how bad was it really?. by 1932 things were pretty bad according to the newspaper headlines: u.s...
TRANSCRIPT
THE DEPTHS OF THE GREAT
DEPRESSION
How bad was it really?
By 1932 things were pretty bad according to the newspaper headlines:
U.S STEEL LAYS OFF ANOTHER 10,000 GENERAL MOTORS STOCK DOWN FROM $500 A
SHARE TO $10 A SHARE CHICAGO TEACHERS FEED 11,000 HUNGRY
CHILDREN IOWA CORN WAY DOWN IN PRICE SALE-SALE-SALE SUITS AND COATS FOR $15 KENTUCKY COAL MINERS FOUND LIVING ON
DANDELIONS N.Y.C. COPS TO CARRY LIST OF CHARITIES TO
DIRECT THE HELPLESS 110 CHILDREN IN N.Y.C. DIE FROM MALNUTRITION
How did things get so bad?How bad was it?
They didn’t call it the “Great Depression” for nothing…
The Stock Market Crash On Black Tuesday, October
29th, the market collapsed. In a single day, sixteen million shares were traded--a record--and thirty billion dollars vanished into thin air.
Westinghouse lost two thirds of its September value. DuPont dropped seventy points.
The "Era of Get Rich Quick" was over. Jack Dempsey, America's first millionaire athlete, lost $3 million.
The market lost $30 billion by the end of November, 1929
Cynical New York hotel clerks asked incoming guests, "You want a room for sleeping or jumping?"
The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange just after the crash of 1929.
How the Crash effected the Economy Only 9 million Americans (7.3% of
the population) played the market But, the crash sparked doubts
about the health of the economy As a result, some consumers pulled
back on their spending, especially on more expensive items like cars, washing machines, etc.The health of the economy had
become dependent on spending on such items
The Stock Market was back “up and running” during the 1930s
Bank Runs Not only did bank runs wipe
out people's savings, they also undermined the ideology of thrift & saving.
Above: A bank run—where many people want to withdraw their money from any single bank at the same time
Below: Police stand guard outside the entrance to New York's closed World Exchange Bank, March 20, 1931.
Bank Runs → Bank Failures People needed money &/or didn’t feel
confident that it was safe in a bank Either way, they withdrew their accounts Banks went out of business because
they didn’t have enough in reserves Over 9,000 banks failed, 1929-1933 Less banks meant less money in
circulation Even people who had “played it safe”
and not played the stock market were effected
This meant there was less money for loans & borrowing Even fewer people could afford
expensive consumer goods like cars & washing machines
Workers’ Wages Since businesses were
no longer selling as many products, they had two choices:Lay-off or let go of workersLower workers’ wages
Over time, they did bothThis just led to even less
people having money with which to purchase products
This led to even lower wages & fewer jobs
Fighting over Fewer Jobs Above: Unemployed
men vying for jobs at the American Legion Employment Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great Depression
Below: Billboard telling people that the town had no jobs
Fewer Jobs Above: Typical picture
capturing the number of people who were unemployed and looking for a job. (Circa 1935)
Below: Part of the daily lineup outside the State Employment Service Office. Memphis, Tennessee. June 1938.
These are typical scenes; they reflect the large population of unemployed in desperate need of work and looking for jobs. (Circa 1935)
Business Failures Ultimately, many
businesses couldn’t stay in operation They had to cut prices to
match what buyers were willing and able to spend
They couldn’t stay in business selling at such low prices
It’s estimated that around 85,000 businesses failed between 1929-1932
Workers went on Strike Right: Strike pickets, New York, New
York. Dec. 1937. Businesses who did survive the
Great Depression tried to get as much work as possible from their employees for the lowest possible wage.
Workers were upset with the speedup of assembly lines, working conditions and the lack of job security. Seeking strength in unity, they formed unions
Due to favorable laws in the 1930s, union membership skyrocketed from under 3 million in 1933 to over 8 million in 1941
The GM Strike Automobile workers organized the U.A.W.
