America in the 1920'sThe powerful economy might of America from 1920 to October 1929 is frequently overlooked or simply submerged by the more exciting topics such as Prohibition and the gangsters, the Jazz Age with its crazies, the KKK etc. However, the strength of America was generated and driven by its vast economic power.

In this decade, America became the wealthiest country in the world with no obvious rival. Yet by 1930 she had hit a depression that was to have world-wide consequences. But in the good times everybody seemed to have a reasonably well paid job and everybody seemed to have a lot of spare cash to spend. 

One of the reasons for this was the introduction of hire-purchase whereby you put a deposit on an item that you wanted and paid installments on that item, with interest, so that you paid back more than the price for the item but did not have to make one payment in one go. Hire-purchase was easy to get and people got into debt without any real planning for the future. In the 1920’s it just seemed to be the case that if you wanted something then you got it.

But simply buying something had a major economic impact. Somebody had to make what was bought. This was the era before robot technology and most work was labour intensive i.e. people did the work. The person who made that product would get paid and he (as it usually was in the 1920’s) would not save all that money. He, too, would spend some of it and someone somewhere else would have to make that and so he would get paid. And so the cycle continued. This was the money flow belief of John Maynard Keynes. If people were spending, then people had to be employed to make things. They get paid, spent their money and so the cycle continued.

A good example was the motor car industry. The 3 big producers were Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. 

A boom in the car industry came from Ford’s with the legendary Ford Model -T. 

This was a car for the people. It was cheap; mass production had dropped its price to just $295 in 1928. The same car had cost $1200 in 1909. By 1928, just about 20% of all Americans had cars. The impact of Ford meant that others had to produce their own cheap car to compete. The benefits went to the consumer. Hire-purchase made cars such as these very affordable. But there were major spin-offs from this one industry as 20% of all American steel went to the car industry; 80% of all rubber; 75% of all plate glass and 65% of all leather. 7 billion gallons of petrol were used each year and, of course, motels, garages, restaurants etc. all sprung up and all these outlets employed people and these people got paid. 

To cope with the new cars new roads were built which employed a lot of people. But not everybody was happy with cars. Critics referred to cars as "prostitution on wheels" as young couples courted in them and gangsters started to use the more powerful models as getaway cars after robberies. But cars were definitely here to stay.

Not only were cars popular. Radios (10 million sold by 1929), hoover’s, fridge’s and telephones sold in huge numbers.

By 1928 even the president, Hoover, was claiming that America had all but rid itself of poverty. The nation was fulfilling a previous president's pronouncement: "The business in America is business" - Calvin Coolidge.

But 2 groups did not prosper at all :

1) The African Americans were forced to do menial labour for very poor wages in the southern states. They lived lives of misery in total poverty. The KKK made this misery worse. In the northern states, decent jobs went to the white population and discrimination was just as common in the north as it was in the South (though the Klan was barely in existence in the north and the violence that existed in the South barely existed in the north) and many black families lived in ghettoes in the cities in very poor conditions. In the 1920’s the black population did not share in the economic boom. Their only real outlet was jazz and dancing though this was done to entertain the richer white population, and sport, especially boxing.

2) The share croppers of the south and mid-Americas. These people rented out land from landlords or got a mortgage together to buy land to farm. When they could not afford the rent or mortgage payments they were evicted from the land. There was such a massive boost in food production that prices tumbled as farmers desperately tried to sell their produce and failed. The European market was out of the question. Europe had retaliated at tariffs on their products going into the American market by putting tariffs on American goods destined for the European market thus making them far more expensive - this included grain. Many farmers in the mid-west lost their homes. Unmarried male farmers became the legendary hobos - men who roamed the mid-American states on trains looking for part-time work.

These two groups were frequently forgotten in the "Jazz Age". To many people, they were "out of sight and out of mind". It appeared that everybody had money - even factory workers and shoe-shine boys on city streets. In fact, people had spare money with nothing to do with it. They invested whatever they could in the Stock Market in Wall Street, New York. There were huge fortunes to be made here and many invested money they could ill afford to lose. However, the lure was too great and everybody knew that there was money to be made.

Stockbrokers were at fault as they were happy to accept a ‘margin’ to buy shares for a person ; this was accepting just 10% of the cost of the shares that were to be purchased for a customer. The rest was to be collected when the price of shares went up - as they would, of course.... By 1929, over 1 million people owned shares in America.

