The Great Depression

THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN A NUTSHELL

CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The Great Depression was a world-wide economic disaster that lasted from 1929 until 1942. It was the greatest economic disaster in modern times and affected the lives of most people in the industrialized nations of the world. Its effects on the United States were overwhelming.

Boom to Bust

The 1920s was regarded as an era of prosperity for most people in the United States. World War I had ended, and America had become a major world power. Most businesses seemed to be thriving, and businessmen were respected as the true leaders of the country. In fact President Calvin Coolidge said, “The business of America is business,” meaning that everything else was less important.

Farm Failures

Underneath this apparent business boom, however, were some major problems. Farmers were not sharing in the general financial success. They were producing large crops, but the prices paid for farm products actually fell 40 percent. Many farmers were forced off their farms because they were unable to make the loan payments they owed to the banks.

Bank Failures

Although some banks were very successful, there were many bank failures. These failures occurred when a bank could not pay back the money that its customers had on deposit. More than 550 banks closed—mostly in agricultural areas—because the loss of farm jobs and lower prices made the economies of these communities very shaky. People who had savings in these failed banks usually lost everything.

Lower Wages

Another weakness of the 1920s boom was low pay for many factory workers. While a few businesses like Henry Ford’s automobile factories paid good wages, most factory workers were not well paid. Owners tried to squeeze every dollar of profit out of their businesses. Competition from immigrants and Southern blacks moving to the North and West made it easy for factory owners to keep wages low. Workers had to cut their personal spending in order to survive, and businesses could not sell products to people who could not afford to buy them.

The Stock Market Boom

Much of the growth of the 1920s business boom was based on speculation by individuals, banks, and businesses. People kept investing money in the stock market believing that the value of the stocks was going to keep going up. They expected to get rich quickly from these investments. Speculators tended to ignore instances where a company’s stock suddenly lost value and the company went out of business, making that stock worthless.

Even more dangerous was the widespread practice of buying stocks on margin, where people borrowed money to buy the stock believing they could sell it at a higher price and make a profit without using their own money. From 1925 to 1929 the average price of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange doubled. The value of stocks was artificially high, however. Stocks were not actually worth the amount that they were being sold for.

The Crash of 1929

In late October 1929, the practice of speculating and buying stocks on margin ended with a massive crash of stock values. Black Thursday (October 24, 1929) followed by an even worse Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929) destroyed the artificial values of stocks and led to a long period of falling prices over the next three years. Many stocks became worthless, and thousands of people who had invested in them lost their entire life savings. Banks and business speculators went bankrupt. People who had borrowed money to buy stocks lost everything they owned, including businesses, homes, cars, furniture, and even clothes. Millions of people lost their jobs and could not find work.

An International Depression

Throughout the world businesses failed, and people were thrown out of work. The United States passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 to protect American businesses from foreign competition by raising the taxes on products imported from other countries. This caused other nations to pass similar tariffs, which only reduced opportunities for people around the world to sell their products to other countries. These tariffs led to further unemployment and business failures worldwide.

EFFECTS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION

The economic collapse created by the Great Depression had a major impact on the lives of most Americans. Rising unemployment, low wages, limited opportunities for those who did have jobs, and the widespread suffering of so many people during the 1930s made people reevaluate their lives as well as the role of the government.

Lost Savings

People who had savings in the banks were forced to withdraw their money in order to pay off their debts, make the payments on their houses and cars, or simply to buy food. Many banks lost huge sums of money in the stock market crash and could not meet the demands of their customers who wanted to withdraw their money from their accounts. About 9,000 banks failed in the three years after the stock market crash, leaving millions of customers without any of their savings. Businesses and individuals could not borrow money, which made it even harder for businesses to function. Within three years the total value of goods and services produced in the United States fell from $104 billion dollars to about half of that amount.

Unemployment

For many families during the Depression years, the loss of the father ’s job was the start of a long descent into poverty, homelessness, starvation, and hopelessness. In 1925 the unemployment rate had been a low three percent. After the stock market crash of 1929, the unemployment rate jumped to nine percent in 1930 and shot up to 25 percent by 1933. In previous depressions, business had begun to pick up again in a year or two. This time the situation got worse instead of better.

