The Great Depression1929-1939

Immediate Cause:

Stock Market Crash:> "Black Tuesday" – Oct. 1929 - 16 mil shares sold on NY Stock Ex

• People buy into stock market, prices inflated, prices of stocks fall quickly,

• Investors who had borrowed $ to buy share, went bankrupt in single day

• Losses due to over-speculation & “Buying on Margin” = Bad

• many people lost entire life savings

1.Overproduction:• Eg. overproduction of wheat = fewer sales

to foreign markets

»decreased sales farmers not make $ higher unemployment

Background Causes:

• 2). High Tariffs - protectionism:•U.S. raises tariffs, other countries respond

by doing the same• Slow down in world trade b/c fewer

export opportunities

Background Causes cont.

• 3). Germany can’t pay reparations:

• German economy ruined, can’t pay

• Britain & France depended on these payments in order to repay their debts to the US

Background Causes cont.

Consequences:

> countries lost ability to re-pay war loans

> US loans to Germany; G repays Br/Fr /Belg as reparations

> When US stops loans, Germany can't pay reparations

> Br/Fr can't pay war loans

> economies collapse

Background Causes: International Debt cont.

1. Dust Bowl / Droughts/ wind storms> over farming wheat - no crop rotation

Sustaining Causes:

http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl/videos/black-blizzard#black-blizzard

2. Locust Plagues> grasshoppers like hot, dry conditions.

Millions descended on farms, eating entire crops, and even farm tools in hours.

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/pests_02.html

Sustaining Causes cont.

• Canada depended on export of primary resources esp. wheat & newsprint

• Canadians lose jobs when demand decreases• When US economy crashed, Canada’s crashed

too b/c of major trade ties• working class people most affected

Effects on Canada:

Effects on Canada – cont.

• had to collect “pogey” government relief payments

• applied for assistance, get food vouchers humiliating

• soup kitchens

Effects on Canada – cont.

• by 1933 more than ¼ of Canadian workforce unemployed

• many young, unemployed men looking for work, travel by trains: - roof, “riding the rods” underneath

Effects on Canada – cont.

• shanty towns spring up “jungles”

Effect on Prairies:

• - Prairies hit the hardest:–droughts–locusts–falling wheat prices = farm

bankruptcies

Disadvantaged:• difficult for women to find work – paid very

poorly• Aboriginal families $5 a month; expected to

“live off the land”• Chinese discriminated against; many starved.• Jewish immigrants targeted• Almost 10,000 immigrants deported from

Canada in 1st half of Depression• 1931, gov’t stop all immigration

Mackenzie King’s response to Depression:

• King unprepared, thought depr. temporary• King said provincial & municipal gov’t

responsible for people

he would not give a “five cent piece” to Tory Provincial gov’t

“LAISSEZ- FAIRE”

• election in 1930- King loses, Conservative RB Bennet wins

RB Bennett’s response to the Depression: (Conservative Party)

1). raise tariffs protect Canadian business from foreign competition

2).Gov’t feared men join Communist party > Gov’t ban party- mid-class Canadians scared of jobless drifting

men.

RB Bennett’s response – cont.

3). Create work camps unemployed, single men isolated camps work projects; roads, clearing land, ditch

digging paid 20 cents / day + room & board bad food, bugs, nothing to do

4). Bennett's (Little) New Deal 1935 - based on FDR's New DealCalled for:- Taxes based on income- Max # hours in work week- Minimum wage- Regulation of working conditions- Unemployment insurance- Health and accident insurance- Support for farmers and seniors- > revised Old Age Pension to help seniors 65+ >1935 Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration Act > created Canadian Wheat Board to regulate prices- Unemployment Relief Act – gave provinces money for work-

creation programs

RB Bennett’s response – cont.

* things get worse * Bennett targeted, blamed “Bennett barnyard” “Bennet blanket”

“Bennett Buggy”

On-to-Ottawa Trek:

• 1935, over thousand men meet with Relief Camp Workers Union

• decide to take complaints to Ottawa• Start in Vancouver• ride trains across Prairies, more people join

On-to-Ottawa Trek – cont.

• By Regina, 2000 men part of the trek• in Regina, RCMP keep them there, only

leaders go to Ottawa• Bennett not trust leaders, call them

“criminal”, “thief”• RCMP clear protesters out of Regina stadium• protesters resist > REGINA RIOT• 1 man killed, many injured, 130 arrested

Vancouver Protest:• gov’t close relief camps 1937• gov’t reduce relief payments• men hold “sit-ins” occupy Vancouver Art

Gallery & post office• police use tear gas, much damage

1930 Election

• King’s attitude towards the Depression cost him the 1930 election

• R.B. Bennett, leader of Conservatives, becomes Prime Minister

Bennett’s Response to the Great Depression 1930-1935

• Gave provinces $20 million for work-creation programs/relief such as relief camps and pogey

• Increased tariffs by 50%• Prairie Rehabilitation Act • Economy does not improve

Bennett’s (Little) New Deal 1935

• Based on FDR’s New Deal• Called for:– Taxes based on income – Max. # of hours in work week– Min. wage– Regulation of working conditions– Unemployment insurance– Health and accident insurance– Support for farmers and seniors

• Too little, too late