• In the 1920’s Texas economy was very strong. It was

based on 3 major industries. Oil, cotton & lumber.

• During the 1920’s the state’s population increased to

5,824,715, representing a gain of more than one

million people, or almost 25% from the previous

decade.

• Among major cities in Texas, Houston led with

292,352 people, Dallas had 260,475, San Antonio

231,542, and Fort Worth 163,447

Houston:

Then & Now

Houston Population 1920:

292,352 Modern day

Houston population:

2,239,558

Stock Market Crash of 1929

• Stock Market- A place for

buying & selling stocks.

Ex: New York Stock Exchange

• Stocks (also called shares),

represent ownership claims on

businesses. People can buy stocks

in most U.S. companies today.

Examples of a stock certificates

Stock Market Crash of 1929The stock market, centered at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall

Street in New York City, was the scene of reckless speculation, where 2% of

Americans, from millionaires to cooks and janitors poured their savings into

stocks.

October 29th 1929, known as ‘Black Tuesday.’ Stock prices fell, & the

stock market crashed. The crash started the Great Depression that lasted from

1929 to 1945. Because stock prices fell so low, investors were unable to repay

their loans. This led business activity to decline & large numbers of banks

began to go out of business. Factories closed, the unemployed had no money

to buy goods, so even more businesses & factories were forced to shut down.

There began to be little demand in the housing market, which led to a decline

in the lumber industry & many other industries.

(Republican) President Herbert Hoover• Hoover did not believe the Great Depression would last long. On October 24, 1929–

only seven months after Hoover took office–a significant drop in the value of the U.S.

stock market sent the economy spiraling downward and signaled the start of the

Great Depression. He thought that businesses of the U.S. should solve the problem

& didn’t believe that the Federal Government should get involved in helping

unemployed people. He relied on state & local governments, churches, charities, &

wealthy individuals to provide the unemployed with help.

• Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people. He was widely

viewed as being insensitive toward the suffering of millions of desperate Americans.

As a result, Hoover was easily defeated in the 1932 presidential election by a

Democrat, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

31st president;

Served 1928-1932

Did You Know?

On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a law that

made "The Star-Spangled Banner," based on an 1814 poem by

Francis Scott Key, America's National Anthem.

1932

‘48 star flag’

How much did things cost in the 1930s?

Money and Inflation 1930'sTo provide an estimate of inflation we have

given a guide to the value of $100 US

Dollars for the first year in the decade to

the equivalent in today's money-

If you have $100 Converted from 1930 to

modern money it would be equivalent to

approximately $1200 "If You Had 1 million

dollars then it would now be worth 12

million dollars."

In 1930 average new house cost $7,145.00

and by 1939 was $3,800.00

1929

Stock

Market

Crash

1941

U.S.

enters

WWII

factory

production

up 50%

1929-1932

10,000+

banks fail.

Many

Americans

lose their life

savings

3 day dust

storm blows

approximately

350 million

tons of soil

away

19341931

Food Riots

began in

Minneapolis

by the

unemployed

National

Recovery

Administration

(NRA) begins.

27,000 men

work in CCC

camps

1933

1935-1938

Works

Progress

Administration

(WPA) helps

employ

Americans

1935

“Black

Blizzards”

begin on the

Great Plains

1932

Dust Storms

on the Great

Plains

increase

1940

Rains

return on

the Great

Plains

1930

Drought

begins on

the Great

Plains

25%Americans

are

unemployed

The run on America’s

banks began

immediately following

the stock market crash

of 1929. Overnight,

hundreds of thousands

of customers began to

withdraw their deposits.

With no money to lend

and loans going sour as

businesses and farmers

went belly ‘up,’ the

American banking crisis

deepened.

By 1933, 11,000 of the

nation’s 25,000 banks

were out of business.

Did You Know

On January 1, 1934, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

(FDIC) was established, and since that time, not one depositor

has lost insured funds.

Prior to the fall of 2008, FDIC insured bank accounts up to

$100,000. George Bush’s Administration changed those levels to

$250,000.

There was a downturn in spending and investment in American

companies which led factories and other businesses to slow down

production and begin firing their workers to reduce expenses.