At least 13 million American workers could find no jobs at all. Millions of men who still had jobs were forced to accept salary cuts which reduced their income by 20% or more. Millions of others took any low-paying or temporary jobs they could find, even though the future of these jobs was uncertain. Young people entering the job market—even those with a good education—took any job they could find, and often they could find nothing.

Thousands of men and children tried to make a living shining shoes or selling apples on city streets. A few people who could find no jobs turned to theft or other crimes in order to feed their families. Some teenage boys and girls went to live in the homes of families who needed farm help or help with housework or tending young children. They were paid only with food and a place to sleep. Women who wanted to enter the job market were at a disadvantage because an effort was made to hire men who had families to support, rather than women. Immigrants and blacks were especially hurt by the economic disaster.

Riding the Rails

Tens of thousands of teenage boys and a few girls, some as young as 14, left home in order to reduce the financial burden on their parents. It meant fewer mouths to feed in the family. These youth walked or hopped onto freight trains, heading to other communities to look for work. Since almost every town in the U.S. was affected by the economic collapse, they usually had a hard time finding even occasional odd jobs.

Those who regularly rode on freight trains were called hoboes, and their mode of travel was called “riding the rails.” There were also many older men who rode the trains looking for work. In fact, sometimes there were more penniless hoboes riding the train than paying customers in the passenger cars. There were nearly a quarter of a million of these people in 1932.

Gaycats and Dingbats

Because they could not afford to pay for a ticket, hoboes learned how to jump on and off railroad boxcars, often while the train was moving. They could be arrested and jailed by the police or railroad cops who patrolled the railroad yards. Experienced hoboes were called dingbats. New hoboes were called gaycats. Many of these desperate men were crushed beneath steel train wheels when they missed a jump. It was a dangerous way to travel.

In some cities, hoboes had makeshift camps called jungles that were located near the railroad tracks. They built shelters out of cardboard boxes, broken furniture, discarded automobiles, and tree branches. At these camps, hoboes shared meals and slept.

Hoovervilles

Millions of people lost their homes in the Great Depression. Some lost their jobs and could no longer make the house payments to the bank on their loans so their homes were sold at auction. Others lost their jobs and could not afford rent for even the cheapest, most rundown house or apartment.

Families moved in with relatives when they could, but many families had no one to help them. These people ended up living in shacks made from cardboard, discarded wood, scrap metal, and any other materials they could find. They sometimes lived in rusted-out, abandoned automobiles. Many of these shacks were built at the edges of towns, often near a town dump where people could search for food, clothing, and trash which had been thrown away. These neighborhoods of broken down shacks were called Hoovervilles, a reference to President Herbert Hoover. Many people felt that Hoover had not done enough to help ordinary people deal with the economic difficulties they were facing.

The Necessities of Life

Food was cheap if you had the money , but many people were so poor that starvation and malnutrition were common. Mothers often made soup with whatever they had available. A soup bone, some cabbage, and a few spoiled potatoes had to feed whole families. Although farmers were dumping milk, burning crops, and killing hogs and cattle because prices were so low, children in the United States were regularly going to bed hungry.

Clothes were cheap, too, but not if you had no money. Mothers saved every scrap of cloth and used it to make children’s clothes. Many used animal feed sacks and burlap bags to make dresses, trousers, shirts, and underwear. Many children went barefoot, even in the winter. Others shoved scraps of cardboard into the soles of their worn-out shoes. Newspapers, called Hoover blankets, were often used to keep warm at night, especially by the very poor.

Trying to Help

In the later years of the Depression, the federal government bought farmers’ goods and gave them to distressed families, but at first the only help people received was from churches, local charities, and the Red Cross. All of these organizations were soon overwhelmed by the needs of the local communities and simply unable to help all the needy people.

Bread Lines

The winter of 1932–1933 was the lowest point of the Great Depression. The Depression had been going on for more than three years, and many Americans were beginning to lose hope. The bread lines, which characterized the Depression, were the longest. Because so many people were out of work and had no money, the only way to avoid starvation was a bread line. Churches, private charities, and some communities set up soup kitchens to feed these destitute men, women, and children. Even Al Capone, an infamous Chicago gangster, financed a soup kitchen.

The food was simple and often consisted of oatmeal or bread for breakfast and bread and soup for dinner. Many bread lines and soup kitchens could only served a limited number of people, and those who were late were turned away.

