficit it would have to borrow the money from banks But then less money would be available for businesses and consumers who wanted loans

18. Hoover’s Efforts There was very little money in the economy Hoover believed… Govt. needed to make sure that banks could make loans to corporations Those corporations could then expand production and rehire workers Hoover asked the Federal Reserve Board to put more currency into circulation The Board refused

19. Hoover’s Efforts 2 National Credit Corporation (NCC) Created a pool of money to enable troubled banks to continue lending money in their communities This didn’t meet the nation’s needs

20. Hoover’s Efforts 3 Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) Govt. to do the lending for borrowers To make loans to banks, railroads, and agricultural institutions The RFC was overly cautious, didn’t meet the nation’s needs

21. Too Little Hoover strongly opposed the federal govts. participation in relief Relief – money that went directly to impoverished families Hoover b/l only the state and city govt. should dole out relief The state and city govts. were running out of money

22. Too Late Reluctantly Hoover signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act Called for 1.5 billion for public works and 300 million in loans to the states for direct relief It was too late, the program could not reverse the collapse

23. Hoover’s Legacy For decades, both scholars and the public has held Hoover in low esteem, blaming him for the Great Depression and criticizing his efforts to solve the crisis. Hoover had been in favor of government intervention with the creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Emergency Relief Construction Act. But he is still criticized for not authorizing large-scale relief programs.

24. Quite simply, Hoover never seemed to have grasped the grave threat that the economic crisis represented to the nation. Hoover proved unable to handle Congress, the press, and the public What emerges, then, for Hoover is a mixed and perhaps still damning verdict that remains very much alive today. The Great Depression brought about many of his political failures and seemed to have paved the way for F.D.R.’s victory in 1932.

26. Faces of the Depression

29. Quilting Party – North Carolina

30. Troup County, Georgia 1933 Cason Jewell Callaway inspecting his cabbage crop. He was experimenting with crops other than cotton or corn.

41. Montgomery, Alabama

43. Downtown Macon, Georgia

47. 1934 Chatsworth Georgia

48. Cobb County, Georgia

49. Baptism Whitfield County, Georgia

50. Georgia Governor - Herman Talmadge

52. Christmas Dinner – Iowa (1935)

53. 1930’s leather football helmet Spalding basketball shoes