Some 6,000

street vendors

walked the

streets of New

York City in 1930

trying to sell

apples for 5

cents each.

As the Depression worsened and millions of urban and rural

families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their

homes. Desperate for shelter, homeless citizens built shantytowns called

Hoovervilles, in and around cities across the nation.

Hoovervilles

They were named after

Herbert Hoover, who

was President of the

U.S. during the

beginning of the Great

Depression and was

widely blamed for it.

* One of the largest

Hoovervilles in the

nation was built in 1930

in St. Louis. It had its

own mayor, churches

and social institutions.

The shantytown was

funded by private

donors and existed until

1936.

No two Hoovervilles were quite

alike, and the camps varied in population

and size. Some were as small as a few

hundred people while others, in bigger

metropolitan areas such as Washington,

D.C., New York City, & St. Louis boasted

thousands of inhabitants.

Whenever possible,

Hoovervilles were built near rivers for the

convenience of a water source.

Some Hoovervilles were dotted with

vegetable gardens, and some individual

shacks contained furniture a family had

managed to carry away upon eviction

from their former home. However,

Hoovervilles were typically unsanitary.

They posed health risks to their

inhabitants as well as to those living

nearby, but there was little that local

governments or health agencies could

do.

Al Capone (American gangster who

made a fortune during prohibition though

bootlegging) started one of the first soup

kitchens. The kitchen employed a few

people, but fed many more. These

kitchens provided the only meals that

some unemployed Americans had. They

rose to prominence in the U.S. during the

Great Depression. One of the first and

obvious benefits of a soup kitchen was to

provide a place where the homeless and

poor could get free food and a brief rest

from the struggles of surviving on the

streets. 120,000 meals are served by

Capone Free Soup Kitchen” the Chicago

Tribune headlined on December 1931. Al

Capone’s soup kitchen became one of

the strangest sight Chicagoans had ever

seen. An army of ragged, starving men

assembled three times a day beside a

storefront, feasting on the generosity of

Al Capone. The men told the

newspapers that Capone was doing

more for the poor than the entire U.S.

government.

Al Capone, sometimes known by the

nickname "Scarface", was an

American mobster, crime boss, and

businessman who attained notoriety

during the Prohibition era as boss of

the Chicago Outfit.

• What % of Americans were unemployed at the beginning of the Great

Depression in 1929?

• What year was the worst year of the Great Depression in terms of the

unemployment rate?

Modern Day U.S. employment rate 4-5%

By 1933-

15 million

Americans were

unemployed.

You are a news reporter covering events during the Great

Depression: Write a few sentences about what you think is going

on in the images above.

• At the beginning of the Great Depression a very large oil discovery is made in East

Texas by C.M. ‘Dad’ Joiner.

• Unfortunately, with such a large supply of new oil , the price of oil will drop from

$1.00 a barrel to .13 cents. Drillers then produced even more oil to try to make up for

the lost profits. Eventually the Texas Railroad Commission had to regulate the

amount of oil that could be drilled in Texas oilfields.

• How could high unemployment rate be linked to lower amounts of oil being

consumed by the American population?

Law of Supply & Demand

• If the supply of oil is greater than the demand, what happened to the price of oil?

• The decline of cotton prices continued into the 1930s. Farmers were not

getting the prices they were in the 1920s. To make up for the lower price,

many farmers produced more cotton. The supply was greater than the

demand & the price of cotton continued to fall. Some state governments

passed laws to limit production in hopes of increasing crop prices.

• Cotton reached a record low of approximately 6 cents a pound in 1930. With

prices this low, many farmers lost their land because they couldn’t make

their payments.

Law of Supply & Demand

If the supply of cotton is greater than the

demand, what happened to the price of cotton?

Dust Bowl• The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that

greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the prairies

of the Great Plains. During the 1930s; severe drought and

a failure to apply dry farming methods to prevent wind

erosion caused this catastrophe to occur.

The 150,000-

square-mile area,

encompassing the

Oklahoma and

Texas panhandles

and neighboring

sections of Kansas,

Colorado, and New

Mexico, has little

rainfall, light soil,

and high winds, a

potentially

destructive

combination.