Shame and Poverty

In the 1920s and 1930s accepting charity from others was considered terribly shameful. Parents—especially fathers—felt that their failure to find work and provide a living reflected badly on them. They blamed themselves for the failure of the system. The fact that millions of people around the country and the world were also suffering did not lessen their sense of personal failure.

Many would not take charity from local groups, the government, or churches despite their families’ needs. Others accepted help but felt forever scarred by their need. Some fathers even committed suicide out of a deep sense of shame.

THE DUST BOWL

The Great Plains

The people living on the Great Plains—from the province of Saskatchewan in Canada south through Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas—took a double hit during the Great Depression. Farmers had plowed under the tough prairie grasses which for thousands of years fed the native buffalo of the plains. In place of these grasses, they planted wheat which grew well but needed plenty of rain and good soil to produce bumper crops. Wheat did not hold the topsoil well, and the land was easily eroded by wind and water.

Drought and Insects

Between 1931 and 1937, the Great Plains was hit by a long and brutal drought with virtually no rain. Farmers planted seeds and desperately hoped for rain. The little rain there allowed crops to start growing, but the plants then withered from a lack of more rainfall. Sometimes only a few seeds sprouted, and there were no roots to hold the loose topsoil so the plants could grow. Southern Kansas, the panhandle of western Oklahoma, and northern Texas were especially hard hit and became known as the Dust Bowl.

An insect invasion caused even more problems for farmers. Swarms of grasshoppers swept across thousands of acres, eating every plant in their path and even clothes hanging on the wash line to dry .

Black Blizzards

The wind usually blows a lot on the plains, but during the Dust Bowl years, there were terrible dust storms called black blizzards. The dust would blow at tremendous speeds and pile up in huge dunes next to houses, barns, and trees. Sometimes the loose dirt buried fences which were six feet high. The endlessly blowing dust seeped into every house through cracks in doors, windows, or boards. Everything inside became covered with a layer of fine dirt. At mealtimes glasses of water or milk had to be covered, or dust would turn the drinks brown. People even covered their food as they ate. People would wake up in the morning and see their pillow covered with a thick layer of dust except where their head had laid. Children and adults covered their faces with wet cloths to help them breathe during these terrible storms.

The wind stripped away the topsoil, making the land on the plains much less fertile and less likely to nurture crops when rain did come. The soil from the plains blew all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, where it even covered ships at sea. Farmers tried to protect their cattle, chickens, and other animals from the dust, but barns were no protection. Most farmers had animals that died or became sick by breathing dust and eating poor food. Farmers and their families gathered weeds and wild plants to try to provide some moisture for their animals. Cows that survived often provided very little milk because of the poor nourishment.

Buried Dreams

Many homes had to be shoveled out because the dust was so thick. Brooms could not move the thick piles of dirt. Fences had to be dug out and replaced. Entire farms and towns were buried in mounds of dirt. Cars, horses, cattle, and wagons were often buried. Some children and older people got lost in the storms and died. Unable to grow crops, many farmers lost their farms to the banks that held the loans on the land and buildings.

On the Move

Tens of thousands of families were forced to leave their farms and travel elsewhere to live. Some went to live with relatives, but most families loaded what few possessions they still owned and tried to find work. Over 2 1⁄2 million people left their homes on the plains. Some went to Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Some wandered through the Midwest or headed east hoping for work or even an occasional job for a day or two.

Some families traveled by horse and wagon. A few families had old jalopies, broken-down cars or trucks, on which they loaded their possessions. Many had nothing but hand carts or children’s wagons to carry their clothes and belongings. They walked and pulled or pushed these carts and wagons.

Westward Migration

People from Oklahoma and Texas especially struggled to survive. Over one million people headed for California, where they hoped to find jobs working on farms or picking crops. They traveled across the southwestern states to California any way they could. Those with vehicles drove until they ran out of gas and then waited until kind strangers drove by and let them take a few gallons of gas out of their tank. Sometimes an entire family would push its old truck, car, or wagon up hills and along roads. Other people walked or got occasional rides from strangers as they headed west.

These travelers kept clean as best they could by washing in ditches. In order to survive they ate coffee grounds, carrot tops, apple cores, and garbage they got from farms or town dumps along the way. They were poor and desperate, and many communities just wanted them to move on. This was one of the largest migrations, or movement, of people across the country in American history.

Moving West

When these weary travelers reached the West, they tried to start over. In Oregon they cut trees. In Washington they helped build dams. In Idaho they settled on abandoned land.

