Transcript Document 7366300

New Trends in Popular Culture
 Americans enjoy more
leisure time
 The average work week in the
city: 1850-70, 1910-55, 1930-45
 At the same time, salaries and
wages were on the rise

Americans Flock to the
Movies
 With more free time and more
of a disposable income,
Americans looked for new
entertainment
Motion Pictures
 During the 1920s, 60-100
million Americans went to
the movies each week!
 Motion pictures
transcended languages and
literacy- unlike Broadway
plays/orchestras

Charlie Chaplin, the most
popular silent film star,
played Little Tramp

The Jazz Singer- (1927) The
first movie with sound
synchronized to the action
 Silent pictures faded out,
replaced by “talkies”
The Radio and Phonograph
Break Barriers
 Radios brought distant
events into millions of
homes in a way that
newspapers no longer
could.
 Phonographs allowed for
people to listen to the
songs they heard on the
radio anytime they
wanted.

The Golden Age of Sports
 Babe Ruth
 Red Grange
 Jack Dempsey
 Bobby Jones
 Bill Tilden

Americans needed hope
after WWI, the 1920s sports
heroes gave them just that.

1.
Causes of the Great Depression
Problems in the Agricultural Sector
 Farmers were ¼ of the American workforce
 Demand for crops were still low (compared to time of war)
 Most were in debt from when they bought more land, and farm
equipment to meet the demand of wartime crop production
2. Wealth was Distributed Unevenly

1923-1929 Worker productivity increased by 32%,
however, workers’ wages increased only 8%.... =
corporate profits up 65%

1929, the top 1% of earners made the same amount
of money as the bottom 42% of Americans.




Rich got A LOT richer, poor got poorer
60% of all American families earned less than $2,000 per
year…
24,000 of the country’s wealthiest families earned
$100,000 or more.
PROBLEM- rich families did not eat 50x more, did
not purchase 50x more= The wealthy few did not
buy enough to keep the economy booming
3. Easy Credit hides the
problems in the economy
 By 1929, 80% of radios and
60% of cars were
purchased on installment
credit.
 The majority of Americans
were living beyond their
means
The Stock Market Crashes
October 23, 1929- Dow Jones
drops 21 points in one hour=
confidence lost in the market
 October 24 (Black Thursday)
stock market continuing to
drop, investors start to sell.
 October 29, Black Tuesday,
“The Crash” – more than 16
million shares were sold,
BILLIONS of dollars lost.
 People that bought on the
margin lost everything they
had.


The Banks Collapse


1st institution to feel effects,
depositors feared for their
money and withdrew from the
banks
Monetary Policies- 1920s Federal
Reserve cut interest rates to
stimulate growth
 In 1929 the Fed limited the money
supply to discourage
overspeculation (lending).
 The result, there was too little
money in circulation to help the
economy after the crash. Banks
were out of hard money had to
close.
▪ 1929- 641 commercial banks closed
▪ 1930- 1,350 closed
▪ 1931- 1,700 closed
Businesses Close, Unemployment
Rises
 The collapse of the stock market
and reduced consumer spending,
businesses began production
cutbacks to save money.
 Companies began to close plants,
laying off employees
 As more Americans lost their jobs,
unemployment grew, incomes
shrank, consumers spent less
money… so businesses cut
production even more.
 By 1933, 25% of all American
workers were unemployed
4. Hawley-Smoot Tariff raised
prices of foreign imports to a
level where they could not
compete in American market.
 European countries enacted
tariffs of their own, closing the
international market to
American producers.
 The ripple effect caused by the
Hawley-Smoot Tariff helped to
destroy international trade,
devastating to global economy.
Depression Goes Global
 WWI left global economic structure shaky,
Germany borrowed from the U.S. to pay GB &
France, and GB & France owed money to U.S.
PLUS an international imbalance in trade. THE
STRUCTURE COLLAPSES in the 1930s.
 U.S. can’t loan money to Germany any longer,
and well you get the idea…
 Europe experiences the same cycle of business
failures, banks collapse and unemployment
rose.
Influential economist, John Maynard Keyes argued that
a lack of government interference led to the Great
Depression.
 Lack of money supply (the Fed), unequal distribution of
wealth (Harding/Coolidge pro-big business), stock
speculation (buying on the margin), consumer
spending (installment credit), productivity, and
employment could have been controlled by a proactive
government.
 But others disagree…

