Great Depression

• How did the Great Depression affect people's lives?

  1932 - around 13 million people lost their jobs which was roughly 25 percent of the workforce

  In Cleveland 50 percent of workers were unemployed in 1931

  Between 1929 + 1932 factory production dropped by 80 percent and house building fell by 80 percent
• How did the GD affect people's lives?

  Around 250000 people stopped paying their mortgages in 1932

  12000 people a day were losing jobs and 20000 companies went out of business in 1932
• Hoovervilles + Hobos

  Hobos - unemployed people who travelled the country in desperation for work they also travelled illegally on trains

  Hoovervilles - homeless built shacks with scrap materials with no washing facilities.
• Breadlines

  Charities set up soup kitchens so people could get soup + bread

  1932 - YMCA gave away 12000 free meals
• Farmers

  1932 - 1 in 20 farmers had been evicted

  Dust Bowl - huge Dust storms blew away acres of dry topsoil making it impossible to farm

  Farmers tried moving to California in hope to become fruit farmers but the fruit farms were also struggling
• How were factory owners affected?

  Overproducing goods

  Suffered from underconsumption

  Struggled to sell abroad due to tariffs

  Owners forced to cut production, then wages and eventually started to sack workers
• How were ordinary share holders affected?

  Lost a fortune during the crash

  Tried selling valuable belongings such as cars

  Some struggled to pay rent and faced homelessness
• How were bank managers affected?

  Banks loaned huge amounts of money out and people spent it on shares

  People couldn't pay their money back and the banks became bankrupt and bank managers lost their jobs
• How were factory workers affected?

  Many lost their jobs

  Banks gave away customers' savings as loans so people lost their savings
• How were the upper-class affected?

  Some lost some of their wealth in the Depression

  They still had lots of property and land to fall back on

  Had changes such as sacking chauffeurs and cleaners so they had to do the work themselves
• Violence and protest during the GD

  Poor farmers in Iowa used guns and pitchforks to chase away government officials who tried to evict farm owners who couldn't pay their mortgages
• Bonus Army

  1932 - 25000 veterans marched to Washington DC to ask for their war pension to be payed early

  Hoover calls National Guard to drive away the veterans with guns, tanks and tear gas.

  2 people died including a baby
• Herbert Hoover's response to the GD

  Believed in rugged individualism - people could recover without the government's help

  1930 - announced "we have passed the worst"

  Eventually set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation which lent money to troubled businesses and farmers

  1930 - cut taxes by 130 million
• Herbert Hoover's response

  1932 - made 300 million available to states to help the unemployed

  1930 - Hawley Smoot Tariff taxed foreign goods but led to businesses failing more