In California these families camped wherever they could. They made shacks of cardboard and tin, slept under bridges, or camped in the bottoms of dry rivers or lakes. California offered few opportunities. Some families were able to find work as migrant laborers, picking crops for large produce farms. They faced competition from Mexican and Japanese migrant workers as well. An entire family sometimes made only a few dollars a week.

Most of these people had no place to go, no food for their families, no gas for their vehicles, and no hope for work. Children lived on lard sandwiches, boiled cabbage, and corn bread if they were lucky. The water supply, whether from streams or ditches, quickly became polluted because it was used for drinking, washing clothes, bathing, and a toilet.

Contagious diseases and infections were very common. Mosquitoes and other insects spread disease too. During the rainy season, the camps were muddy and filthy. Many children and older people died from malnutrition, illness, and injuries.

A few migrants returned to the Dust Bowl, but most stayed in the West and hoped for the best. The federal government’s efforts to end the Depression gave many of these people a chance at a new life. The New Deal that President Franklin D. Roosevelt set up finally offered hope for these migrants.

EDUCATION DURING THE DEPRESSION

School Taxes

The education of young children was severely affected by the Great Depression. Schools were paid for from local property taxes on homes and businesses. So many businesses and factories were closed and so many people lost their homes that tax revenues in local communities were often cut by more than half. There was no help available from the federal government, and the states had even less tax money to work with.

Cutting Expenses

Local school districts did everything they could to cut expenses. They hired fewer teachers and put more students in classrooms, sometimes as many as 50 or 60 in one class. Desks and textbooks were not purchased. Many children sat on the floor or shared a desk and a chair. Children shared textbooks and often used old or torn books. Kindergartens were cut from schools.

In small towns, children attended a one-room schoolhouse where one teacher taught all ages from 6 to 15 as well as taught all subjects. Special classes such as home economics, physical education, and foreign languages were cut to save money. Teachers concentrated on reading, writing, and arithmetic at both the elementary and high school levels.

School nurses were not rehired even though many children were suffering from disease, infection, and severe malnutrition caused by a lack of proper food. Most children never saw a doctor to get medical treatment, and the lack of school nurses only made the spreading of contagious diseases worse.

Missing School

Many children simply could not afford to attend public school. Parents could not buy decent clothes for their children. Some students who did attend school wore rags, shirts or dresses made from sacks, and worn out coats.

Schools often required students to furnish their own school supplies, which caused many children to drop out of school. Families had no money for food, let alone school supplies, so some children never went to school—even in the earliest grades.

Interrupted Schooling

Many children in grades four through eight missed school because they had to stay home and care for younger children. Others worked on farms to help the family survive. Some families became migrant farm workers, and even the youngest children picked crops to add to the family income. Sometimes there was no school to attend.

Many schools closed early every year or opened for only two or three months in the winter. By 1933 many public schools were closed, and at least three million children had no school to attend. Many students did not attend high school.

Teachers

More than 7,000 teachers lost their jobs during the Great Depression. Thousandsof others barely made ends meet. Most teachers endured severe cuts in pay and had few if any benefits. More women teachers were hired because they could be paid less than men for doing the same job. Classes increased in size, and teachers were not paid if school was closed early.

Some districts were so strapped for cash that they paid teachers in scrip, a form of local paper money which could only be spent in local stores. In some rural districts, teachers lived in the schoolhouse and cooked their meals on the wood stove. Their pay was only a place to live and donated food.

Dust Bowl Children in California

Migrant children from the Dust Bowl who went to school in California were at a severe disadvantage. They had missed a lot of school at home and lost more on the journey west. They were often tired and listless at school because they had such poor nutrition, and some children had trouble staying awake in class.

These children were considered difficult to teach and either lazy or stupid. Some people thought these children were mentally retarded. Children from Oklahoma and Texas spoke with accents that were hard for many California teachers and students to understand. Local children teased them because of their clothes, looks, accents, and poor achievement in school.

"Okies"

So many people migrated from Oklahoma that they were referred to as Okies. The term was often used in a negative way and implied that these migrants were poor, lazy, and uneducated. The images of people from the Dust Bowl were further reinforced in John Steinbeck’s classic book The Grapes of Wrath, songs by Woody Guthrie, and photographs taken by Dorothea Lange. However, in recent years the term “Okie” has taken on a new meaning. It has become a badge of honor to many people from Oklahoma, a symbol of their ability to survive.