In October 1929, the Wall Street Crash occurred. Its impact was felt worldwide.

Prohibition and the GangstersProhibition and the gangsters are an integral part of America's history in the 1920's. America experienced the Jazz Age and the young who formed the basis of this period's fame wanted alcohol. 

The 18th Amendment had banned the sale, transportation and manufacture of alcohol in America. But it was clear to some, that millions neither wanted this law nor would respect it. There was obviously a huge market for what in the 1920's was an illegal commodity. It was the gangsters who dominated various cities who provided this commodity. Each major city had its gangster element but the most famous was Chicago with Al Capone.

Al Capone

Capone was "Public Enemy Number 1". He had moved to Chicago in 1920 where he worked for Johnny Torrio the city's leading figure in the underworld. Capone was given the task of intimidating Torrio's rivals within the city so that they would give up and hand over to Torrio their territory. Capone also had to convince speakeasy operators to buy illegal alcohol from Torrio.

Capone was very good at what he did. in 1925, Torrio was nearly killed by a rival gang and he decided to get out of the criminal world while he was still alive. Torrio handed over to Capone his 'business'.

Within 2 years, Capone was earning $60 million a year from alcohol sales alone. Other rackets earned him an extra $45 million a year.

Capone managed to bribe both the police and the important politicians of Chicago. He spent $75 million on such ventures but considered it a good investment of his huge fortune. His armed thugs patrolled election booths to ensure that Capone's politicians were returned to office. The city's mayor after 1927 was Big Bill Thompson - one of Capone's men. Thompson said

"We'll not only reopen places these people have closed, but we'll open 10,000 new ones (speakeasies).

For all his power, Capone still had enemies from other surviving gangs in the city. He drove everywhere in an armour plated limousine and wherever he went, so did his armed bodyguards. Violence was a daily occurrence in Chicago. 227 gangsters were killed in the space of 4 years and on St Valentine's Day, 1929, 7 members of the O'Banion gang were shot dead by gangsters dressed as police officers.

In 1931, the law finally caught up with Capone and he was charged with tax evasion. He got 11 years in jail. In prison, his health went and when he was released, he retired to his Florida mansion no longer the feared man he was from 1925 to 1931.

Wall Street Crash of 1929 and its aftermathThe strength of America's economy in the 1920's came to a sudden end in October 1929 - even if the signs of problems had existed before the Wall Street Crash. Suddenly the 'glamour' of the Jazz Age and gangsters disappeared and America was faced with a major crisis that was to impact countries as far away as Weimar Germany - a nation that had built up her economy on American loans.

The huge wealth that appeared to exist in America in the 1920’s was an illusion.

For example the African Americans and the farmers had not benefited in the Jazz Age but neither had 60% of the whole population as it is estimated that a family needed a basic minimum of $2,000 a year to live (about £440) and 60% of US families earned less than this. Almost certainly some of the 60% included those who had gambled some money on Wall Street and could least afford to lose it in the crash of October ‘29.

The very rich lost money on Wall Street but they could just about afford it. But the vast bulk could not afford any loss of money. This had a very important economic impact as these people could no longer afford to spend money and therefore did not buy consumer products. Therefore as there was no buying, shops went bust and factories had no reason to employ people who were making products that were not being sold. Therefore unemployment became a major issue. The depression took a while to get going but by the winter of 1932 it was at its worse.

The impact of the Wall Street Crash :

1) 12 million people out of work

2) 12,000 people being made unemployed every day

3) 20,000 companies had gone bankrupt

4) 1616 banks had gone bankrupt

5) 1 farmer in 20 evicted

6) 23,000 people committed suicide in one year - the highest ever

There was no system of benefit for the unemployed. Charities such as the Salvation Army gave out free food and shelter. It is known that some people actually starved to death. In some states men deliberately set fire to forests to get temporary employment as fire fighters while farmers killed their animals as no-one could afford to buy them in the cities despite there being great hunger there.

What did the government do?

The president was a Republican, Herbert Hoover. He believed that if you were in trouble you should help yourself and not expect others to help you. This he called "rugged individualism". Therefore he did not do a great deal to help those out of work.

"It is not the function of the government to relieve individuals of their responsibilities to their neighbours, or to relieve private

institutions of their responsibilities to the public."

Hoover.

