The Great Depression

1
The Great Depression
2
Black Tuesday

• October 29, 1929 stock market crashes and takes
  with it many peoples homes, money and dreams.
• Many people had borrowed money from banks to buy
  stocks and could not repay debts.
• People everywhere in dire problems.

A Bear Market
3
Causes of Great Depression

1. Over Production and Over Expansion
2. Canadas Dependence on a Few primary Products
3. Canadas Dependence on the United States
4. High Tariffs Choked Off International Trade
5. Too Much Credit Buying

4
Over-Production and Over-Expansion

• With booming economy, many industries reach high
  levels of production.
• Large profits spent expanding
• But Canadians can only afford SO much and
  stockpiling begins in warehouses
• Soon, owners panic, lay off workers and slow
  production
• Wages just not high enough to buy everything
  produced!

5
Canadas Dependence on a Few Primary Products

• Canadas Economy depended on a few staple
  products
• As long as world demand for these staple products
  was high, Canada was prosperous
• As Depression hits world, demand for Canadian
  goods drops
• Also, over production causes costs to decline
• Causes problems in agriculture and industry

6
Canadas Dependence on U.S.A.

• Canada buys 65 of imports from Americans
• USA largest buyer of Canadian products
• When USA gets sick, Canada also suffers
• When the United States sneezed, the rest of the
  world got pneumonia.
• As industries collapse in USA, no need to buy raw
  materials in Canada

7
High Tariffs Choked Off International Trade

• 1920s, Europeans recovering from devastating war
  and need many of surplus manufactured goods of
  North America
• Tariffs developed and emphasized to encourage
  buying domestically
• Tariffs choke off international trade

8
Too Much Credit Buying

• Just like the Stock Market Game

9
The 1930s

• Few people were prepared for the depression by
  1933, over 1/3 of Canadians did not have work
• By 1933 more than 1.5 million Canadians needed
  relief
• By 1936, 2/3 of graduates could not find a job
• There was no money for food, clothing, and other
  necessities. Items bought on credit were being
  recalled

10

• Many people lived near starvation and suffered
  from malnutrition
• People couldnt afford to buy new clothesworn
  out clothes were patched old flour sacks were
  used to make dresses, underwear, and shoes in the
  winter
• No unemployment insurance no welfare system no
  govt supported medical care no family allowance
• Those without money were depending on the
  government for relief
• Unfortunately, there was no system for reliefin
  the past, charities and city councils dealt with
  relief however, with so many unemployed they
  could not handle it alone

11
The PM

• William Lyon Mackenzie King was the LIBERAL
  Prime Minister at the beginning of the Great
  Depression and remains Canadas longest serving
  PM of all time.

12
Mackenzie King talks to the people

• Despite demands for help, the federal govt was
  slow to react.
• William Lyon Mackenzie King felt that the best
  thing to do was wait out the depressionhe
  thought it would be short lived and that better
  times were coming soon
• He insisted that social welfare was the
  responsibility of the provinces
• States he will not give a FIVE CENT PIECE to
  any non-liberal provincial government
• Conservative Leader Bennett accuses King of
  ignoring the plight of the people

13
R.B. Bennett

• R.B. Bennett, in the 1930 election, kept the
  memory of the Five Cent Piece Speech alive and
  used it to attack PM Mackenzie King.

14
Bennetts Platform

• Promised to find work for all who are willing to
  work
• Promised the provinces 20 million in emergency
  funds for relief payments
• Promised to deal with foreign trade policies that
  were impeding Canadian exports
• Promised to blast our way into the world
  markets
• Hoped to boost Canadas manufacturing by raising
  tariff on imports

15
R.B. Bennett Canadas Next Conservative P.M.

• Bennett said all the right things
• Unfortunately, when he came into power, his
  policies did not help the economic crisis
• His emergency funds and highest protective
  tariffs in Canadas history eased the pain, but
  did not cure the symptoms

16
Problems with Relief

• No uniform way to distribute the money
• Distribution of funds given to Municipalities to
  decide how to deal with the large numbers of
  needy
• Should you have to live in a city a certain
  amount of time to get relief?
• Who qualifies as needy?
• To get relief, people often had to prove that
  they could not pay their rent, and that their
  phone, water and electricity services had been
  stopped. Ontario made them turn in their
  drivers licenses. Some unmarried and widowed
  women, or those with husbands in jail, could not
  qualify for money

