Some statistics to illustrate the severity of the Great Depression...

Although only a small percentage of Americans were directly affected by the stock market crash of 1929 in which $30 billion was lost in a few days, by early 1930 more than stocks were in decline -

For Example...

• 30,000 U.S. businesses collapsed in 1930 (28,000 more in 1931)

• By the beginning of 1932, nearly 3500 banks had gone under

• Also by 1932, almost 12 million people were out of work

• 400,000 farms were lost to foreclosure

• The national income in 1932 was about 1/2 of 1929’s figure

• Every week, almost 100,000 more workers lost their jobs

The worst statistical year of the Great Depression was 1932, but the economy of the

U.S. would not recover until WWII.

Men standing in a soup line

A squatter’s shack

Other examples of how desperate the situation became include…

• Chicago experienced 50% unemployment, Toledo 80%

• 250,000 teenagers traveled the roads and rode the rails

• Fights broke out over barrels of garbage in cities

• One New York couple moved into a cave in Central Park

More people left the U.S. during the 1930s than came to the U.S. This

was the only time in our history this

occurred.

Sale of a foreclosed farm

Walking 30 miles to see family

Waiting outside a relief agency

Unemployment line in NYC

School in Alabama

Migrant workers looking for work

Migrant worker on the road

Homeless woman and family

Okies on way to Califonria

A Hooverville

18 year old mother with child

Men standing outside a bank

Family living in a tent

Leaving the Dust Bowl for California

Wife and children of a sharecropper

The plight of Farmers during the...

The situation for farmers was no better than for most during the Great Depression. Farmers were forced to contend with…

• A “Dust Bowl” due to drought and poor farming methods

• Dropping prices and demand for agricultural products

( it was sometimes cheaper to destroy crops and livestock)

•Possibility of foreclosure and/or eviction from farms and homes

Dust storm in Kansas Dust storm in Oklahoma

Man in dust storm

Dust storm in Oklahoma

Homeless man in NY selling apples

So, what caused the Great Depression?

CAUSES OF GREAT DEPRESSION

Rise in production not met by rise in wages

UnevenDistribution

ofIncome

Availabilityof

Easy Credit(Installment

Plan)

UnbalancedForeignTrade

(Hawley-Smoot Tariff)

Mechanization

The Great Engineer struggles with America’s Hard Times

• Hoover advocated “Rugged Individualism”

• Believed in help from state and local

government, not from federal government

• Feared handouts would hurt self-respect

“We have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort shall rapidly recover.”

(1930)

What does Hoover do about the Great Depression?

Hoover does eventually take some measures to combat the slumping economy… he advises no payroll cuts, suggests not asking for higher

wages, and asks farmers to limit production voluntarily.

Hoover also …•Sets aside funding for public works (Hoover Dam)

• Endorses the Home Loan Bank Act

• Establishes the Reconstruction Finance Corporation

But Hoover’s efforts are seen as “too little, too late”

AND...

... Hoover’s loss in the Presidential Election of 1932 was almost assured by his handling of events involving the

Bonus Army

25,000 former doughboys (WWI vets) arrived in Washington, DC to ask for the early payment of a bonus they were set to receive in 1945

* called themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force

The early bonus was denied by Congress and Hoover eventually called out troops (MacArthur) to clear out the encamped veterans

* camp was burned, tear gas and tanks used; 100 casualties

With increasing riots and protests nationwide, and the economy remaining in depression, the election of 1932 represented a turning point in how Americans viewed the role of the federal government

The Presidential Election of 1932

                                                       

Herbert Hoover (R) vs. Franklin

Roosevelt (D)

Roosevelt promised a “new deal” for the American people; he carried 42 of 48 states and won 57% of popular vote

“Did you hear about the hobo who traveled cross country in record time? He wore a sign that said give me a lift or I’ll vote for Hoover!”

A letter to Hoover read “Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous!”

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”- quote from FDR’s inaugural speech in 1933

As you watch The Century: Stormy Weather and read about FDR and the New Deal, consider…

How was the role of the federal government changed by FDR and the New Deal?