Question:

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Herbert Hoover and The Depression

• Question
• Why did Herbert Hoovers actions to resolve the
  Great Depression Fail?

2

• Herbert Hoover took unprecedented steps to
  resolve the crisis, but did NOT take an
  interventionist approach

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Voluntarism is NOT Enough

• Hoover created the Presidents Organization for
  Unemployment Relief to help raise private funds
  for voluntary relief agencies.
• PROBLEM Private programs to aid the unemployed
  barely exist
• Charities and local govt would help unemployed
• PROBLEM private charities such as the Salvation
  Army had exhausted their resources
• Refusal to admit that charities and local govt
  not well equipped

4
As the Great Depression worsened from 1929 to
1932

• Hoover got Congress to establish
• The Reconstruction Finance Corporation
• Federal funds to
• Banks
• Insurance companies
• Railroads
• Trickle down
• Public Work funding
• (America Story of Us)

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Reasons for Ineffectiveness

• Hoover thought business should be
  self-regulating.
• He had a mania for a balanced budget.
• He lacked political finesse.

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The Bonus March

• In June 1932, a group of 15-20,000 impoverished
  First World War veterans marched on Washington to
  demand the immediate payment of an enlistment
  bonus not due to them until 1945.
• On June 15, the House approved a bill that would
  grant the veterans early payment but, under a
  threatened veto by Hoover, the bill failed in the
  Senate.

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Cont

• On 28 July 1932, Army Chief of Staff Douglas
  MacArthur ordered Major George S. Patton to
  remove the protestors from the Mall.
• Patton quickly drove the protestors from
  Washington. MacArthur then ordered Patton to
  pursue the marchers into Virginia and destroy
  their encampment.
• In the resulting conflict, scores were injured
  and one child was killed.

8
Results-

• Hoovers Administration tried to pass of the
  marchers as communists and criminals.
• NO ONE BUYS THIS
• Confirms the notion that Hoover is harsh and
  insensitive

9
Election Season

• Republican candidate Hoover
• Democrat candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Came from wealthy family
• Educated at Harvard
• Was VP nom in 1920
• Contracted polio
• Paralyzed from the waist down
• Wife Eleanor was a social reformer
• Elected Governor of New York in 1928 and 1930
  (Political comeback)

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Situation When FDR Entered Office

• In March 1933, the country was virtually
  leaderless and the banking system had collapsed.

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FDR Restored Confidence

• In his inaugural address, he said The only thing
  we have to fear is fear itself.
• He promised vigorous leadership and bold action,
  called for discipline and cooperation, expressed
  his faith in democracy, and asked for divine
  protection and guidance.

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FDRs Personal Qualities

• He was a practical politician who practiced the
  art of the possible.
• He was a charismatic person who exhibited a
  warmth and understanding of people.
• He knew how to handle press by focusing attention
  on Washington.
• He provided dynamic leadership in a time of
  crisis.
• He was willing to experiment

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Purposes of the New Deal

• Relief to provide jobs for the unemployed and
  to protect farmers from foreclosure
• Recovery to get the economy back into high gear,
  priming the pump
• Reform To regulate banks, to abolish child
  labor, and to conserve farm lands
• Overall objective to save capitalism

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Sources of New Deal Ideas

• Brains Trust specialists and experts, mostly
  college professors, idea men
• New Economists government spending, deficit
  spending and public works, government should
  prime economic pump
• Roosevelt Cabinet included conservatives,
  liberals, Democrats, Republicans, inflationists,
  anti-inflationists -- often conflicting,
  compromising, blending ideas

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First New Deal (1933-1934)

• Emphasis reform
• Political Position conservative
• Primary aim economic recovery
• Philosophy economic nationalism and economic
  scarcity (i.e., raise prices by creating the
  illusion of scarcity)
• Objectives higher prices for agriculture and
  business
• Beneficiaries big business and agricultural
  business

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National Recovery Act (NRA)

• Purpose recovery of industry
• Created a partnership of business, labor, and
  government to attack the depression with such
  measures as price controls, high wages, and codes
  of fair competition

18
First Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

• Purpose the recovery of agriculture
• Paid farmers who agreed to reduce production of
  basic crops such as cotton, wheat, tobacco, hogs,
  and corn
• Money came from a tax on processors such as flour
  millers and meat packers who passed the cost on
  to the consumer

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Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC)

• Purpose relief
• Gave outdoor work to unemployed men between the
  ages of 17 and 29
• They received 30 per month, but 22 went back to
  the family

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Second New Deal (1934-1941)

• Emphasis reform
• Political Position liberal
• Primary aim permanent reform
• Philosophy international economic cooperation
  and economic abundance
• Objectives increased purchasing power and social
  security for public
• Beneficiaries small farmers and labor

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Social Security Act

• Purpose reform
• Gave money to states for aid to dependent
  children, established unemployment insurance
  through payroll deduction, set up old-age
  pensions for retirees.

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U.S. Housing Authority

• Purpose recovery and reform
• Used federal funds to tear down slums and
  construct better housing.

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The New Deal on Trial

• By 1935, political disunity was evident. There
  were critics on the right and the left.

