The Boll Weevil

• • • • • Cotton has always been an important crop in Georgia. It is because of the cotton crops that agriculture thrived in Georgia in the 19th and early 20th century. However, the end of World War I brought the severe fall of cotton prices. The cotton industry suffered again in 1921. Nearly half of the cotton crop was destroyed by the boll weevil.

The Boll Weevil

• • • • • The boll weevil is a small beetle, which most likely came from Mexico. It spread to the southern United States and devastated the cotton crop in 1922. Adult boll weevils puncture cotton buds and lay eggs inside. The larvae hatch inside the bud and feed on the cotton bolls. Because the larvae stay inside the buds, insecticides cannot kill boll weevils.

Drought

• • • • During World War I, farmers were encouraged to expand and produce as much as possible. In states such as Oklahoma and Texas, overworking of the soil combined with strong winds and low rainfall led to the creation of the Dust Bowl. In Georgia, drought was not a problem, but the increase in cotton production meant an overuse of the land. Eventually, the soil was exhausted and would not yield crops.

Drought

• • • A combination of exhausted soil from overuse, and the destruction by the boll weevil forced many farmers to leave their farms. Some of the poorer farmers even left the state completely. Even before the Great Depression, Georgian agriculture was suffering from a farm depression that would change farming in Georgia from then on.

The Great Depression

• • • In the United States, it is normal for the economy to go through highs and lows. When the economy is at a high point, it is called a peak. A low point in the economy is called a trough.

The Great Depression

• • • When a trough is extreme, the economy is said to be in a depression. During times of depression, unemployment is high and people cannot afford many goods and services. Businesses suffer greatly or fail altogether.

The Great Depression

• • • The worst depression in the United States occurred in the 1930s. It was caused by a chain of events beginning after World War I. The countries involved in World War I faced several different trials and accomplishments.

The Great Depression

• • • The era preceding the depression is known as the Roaring Twenties. During this time, many people were not postponing purchases, but were buying things on credit instead. As businesses made large profits, average consumers actually plunged into debt.

The Great Depression

• • • Consumers were confident in national businesses, which led to investment in these companies. This consumer support helped the economy to grow quickly. Unfortunately, such swift growth is not always a good thing. In this case, it led to a stock market crash.

The Stock Market Crash

• • • • Consumer confidence led to investment. People thought they could make a profit when the stock’s value increased. Many people borrowed money in order to buy shares. The value of the stocks dropped considerably on October 29, 1929, a day now known as Black Tuesday.

The Stock Market Crash

• • • • Many people tried to sell their stock at the same time when they thought the shares they owned would not increase in value. Soon, banks could not collect on loans because the people had no money to pay them back. The banks ran out of money and many lost their savings from their accounts. This meant they could no longer make payments on their possessions bought by credit.

The Stock Market Crash

• • • Many Americans were forced to sell all of their possessions in order to pay for necessities like food, clothing, and heat. Many had to sell their homes and farms for their best offer. Soon, businesses were suffering because people could no longer afford luxury goods, and unemployment increased.

The Stock Market Crash

• • The businesses that did survive had to cut their production drastically because there were so few left who could afford to buy anything but the essentials. This period of over ten years in which the economy was slow, unemployment was high, and everyone suffered is known as the Great Depression.

The Great Depression and the New Deal

• • • • In 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York was elected president. When he took office, Roosevelt took steps to fulfill his promise of “a new deal for the American people.” He gathered a group of advisers from all over the country. With their help and at Roosevelt’s urging, Congress passed a series of laws that came to be known as the New Deal. The purpose of these laws was to bring about economic recovery, relieve the suffering of the unemployed, reform defects in the economy, and improve society.

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CCC

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a New Deal program that provided jobs for young single men building forest trails and roads, planting trees to reforest the land and control flooding, and building parks. CCC projects in Georgia included – construction of sewer projects – flood control and drainage projects such as Tybee Island’s seawall – recreational facilities such as ball fields, band stands, and theaters – Augusta’s Savannah River Levee, Atlanta’s Municipal Auditorium, St. Simons’ airport, Macon’s airport, Stewart County’s courthouse and jail, and renovations of Dalton’s city hall. – build, expand, or improve schools and hospitals throughout the state. – Much of the work on Grady Hospital in Atlanta was done by the CCC.

AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ACT

• • • • • The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) was created in March 1933. The AAA paid farmers not to plant crops on part of their land. The legislation created price supports (guaranteed higher prices) to farmers who agreed to cut back their cotton and tobacco crops. The idea was to raise farm prices by limiting production. The plan worked, and farm income improved.

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AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ACT

One drawback of the AAA was that farm subsidies (grants of money from the government) went to landowners rather than to the tenant farmers, who were predominantly black. The tenant farmers who worked the land never saw any of the money. With decreased production, many tenant farmers were without work. The AAA was eventually declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court because it was not voluntary.

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ACT

• • • • • • Rural electrification was an important New Deal program. In the 1920s, power companies mainly ran lines to towns and cities. Because the rural population was spread out, power lines were expensive to build and maintain.

The Rural Electrification Authority (REA) reportedly was a result of President Roosevelt’s first night at Warm Springs, Georgia. He was sitting on the porch of his small cottage, trying to catch a breeze on a hot, sultry summer night. He noticed that no lights were showing from neighboring farms.