• When drought struck in the 1930’s, the soil lacked the stronger root system of grass as an anchor, so the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense dust clouds, called “black blizzards.” These dust storms wreaked havoc, choking cattle and pasture lands and driving 60 percent of the population from the region.

During the Dust Bowl years, the weather destroyed nearly all the crops farmers tried to grow on the

Great Plains. What few crops did survive sold at such low prices that farmers could not earn a

living. Farmers who rented the land and farmhouse couldn't pay rent, and farmers who owned their

land couldn't make payments. Parents packed up their children and belongings and moved West.

Most migrants moved to California, hoping to start a new life. Each year during the 1930s, the

number of children going to school went down. During this era millions of kids were not going to

school.

A New President & Vice President

Herbert Hoover Charles Curtis

President Vice President

Franklin D. Roosevelt John Nance Garner

Served 1928-1932

Elected in1932

President Roosevelt

is commemorated on

the dime.

John ‘Cactus Jack’ GarnerJohn Nance Garner

• Texas lawyer & County Judge.

• Congressman for over 30 years.

• During his service, the Texas Congress was selecting a state flower for Texas. Garner really wanted the prickly pear cactus to be the state flower, and thus earned the nickname "Cactus Jack." (The Bluebonnet was chosen.)

• Garner was popular with his fellow Congressmen in both parties. He held what he called his "board of education" during the era of Prohibition, a gathering spot for lawmakers to drink alcohol, or as Garner called it, "strike a blow for liberty."

• Regarded as one of the most powerful vice-presidents in history.

• Helped support ‘New Deal’ policies during the Great Depression.

• Retired in 1941, to his to his home in Uvalde, TX for the last twenty-six years of his life, where he managed his extensive real estate holdings, spent time with his grandchildren, & fished.

When President Franklin Roosevelt became President, he acted swiftly

to try and stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief to those who were

suffering. Over the next eight years, the government instituted a series of

experimental projects and programs, known collectively as the New Deal, that

aimed to restore some measure of dignity and prosperity to many Americans.

1. Which New Deal Agency

was created to reform

the Stock Market?

2. Which New Deal Agency

was created to restore

American’s faith in the

Banking industry?

3. Which New Deal Agency

had the largest effect on

education during the

1930s?

4. Which New Deal

Agencies created jobs

for Americans?

New Deal- CCC CampsOne of the programs that FDR created in 1933 was the Civilian Conservation Corps, a

program for unmarried young men aged 17 – 28 who needed employment during the

Great Depression. Over the 9 years it was in place, the CCC employed over 3 million

young men, providing them with shelter, clothing, and food and paying them $30 per

month, requiring that they send $25 of their wage back to their families to help at home.

New Deal- CCC in Texas

Parks & Historic Sites Developed or Improved by the C.C.C.Abilene

Balmorhea

Bastrop

Big Spring

Blanco

Bonham

Buescher

Caddo Lake

Cleburne

Daingerfield

Davis Mountains

Fort Parker

Garner

Goliad

Goose Island

Huntsville

Indian Lodge

Inks Lake

Lake Brownwood

Lake Corpus Christi

Lockhart

Longhorn Cavern

Meridian

Mission Tejas

Mother Neff

Palmetto

Palo Duro Canyon

Possum Kingdom

Tyler

San Antonio river walk

San Jacinto Monument

WPA was the largest and most ambitious American New

Deal agency, employing more than 8 million people

(mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects,

including the construction of public buildings and roads.

These are a couple of WPA completed projects in Texas

during the Depression.

New Deal- Soil Conservation on the Great Plains• The Soil Conservation Service formed in 1935, to promote farmers changing their practices.

Working on the local level, the government instructed farmers to plant trees and grass to anchor

the soil, to plow and terrace in contour patterns to hold rainwater, and to allow portions of

farmland to lie unused each year so the soil could regenerate. The government also purchased

11.3 million acres of land to keep it out of production. After 6 years of the conservation efforts

much of the land was back to the way it should be.

What is something that Americans learned from this problem?

• List 6 details in this picture

• What do you think the American dream is?

• Have you ever been in need? In your opinion, is government’s

responsibility to support those that need help?