The Great Depression and the New Deal

The Election of 1928

• Served as national referendum on the Republican new era

• Revealed just how important ethnic and cultural differences had become in defining American politics– Native-born vs. immigrant– Protestant vs. Catholic– Prohibition vs. legal drinking– Small town life vs. cosmopolitan city– Fundamentalism vs. modernism– Traditional sources of culture vs. new mass media

Democrat: Al Smith Republican: Herbert Hoover

Product of NYC’s Lower East Side Epitomized successful and forward looking American

Background: Irish, German, Italian Engineer and self-made millionaire

Raised a Roman Catholic Stood for commitment to volunteerism and individualism

Rose political ranks through Tammany Hall political machine

One of the best-known men in America

Deep sympathy for poor and working class people

Promised to continue the Republican control of national politics

Fused older-style machine politics with newer reform emphasis on state intervention to solve social problems

The Election of 1928

• Smith himself became central issue of campaign– Sharp New York accent, brown derby and fashionable suits

marked him as man of the city– Promised to work for repeal of Prohibition– First Roman Catholic nominee of a major party

• Drew torrent of anti-Catholic bigotry, especially in South and Midwest• Nativists and KKK intimidated participants in Democratic election rallies

• Hoover polled 21 million votes, Smith 15 million– Swept electoral college 444 to 87, including NY– Even South, reliably Democratic since Civil War, gave five states

to Hoover• Reflection of ethno-cultural split in party

Americans Face Hard Times

• Unemployment rises from 3.7% to 24.9% in 1933: people descend into poverty

• People forced to live in “Hoovervilles”– Makeshift shantytowns of

tents and shacks built on public lands or vacant lots

• Attacks family life and hits minorities hard

Hoover blankets

Hoover flags

Hoover wagons

Hoover heaters

Hoover houses

Farmers Lose their Farms

• Become tenant farmers: work for bigger landowners rather than for themselves

• The Dust Bowl hits hard• Okies migrate to California

Home Sweet Home!!

NOWHERE TO GO…

Brother Can You Spare A Dime?

Hoover’s Response Fails• Hoover follows hands-off policy: believed people

should better themselves through their own efforts• Hoover turns to volunteerism

– Localism: the policy whereby problems could best be solved in local and state levels

• The association of the President’s name with suffering and want indicated Americans’ negative feelings about their leader

• Hoover reverses course and urges Congress to create the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)

– Gave more than a billion dollars of government loans to railroads and large businesses

– Hoover believed that if government lent money to the bankers, they would lend it to the businessmen, who would then hire workers. Theory known as trickle-down economics

• Theory that held that money poured into the top of the economic pyramid will trickle down to the base.

• Hoover did succeed with the building of the Hoover Dam: brought much-needed employment to the Southwest

Americans Protest Hoover’s Failures

• Bonus Army marches on Washington– In 1932, 20,000 World War 1 veterans seeking the

bonus that Congress had promised them arrived in the capital, setting up camps and occupying empty government buildings

– Riots broke out and Hoover ordered General Douglas MacArthur and federal troops to clear the area

• MacArthur exceeded his orders and used force: more than 1,000 marchers were tear-gassed and injured badly

• Hoover had not directly ordered the use of force against the veterans but people blamed him anyway and so his chances for re-election disappeared

The Bonus Army

FDR & the New Deal• Franklin Delano Roosevelt

– Election of 1932– Elected for 4 terms– Served from 1933-his death in 1945

• Term New Deal coined during FDR’s 1932 Democratic presidential nomination acceptance speech

– "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." – New Deal = "use of the authority of government as an organized form of self-help for all classes and

groups and sections of our country."

• Goals of New Deal: 3 R’s– Relief to the unemployed, people losing homes/farms– Recovery to economy, agriculture and business– Reform so this could not happen again

• Campaign Success– Strength of character: overcoming obstacles– Brain Trust

• Once he’s in office– First Hundred Days: special session of Congress– Bank Holiday: first problem he addressed– Fireside chats: FDR connects with the American people through medium of radio

FDR’s First New DealFederal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Insured bank deposits up to $5,000

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Built series of dams in Tennessee River Valley to control floods and to generate electric power

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Provided jobs for more than 2 million young men. Replanted forests, built trails, dug irrigation ditches, and fought fires

National Recovery Administration (NRA)

Developed codes of fair competition to govern whole industries. Roosevelt called it the most important and far-reaching legislation ever enacted by American Congress

Public Works Administration (PWA)

Built bridges, dams, power plants, and government buildings

The Second New Deal

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Built or improved good part of the nation’s highways, dredged rivers, and harbors, and promoted soil and water conservation.

Social Security Act Established unemployment insurance for workers who lost their jobs.

Wagner Act Recognized the right of employees to join labor unions

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Represented lower-paid and ethnically diverse workers

Effects of the New Deal

• Women help lead the New Deal• African Americans make advances and face challenges

– Black Cabinet

• New Deal affects Native Americans– Indian New Deal

• New Deal creates new political coalition– New Deal coalition

• Role of government expands• Rise of a welfare state: government that assumes

responsibility for providing for the welfare of children and the poor, elderly, sick, disabled, and unemployed