USA

• What was the Wall Street crash?


  It was when people realised that the price of their shares had become too high compared to the company’s value. So many people were panic selling their shares on the wall street stock market, which led to a financial crisis.
• How many banks closed during the Wall Street crash?

  659
• How many shares were sold on October 24th 1929?

  13 million
• How many shares were sold on October 29th 1929?

  16 million
• How much money did shareholders lose in total?

  $8 billion
• Impact of the Depression on unemployment 


  1932, 13m people unemployed.

  1-2m travelled around looking for work-(hobos)

  In Alabama, a third of white people and half of black people were unemployed.

  It was worse in the industrial northern states, as companies laid off workers.

  Those who had jobs, had their wages cut 25%.
• Impact of the Depression on Business and industry 


  Ford had employed 120,000 workers in Detroit, fell to 37,000 by 1931.

  Industrial production fell by 45%.

  House building fell by 82%.

  By 1933, all the United States Steel Corporation's workers were working part time.

  100,000 companies closed.
• Impact of the Depression on homelessness


  1932, 250,000 people lost their homes.

  Some deliberately got themselves arrested so they could spend the night in prison.

  Some slept on park benches or bus shelters.

  You could pay to 'sleep on the line' - sitting upright in a hall full of people, resting on a washing line to sleep.

  Many moved to the edge of town and built shelters out of scrap metal and wood.

  They were called Hoovervilles - an insult to President Hoover.
• Impact of the Depression on hunger and charities


  110 people died of starvation, although it was a contributing factor in many more deaths.

  Some towns ran their own public relief programmes, providing jobs, temporary homes and food.

  Salvation Army set up soup kitchens.

  People queued round the block for free food - these were known as bread lines.

  Individual rich people sometimes offered help. For example, Al Capone provided food in Chicago.
• Impact of the Depression on farmers selling produce


  Unemployment in towns meant farmers sold less.

  Prices fell so much that it cost more to harvest the crop than it was worth.

  They left wheat to rot in the field.

  Farmers had already suffered through the 1920s, and things were getting even worse.
• Impact of the Depression on farmers mortgages


  1932, 1 in 20 farmers were evicted for failure to make mortgage repayments.

  Some farmers organised themselves to resist banks taking their homes.

  They barricaded highways and threatened sheriffs with pitchforks and hangman's nooses.
• Impact of the Depression on farmers (The Dust Bowl 1930)


  In the south and Midwest like Oklahoma and Kansas, farmers had changed from cattle farming to growing crops.

  The land was being farmed too much and became infertile.

  After 1930, there was severe drought.

  Strong winds and no rainfall turned soil to dust.

  It was America's main farming region.

  Many farmers had to abandon their farms and try and find work.
• What was the government at the start of the depression?


  Republican led by President Hoover
• Republican beliefs

  They believed in 'rugged individualism.'They thought the Depression wouldn't last long.Hoover promised people - a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.
• What is rugged individualism?


  The republican belief that everyone should help themselves and the government shouldn’t interfere with peoples problems.
• How did President Hoover respond to the Depression?


  1930, cut taxes so people could buy more goods.

  Provided $4000m for big building projects, to create jobs.

  1931, work began on the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.

  1932, Emergency Relief Act gave $300m to individual states to help the unemployed.

  1932, Reconstruction Finance Corporation provided loans of $1500m to businesses, to help them recover.
• How did people respond to President Hoover?


  People blamed the government for the Depression, and felt they hadn't done enough to help.

  In cities, the unemployed held marches and demonstrations against the government.

  A popular chant was - "in Hoover we trusted, now we are busted."

  They made fun of their president by renaming things.

  Hoover leather - cardboard soles for shoes.

  Hoover blankets - newspaper that people slept in.

  He was mocked.
• The Bonus Army


  At the end of WW1, soldiers were promised a pension, to be paid in 1945.

  By 1932, many veterans had been hit by the Depression and wanted their pension early.

  Summer 1932 - 20,000 veterans marched to Washington to protest.

  They set up a Hooverville.

  Congress refused to pay them.

  President Hoover called in the army to get rid of the veterans.

  They burned the tents, killed 2 veterans and injured 1000.

  It made Hoover even more unpopular.
• How did Roosevelt become president?


  1932 election, Roosevelt (a Democrat) won.

  He promised a 'new deal' for the American people.

  He said he would provide jobs for the unemployed and help industry.

  Roosevelt won 42 of the 48 state votes.
• What did Roosevelt do in his ’fireside chats’?


  Used the radio to explain to the public why the USA was in a depression and how he was going to help.

  60 million people tuned in regularly.
• What did Roosevelt do in his first 100 days of presidency?


  Set up a number of alphabet agencies.

  Was helped by the ‘brains trust’.
• What was the ‘brains trust’?