Causes of the
Great Depression
Availability of
easy credit
Agricultural
problems
Foreign trade Hurt
By Tariffs
Uneven Distribution
Of Wealth
Misery & Despair Grip America’s
Cities
 Many people lost jobs and were
evicted from their homes, slept
in parks, sewer pipes.
 Shantytowns- made up of shacks,
also called Hoovervilles

Bread Lines- lines of people
waiting to receive food provided
by charities.
Poverty Devastates Rural America
 Drought plagued the great Plains in the 1930s.
 Overproduction- farmers plowed through
plains grasses that in the past and prevented
the topsoil from blowing away during drought.
 The combination of high winds, drought, and
loose topsoil resulted in massive dust clouds.
 This area of the Great Plains (Texas, Oklahoma,
Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado) became known
as the Dust Bowl
 1930-1934, 1 million farms failed to pay
mortgages and lost their farms.
 Some farmers remained on their land as
tenant farmers, worked for bigger
landowners.
 Okies- Dust Bowl refugees, most headed
west looking for jobs.
Few Americans Escape Hard times
Increase in mental illness -Suicides
went up by 30%
 Families broke apart under the
financial strain.
 People stopped going to the doctors
 No longer afford the “extras” like
movies or entertainment
 300,000 became “Hoboes,” which
were people who wandered the
country, hitching rides on railroad
boxcars and sleeping under bridges.

Cautious Response to Depression Fails
1.
Asked businesses to keep
employment, wages, and prices at
current level.
2.
Reduced taxes, lower interest rates,
created public works program
3.
Asked the wealthy to donate and
volunteer.

He encouraged, did not legislate.
FAILED, businesses continued to do
what was best for them.

Hoover also believed in localism, the
policy whereby problems could best
be solved by local and state levels.
States had no money to do so

Hoover believed that public
assistance is unconstitutional.
Hoover Adopts More Activists
Policies
Hoover tried to help by doing the
following:
 Reconstruction Finance
Corporation (RFC) 1932
 $1 billion gov’t loans to railroads,
businesses.
 Trickle-down economics= give
money to banks, banks loan to
businesses, businesses hire workers,
production and consumption
increases, ending the depression.

Hoover Dam
 Brought jobs to the southwest in the
early 1930s
Americans Protest Hoover’s Failures
 Some Americans questioned capitalism- it
created great inequalities, and the depression
was a sign that it was about to collapse.
 The Bonus Army Marches on Washington, D.C.
 WWI Veterans seeking the bonuses Congress
promised them, known as Bonus Army
 Adjusted Compensation Act (1924) promised a
payment to veterans in 1945.
▪ Many out of work veterans argued that they
should receive it in 1931.


Congress passed the bill, Hoover vetoed
20,000 veterans marched on Washington and
camped out.
 Hoover called for General Douglas McArthur
and federal troops to clear out the camps
 The use of tanks and tear gas were being used
against veterans, destroying the little popularity
that Hoover had left.
“Don’t Pay, All Stay!”
Needless to say, Hoover
was not re-elected…
Roosevelt Takes Charge
 Democratic presidential nominee in 1932
election, pledged “a new deal for the
American people”
“The country needs, and unless I mistake its
temper, the country demands bold,
persistent experimentation. It is common
sense to take a new method and try it. If it
fails, admit it frankly and try another. But
above all, try something!”
FDR, May 1932
Not only does FDR win, but
the Democrats also gain
control of the Senate as
well.
 FDR collects a group of
professionals and
academics, whom were
nicknamed the “Brain Trust.”
 Advisors were made up of
men and women,
republicans and democrats
 Also valued the advice of
wife Eleanor.

FDR’s First 100 Days
 FDR proposed and
Congress passed 15 bills
 3 Main Goals:
 RELIEF
 RECOVERY
 REFORM

Restored the nation’s
confidence
 Start of the fireside chats

First 100 Days Activity
 Reforming the Financial
System
 Helped Farmers
 Rural Southerners
 Relief and Industrial
Recovery
Opposition to the New Deal Emerges
 Conservatives
 Gov’t was too powerful
 Gov’t determined how businesses operated, created huge
national debt, destroying free enterprise.