THE NEW DEAL

Hoover's Policies

The Great Depression had severe, long-term effects on the lives of most Americans. Before the Depression, people believed that businesses would automatically provide good products and services at low prices without being regulated by the government. The collapse of the economy in 1929 made people realize that action was needed to correct the problems.

President Hoover strongly believed that the government should leave business alone and just let the Depression take its course. He did try to help businesses by pressing for higher tariffs to protect American businesses from foreign competition. This policy backfired, however. It led to high tariffs in other countries, which made it difficult for American businessmen and farmers to sell their products to other countries.

Hoover was able to convince Congress to establish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932. This agency lent money to banks, railroads, and major corporations to prevent an even deeper economic collapse. But on the whole, Americans were unhappy with Hoover’s approach, and in 1932 they elected Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt as president.

The 100 Days

Franklin Roosevelt brought an energy and sense of hope to the nation. Roosevelt and his advisors believed the Depression could not be cured without strong intervention from the federal government. His inaugural speech set the tone for his administration. He declared that the only thing Americans had to fear was fear itself. To ease those fears, he set out to get Congress to act on a series of proposals in the first 100 days of his presidency. Roosevelt wanted to provide a “New Deal” for the American people.

Bank Holidays

One of the actions Roosevelt took was to close all of the banks in the United States, calling it a “bank holiday.” Bank inspectors were brought in to examine the records of each bank, and only banks that were properly run were allowed to reopen. Roosevelt also convinced Congress to set up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to regulate bank operations and insure bank deposits so that widespread bank failures would not occur again. The government wanted to guarantee that the money customers deposited in a bank insured by the FDIC was protected and would be available when needed.

Alphabet Agencies Provide Relief

President Roosevelt recognized how desperate people were, and he worked to set up programs to help the needy. These programs, such as the CCC and WPA, were commonly referred to by the first letters in each word, so they were called Alphabet Agencies.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established to provide work for millions of unemployed young men. These men were paid to work on all types of conservation projects in local communities and on federally owned land. They planted trees, cleared underbrush, and built roads and dams.

The Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) was created to give money to states to be distributed to the needy. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) were established by Congress to provide construction jobs for the unemployed and to build needed public facilities. Many existing post offices, government buildings, schools, dams, bridges, highways, sewer systems, water pipelines, and other projects in the U.S. were built in the 1930s by these agencies. Some boondoggles, or useless jobs, were also created to keep people employed.

National Recovery

Roosevelt wanted to encourage business as well as support a system of fair wages for workers. The National Recovery Act (NRA) was introduced to enforce fair hiring and labor practices and to encourage and support business activity. Businesses across America posted the NRA logo as a sign of their support.

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) limited farm production and was passed to help raise farm prices. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was established to help people in the rural areas of the South by building dams and providing inexpensive electricity to areas where electric power had not yet reached. These spending projects pumped money into the economy, which helped businesses and encouraged job growth.

Preventing Future Depressions

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was started to protect workers from being treated unfairly by companies. It also helped struggling labor unions get the right to organize workers. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created to protect investors from unfair or illegal actions by those selling stocks and bonds. The Social Security Act set up the first national retirement system for all Americans. Its main purpose was to make sure that people would have money to live on in their old age.

President Roosevelt’s greatest accomplishment, however, was the sense of confidence he brought to America and his success at raising the nation’s morale. His New Deal did indeed give Americans a sense that the future would be brighter.