Hoover did not believe that the depression would last - "Prosperity is just around the corner" is what he said to businessmen in 1932 when things were just about at their worst. Squalid cardboard campsites were created in cities to live in...called "Hoovervilles". The nick-name of the soup given out by charities for the unemployed was "Hoover stew".

However, Hoover did do some good. Money was used to create jobs to build things such as the Hoover Dam. In 1932 he gave $300 million to the states to help the unemployed (Emergency Relief and Reconstruction Act) but it had little impact as states run by the Republicans believed in "rugged individualism" more than Hoover did and they used only $30 million of the money offered to them.

Many saw Hoover’s attempts as being "too little too late".

In the November 1932 election, Hoover was heavily defeated by the Democrat candidate. This man had promised the American public a "New Deal". His name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Thirteen years of Republican rule had come to an end.

Farmers and the New DealFarmers in America did well out of the New Deal. The farmers of America did not prosper in the so-called Roaring Twenties. They were simply too successful in that they produced far too much for the American market. With western Europe as a market effectively closed to them as a result of a tariff war, the farmers could only sell in America. Too much product for too few people caused prices to plummet. Farmers had to sell to whoever would offer a price for their goods. Bankruptcy followed bankruptcy among farmers in the mid-West.

In January 1933, Ed O’Neal, the farmers union leader had said:

"Unless something is done for the American farmer we will have a revolution in the countryside within less than 12 months."

The Hoover administration had done little to help the farmers. Hoover’s "prosperity is just around the corner" must have sounded very hollow to mid-West farmers. The attack and attempted lynching of a judge by Iowan farmers in April 1933 (he was signing eviction orders to be served on farmers) lead to the Governor of Iowa putting the state under martial law. Roosevelt had to be seen to be doing something as for nearly 13 years the federal government had done little to assist the farmers.

In May 1933 the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was passed. This act encouraged those who were still left in farming to grow fewer crops. Therefore, there would be less produce on the market and crop prices would rise thus benefiting the farmers – though not the consumers.

The AAA paid farmers to destroy some of their crops and farm animals. In 1933 alone, $100 million was paid out to cotton farmers to plough their crop back into the ground! Six million piglets were slaughtered by the government after it had bought them from the farmers. The meat was canned and given away for free to the unemployed. Though this all made perfect sense in terms of economically stabilising the farming market, many Americans could not accept this policy of destruction. Opponents of the New Deal created a simple chant for people to express their views on the AAA - "Poor Little Piggies".

Regardless of this, the Act did make a marked improvement in the life of farmers as prices rose, evictions markedly dropped and the farmers’ income increased.

In 1936, the Supreme Court declared that the AAA was unconstitutional in that it had allowed the federal government to interfere in the running of state issues. This effectively killed off the AAA.

The AAA did not help the sharecroppers though. These people, and there were three million sharecroppers, did not own their land. Many sharecroppers were African American and they lived lives of poverty. In the immediate aftermath of the AAA, they got employment from farmers to destroy the farmers' crops. Once this had been done, they had nothing to do and many left the land and moved to the ghettos in the cities where they faced similar poverty.

In 1934, the farmers who had benefited from the AAA, hit another major problem – dust storms. These storms destroyed farms especially in Oklahoma and Arkansas and throughout the 1930’s over 350,000 farmers left for the west especially California where the weather created a more friendly farming environment. The AAA could not cope with this.

Further assistance for the farmers' was planned by the Roosevelt administration. The Tennessee Valley had frequently flooded ruining farming land and destroying the hopes of the farmers who tried to work the land there. The result of the government's initiative was the Tennessee Valley Authority.

F D RooseveltF D Roosevelt (the F D stands for Franklin Delano) was the president who headed the New Deal campaign to get America out of the economic depression the nation had sunk into following the Wall Street Crash. Roosevelt holds the unique distinction of being elected four times by the people of America. Roosevelt's place in American history has been fixed due to the New Deal but also because he rose to the highest position in America despite a crippling illness.

F D Roosevelt

Roosevelt was born in 1882 into a rich family who lived in comfort at Hyde Park, New York State, and at their holiday home at Campobello Island on the north-east coastline of America. While on holiday here, Roosevelt developed a love for the outdoor life. He became a very good swimmer and sailor.

An only child, he was educated at home by a private tutor. When he was fourteen his parents sent him to a private school, Groton, and from here he went to Harvard to study History and Law.

