24.1: Hard Times

• There had already begun to appear signs of deep economic weakness in the midst of 1920s' overall prosperity.

  • Firstly, the proportion of the huge increases to labor productivity was reduced for workers and consumers

• In the late 1920s the stock trade captured the wider American public's imagination.

  • The stock market resembled an arena of sport. millions were just as greedy as Babe Ruth's or Jack Dempsey's accomplishments.

• At a time when unemployment insurance existed and there was no adequate public relief, a loss of employment could result in a financial disaster for workers and their family.

  • The strongest sign of deepening depression was massive unemployment throughout America.

• Traditional and meager relief sources were overwhelmed by the enormity of the Great Depression.

  • These sources have been a patchwork of private organizations and local government units in most American communities, such as towns, cities or counties.

• By 1931, not only the United States but the world had widened depression, a sign of the interdependence of the world economy.

  • The immediate problem was that the international finance system was highly unstable.

• The "Bonus Army" also started descending in Washington, DC in the spring of 1932.

  • The protest came on behalf of Congress in 1924, promising to pay each World War I veteran a 1.000-dollar bonus—in the form of a bond that matured only in 1945.

24.2: FDR and the First New Deal

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt was founded in 1882 on the vast estate of his aristocratic family in Dutchess County, New York, where he grew up as the only child, safe and confident.

• In 1905, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married his distant cousin, President Theodor Roosevelt's niece

• The Emergency Banking Relief Act was immediately passed by Congress, giving the President broad discretion over all bank transactions and exchanges.

• The new deal was not a unified programme, but rather a series of improvised reforms and relief measures, some completely contradicting one another.

  • The New Deal was a success. Still, the fundamental purposes of relief, reform, and recovery were united in all New Deal programmes

• A group of conservative businessmen organized by the American Liberty League and the Pro-Republican journals in 1934 attacked the administration vehemently for what they thought its attack on property rights, the growing welfare state and alleged decline in personal rights.

24.3: Left Turn and the Second New Deal

• The National Labor Relations Act, often known as the Wagner Act for its main sponsor, Democrat senator Robert F. Wagner of New-York, was passed by Congress in July 1935.

  • The federal government guaranteed for the first time the right of the American workers to join, form, or collectively negotiate for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

• The Wagner Act made the union organization and the moribund labor movement much easier. In 1932, the union members were only 2.8 million, less than half a million in 1929 and less than 2 million in 1920.

  • By 1942, however, unions had more than 10.5 million members, almost a third of the total non-farm work force.

• The two major political parties expected a national referendum in 1936, and it was an exciting and fiercely contested campaign itself.

24.4: The New Deal in the South and West

• In 1930, less than half of all southern farmers owned their land; more than three quarters of the region's African American farmers were shareholders or landlords, along with almost half of its white farmers.

• The southern Great Plains in the mid-1930s experienced an ecological and economic disaster of unprecedented proportions.

  • In the beginning of the 1930s, the region experienced several years of drought.

  • These dry spells occurred on a regular basis in approximately 20 years.

• The New Deal brought significant changes and few improvements in Indian lives.

  • Around 320,000 Indians from around 200 tribal peoples, most of them in Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota, lived in reservations in 1933.

  • Indians were the poorest people in the nation with a child mortality rate twice as high as the white population.

  • Half of the reserves were landless.

24.5: The Limits of Reform

• Roosevelt wanted more friendly judges after his slack reelection and after still having smartly defeated NRA and AAA from the Supreme Court.

  • He asked Congress in February 1937 to allow him new appointances to the Supreme Court where the judge did not retire at the age of 70 years.

• First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a strong politician, was the center of the women's network and its lead in the fight for liberal causes.

  • Privately, her husband played an important role and she supported behind the scenes a large network of professional women and reformers that she met during the 1920s.

• African Americans suffered excessively during the Great Depression long near the bottom of America's economic ladder.

  • By 1937, the economy of the country had improved considerably.

• There was only 14 percent decrease in unemployment, agricultural prices increased to the 1930 levels and industrial production was somewhat greater than the 1929 level.

24.6: Depression-Era Culture

• The depression affected the writers, artists and educators of America as hard as the blue-collar workers. In 1935, in this field the WPA assigned $300 million.

• The devastation wrought by the depression in American communities was documented by a vast number of artists, novelists, journalists and photographers in the 1930s.

• For some, the Great Depression was caused by the capitalism itself.

  • Relatively few Americans in the 1930's became communists or socialists, many of whom stayed active for a short time only.

• The mass-culture industry grew considerably during the 1930s, despite the depression.

  • However, when mass culture did not offer any direct answers to the social and economic problems of the day, it played a more integral role than ever in shaping national rhythms and desires.