Liberals
 Gov’t was not doing enough to end depression, mostly
socialists and communists

Populists (spokesmen for poor Americans)
 Father Charles Coughlin, catholic priest/radio host, wanted
to nationalize banks, anti-Semitic, supported….
 Huey Long, Louisana Senator, “Shar our Wealth” tax the
rich and distribute to the poor. Many enemies, assisinated
1935
The Second New Deal

addressed the problems of
the elderly, the poor, and the
unemployed. It created new
public-works projects;
helped farmers; and enacted
measures to protect workers
rights.
Workers Progress Administration (WPA)
 built or improved a good part of the nation’s
highways, dredged rivers and harbors, and
promoted soil and water conservation.
 provided programs in the arts for
unemployed artists.
 By 1943 the WPA employed 8 million people.
 Helped build the San Antonio River Walk and
parts of the Appalachian Trail.
Social Security Act
 Set up a system of pensions for retired workers.
 The law also created insurance for victims of workrelated accidents, and provided aid for povertystricken mothers and children, the blind, and the
disabled.
Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
 Loaned money to electric utilities to build power
lines.
 Provided affordable electricity for isolated rural
areas.
Fair Labor Standards Act
 Banned Child labor.
 Set the work week at 44 hours.
 Established a hourly minimum
wage.
 New Deal’s most controversial legacy
National Labor Relations Act
(Wagner Act)
 Outlawed unfair labor practices.
 Granted workers the right to
organize unions and to use
collective bargaining.
 Created the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) to look into
worker’s complaints.
Challenges To The New Deal
 The Supreme Court struck down
the AAA and the NIRA on the
grounds that agriculture is a local
matter and should be regulated
by the state instead of the federal
government (unconstitutional).
 FDR issued a plan to add up to six
new justices to the nine-member
Court.
 Court Packing because all of the
new justices would most likely
support the New Deal legislation.
▪ Historical Significance: Critics saw
FDR as trying to upset the balance
of power between the 3 branches
of government.
Effects of the New Deal
 Frances Perkins was the first
female cabinet member,
Secretary of Labor. Sec.
Perkins was influential in
establishing Social Security and
winning approval for the Fair
Labor Standards Act
 Mary McLeod Bethune helped
to organize a “Black Cabinet” of
influential African Americans to
advise the Roosevelt
administration on racial issues.
African Americans Make
Advances & Face Challenges
 African Americans were one
group that benefited from the
New Deal. Mary McLeod
Bethune worked to provide jobs
for African Americans. FDR met
with the “Black Cabinet” to
discuss social issues that African
Americans were facing. Did
Roosevelt always listen to the
“Black Cabinet?” Why?
▪ No. Needed the political support of
whites in the South.

Overall, African Americans still
voted for FDR because he was
their best hope for the future.
New Deal Aims at Other Groups
 MEXICAN AMERICANS
 Generally approved of the New Deal because the CCC &
WPA helped some. The New Deal did not interfere with
their work on farms.

NATIVE AMERICANS
 John Collier created the Indian Reorganization Act (Indian
New Deal) of 1934, which moved away from the policy of
assimilation, economic assistance, and greater control of
their own affairs.
New Deal Coalition
 This was an alignment of diverse groups dedicated
to supporting the Democratic Party.
 Southern Whites
 African Americans
 Blue collar industrial workers
 Immigrant roots
 Poor Midwestern farmers

After 1932, democrats secured the Whitehouse in 6
out of the next 8 presidential elections
Evaluating The New Deal
 The New Deal expanded the power of the government and the
president.
 Regulated business.
 Settled labor and management disputes.
 The FDIC and SEC restored confidence in the banking and stock market.

Government employed deficit spending.
 FDR left the country with a large debt.

What had the greatest effect?
 Social Security – Assumed the responsibility for the social welfare of its
citizens.
 Effects on Agriculture – Oversaw the nation’s agriculture by setting up
quotas on the production of crops.
 Environmental Benefits – Conserved and promoted policies designed to
protect the nation’s natural resources.
 FDR’s Legacy – Ranks 3rd in most Historical Rankings of Presidents.
▪ Why do you think? Who’s he behind?
▪ Helped the country in one of the most trying times in history.
▪ George Washington, Abraham Lincoln