Roosevelt was considered to be an above average student at Harvard but his grades suffered as he spent a great deal of time on extra-curricular activities such as editing the student newspaper. Sport continued to be a passion of his. When he left Harvard in 1904, he had already decided on a career in politics. His distant cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, had become president in 1901.

From Harvard, Roosevelt went to Columbia University Law School. He failed to continue with a law degree and left in 1907  though he had passed state exams allowing him to practice law. Roosevelt joined a law firm in New York City, though it is generally accepted that his heart was never in a career in law.

On March 17th, 1905, Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant cousin. The president, Theodore Roosevelt, was at the ceremony.

In 1910, Roosevelt campaigned to be Democrat Senator for New York State. He was narrowly elected. In his election campaign, Roosevelt had stressed his support for honest and efficient government.  He was his own man and refused to be bullied by those Democrats in New York City who expected the new Senator to do as they wished. His stand against what was known as the "Tammany Society" made him famous in the state - though his surname certainly helped him to politically advance.

As an example of his political independence, he supported as Democratic nomination for the 1912  presidential election Woodrow Wilson. This was not the choice of New York City's Democrat Party leaders. Roosevelt's position was greatly helped by the fact Wilson won the election and he duly rewarded the New York Senator with the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy. As a result of this appointment into national politics, Roosevelt had to resign as New York Senator. He also moved to Washington D.C. Ironically, Theodore Roosevelt had once been Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

F D Roosevelt held this position from 1913 to 1920. His superior was Josephus Daniels. Both men clashed at first as both had different ideas on how to develop America's navy. Roosevelt's views found support among the navy's admirals while Daniels found that his views had support in Congress. Regardless of this, both men respected the views of the other and they remained firm friends.

Their working relationship proved to be very effective as both men worked hard. Roosevelt proved his worth when America entered the war in 1917 - the navy was in good shape and the excellent administration in the department was shown when the navy played its part in the complex issue of getting American troops over to Europe. Roosevelt also got on very good terms with the union leaders of the civilian who worked within the naval yards.

He rose to national prominence and in August 1920, Roosevelt campaigned to be the Democrat Party's vice-president. The death of Woodrow Wilson had left the Democrat Party leaderless and in the 1920 election the party's presidential candidate was James Cox. It was natural that Roosevelt would become Cox's "dream ticket" as he had national fame as a good administrator, personal charisma and had worked for Wilson. 

However, the Democrats had also taken America into war and the population turned on the party supporting and electing into the White House Warren Harding, leader of the Republican Party. Though the Democrats lost the campaign, Roosevelt had gained from it as he had crossed America in support of Cox and made many influential friends. At the time of the election defeat, Roosevelt was not even forty years of age.

Roosevelt returned to law in New York City. However, he was hit by polio in August 1921. Roosevelt was effectively paralysed from the waist down. He could only walk using leg braces and walking canes. Regardless of this illness and the impact it had on him, Roosevelt determined to return to work as soon as it was medically possible for him to do so.

Just one year later in 1922, Roosevelt felt well enough to get back into politics when he assisted Alfred Smith become governor of New  York State for the second time. Such was Smith's standing in the Democrat Party, that he became their presidential nomination in 1928. He had been officially  nominated by Roosevelt. Smith gave up the governorship of New York State to campaign nationally and the subsequent gubernatorial election saw Roosevelt elected governor in 1928 though he took up the position in January1929.

Roosevelt made a name for himself by introducing tax relief for farmers in the state; he also did positive work in conservation. He had a natural gift for speaking to people over

the radio - he seemed to be the normal man in the street who kept himself in contact with the people rather than a remote politician who hid behind his position and power.

Life in America was turned upside down by the Wall Street Crash of October 1929.

Roosevelt now found that he was the governor of a state where unemployment grew at an unprecedented rate especially in New York City, the home of Wall Street. Breadlines became a common sight in the city as did the "Hoovervilles" - 'cities' of cardboard boxes yet home to those who had been evicted from their homes for non-payment of either rent or mortgage. At this time, New York State was the most populated in America and the impact of the Crash obviously hit the city hard.

1932 was election year in America and Roosevelt fought for the Democratic nomination. The country had clearly had enough of Hoover's "too little too late" policies. However, Roosevelt was by no means the automatic choice for the Democrats and it was not until the fourth ballot at the party's national convention, that Roosevelt secured the party's support. In his speech of acceptance in Chicago, Roosevelt, for the first time in public, used the phrase "New Deal" in that he offered a new deal for the public who had been hit so hard by the Depression.