101 TERMS, EVENTS, & PEOPLE TO KNOW

administration: the executive branch of the government including the president, vice president, and the cabinet
agricultural: farming of produce or livestock
Al Capone: the Chicago gangster who broke prohibition laws but provided a soup kitchen for the poor during the Great Depression
Alphabet Agencies: President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Programs that were commonly referred to by the first letters in each word
artificially: something that is not real or something that is made to do something that it is not normally supposed to do
auction: a public sale at which things are sold to the people who offer to pay the most
bank holiday: when FDR closed all of the banks in the United States to bring in bank inspectors to examine the records of each bank, and only banks that were properly run were allowed to reopen
bank inspectors: people whose job it is to audit bank records by checking the accuracy of transactions logs, determining the bank's worth, and evaluating whether it is making a profit
bankrupt: the inability to pay one's debs
Black Blizzards: dust storms in the Great Plains that would turn everything black with dust
Black Thursday: October 24, 1929 - when stock prices plummeted and vast numbers of people were selling their stocks until the panic subsided later in the afternoon when a group of bankers pooled their money and invested a large sum back into the stock market and their willingness to invest their own money in the stock market convinced others to stop sellingOn "Black Thursday," 12.9 million shares were sold - double the previous record.
Black Tuesday: October 29, 1929 - known as the worst day in stock market history when there were so many orders to sell that the ticker quickly fell behind, causing people to panic and try to sell their stocks quickly. Since everyone was selling and nearly no one was buying, stock prices collapsed. The problem got even worse, when rumors that investors in banks were also selling, and caused a huge panic where a new record of 16.4 million shares of stock were sold
bond: an official document in which a government or company promises to pay back an amount of money that it has borrowed and to pay interest for the borrowed money
boondoggles: an expensive and wasteful project usually paid for with public money
bumper plants: a very big harvest yielded for one crop
confidence: a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something
conservation: the careful use of natural resources (such as trees, oil, etc.) to prevent them from being lost or wasted
contagious: having a sickness that can be passed to someone else by touching
debts: an amount of money that you owe to a person, bank, company, etc.
deposit: to put money in a bank account
descent: moving downward
destitute: someone who is extremely poor
dingbats: hoboes who were experienced in jumping out of the boxcars of moving freight trains
Dorothea Lange: famous American photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration
drought: a long period of time during which there is very little or no rain
dunes: a hill of sand near an ocean or in a desert that is formed by the wind
Dust Bowl: severe dust storms in the 1930s in the semiarid lands of Southern Kansas, the panhandle of western Oklahoma, and northern Texas because the surface soil was exposed to wind erosion
economic depression: a bad economy that lasts two or more years and is characterized by huge increases in unemployment, a drop in available credit, less production, bankruptcies, reduced trade and commerce, and a drop in currency values causing consumer confidence and investments to decrease which shuts down the economy
economic disaster: an event characterized by an economic depression, civil unrest and highly increased poverty levels usually caused by a stock market crash and requiring government intervention to bring the economy back
economic collapse: A complete breakdown of a national, regional or territorial economy; essentially a severe economic depression, where an economy is in complete distress for months, years or possibly even decades
eroded: to gradually destroy (something) or to be gradually destroyed by natural forces (such as water, wind, or ice) foreign competition
Franklin D. Roosevelt: The President of the United States who created and put into action, the New Deal, which was a large group of legislation designed to better the U.S. economy during the Great Depression, He was famous for saying, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
foreign competition: business rivalries between the U.S. and two or more other nations to be the first to get sales, profits, and market shares on products sold in the U.S. by offering the best possible combination of price, quality, and service
The Great Depression: a period in U.S. History beginning after the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and lasting a decade that was the deepest and longest-lasting economic shut down in the history of the industrialized world and where huge numbers of people went bankrupt and much of the nation was unemployed and financially struggling
Henry Ford: the inventor of the Model T, the first manufactured car that was affordable for the average person who innovated manufacturing by utilizing the assembly line method of production; he was one of the few people who did well enough during the Great Depression that he was able to pay his employees decent wages
Herbert Hoover: the President of the United States during the first part of the Great Depression that did not believe that the government should interfere with the economy and ultimately caused the Depression to get worse
hoboes: men who hopped on fright train box cars and travelled to different areas looking for work
Hoover blankets: newspapers used as blankets by people living in Hoovervilles during the Great Depression
Hoovervilles: neighborhoods of broken down shacks made from cardboard, discarded wood, scrap metal, and any other materials people could find, built at the edges of towns, often near a town dump where people could search for food, clothing, and trash which had been thrown away
inaugural: an official ceremony or celebration for the President at the beginning of his term
industrialized: nations that have established an economy based on industries
insured: an agreement in which a person makes regular payments to a company and the company promises to pay money if the person is injured or dies, or to pay money equal to the value of something (such as a house or car) if it is damaged, lost, or stolen
intervention: an action taken to improve a situation
