Unit II: 1920S, Great Depression, & New Deal

Unit II: 1920s, Great Depression, & New Deal

Chapter 12-15

Essential Items from Socratic Seminar and Study Packet

Courtesy of TP Productions

(Student NOTES)

18th Amendment

· Banned the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol

Effects of Prohibition

· Development of speakeasies to obtain liquor illegally

· Alcohol prescriptions and sacramental wine sales skyrocketed

· Development of disrespect for the law

· Increase in organized crime

Airplanes and Automobiles

· Airplanes-

o Mail carrying services,

o First flight in 1918 was a disaster

o Lindbergh and Earhart helped make carrying cargo

· Automobiles-

o Urban sprawl

o Increased amount paved roads , gas stations,

o Isolated rural families could travel to cities

Anarchists, radicals

· People who opposed any form of government

· Palmer Raids hunted down all radicals

o Failed to turn up evidence of a revolutionary conspiracy

· Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested with robbery and murder

o People thought they were mistreated because they were anarchists and Italian immigrants

Black Tuesday

· October 29, 1929

· Stock market crash

· 16.4 million shares dumped

Bonus Army & the Patman Bill

· 10,000-20,000 WWI veterans who marched on Washington DC to demand immediate payment of a bonus they had been promised for military service

· Patman Bill authorized the gov’t to pay the bonus to the veterans by 1945 in cash ($500)

· Congressman Wright Patman thought the money should be paid immediately

· Senate voted down the bill

· Hoover viewed the marchers as communists

· Infantry gassed more than 1,000 people, which ruined Hoover’s reputation as president

Boulder Dam

· Dam on Colorado river providing electricity, flood control, and regular water supply

· Aiming to minimize federal intervention, Hoover proposed to finance construction by using profits from sales of the electric power the dam would generate

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

· Provided $2 billion emergency financing to banks, life insurance companies, railroads, and large businesses

· Hoover believed the money would trickle down to citizens through job growth and higher wages

· In the first five months, RFC loaned $805 million to corporations but business failures continued

· Too little, too late

Federal Home Loan Bank Act

· Lowered mortgage rates for homeowners and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosures

Civil rights vs. support from southern whites

· African Americans got more rights and say in the gov’t (“Black Cabinet”) because of Eleanor Roosevelt but President Roosevelt never supported full civil rights for African Americans for the fear of losing white Democratic voters in the south

Conservative vs. liberal ideology

· Liberals argued the New Deal did not go far enough to help the poor and reform the nation’s economic system

· Conservatives argued Roosevelt spent too much on direct relief and used New Deal policies to control business and socialize economy- AAA and NIRA gave fed gov’t too much power over agriculture and industry

Direct relief

· Giving money or food by the gov’t directly to needy people

· No direct relief from Hoover

Eleanor Roosevelt

· Social reformer who combined her deep humanitarian impulses with political skills

Emergency Quota Act 1921 and 1924

· Established maximum number of people who could enter the US from each foreign country, mainly European immigration

· 1924- limited immigration from each European nation to 2% of the number of its nationals living in the US in 1890

· Discriminated against people from southern and eastern Europe who had not started coming to US in large number until after 1890

New Deal

· Relief for the needy, economic recovery, financial reform

· Hundred days: Congress passed more than 15 major pieces of New Deal legislation which expanded the gov’t role in economy

· March 5, closed all banks to prevent withdrawals, passed Emergency Banking Relief Act, and reopened banks that could pay debts

Fireside Chats

· Radio talks about issues about public concerns

· Promote New Deal

· Trust in banks to regulate economy

· Opposed by conservatives and liberals

Fundamentalism

· Skeptical of scientific discoveries and theories, argued all important knowledge could be found in the Bible

Glass Steagall Act 1933

· Established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect individual bank accounts

o Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation- protected individual bank accounts with deposits of up to $5,000 by providing federal insurance

Goals of New Deal

· Relief for the needy

· Economic recovery

· Financial reform

Great Migration- large scale movement of thousands of Southern blacks to cities in the north

· Blacks sought to escape racial discrimination in the south

· A boll weevil infestation, aided by floods and drought, ruined much of the south’s cotton fields

· More job opportunities in the north

Harlem Renaissance- literally and artistic movement celebrating African-American culture

· NAACP urged backs to protest racial violence, making anti-lynching a main priority

· Marcus Garvey- Jamaican immigrant believing blacks should build a separate society for themselves, return to Africa, and build a mighty nation

· Claude McKay- poet who expressed the pain of life in the black ghettos and being black

· Langston Hughes- Poet who described the difficult lives of working class blacks

· Paul Robeson- major dramatic actor

· Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington- jazz pianist and composer, led 10-piece orchestra at the Cotton Club

· Bessie smith- female blues singer, highest paid black artist in the world

· Economic prosperity, new ideas, and personal freedom as well as developments in art, literature, and music

Installment Plan and easy credit

· Arrangement in which a purchaser pays over an extended time, without having to put down much money at the time of purchase

Isolationism

· Opposition to political and economic entanglements with other countries

· Postwar trend

Reemergence of the KKK- result of Red Scare and anti-immigrant feelings

· Devoted to 100% Americanism, keeping blacks in their place, opposing unions, and driving Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreign- born people out of the country