Roosevelt making his acceptance speech

The 1932 election was easy for Roosevelt. The Republicans were in disarray and their handling of the Depression was not going to win them much support. The Republicans had taken the credit for the "Roaring Twenties", now they had to take the blame for the Depression. Of the 48 states that existed in 1932, 42 gave their support to Roosevelt. He took office in March 1933 and immediately launched into his New Deal for America.

The New DealThe New Deal, introduced by F D Roosevelt was to transform America's economy which had been shattered by the Wall Street Crash. The economic downturn that followed the Wall Street Crash also had a major psychological impact on America and that Roosevelt was actually doing something did a great deal to boost America's self-esteem. 

In Roosevelt's first Hundred Days many acts were introduced which were to form the basis of the New Deal. The New Deal was to cover as many issues as could be imagined - be they social, economic, financial etc. The wave of popularity that had swept Roosevelt into power meant that parts of the New Deal were passed without too much scrutiny. In later years many acts in the New Deal were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of America.

The New Deal introduced acts that became part of the law and numerous agencies that worked with the Federal government in ensuring that the acts were enacted.

On March 15th 1933, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass the Economy Act. This cut the pay of everybody who worked for the government and the armed forces by 15%. Government departmental spending was also cut by 25%. The saved money, about $1 billion,  was to go towards financing his New Deal.

On March 20th 1933, Roosevelt asked Congress to pass the Beer Act which finally killed off prohibition. The sold beer would raise revenue for the government by tax and it would also introduce a fee-good factor in that perfectly normal people who wanted an alcoholic drink would no longer be criminalised simply because they wanted a drink.

The Acts

Emergency Banking Act 1933The Federal government insured people's deposits in banks against losses caused by public panic. This helped restore the public's confidence in the nation's banking system

National Industrial Recovery Act '33

This act had three parts to it. It set up the Public Works Administration (PWA) to manage public works projects; The PWA spent $7 billion and employed millions of men.

It set up the National Recovery Administration to set up codes of practices for such things as hours worked, wages, unfair competition and outlawing child labour. 16 million workers were covered by these code and child labour was outlawed. Workers went on to a 8 hours week and a minimum wage of $1.25 was introduced.

The third strand of the NIRA was to give trade unions the legal right to bargain with employers. Membership of trade unions increased after the introduction of this act.

NIRA was declared unconstitutional in 1935.

Agricultural Adjustment Act 1933 This act paid farmers to limit the amount of crops they grew or simply to dig back into the ground crops already grown. The federal government bought farm animals and then

slaughtered then to raise the price of farm products.

Between 1933 and 1937, farm prices doubled but in 1936 the AAA was declared unconstitutional.

Tennessee Valley Development Act '33

This set up the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Its sole task was to re-develop the Tennessee Valley which encompassed 7 states and 40,000 square miles.

HEP stations were built, flood control was introduced as was soil conservation. The valley was regenerated.

National Labour Relations Act '35

This act forced employers to deal with trade unions. Workers were also given the right to form and join trade unions and to take part in collective bargaining. A board was set up to investigate and punish those companies bosses who did not abide by the rules of the NLRA.

In 1935 trade union membership stood at 3.6 million. By 1941 it was 8.6 million. In 1935 the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organisations) came into being.

Social Security Act 1935

This act set up the first national old age pensions scheme. Workers and employers had to pay into a federal pension fund. Each state was also expected to work out a plan for unemployment insurance.

This one act covered 35 million people despite opposition from Republicans who felt the whole idea smacked of socialism.

Soil Conservation Act 1936

The federal government paid subsidies to farmers who agreed to leave land fallow or planted crops that put nitrogen back into the soil. The federal government also financed research into soil conservation.

Fair Labour Standards Act 1938

The FLSA sort to cut the maximum hours someone could work and to raise the minimum wage for those who worked in inter-state trade.

This act gave protection to over 13 million people. It introduced a 40 hour week and a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour.

Agricultural Adjustment Act 1938

The act introduced the Federal government subsidising the price of many farm products. The aim was to gradually increase the subsidy until farm prices reached their pre-1914 figure to give all farmers a guaranteed minimum income.

