Week 12. Great Depression and World War II

Quiz Words
New Deal
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Social Security Act
Indian Reorganization Act
Congress of Industrial Organizations
Japanese-American internment
Zoot-Suit riots
women in wartime

Great Depression and the New Deal
1929 Stock Market Crash - start of the Depression
causes: speculation on the stock market, overproduction and underconsumption
wages were too low - 1/3 of personal income went to 5 percent of the population
gold standard - President Herbert Hoover refused to abandon the standard to lower prices
Hoover refused to regulate economy - he thought recession would be the best way to stabilize stock market and prices
instead economy went into even deeper depression
in 1931 Europe plunged into depression - Austria's largest bank closed - European countries took gold out of U.S. banks
Hoover tried to increase public works and provide more credit for business but did not do enough
by 1933 13 million people were out of work

Protest
Hoovervilles - shantytowns and buldings made of cardboard, etc.; Hoover blankets - newspapers; Hoover flag - empty pocket turned inside out
farmers protested - mobs stopped foreclosures
in 1932 more than 15,000 World War I veterans ("Bonus Army") marched on Washington demanding immediate payment of the cash bonus to veterans that (Congress voted on this in 1924 to pay life insurance to veterans in 1945 or earlier to their descendants if deceased)
Senate voted down the bonus bill
many veterans still stayed in Washington in shantytowns
Congress voted to pay veteran's way home
many veterans still stayed
in July General Douglas MacArthur drove out veterans and their families from DC

Modern Times (1936) - Charlie Chaplin's comment on worker's plight during the depression
movies were the most common form of entertainment during the 1930s
tickets were cheap - homeless people went to the movies to warm up
movies were in sound - first sound movie - The Jazz Singer (1927)
Chaplin made part of the movie silent because he believed that silent films were more effective

New Deal
1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president on the program of the New Deal
promised to balance the budget but allowed for short-term deficit to prevent starvation
his policies in the 1930s extended government spending and government control of national economy
was famous for his "fireside chats" - radio addresses where he explained his policies to Americans
he was very personable over the radio and people wrote him letters back - he received more letters than any other American president before or since
Roosevelt instituted many reforms that still have an impact in American society (Social Security)

Banking Holiday
4-day banking holiday
Emergency Banking Relief Act - permitted sound banks to reopen and provided managers for banks in trouble
March 12, 1933 in the first radio "fireside chat" Roosevelt promised that it was safer to keep money in banks than "under the mattress"
on the following day, deposits in reopened banks exceeded withdrawals
March 9-June 16 "Hundred Days" Congress passed more than a dozen Roosevelt's proposals
Farm Credit Administration - refinancing of farm mortgages as lower interest rates
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - insured personal bank deposits up to $5,000
Securities and Exchange Commission (first Federal Trade Commission) - controlled Wall Street, required new stock and bond issues to register
Civilian Conservation Corps - jobs for young working-class men in forests, parks, road building
Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration - also provided jobs on state and federal level respectively
Works Progress Administration - replaced FERA, created jobs
Federal Theater Project - plays promoting the New Deal
Federal Writers' Project - recorded American culture
Federal Art Project - murals, etc.

New Deal and Labor
resurgence of the labor movement
1933 National Recovery Act created National Recovery Administration (NRA) to stabilize business and define labor standards
provision in Section 7a guaranteed the right of workers to organize unions
set new standards such as 40 hour work week, end of child labor
Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1935

Second New Deal:
1935 - National Labor Relations Act created National Labor Relations Board
1935 Social Security Act - pension fund for retired people over 65 from payroll taxes (payments started in 1940, only $22 per month); unemployment insurance.
Court Packing plan - Roosevelt proposed to enlarge the Supreme Court (50 federal judges, 6 new Supreme Court justices); was unpopular; Roosevelt's plan wasn't adopted but the Supreme Court began to support New Deal anyway (supported NLR Act and Soc. Sec. Act)

1935 Congress of Industrial Organizations--organized better across unions and across racial lines than the American Federation of Labor
unions were strong in all industries (auto and steel workers) except textiles, frequest labor strikes were successful

