Great Depression

• DOW - average of top 6 stocks
• Stocks rise during the 20s, they start to go flat and people panic and pull out their stocks


  1929, Great Depression
• Government passes tariffs to protect American businesses

  • Hawley-Smoot Tariff - so high that people couldn't buy internationally, other countries raised tariffs in response
  • Didn't help Americans because there was no consumer activity
• Market crashes

  • Big layoffs
  • Cut hours
  • Less job opportunities
  • 25% unemployment rate
  • 50% Black unemployment rate


  Someone goes to the bank and asks to clear their account, little bit of drama and then he goes to the press and says the bank didn't want to give him his money

  • Bank Run - everyone rushes to the bank to withdraw money
  • Bank Failure - not everyone can get their money, the bank runs out
  • 1500 banks close in the first year
• Hoover does nothing to help the depression

  • Volunteerism - the rich people need to give money to the poor, doesn't work
  • Localism - the depression is only on a local level, solve it in your own city
  • Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC) - Funds busywork projects with government money to open jobs and stimulate the economy
• Blame Hoover for everything

  • Hoover city, Hoover flags, Hoover wagons - everything that symbolizes poverty is associated with Hoover


  1932, Hoover is up for reelection

  • Government promised veterans checks, didn't give them because they didn't want to go into debt
  • Big uproar, Congress writes bonuses for vets but Hoover vetoes
  • Bonus Army - 100,000 homeless veterans move to DC and set up encampment outside of government buildings
  • Hoover tells the police to use tear gas on the veterans
  • Eleanor Roosevelt protests with veterans, Franklin Roosevelt wins election
• Franklin D. Roosevelt had polio as a child and didn't have much use of his legs

  • Media agreed not to photograph him in his wheelchair
  • He didn't want to appear weak to the fragile American society
• Brain Trust - Group of advisors to help Roosevelt


  Black Cabinet - Group of advisors to help Roosevelt with rights of Black people
• First Hundred Days - Roosevelt promised that he accomplish as much as possible in his first 100 days in office

  • Congress was willing to pass a lot
  • Fireside Chats - Roosevelt educates the public via radio (often), made public like Roosevelt more
  • Bills: Closed banks on weekends, acronyms

  President's success is now measured by what they do in the first 100 days
• The New Deal

  • Relief - provide relief to the impoverished and homeless
  • Recovery - build the economy back up
  • Reform - make sure this doesn't happen again
• Hundred Days Bills

  • FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) - if your bank fails the government will return your money up to 250k
  • SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) - outlaws Insider Trading
  • Glass Steagall Banking Act - commercial banks and investment banks have to be separate
  • CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) - gives people jobs and helps the environment
  • WPA (Works Progress Administration) - hires entertainment workers (so they have stuff to do)
  • Federal Writers Project - part of the WPA, interviewed former slaves
• Dust Bowl:

  • During WWI, farmers were dry farming to save water
  • The land become over-tilled and the soil was lose
  • Normally rain would fix this and pack the soil back down but in the 1930s there was a drought
  • There were also dust storms
  • Led to dust-monia and death

  Oakies - Oklahomans who mass migrated to California
• • AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act) - sets crop prices and buys back farmer surplus
  • TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) - build dams in TN River Valley, provides electricity and water to people in App.
• • NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Administration) - A government agency that helped businesses to recover from the depression, provides jobs
  • PWA (Public Works Administration) - provides money for public programs (canals, bridges, roads, etc.)
• • Wagner Act - anyone can join a union, you can't be fired for joining a union
  • Fair Labor Standards Act - establishes minimum wage, 40-hour workweeks, overtime pay, and ends child labor
• Hundred Days Bills (pt. 2)

  • SSA (Social Security Administration) - take money from paychecks and gives it to old people
• Radical Leftists think Roosevelt isn't helping the right people

  • He's only helping businesses and bankers
  • Huey Long - LA Senator, Populist, thought Roosevelt isn't doing enough; wanted Share Our Wealth Program (wealth tax)
  • Long ran against Roosevelt during primaries (be Dem nominee) but he was assassinated
  • Charles Coughlin - Canadian, Catholic Priest, was initially on Roosevelt's side but turned against him because he thought he was on helping bankers; turned to anti-Semitism (Jews are bankers), blamed the depression on Jewish people, pro Hitler and Mussolini
• Conservatives thing Roosevelt is doing too much

  • Too much government spending
• Schechter Poultry v. US

  • Court case against the NIRA
  • Supreme Court decides the establishment of the NIRA is unconstitutional
  • Roosevelt was mad because the overruled his largest bill


  Roosevelt considered proposing a bill for a mandatory retirement age of judges

  • SC says if he proposes his bill then they will overturn all his other New Deal bills
  • Roosevelt back off and so does SC
• WWII pulls US out of Depression

  New Deal lifted the economy but didn't repair it