The Agencies

Civilian Conservation Corps of 1933

This employed jobless single men between the ages of 18 and 25. They worked for 6 months in mountains and forests where they were taught forestry, flood control and fire prevention. Nearly 3 million men took part in the scheme which ran from 1933 to 1941.

Works Progress Administration of 1935

The WPA coordinated all public works schemes. It spent over $10.5 billion of Federal money and employed 3.8 million men from 1935 to 1941. It had built 77,000 bridges, 24,000 miles of sewers, 664,000 miles of road, 285 airports, 122,000 public buildings and 11,000 schools.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

This agency loaned money to state and local governments to assist the poor. It also lent money to firms which were in debt or wanted to invest.

Farm Credit Administration This agency used Federal money to pay off farm creditors and save farmers from bankruptcy.

Home Owners Loan Corporation 1933

This agency used Federal money to pay of mortgages so that home owners did not lose their homes.

Was the New Deal a Success?Whether the New Deal was a success or not, depends on the definition of success. Did the New Deal eliminate unemployment and turn America around? No. Did the New Deal eliminate poverty? No. It would be easy to run off questions such as these with an economic bent and come up with the answer no. However, an analysis of whether the New Deal was a success or failure requires a larger scope of questioning than simply looking at economic statistics.

Rather than look at the New Deal from 1933 on, an analysis of what America was like in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash is important. What exactly had Roosevelt inherited in March 1933?

From the collapse of Wall Street in October 1929 to the presidential election in November 1932, to many Americans it appeared as if Hoover, the Republican president, was either doing nothing or too little. "Too little, too late" was a frequent label pinned to the presidency of Hoover. That a president, Roosevelt,  was actually doing something positive was a huge boost to the American public - they were not being left to fend for themselves. Some who had been badly affected by the Depression had labeled their cardboard box homes "Hoovervilles" in disgust of what Hoover was doing for them. The free food handouts they got were nick-named "Hoover Stew". Those at the bottom end of society had no faith in Hoover and the new president gave them exactly this - faith and hope. Here was a president doing something for them.

Economic statistics also provide a clue as to whether the New Deal was a success or not.

America's Gross National Product 1928 to 1939:

1928 $100 billion1933 $55 billion1939 $85 billion

 Amount of consumer goods brought 1928 to 1939:

1928 $80 billion

1933 $45 billion

1939 $65 billion

 Private investment in industry:

1928 $15 billion

1933 $2 billion

1939 $10 billion

If the 1928 figure is used as a baseline figure for a study as to whether the New Deal was a success or not, then in all three important areas, Roosevelt did not get back to the 1928 figure. However,

America was at its economic peak then and after such an economic catastrophe as the Wall Street Crash, it would have bordered on the impossibility for Roosevelt to have got back to the 1928 figure.

If the 1933 figure is taken as a baseline figure - the year Roosevelt took office as president - then a different pattern emerges. In all three areas, there were significant improvements. Economic strength and development thrives on confidence and these figures give the clear impression that America now had greater confidence in her economic ability after the Wall Street Crash. For GDP - this is usually taken as key pointer in a nation's economic health - 1933 to 1939 witnessed a 60% increase; the amount of consumer products bought increased by 40% while private investment in industry increased by 5 times in just six years.

However, one other statistic is also used by those who were opposed to the New Deal. Unemployment figures for the 1930's are frequently used to argue the case that the New Deal did not work.

Number unemployed in America:

1929 2.6 million

1933 15 million

1935 11 million

1937 8.3 million

1938 10.5 million

1939 9.2 million

1940 8 million

Those who criticise the New Deal claim that it never actually got rid of unemployment in America and that Roosevelt's New Deal only had short term impact which lulled the unemployed into thinking that all their troubles were at an end. The historian William Leuchtenburg believed that only World War Two got America out of the Depression. Arthur Schlesinger claims that the New Deal only got the wheels of industry turning but no more. Economists who attacked the New Deal claimed that all the acts introduced by the New Deal were short-term policies and that there was no long term planning for America's future. In one sense, they felt, that those who had come to rely on the New Deal were being conned as all the evidence pointed to the fact that at some time in the near future, they were likely to be made unemployed once again - after all, there were only so many trees you could plant and lakes in which to stock fish. 

However, for many Americans in the 1930's, Roosevelt was the president who included in his policies the people who had felt excluded by politics once the Depression had taken its hold. Now the excluded  were the included.