17
More Problems with Relief

• In some provinces, a family with 2 children was
  expected to live on food vouchers that amounted
  to less than 10/month
• Many suffered from scurvy and TB as a result of
  poor diet
• Many were forced to line up to receive bread and
  soup from private charities
• Anyone on relief in Saskatchewan who was caught
  buying alcohol automatically lost their relief

18
Relief Camps or Slave Camps?
In 1932, Bennetts government set up relief camps
across the country for single, unemployed men.
Men worked 8 hours a day cutting brush, moving
rocks, and building roads for food, shelter and
20 cents a day.
19
Riding the Rods

• Thousands of people did what was known as Riding
  the Rods/Rails trying to find jobs in other
  cities
• They would hop on freight trains as they pulled
  out of the stationthey couldnt afford the fares
• Although it was illegal, there were not enough
  police to stop them

20
Difficult Times

• Times were so bad that people couldnt afford to
  buy new clothes and worn-out clothes were patched
  and re-patched
• Old flour sacks were used to make dresses and
  underwear
• Some people tied flour sacks around their feet in
  winter because they had no overshoes
• Some children used old socks for mittens

21
The On-to-Ottawa Trek

• In June of 1935 many British Columbian men fed
  up with life in relief camps boarded freight
  trains bound for Ottawa to protest to government.
  The men wanted clear economic reforms, such as
  minimum wages and a genuine system of social and
  unemployment insurance.

22
The Regina Riot

• Bennett sends the RCMP to stop the Trek, calling
  it a Communist uprising.
• When confronted, a riot ensues
• Dozens injured and a police officer killed

23

• Bennett asked the people to be patient
• He believed the government could not spend more
  money than it collected in taxes
• Believed the government should not borrow money
  to give to the poor
• Bennett believed that the rich and the fortunate
  should give money to help the poorBennett,
  himself, gave thousands of dollars to many who
  wrote him

24
People blame Bennett

• Bennett buggies
• Bennett boroughs (shacks where the unemployed
  camped around cities)
• Bennett coffee (roasted wheat or barley, a
  cheap substitute for the real thing)
• Bennett blankets (newspapers used as covers by
  the homeless)
• Bennett barnyard (abandoned farm)

25
Ways to forget

• Many people looked for a way to forget their
  hardships
• 1930s were the golden age of Hollywood. For 25
  cents people could see a movie
• Films, radio shows, songs, and magazines provided
  a brief escape from reality

26

• Children were given a great deal of attention
  because many Canadians could not afford to start
  a family of their own
• On May 28, 1934, the Dionne Quintuplets were the
  first quintuplets in the world to survive and
  they became the wonder of the world
• Over a million people came to their hometown to
  see them. They were Canadas biggest tourist
  attraction

27
Grey Owl

• An Englishman who was half Native
• Decided to live the life of a Native and then
  began to publish writings that heralded himself
  as pure Indian
• He wrote books and gave talks in England about
  his experiences in the wilderness
• Eventually, his true heritage was revealed and it
  caused a huge scandal in Canada

28
Movies

• Great film extravaganzas such as Gone with the
  Wind, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Mickey
  Mouse were popular box office attractions
• Gangster films and horror films, like
  Frankenstein, were also popular good always
  winning over evil

29
Radio

• Radio also provided an escape
• People listened to big American bands and radio
  shows
• Most popular shows came from the U.S. including
  Jack Benny and The Lone Ranger
• Tremendous power of radio was seen on Oct. 30,
  1938 when Orson Welles broadcast War of the
  Worlds
• Millions of listeners actually believed that the
  earth had been invaded by creatures from mars

30
Its 1935 and theres still a depression

• PM Bennett knew that Canadians were growing
  increasingly angry with the govt over the
  economy. The depression was dragging on and it
  seemed as if the govt was doing nothing about
  it.
• Bennett accused of creating Band-Aid solutions or
  solutions that made things seem better short term
  but in fact did nothing to help the larger
  problems

31
The New Deal

• In 1935, just before the election, Bennett
  introduced radical reforms his New Deal which
  calls for more minimum wages, limited working
  hours, fair treatment of employees, control of
  prices so that businesses cannot make unfair
  profits, and social and unemployment insurance.
• HmmSounds like familiar stuff.