stock certificate

“Black Tuesday” headline (October 29, 1929)

Wall Street, Oct. 1929

stock market crash

stock market graph

evicted family

Depression billboard

Depression homeless

homeless camp

hobos

homeless children

“Hooverville”

Hooverville children

President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)

soup kitchen

Bonus Army outside capitol (1932)

burning of Bonus Army shacks (1932)

decreasing banks (1926-1940)

“bank run”

Causes of Great Depression• Troubled industries: coal mining and textiles• Farmers

1. Expenses rising faster than income2. Not reducing production > lower crop & livestock

prices 3. Large bank debts from good times in W.W.I• Stock market crash (October 1929)

1. Resulting loss of confidence in financial system2. Bankruptcy for some investors3. Fear > rich people reducing investing and

spending• International depression > drop in trade• Overproduction of factory goods (1920s rising

productivity)• Wages not keeping up with prices• 5,000 bank closings (1929-1932) >reduced credit• Too many urbanites and suburbanites• Increased tariffs > lower American imports and exports

Results of depression• Rising unemployment (3 % in 1929 > 25 % in 1933)• Many workers: fewer hours, and pay cuts Rising

homelessness • Deflation (lower prices)• Lower marriage and birth rates• Lower tax revenues to governments• Rising expenses for governments (helping needy)• Rising strain on charities like Red Cross• Decreased business investment and consumer

spending• Breakup of families • Families doubling up or growing food• Rising crime • Drop in college students• Urban “Hoovervilles” • 1930 -1934: 1 million families losing farms • “Bonus Army” riot (Washington, D.C. ; 1932)

Hoover administration’s reaction • Urging business owners not to lay off

workers or lower wages• Urging private charities to help needy

(“soup kitchens”)• Public-works projects (schools, dams,

highways)• Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

in 1932 > loaning money to banks, railroads, and insurance companies

• Opposing direct financial help to citizens• Reducing income taxes• Loans for defaulting homeowners