NEW DEAL
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Criticisms of Conservative Opponents

• Conservative opponents said the New Deal went too
  far
• It was socialism (killed individualism)
• It added to the national debt (35 billion)
• It wasted money on relief and encouraged idleness
• It violated the constitution states rights
• It increased the power of the Presidency (FDR
  was reaching toward dictatorship, Congress
  arubber stamp, independenceof judiciary
  threatened, separation of powers shattered)

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Protection of New Deal Accomplishments

• Steps FDR took to protect New Deal
  accomplishments (both failed)
• Court-Packing Plan (proposed increasing Supreme
  Court from 9 to 15 members, caused in revolt in
  Dem. Party)
• Purge of the Democratic Party in the Election of
  1938 (came out strongly in favor of liberal Dem.
  Candidates, evidence that he interfered in a
  state campaign, Republicans gained strength in
  both houses of Congress)

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Decline of New Deal Reform after 1937

• Reasons for decline of New Deal reform after
  1937
• Court-packing plan made Congress irritable.
• Recession of 1937-38 weakened confidence in New
  Deal measures. Republicans gained strength in
  both houses.
• Attempted purge of Democratic party failed.
• Conservative Democrats were elected to office.
  Resentful of attempted party purge, they joined
  ranks with Republicans to block New Deal
  legislation.
• Increasing focus on foreign affairs.

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The Significance of the New Deal
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Physical Rehabilitation of Country

• Attacked soil erosion
• Built dams and planted trees to prevent floods
• Reclaimed the grasslands of the Great Plains
• Developed water power resources
• Encouraged regional reconstruction projects like
  the TVA and Columbia River project

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Human Rehabilitation

• Established the principle that government has
  responsibility for the health, welfare, and
  security, as well as the protection and education
  of its citizens
• Embraced social security, public health, housing
• Entered the domain of agriculture and labor

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Revitalization of Politics

• Strengthened executive branch
• Reasserted presidential leadership
• Revitalized political party as a vehicle for the
  popular will and as an instrument for effective
  action.

31
Extension of Democracy

• Redefined the concept of democracy so that it
  included not only political rights but economic
  security and social justice as well.

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Maintenance of a Democratic System

• The New Deal maintained a democratic system of
  government and society in a world threatened by
  totalitarianism.
• Increased size and scope of government to meet
  needs of the depression
• Provided the leadership that enabled Congress to
  put through the necessary relief, recovery, and
  reform measures.
• Sponsored moderate legislation to neutralize the
  popularity of radical opponents 

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THE NEW DEAL AND THE ARTS

• Motion pictures, radio, art, and literature
  blossom during the New Deal.

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Frank Capra
Charlie Chaplin
Orson Welles
Duke Ellington
Dorothea Lange
John Steinbeck
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THE LURE OF MOTION PICTURES AND THE RADIO

• Movies are a Hit
• About 65 of population goes to movies once a
  week
• Films offer escape from reality show wealth,
  romance, fun
• Gone With the Windperhaps most famous film of
  era
• Margaret Mitchell had written the novel
• Musicalslive action or animatedway to forget
  problems
• Comedies, realistic gangster movies especially
  popular
• Several films present New Deal policies in
  positive light

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RADIO ENTERTAINS

• 90 of households have a radio families listen
  together every day
• Dramas, variety shows play in evening
• Orson Wellesactor, director, producer, writer
• Soap operas for homemakers broadcast in middle of
  day
• Childrens shows after school hours
• Immediate news coverage becomes customary

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THE ARTS IN DEPRESSION AMERICA

• Artists Decorate America
• Federal Art Project pays artists to make art,
  teach in schools
• Aim to promote art appreciation, positive image
  of America
• Murals typically portray dignity of ordinary
  people at work
• Many outstanding works painted by artists,
  including Grant Wood
• Federal Theater Project hires actors, artists
• Woody Guthrie Sings of America
• Singer, songwriter Woody Guthrie sings of plight
  of poor

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• In depicting the course of daily life, New Deal
  artists memorialized routine events such as
  waiting for a train or watching workers from a
  city window. Behind these celebrations of the
  mundane, however, lay a belief that such
  vignettes represented the essence of modern
  American life as lived by most individuals.
  Artists considered it to be their responsibility
  to capture such core experiences.

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Dorothea Lange CREATED/PUBLISHED1935 June.
) COLLECTIONFarm Security Administration -
Office of War Information Photograph Collection
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Home of a dust bowl refugee in California.
Imperial County. Dorothea Lange,
photographer. CREATED/PUBLISHED1937 Mar.
REPRODUCTION NUMBERLC-USF34-016264-C DLC (bw
film neg.) COLLECTIONFarm Security
Administration - Office of War Information
Photograph Collection
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CREATED/PUBLISHED 1935 Apr. REPRODUCTION NUMBER
LC-USF34-002812-E DLC (bw film neg.)
COLLECTION Farm Security Administration - Office
of War Information Photograph Collection
Dust storm. It was conditions of this sort which
forced many farmers to abandon the area. Spring
1935. New Mexico. Dorothea Lange, photographer.
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• "CCC Boys at Work"Prince George County, Virginia

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WPA Sewing Shop, New York City
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• Unemployed Men Eating in Volunteers of America
  Soup Kitchen, Washington, D.C.

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• "Stringing rural TVA transmission line."Rural
  Electrification Administration (REA) - Tennessee
  Valley Administration (TVA)

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Michigan artist Alfred Castagne sketching WPA
construction workersBy an unknown photographer,
May 19, 1939
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CONTINUED ARTS IN THE DEPRESSION

• Diverse Writers Depict American Life
• Federal Writers Project supports many who become
  major writers
• Richard Wright, African-American author, writes
  Native Son
• John Steinbeck writes The Grapes of Wrath about
  Dust Bowl migrants
• Some writers examine difficulty of life in 1930s
• Others show dignity of ordinary people, values of
  small-town life