Mr. E's Forum: 2006-2007 -> Advanced Placement United States History -> The Great Depression Project
Post Info TOPIC: The Great Depression Project
Kelsey Smith

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RE: The Great Depression Project
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Research on the Dust Bowl.

The dust bowl was a series of dust storms that took place in central United States and Canada from 1931 to 1939. These dust storms were due to years of inappropriate farming techniques. When removing the grass during plowing the soil dried out during the drought and the soil turned to dust and it blew eastwards. The drought took its record years between 1934 to 1936 and were marked for the nation. Once air bound the dust usually was carried in large black clouds, causing day to look like night. The soil was carried as far as Chicago and much of the dust was swept into the Atlantic Ocean. Over 500,000 Americans who lived in or the surrounding areas of the Great Plains migrated west in hope for work. After the dust bowl farmers were left with new farming techniques and methods, with soil conservation.


 http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

http://www.ptsi.net/user/museum/dustbowl.html

 

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Butchie

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My name is Cesar Chaves.  I am a forty-one year old man but I look much older than I actually am.  My skin is weathered and I don't like to raise my voice or behave in an erratic way.  I am the president of the United Farm Workers of America, (UFWA).   My first real memory of the Great Depression was in 1934 when I was about 6 years old.  One day my father brought in a team of horses and wagons and he told me that we had to move out of our house.  I didn't totally understand at that time and I wouldn’t figure it out until I was a couple of years older.  My father was being pushed off of the land he inherited from his father because the bank foreclosed on his loan.  The bank foreclosed on us because the president of the bank wanted our land.   The house we moved to was even worse than the one we used to live in.  The place was known as North Gila Valley and it was horrible.  The land was dry and was no longer fertile enough to farm on.  We spent two years there and we didn’t make even close to the same amount of money we would have made if we still lived on our other farm.  So in about 1936, my dad put all five of his kids into a Chevy and we drove for miles and miles until we reached California.  This new life was going to be very different.  My family was used to owning their own land but now we relied on other farmers to ask for our work.I never went to school for more than 2 days a week.  From the first grade until the eighth grade I went to 37 different schools.  But we never had an official transfer we would be in one school on Friday, not tell the teacher we were leaving and go to a new school on Monday.  One of my teachers was very suspicious and asked a whole bunch of questions.  At first, we were hesitant at answering but then we got a liking to her and she came to my house.But the work was awful and our crew pusher was very mean to us.  We didn’t have a trailer so he would raid our car when we were working.  Or on one occasion, we worked in a grape vinery.  We all stayed out of school that week because this job paid well.  But when we were supposed to get paid on Saturday, we didn’t get paid.  He only gave us $10 so my father bought $10 worth of groceries.  For four weeks he only paid us between $5 and $10 for the whole family.  So we went to his house to get our money but the winery said he had left and they had already paid him.  So my dad went on strike.  I think I got my mentality from my dad because he didn’t appreciate getting taken advantage of and that is what my union stands for.  The equality and right of farm workers and migrant workers everywhere.    

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Jarred

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My last three facts:

  • The first New Deal dealt with getting the country out of Depression and to help the poor and unemployed.
  • Franklin Roosevelt won the 1932 election and would become the most popular president ever. He would lead the country with the New Deals and through World War 2. He related to the common American person and gave the whole country confidence that they could do anything. 
  •  Frances Perkins became the first woman to ever be appointed to a cabinet position as secretary of labor under Franklin Roosevelt.


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kp

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Part I - Ten Facts

1.)    The stock-market crash revealed structural weaknesses in the financial and banking systems (7,000 banks had failed during the 1920s).

2.)     The National Credit Corporation and the Emergency Committee for Employment was created to obtain voluntary action to solve economic problems and stimulate spending.

3.)    Many unemployed blacks, tenant farmers, and Americans who did not own stock hardly noticed the stock-market crash. To them, the crash meant the loss of a job or a bank foreclosure.