Okies

As the "double whammy" of drought and depression deepened on the Great Plains, more and more farmers gave up or were forced off of their land. In addition, the relentless march of new tractors meant that the farmers who were able to scrape together enough money to buy a tractor could buy out their neighbors. Fewer farmers could farm more land. But where would those who left go?

Some went to cities. But many decided to head west. In fact, during the 30s hundreds of thousands left the plains for the West Coast. So many migrated from Oklahoma that they were dubbed "Okies" in the popular press. For years, California, Oregon and Washington had been growing. Many who were pushed off of the plains were pulled west because they had relatives who had moved to the coastal areas. And the boosters of California had advertised that the state offered a perfect climate and an abundance of work in the agricultural industry. Florence Thompson says she was one of the Okies. She and her family had left Oklahoma in 1925, before the Depression. The 30s made their situation worse. She and the family were following the migrant trail moving from place to place as crops became ready for harvest. "It was very hard and cheap," Florence said. "We just existed! We survived, let's put it that way." California – the state that had once advertised for more migrant workers – found themselves overwhelmed by up to 7,000 new migrants a month, more migrants than they needed. So for several months in 1936, the Los Angeles Police Department sent 136 deputies to the state lines to turn back migrants who didn't have any money. Bordering states like Arizona were angry that California was trying to "dump hoboes" back on them. Eventually, the police were returned to Los Angeles, but the migrants kept coming. There was some work, especially in the new fields of cotton that were being planted in California – a crop that southern plains people knew a lot about. But there was not enough work for everyone who came. Instead of immediate riches, they often found squalor in roadside ditch encampments.

Delbert (left) and Alvin Apetz knew several families who left for California. The plight of the Okies and other plains migrants caught the sympathy of people across the country. In part, this was because these migrants were white, in contrast to the Mexican and Filipino workers who supplied the "factory" farms with the seasonal labor needed before and after Okies arrived. The Okies also came in family groups and were in desperate straights, living in tents or out of the back of a car or truck. Photographs were taken of the migrants from the Great Plains and published around the world. John Steinbeck visited a migrant camp in California and wrote a magnificent piece of fiction The Grapes of Wrath which still sells millions of copies today. Florence Thompson says she, and many others, lived the life that Steinbeck dramatized. Their story is part of a larger story of migration into and out of the plains during the 30s.

The Dust Bowl

The most visible evidence of how dry the 1930s became was the dust storm. Tons of topsoil were blown off barren fields and carried in storm clouds for hundreds of miles. Technically, the driest region of the Plains – southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas – became known as the Dust Bowl, and many dust storms started there. But the entire region, and eventually the entire country, was affected.

The Dust Bowl got its name after Black Sunday, April 14, 1935. More and more dust storms had been blowing up in the years leading up to that day. In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds. By April 1935, there had been weeks of dust storms, but the cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph. Then it hit. "The impact is like a shovelful of fine sand flung against the face," Avis D. Carlson wrote in a New Republic article. "People caught in their own yards grope for the doorstep. Cars come to a standstill, for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk... We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming Real." The day after Black Sunday, an Associated Press reporter used the term "Dust Bowl" for the first time. "Three little words achingly familiar on the Western farmer's tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent – if it rains." The term stuck and was used by radio reporters and writers, in private letters and public speeches. In the central and northern plains, dust was everywhere.

Herman Goertzen remembers chickens going to roost in the middle of the day because the dust storm made it so dark the chickens thought it was night.

LeRoy Hankel remembers a wind blowing so hard that a truck was blown 30 to 40 feet down a street.

Elroy Hoffman remembers winds blowing seeds out of the ground.

Stan Jensen remembers how it was impossible to keep houses clean.

Walter Schmitt remembers how the winds blew tumbleweeds into fences. Then the dust drifted up behind the tumbleweeds, covering the fencerows.

Harvey Pickrel tried to buy a tractor – the only trick was he would have to dig it out of the dust before he could take it home.

 The impact of the Dust Bowl was felt all over the U.S. During the same April as Black Sunday, 1935, one of FDR's advisors, Hugh Hammond Bennett, was in Washington D.C. on his way to testify before Congress about the need for soil conservation legislation. A dust storm arrived in Washington all the way from the Great Plains. As a dusty gloom spread over the nation's capital and blotted out the sun, Bennett explained, "This, gentlemen, is what I have been talking about." Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act that same year.