investing: process of paying money for an an item of value, such as stock in a company, that is expected to produce more money by selling it at a later time
investments: the total amount of money that is spent on an item, such as stock in a company, that is expected to produce more money by selling it at a later time
jalopies: broken-down cars or trucks, that people lived out of in the Great Depression
John Steinbeck: author of the book the Grapes of Wrath that illustrated the problems experienced by people living in the Dust Bowl
jungles: hobo camps located near the railroad tracks with shelters made out of cardboard boxes, broken furniture, discarded automobiles, and tree branches, where hoboes shared meals and slept
malnutrition: the unhealthy condition that results from not eating enough food or not eating enough healthy food
margin: when people borrowed money to buy stock believing they can sell it at a higher price and make a profit without using their own money
migrations: to move from one country, place, or locality to another
morale: the feelings of enthusiasm and loyalty that a person or group has about a task or job
The New Deal: the legislative and administrative program of President F. D. Roosevelt designed to promote economic recovery and social reform during the 1930s
New York Stock Exchange: A largest stock exchange in the world located in New York City
nourishment: food and other things that are needed for health, growth, etc.
Okies: a migrant farmer from Oklahoma in the 1930s
panhandle: a part of a land area (such as a state) that is narrow and sticks out from a larger area making it look like the handle on a frying pan
Calvin Coolidge: Conservative U.S. President in the 1920s that said, “The business of America is business,” meaning that everything else was less important.
Profit: money that is made in a business after all the costs and expenses are paid
property taxes: A tax on land, including the yard your home is on, by the local government, usually based on the value of the property. It is mainly used by cities for repairing roads, building schools and snow removal, or other similar services.
proposals: something (such as a plan or suggestion) that is presented to a person or group of people to consider
prosperity: the state of being successful usually by making a lot of money
public facilities: a government building
Reconstruction Finance Corporation: a loan approved by Herbert Hoover giving two billion dollars to businesses, banks, and state governments to stimulate the American economy during the Great Depression; It was not nearly enough and did very little for the economy
Red Cross: a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States
reevaluate: to consider again especially with the possibility of change
retirement: the act of ending your working or professional career
scrip: a form of local paper money which could only be spent in local stores
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930: the highest tariff in American History with the purpose to increase sales of U.S. products by raising the cost of imported goods with a tariff, but instead led to an international trade war as other nations raised their tariffs in response which made the depression worse
speculation: ideas or guesses about investment opportunities in which someone buys and sells things (such as stocks or pieces of property) in the hope of making a large profit but with the risk of a large loss
speculators: a trader who approaches the financial markets with the intention to make a profit by buying low and selling high
stock market: The market in which shares of publicly held companies are issued and traded either through exchanges or over-the-counter markets.
stocks: a share of the value of a company which can be bought, sold, or traded as an investment
suicide: when a person kills his or her self
tariffs: a tax on imports, goods coming into a country
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA): limited farm production and was passed to help raise farm prices and was established to help people in the rural areas of the South by building dams and providing inexpensive electricity to areas where electric power had not yet reached.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): gave jobs to more than two million young men in environmental improvement projects, especially the National Park System was established to provide work for millions of unemployed young men. These men were paid to work on all types of conservation projects in local communities and on federally owned land. They planted trees, cleared underbrush, and built roads and dams.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): insured bank deposits up to $5,000 and eliminated the fear of bank failures
The Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA): was created to give money to states to be distributed to the needy gave money to local and state relief organizations
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): was started to protect workers from being treated unfairly by companies. It also helped struggling labor unions and guaranteed workers the right to join labor unions and call strikes
The National Recovery Act (NRA): was introduced to enforce fair hiring and labor practices and to encourage and support business activity. Businesses across America posted the NRA logo as a sign of their support.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): was created to protect investors from unfair or illegal actions by those selling stocks and bonds.
The Social Security Act: set up the first national retirement system for all Americans. Its main purpose was to make sure that people would have money to live on in their old age.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA): provided funding for the development of the Tennessee River Valley; taught farmers better farming techniques
The Works Progress Administration (WPA): were established by Congress to provide construction jobs for the unemployed and to build needed public facilities. Many existing post offices, government buildings, schools, dams, bridges, highways, sewer systems, water pipelines, and other projects in the U.S. were built in the 1930s by these agencies.
unemployment: the total number of people who do not have jobs in a particular place or area
unemployment rate: a measure of the prevalence of people who do not have a job and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor force. During the Depression, the unemployment rate was very high; in 1933 it was 25%
withdraw: to take money out of a bank account
Woody Guthrie: an American singer-songwriter and folk musician whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works - including This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land.