(United Automobile Workers) in 1935. General Motors would not recognize the U.A.W. as the workers' bargaining representative. Hearing rumors that G.M. was moving work to factories where the union was not as strong, workers in Flint, Michigan began a sit-down strike on December 30, 1936.
The sit-down was an effective way to strike. When workers walked off the job and picketed a plant, owners could bring in new workers to break the strike. If the workers stayed in the plant, owners could not replace them with other workers.
Above: Broken windows at GM Flint Fisher Body Plant during the sit-down strike of 1936-37.
Below: Strikers guarding window entrance to Fisher plant #3, Jan.-Feb. 1936.
Even Veterans Strike: The Bonus Army
WWI veterans seeking early payment of a bonus scheduled for 1945 assembled in DC to pressure Congress and the White House. At the time, veterans benefits took up 25% of the 1932 federal budget, but as the Bonus Expeditionary Force swelled to 60,000 men, the president secretly ordered that its members be given tents, cots, army rations and medical care.
In July, the Senate rejected the bonus 62 to 18. Most protesters went home via Hoover's offer of free RR passage, but 10,000 remained, including many communists. On the morning of July 28, forty protesters tried to claim an evacuated building in downtown DC. The city's police chief, sympathetic to the marchers, was knocked down by a brick and his assistant suffered a fractured skull. When rushed by a crowd, two other policemen opened fire and two marchers were killed. 1,000 soldiers were called in, armed with tear gas, tanks and machine guns to drive the veterans from their encampment and burned it to the ground.
WWI veterans block the steps of the Capital during the Bonus March, July 5, 1932.
But those who had jobs (even bad ones) were the lucky ones….
Unemployment During the 1930s industrial
unemployment reached as high as 25%It was as high as 33% if you
counted unemployment of farmers
In some Ohio cities it was even more direCleveland 50%Akron 60%Toledo 80%
Public Charities were overrun
Soup Kitchens In the absence of substantial
government relief programs during 1932, free food was distributed with private funds in some urban centers to large numbers of the unemployed. (Circa February 1932)
Above: Unemployed men shown at Volunteers of America Soup Kitchen: Washington, D.C. (Circa 1936)
Below: Breadlines: long line of people waiting to be fed: New York City
Soup kitchens For millions, soup
kitchens offered the only food they would eat.
Above: Young boys waiting in kitchen of city mission for soup which is given out nightly. Dubuque, Iowa. April 1940.
Below: Soup kitchen lines, St. Peter’s Mission, New York City
Selling Apples Many tried apple-
selling to avoid the shame of panhandling. In New York City, there were over 5,000 apple sellers on the street.
Above: Selling apples Below: Selling apples,
Jacksonville, Texas. October, 1939.
Shanties Tattered communities of the homeless coalesced in
and around every major city in the country Right:
Unemployed
workers in
front of a shack
with Christmas
tree, East 12th
Street, New York
City. December
1937.
Squatting Many who lost their
homes became squatters—living on someone else’s land
Above: Squatters in Mexican section in San Antonio, Texas. House was built of scrap material in vacant lot in the Mexican section of San Antonio, Texas. March 1939.
Below: Squatter's Camp, Route 70, Arkansas, October, 1935.
Homelessness President
Hoover was blamed for it all
People lived in Hoover-villes, slept under Hoover blankets, and waved their Hoover flags
Guess where?
All this was in the cities…
Couldn’t people in the cities move to the country and become farmers?
The Dust Bowl Farmers were hit hard
Insects, high temps, draught & wind
Over cropping, over grazing & improper farming
Parts of TX, OK, KS, NE, SD, AR were decimated
Dust Storms
Dust Storms: "Kodak view of a dust storm Baca Co., Colorado, Easter Sunday 1935"; Photo by N.R. Stone (Circa April 1935)
Dry Land Farmer and sons, dust
storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936.
The drought that helped cripple agriculture in the Great Depression was the worst in the climatological history of the country. By 1934 it had desiccated the Great Plains, from North Dakota to Texas, from the Mississippi River Valley to the Rockies. Vast dust storms swept the region.
