Document 1

Efforts to account for the plunge from prosperity to adversity soon demonstrated conclusively that no one factor alone, but

only a great number of factors working together could have produced such startling results. Among the disturbing

influences they cited were the following:

1. Agricultural overexpansion, both in the United States and elsewhere. American farmers (over) produced wheat, cotton,

corn, livestock, and other commodities than they could sell. They all had heavy mortgage burdens even in

prosperous times.

2. (There was) Industrial overexpansion. There were too many factories and too much machinery. American industry was

geared to produce more than it could sell.

3. The increasing effectiveness of machines (technology). With ingenious labor saving devices fewer and fewer men

could produce more and more goods.

4. Capital surpluses kept too high. Labor did not have enough to buy its share of things.

5. The overexpansion of credit both for productive and consumptive purposes. Money was easy and plentiful.

6. International trade was out of balance.

7. Political unrest existed throughout the world.

John D. Hicks, The American Nation (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1955.) pp. 520-522.

Document 2

The prosperity of the 1920's produced the contagious feeling that everyone was meant to get rich. The decade witnessed a

series of speculative orgies from "get-rich-quick" schemes to. . .the Great Bull Market. Before the war (W.W.I), stock

investment had been almost wholly a preserve of the wealthy. . .

No one can explain what caused the wave of 1928. There was no single cause of the crash and ensuing depression;

(however) management had siphoned off gains in high profits. . .thus the farmer and the worker did not have the

purchasing power to sustain prosperity.

The policies of the federal government were disastrous. Its tax policies made the maldistribution of income by the rich

still more serious.

The market crash played a major role in precipitating the Great Depression.

The farmer, who had seen little of the prosperity of the 1920's was devastated by the depression. The depression touched

every area of American life.

William H. Leuchtenberg, The Perils of Prosperity 1914-1928. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1958), pp. 241-

268.

Document 3

The depression, in the strict sense, began as a stock-market and financial crisis. . .

The crisis passed from finance to industry, and from the United States to the rest of the world. The export of American capital came to an end. American not only ceased to invest in Europe, but they sold the foreign securities they had. This pulled the foundation from under the post-war revival of Germany. . .

Between 1929 and 1932, the latter year representing the depth of the depression, world production is estimated to have declined by 38%, and the world international trade by two-thirds.

The world price of wheat fell incredibly.

Unemployment, a chronic disease ever since the war, now assumed the proportion of pestilence. In 1932, there were 30,000,000 unemployed persons. And people chronically out of work naturally turned to new and disturbing political ideas.

R.R. Palmer and J. Colton, A History of the Modern World. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956), 798.

Document 4

The trauma of depression (was) a severe shock to the American people--to their expectations, their values, and their confidence in themselves and their future. A few believed that depression was an inherent and ineradicable evil of the capitalist system and concluded that only was to abolish capitalism.

Some of these excited by the success of fascism (were wooed that way). Others who despaired of capitalism turned toward Marxism. The Communist movement was the more serious of the two.

Blum, et.al. The National Experience. (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1986), p.696

Document 5

“Brother Can You Spare a Dime”

They used to tell me I was building a dream,

And so I followed the mob—

When there was earth to plough or gun to bear

I was always there—right on the job

The used to tell me I was building a dream

With peace and glory ahead—

Why should I be standing in line

Just waiting for bread?

REFRAIN:

Once I built a railroad, made it run,

Made it race against time.

Once I built a railroad,

Now it’s done—

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once I built a tower, to the sun.

Brick and rivet and lime,

Once I built a tower,

Now it’s done—

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Gee, we looked swell,

Full of that Yankee Doodle-de-dum.

Half a million boots went sloggin’ through Hell,

I was the kid with a drum.

Say don’t you remember, they called me Al--

It was Al all the time.

Say, don’t you remember I’m your pal—

Buddy, can you spare a dime?

By E. Y. Harburg

Document 6

Calvin Coolidge may have suffered personal remorse, but he was not willing to accept public blame... The former President, then said:“...It will be observed that all these causes of depression, with the exception of the early speculation, had their origin outside the United States, where they were entirely beyond the control of our government.”

Herbert Hoover declared that “that our immediate weak spot was the orgy of stock speculation which began to slump in October, 1929” But a second cause, according to the President, was World War I and its aftereffects.

What caused the Crash?

Greedy people wanted more than they needed. Foolish people thought they could get something for nothing. Impulsive people bought now in the hope of paying later. Income and wealth were distributed unfairly and dangerously. The rich regarded themselves as an all-knowing elite. The masses were not paid enough money to consume all the goods they produced. The economy was unsound. The corporate structure was sick. The banking system was weak. Foreign trade was out of balance. Business data were inadequate and often faulty.

The constellation of conditions left the economy a flawed and loaded gun, and when the stock market crashed, the gun did not merely fire—it exploded in everyone’s face.

Houghton Mifflin, Nextext, The Great Depression. pp. 37-39

Document 7

Consequences Of The Great Depression

Unemployment In Labor:

Catastrophic unemployment near 25% of the people

Black unemployment exceeded 50%

Sparked the creation of the CIO & other labor unions

Financial Losses in the Market & Banking:

• Stock market crashed and half its total worth within a week.

• Rampant over-speculation in the stock market

• Reckless over-extension of credit by banks

Agricultural Losses:

• The Dust Bowl was murderous to farmers in Midwest and South

• 350,000 took highway 66 to California only to find unemployment

• Over-production by farmers with consumers who had no money

Social Consequences:

• Divorce, suicide, and vagrancy almost became the norm

• Women and minorities were again repressed

• Child abandonment and starvation was common

Political & Economic Consequences:

• Foreign trade was completely out of balance

• Impact of World War I started in Europe then came to America

• Election of 1932 constituted a political revolution

• Beginning of deficit spending and government regulation

Document 8

STOCKS COLLAPSE IN 16,410,030-

SHARE DAY,

BUT RALLY AT CLOSE CHEERS BROKERS;

BANKERS OPTIMISTIC, TO CONTINUE AID

240 Issues Lose $15,894,818,894 in Month; Slump in Full Exchange List Vastly Larger

The New York Times (-October 30, 1929, Page 1, Columns 6)

Document 9

“Never before in modern history have the essential differences between the two major parties stood out in such striking contrast as they do today.

Throughout the Nation, men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government of the last years look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth.

On the farms, in large metropolitan areas, in the smaller cities and the villages, millions of out citizens cherish the hope that their old standard of living and of thought have not gone forever. Those millions cannot and shall not hope in vain.

I pledge to you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people. Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people. “

Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Acceptance Speech Delivered to the Democratic National Convention, 2 July 1932.

Document 10

Police Guard a closed NYC exchange bank, 1931.

Document 11

“Migrant Mother,” by Dorothea Lange. “Migratory family traveling across the desertCourtesy of the Library of Congress in search of work…” Dorothea Lange, photographer.1936. (Library of Congress, 1936)

Document 12

Farm Foreclosure Sale. (Circa 1933)