  They were university professors and economist, to advise Roosevelt on future policies.
• What was the March 1933, Emergency Banking Act?


  When all banks closed for 4 days and government officials inspected all of the bank accounts.

  Banks that were properly reopened.

  Banks were supported by government loans.

  People left their savings in the banks and those who had withdrawn their money started to put it back in.
• Why was the Securities Exchange Commission set up?


  To regulate the stock market.
• What were the ’Lame Duck Months’?


  The period between Roosevelt winning the election and taking office.

  November 1932 - March 1933
• The Public Works Administration (PWA)


  Built schools, hospitals, dams, aircraft carriers and airports.

  Only for skilled workers.

  Not useful for the millions of workers who were unskilled.
• The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)


  For unemployed 18-25 year old men.

  Men stayed in camps while they planted trees, cleared land and made reservoirs.

  Had to send home $25 a month to help their parents.

  Each project only lasted 6 months.

  By 1938, over 2 million young men had served in the CCC.

  They learned skills that they could use to get other jobs.

  They got food, clothing, shelter and pocket money of $1 a day.
• The National Recovery Administration (NRA)


  To help employers and workers.

  Set out a code of conduct for businesses - minimum wage, maximum working hours, child labour outlawed.

  Businesses who signed up could advertise with the Blue Eagle and the slogan "we do our part."

  Americans were encouraged to buy blue eagle products.

  2 million employers signed up.

  Declared illegal by Supreme Court after Sick Chickens Case.
• The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)


  Lent homeowners money at low interest rates.

  Helped them pay their mortgages.
• The New Deal was a package of measures to deal with the Depression - to provide work for people, so they could earn money and keep their homes. There was no system of social services like there is in England now. Alphabet agencies were set up to help people.
• The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)


  Set up May 1933.

  Paid farmers to produce less food.

  To plough less land or reduce livestock by killing their animals.

  6 million piglets were destroyed - the meat was canned and given to the unemployed.

  Food prices went up.

  Any loss of profit was made up by government subsidies.

  Government helped farmers pay their mortgages.

  Farmers income doubled.

  Didn't help farm workers - there was less work for them to do.

  Supreme Court declared AAA illegal.
• The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)


  This valley area suffered from droughts and floods.

  The soil was poor.

  People there lived in poverty.

  The area covered 7 different states and it was difficult to get them to work together.

  TVA provided work in flood control, building dams and reservoirs, preventing soil erosion, building new towns.

  Provided electricity for the area.

  21 dams were built.

  Created lakes which attracted businesses to the area.

  Black people weren't allowed on the TVA model farm.
• The Civil Works Administration (CWA)


  Provided work for 4 million people.

  Built dams, roads, schools, public buildings and toilets.

  Unemployed actors were hired to give free shows.

  Paid out of work researchers to research the history of the safety pin.

  Hired 100 people in Washington to scare pigeons away with balloons.

  These pointless jobs were called boondoggles.

  Only lasted 1 winter then those 4 million people were out of work again.
• The Works Progress Administration (WPA)


  To help unskilled workers.

  Provided work for 2 million people each year.

  Built schools, roads and airports.

  Writers were paid to write books.

  Painters made pictures for schools.

  Work was only temporary.
• Wagner Act


  Gave workers the right to join trade unions.

  Some employers refused to let their workers join unions.

  Led to strikes in 1937.

  Replaced the NRA which had been declared unconstitutional.
• The Social Security Act (SSA)


  Set up a national system of pensions for old people and widows.

  Pension payments were low - $85 a month.

  Helped disabled people.

  Set up dole money.
• Impact of the New Deal on Black people


  Most black people had always been poor.

  They still had the worst paid jobs like cleaners, farm hands or porters.

  In the Deep South, 63 black men were killed by lynch mobs.

  Many people wanted an anti-lynching law.

  Roosevelt wouldn't support that in case he lost votes from the southern whites.

  Many New Deal projects discriminated against black people.

  But black people began to support Roosevelt after 1935.

  They benefited from the relief cheques paid by the government - a third of black people became reliant on these.
• Impact of the New Deal on farmers


  Farmers suffered from the dust bowl.

  The government sent out agents to investigate but not much was done.

  Those who stayed on their land were helped by the TVA and the supply of electricity.
• Impact of WW2 on the economy 


  America recovered from depression.

  Joined the war in 1941 but felt the benefits of it from 1939.

  1944 - unemployment was 670,000.

  1942 - War Production Board converted peacetime industry to war production.

  Made 88,000 tanks, 7333 ships, 20 million guns, 40 billion bullets.

  43 million men joined the army, and had to be replaced in their jobs.

  More work for working class women.

  2 million women worked in munitions factories.

  Average pay was $32 a week.

  Women could spend more, which helped the economy - buying food, clothes, goods for the house.
• During WW2, tax revenue went up from $4 million a year to $42 million a year.