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ACT

• • • • • Roosevelt never forgot that night, and on May 11, 1935, he signed into law the act creating the REA. The REA loaned over $300 million to farmers’ cooperatives to help them extend their own power lines and buy power wholesale. This program was one on the most important and far reaching of the New Deal programs. By 1940, a significant percentage of farmers in Georgia and other parts of the nation had electricity. Electric water pumps, lights, milking machines, and appliances made farm life much easier.

SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

• • • • • New Deal relief efforts, however, could not reach those people who could not work--children, the blind, widows with small children, and the elderly. workers needed some protection against unemployment. In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act. The federal government would provide retirement and unemployment insurance from taxes paid by both workers and their employers. Farm workers were not covered by the new program.

WW II and Neutrality

• • • • • President Roosevelt watched as Japan, Italy, the Soviet Union, and Germany carved up the world. Most Americans felt strongly that we should not get involved, but Great Britain was an ally and Roosevelt wanted to help. He thought that only the British could stop Hitler from crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1930s, Congress had passed neutrality acts to keep the United States out of another war. One of those acts would not allow the president to sell weapons to any warring nation.

Lend Lease Act

• • • • • In 1939, Roosevelt asked for and got a new law that allowed the Allied Powers to buy arms if they paid cash and carried them in their own ships. In 1940, Roosevelt gave Great Britain old weapons and traded fifty destroyers for British bases in the Western Hemisphere.

In early 1941, when the British ran out of cash with which to buy American supplies, Congress authorized Roosevelt to lend or lease arms to them. After Germany turned on and invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt gave lend-lease aid to the Soviets as well. Roosevelt also ordered the U.S. Navy to convoy (escort) British ships part of the way across the Atlantic.

PEARL HARBOR

• • • • • Meanwhile, American-Japanese relations got worse. To protest Japanese expansion, the United States stopped exporting airplanes, metals, aircraft parts, and aviation gasoline to Japan. After Japan invaded French Indochina in 1941, Roosevelt seized all Japanese property in the United States.

Badly needing the oil that Roosevelt had cut off, Japan decided to invade the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in late 1941. The only force that could stop the Japanese was the U.S. Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

PEARL HARBOR

• • • • December 7, 1941, was a peaceful Sunday morning. Many of the sailors stationed on the island were eating breakfast or going about their early morning routines. Suddenly, around 8:00 am., the air was filled with the sounds of machine gun fire and low level bombing. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was over by 10:00 am., but the damage to the Navy’s Pacific fleet was incredible.

PEARL HARBOR

• • • • On December 8, Congress declared war on Japan, and the United States entered World War II. A few days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Now it was a full-fledged war between the Allied Powers led by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union and the Axis Powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Joining the Allies meant the United States had to fight on two fronts, facing Germany and Italy in Europe and Africa and Japan in the Pacific.

Bell Aircraft

• • • • • After Pearl Harbor, the federal government decided to build additional aircraft plants to manufacture the B-29 bomber. Bell Aircraft Company of Buffalo, New York, won a contract to build the B-29 in a new plant in Marietta. The Marietta facility was the largest aircraft assembly plant in the world By the time the plant closed at the end of 1945, Bell Aircraft had built 668 planes.

In 1950, the Air Force convinced Lockheed Aircraft Corporation to reopen the Marietta plant. The plant is still open and is operated by the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

MILITARY BASES

• • • • • World War II brought prosperity to Georgia. Millions of federal dollars poured into the state, strengthening the economy. Because of its climate and the influence of politicians like Senator Richard Russell, Jr. and Representative Carl Vinson, the state became the site of several military installations.

Major military bases included Fort Benning in Columbus, Camp Gordon in Augusta Fort Benning was the largest infantry center in the country.

SAVANNAH AND BRUNSWICK SHIPYARDS

• • • • • A number of industries in Georgia were contributing to the war effort. One effort was the building of Liberty ships at Brunswick and Savannah shipyards. President Roosevelt named the cargo ships “Liberty ships” after Patrick Henry’s famous quotation, and the ships were essential to the war effort. The first of Georgia’s Liberty ships was launched in November 1942—the U.S.S. James Oglethorpe, which was sunk by a German submarine the next year. Eighty-eight Liberty ships were built in Savannah by 15,000 workers, many of whom were women.

THE HOLOCAUST

• • • In 1986, the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust was established “to take lessons from the history of the Holocaust and use them to help lead new generations of Georgians beyond racism and bigotry. Through a variety of programs, the Commission fosters tolerance, good citizenship and character development among the young people of the state.” Each year, the Commission sponsors an art and writing contest for Georgia middle and high school students

FDR’S IMPACT ON GEORGIA

• • • • • • Franklin D. Roosevelt began visiting Warm Springs as treatment for his polio. He made so many trips to the springs that he built a comfortable but small house there in 1932. When he became president, it became known as the “Little White House.” On March 30, 1945, the president returned to the Little White House. He had suffered a massive stroke and died.

As Roosevelt’s body was carried by train from Warm Springs back to the nation’s capital, the tracks were lined by thousands of crying Georgians who had come to think of Roosevelt as one of their own.

Summary

• • Describe the impact of the Boll Weevil and drought on Georgia.

Describe the economic factors that led to the Great Depression.