New Deal and Farmers
Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933) paid farmers to cut back production and destroy crops
farmers could take out loans and keep their crops in federal warehouses until prices rose
farm income increased 58 percent between 1932 and 1935
but dust bowl over the Great Plains between 1932 and 1935 displace many (white) farmers who then moved to California in search of work

New Deal and Minorities
many New Deal programs were for whites only
Agr. Adj. Act displaced over 200,000 black tenant farmers
Mexican Americans were denied access to relief programs because many could not prove their citizenship; many called for their deportation; by 1935 over 500,000 returned to Mexico
American Indians: commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs John Collier passed Indian Reorganization Act to reverse the 1887 Dawes Act and give lands back to Indian tribes; but was only able to produce partial reforms

Farm Security Administration Photographs
FSA was organized in 1935, employed photographers between 1935-1943
worked to build support for New Deal farm programs
headed by Roy Stryker
examples of photographs:
Dorothea Lange, "Migrant Mother"
Walker Evans, photographs of Floyd Burroughs and his family

World War II

Before the war
1920s and 1930s - attempts at disarmament and isolationism
Americans did not want war because European powers defaulted on their war debts to U.S. in 1932
Five-Power Naval Treaty (1922) - ten-year moratorium on building battleships
Latin America - the "Good Neighbor" Policy of U.S. non-involvement
China - the Open Door policy - Four-Power treaty (U.S., Britain, Japan, and France) - all nations compete for trade and investment in China equally
The Pact of Paris (1928) - condemned war
Spring 1937 - 94 percent of respondents to Gallup poll preferred to keep out of war

War in Europe
Italy invaded Ethiopia, Japan - China, and Germany - Czechoslovakia
September 1939 - Nazi Germany invaded Poland
Spring 1940 - Blitzkrieg (lightning war) Germany takes Denmark, Norway, France
summer 1940 - Battle of Britain - Germany abandons plans to invade Britain
U.S. maintains neutrality but provides aid to Britain and allies

America in World War II
1940 Roosevelt wins third term as president, promises to keep U.S. out of war
December 7, 1941 - Japanese attack Pear Harbor - 3 of 8 U.S. ship sank, more than 2,400 U.S. servicemen and civilians killed
following day Roosevelt asked Congress for declaration of War and declared Dec. 7 "a date which will live in infamy"

Wartime Culture
the war ended the Depression - more manufacturing, more jobs, shortage of workers
women entered the workplace as machinists, riveters, railroad workers (Rosie the Riveter)
by 1944 over 1/3 of American women entered workforce, most were married - for the first time married women outnumbered single women in the workforce
more wartime jobs in the West - people migrate from Eastern states, including blacks--new black communities arise in Western states California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada (in Seattle black population rose from 4,000 to 40,000)
blacks enter workforce and the army in large numbers (Tuskegee, Alabama airmen)
but U.S. troops were still segregated
resurgence of civil rights - NAACP membership rose from 50,000 to 450,000
1944 Supreme Court declares that Democratic primaries have to include blacks because they are subject to the 15th Amendment
executive orders prohibit discrimination on the basis of race and gender in defense work and training programs
Mexico provides seasonal farm workers to the U.S. - 200,000 farm workers enter - racial tensions ensue - 1943 "Zoot Suit" riots in Los Angeles
many Native Americans served in Armed forces (integrated unlike African-Americans, useful as "code talkers" who encoded and deciphered messages)

Japanese-American internment
all Japanese were foced into "War Relocation Camps" - Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942
more than 60 percent were U.S. citizens
more than 100,000 were forced to sell their farms and businesses at a loss
1983 Congress gave reparations and an apology to former internees

End of the War
beginning of the cold war - Yalta conference Feb. 1945 divided the world, giving influence over Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union
Germany surrendered in May 1945
Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945
U.S. economy was on the rise, full employment
civil rights and feminis movements inspired by civil rights gains during the war
U.S. emerged as an international power