Farms for Sale Farmers go bankrupt &/or are
forced to sell their farms All: Farm foreclosure sales
(Circa 1933)
Migration City dwellers and farmers both
tried to move to other areas of the country to find work
Above: farmers whose topsoil blew away joined the sod caravans of "Okies" on Route 66 to California. (Circa 1935)
Below: Toward Los Angeles, California. 1937. Perhaps 2.5 million people abandoned their homes in the South and the Great Plains during the Great Depression and went on the road.
Effects of Migration Above: Part of an impoverished refugee Iowa
family of nine on a New Mexico highway who left Iowa in 1932 because of father's ill health. He had been an auto mechanic laborer, painter by trade, but now was tubercular. The family was on relief in Arizona but were refused entry on relief roles in Iowa where they wanted to return. They had no money at all and were about to sell their belongings and trailer for money to buy food. "We don't want to go where we'll be a nuisance to anybody."
The children of migrant workers typically had no way to attend school. By the end of 1930 some 3 million children had abandoned school. Thousands of schools had closed or were operating on reduced hours. At least 200,000 children took to the roads on their own. Summer 1936.
Below: A Homeless Family Walking Along a Road, 1936
“Exodusters” Top: Families on the road
with all their possessions packed into their trucks, migrating and looking for work in California. (Circa 1935)
Below: "Okies" Driving to California (circa 1935)
California Agricultural Work Right: Filipinos
cutting lettuce, Salinas, California
In order to maximize their ability to exploit farm workers, California employers recruited from China, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the American south, and Europe.
California Agricultural Work American migrants also
went to California where there was lots of agricultural workUnfortunately, more people
went to CA than there were jobs available
Above: Migrant pea pickers camp in the rain. California, February, 1936.
Below: In one of the largest pea camps in California. February, 1936
California Agricultural Work
The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made in February or March of 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration.
In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience: I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
Migrant Mother Dorothea Lange's
"Migrant Mother," destitute in a pea picker's camp, because of the failure of the early pea crop.
Most of the 2,500 people in this camp were destitute. By the end of the decade there were still 4 million migrants on the road.
Gross National Product, 1929-1932 Overall, the country’s GNP
plummeted by 25%It went from over $104 billion
to $76.4 billion Investment dropped 48X
It went from $16.2 billion to only $333 million
People felt desperate…
1932 Election Hoover was voted out of
officeHe’d tried, but the
depression was too big Franklin D. Roosevelt
promised a “New Deal” for the American peopleHe did anything and
everything (sometimes what he did was contradictory)
The New Deal The Hundred Days
Bank HolidayA Diverse CabinetFireside Chats
The Three RsRelief—getting money
to people by creating jobs or cutting “relief” checks
Recovery—helping businesses & farms
Reform—laws to stop it from happening again
Over the next few days you will research and try to pass, in a Mock Senate, some of the major New Deal laws
You will act in the role that you had during our Stock Market scenario
You can once again gain wealth points (and candy) if your bill passes
Bankers: FDIC & SEC Your goal: for the federal
government to guarantee people’s bank accounts through an insurance program; it would also regulate the stock market to prevent fraud and people making foolish decisions in the future
Businessmen: NRA Your goal: to allow
the federal government to regulate prices, working conditions, and competition between businesses in order to prevent monopolies and unfair practices.
Farmers: The AAA Your goal: for the
federal government to require farmers to give up some individual freedom in order to gain some economic security.
Labor: NLRA Your goal: that the
federal government could regulate wages, hours, and working conditions and mandate collective bargaining on labor contracts in order to ensure laborers are treated fairly by business owners engaged in interstate commerce.
Social Critics: FERA, WPA & CCC Your goal: that the
federal government would give direct relief to the unemployed and make work for them on public projects.
Women’s Rights: SSA Your goal: that the federal
government would set up an insurance program to pay old people a retirement and give supplemental pay to widows, mothers with dependent children, and anyone who is disabled and unable to work. The program will require mandatory payments from workers and employers to pay for the three programs.