New Deal Programs

· Long Lasting

o Social Security Act- Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses, unemployment compensation system, aid to families with dependent children and disabled

o Tennessee Valley Authority- federal corporation to construct dams and power plants in the Tennessee Valley region to generate electricity and prevent floods

· NIRA- National Industrial Recovery Act- provided money to states to create jobs chiefly in the construction of schools and community buildings

· AAA- Agricultural Adjustment Act- raise crop prices by lowering production

· FDIC- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation- protected individual bank accounts with deposits of up to $5,000 by providing federal insurance

· CCC- Civilian Conservative Corps- put young men 18-25 to work building roads, developing parks, planting trees, and helping in soil erosion and flood control projects

o Put 3 million men to work with a wage of $30 a month

· WPA- Works Progress Administration- created as many jobs as quickly as possible; $11 billion to give jobs to more than 8 million people

Mass Media-

· Newspaper circulation rose as writers and editors learned to hook readers

· Magazines summarizes the week’s news

· Radio was the most powerful communications medium

o Shared national experience of hearing the news as it happened

New Women- women began asserting their independence, rejecting values of 19th Century, and demanding freedom

· Flapper- emancipated young women embracing new fashions and urban attitudes

o More an image of rebellious youth than widespread reality

· Double standard- set of principle granting greater sexual freedom to man than women

· 1920’s produced more opportunities in the workplace

o Teachers, nurses, librarians, clerical workers

o By 1930, 10 million women were earning wages but they earned less than men

o Discrimination and inequality for women in businesses were established

· Changes in family life

o Birth control lowered the birthrate

o New innovations simplifies household labor, such as readymade clothes and canned foods

o Marriages were based increasingly on romantic love and companionship

Red Scare- Promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism or radicalism

· Symbolic red flag waved by “Reds”

· Communist party in US joined by 70,000 radicals

Communism- economic and political system based on single party gov’t ruled by dictatorship

· Equalize wealth and power by putting an end to private property and substituting government ownership of factories, railroads and other businesses

Scopes Trial- fight over evolution and the role of science and religion in public schools in America

· John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution, and was represented by Clarence Darrow

· Special prosecutor- William Jennings

· Fundamentalism- skeptical of scientific discoveries and theories, argued all important knowledge could be found in the Bible

Shantytowns (Hoovervilles)

· Neighborhood consisting of make shift shacks

· Effect of homelessness

· Americans grew more frustrated by the Depression and began calling them Hoovervilles, a direct slap at the president’s policies

Speakeasies and Bootleggers

· Places where alcoholic drinks were sold and consumed illegally during the Prohibition

· Person who smuggled alcoholic drinks into US during Prohibition

Teapot Dome Scandal

· Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall’s secret leasing of oil-rich public land to private companies in return for money and land

· Gov’t set aside oil rich public lands at Teapot Dome, Wyoming for use by the Navy

· Albert B Fall got the reserves transferred to the Interior Department and leased the land to private oil companies

· Convicted of a felony while holding a cabinet post

Great Depression

· 11,000 bank closures

· 25% cities unemployment rates

Views of the New Deal

· Conservative opposition received a boost from the Supreme Court- called the AAA and NIRA unconstitutional

· Many people believed New Deal interfered with the workings of a free-market economy

· New Deal Coalition- alignment of diverse groups dedicated to supporting Democratic Party

· Women: women got appointed gov’t positions, but were still discriminated against in the workplace

· Mexicans: Supported New Deal even though they received even fewer benefits than blacks

· Native Americans: received strong gov’t support from New Deal and received full citizenship. Indian Reorganization Act- land would belong to entire tribe, reduced number of Native American children boarding schools, tribes allowed to elect councils

New Deal effects:

· Unemployment rate: Congress pressured Roosevelt to scale back New Deal programs, so unemployment increased from 7.7 million in 1937 to 10.4 million in 1938

· Power of federal gov’t: Roosevelt administration expanded the power of the federal gov’t, mainly the president, giving it a more active role in shaping the economy

o Creating jobs, regulate supply and demand, increasing gov’t participation in settling labor and management disputes, establishing agencies to regulate banking and investment

· Labor Unions: New Deal ensured the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively with employers

· Natural Environment: New Deal helped fix the environment by the Tennessee Valley Authority and CCC

· Retirees over age 65, unemployed, or injured workers and people with disabilities:

Social Security Act- Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses, unemployment compensation system, aid to families with dependent children and disabled

Presidents during the 1920’s and Great Depression

· Warren G. Harding: 1920-1923

o Favored limited role for government

o Didn’t understand many issues

o Corrupt cabinet- Teapot Dome Scandal

· Calvin Coolidge: 1923-1929

o Restored people’s faith in gov’t and republican party

o “Chief business of American people is business”

o Keep taxes low, business profits up, and to give businesses more available credit

o Minimum gov’t interference

o Favored by public

· Herbert Hoover: 1929-1932

o Republican

o Very limited government intervention; no direct relief

o Boulder Dam and Reconstruction Finance Corporation were action taken too little too late

o Disbanded and gassed the bonus army: angered many Americans and ruined his reputation

· Franklin Roosevelt: 1932-1944

o Gov’t interventionist role to get out of the Great Depression

o Created many New Deal Programs to help economy

o Favored by liberals

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