4.)    Men were more affected by the crash than women. When men began to lose their job’s their identity and sense of purpose as the families provider lost purpose. Women on the other hand still had cleaning, cooking, mending to keep them occupied and in charge of their household.

5.)    Americans began to blame President Hoover for the Depression and began to refer to shanties as “Hoovervilles.” He could neither admit his mistakes nor communicate personal empathy for the poor and unemployed.

6.)    The 1st New Deal (1933-1935) focused mainly on recovery from the Depression and relief for the poor and unemployed. The programs either originated in the progressive period, were borrowed from the Hoover administration, or inspired by the nations experiences from World War I.

7.)    Roosevelt’s solution to helping the unemployed and homeless was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which Congress authorized with an appropriation of $500 million in direct grants to cities and states.

8.)    The Works Progress Administration, was the first massive attempt to deal with unemployment and its demoralizing effect on millions of Americans. The WPA employed about 3 million people a year on a variety of socially useful projects.

9.)    Between 1932 and 1939, there was an average of 50 dust storms a year. Thousands died from “dust pneumonia” and left it impossible for farmers to work on their fields. By  1940, 3.5 million people had abandoned their farms and joined a massive migration to find better lives.

       10.) New progressive labor leaders formed the Committee of Industrial Organization within the AFL and set out to organize workers in the steel, auto, and    rubber industries.

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melissa

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mr. everett said that John Beecher was reallllllly exciting, so yea thats what i'll be doing my topic on.
 


i think he may be lying.

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C.Santos

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The Bonus Army 

         The story of the Bonus Army starts during the Great Depression when the Senate voted on the Patman Bonus Bill, which tried to push the date for when the WW1 veterans would receive their cash bonuses for their time in the army. In anger 20,000 World War 1 veterans assembled outside of Washington D.C. in attempt to convince Congress to immediately pay them their wages. The bill did pass in the House of Representatives but it was blocked in the Senate.  When the bill was shot down the Congress tried to give money for the soldiers to go home but some refused to move without their pay. The police were actually sent in to kick out the veteran troops from their camps. Many still refused to move so the president ordered that the federal troops force the veterans at gun-point to leave the area immediately.

         The President seen the refusal for the soldiers to move as a opportunity for these men to attack the White House or overthrow the government. So the Federal Army moved in and cleared the veterans out. Many were injured in the clearing out and several vets were killed but they managed to clear out the people. They used bayonets and tear gas to clear out the men and many of the veterans were offended by the violation of their rights. The army burned down the shacks and the veterans returned to home. They would not be paid their bonus till after in Roosevelt’s presidency.

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Makeda

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Part I-cont.

The Depression started the first year of Herbert Hoover’s presidency in 1929. One way he tried to solve the problems the Depression caused was by coming up with new programs such as the National Credit Corporation, the Emergency Committee for Employment, and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation gave 2 billion dollars to state and local governments and made loans to businesses such as banks and railroads. Hoover did not believe that the Federal government should take responsibility for relieving the people during the Great Depression. He believed it should be up to the state and local governments as well as voluntary organizations. He met with the heads of buisneses and labor reps to try and find solutions to the problems. He got Henry Ford to raise his workers wages from 6 dollars a day to 7 and got organized labor to cut down on wage demands. Despite all of his efforts, many believe that Hoover failed in his response to the Great Depression. A part of the reason why he failed was because Congress did not recognize the effects of the Smoot- Hardy Tariff. This Tariff destroyed U.S. trade and caused bank failures.



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Amanda

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Part 1 10 Facts:

1) The Works Progress Administration hired artists to create murals for public buildings from 1935 until 1943.  This showed that art was an important part of the community and deserved to be supported by the federal government.

 

2) On August 31, 1939 at one of Los Angeles’ largest food processing plants, almost all of the 430 workers, who were mostly Mexican American women, staged a massive walkout to receive fair treatment from employers.

 

3) Workers in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) earned $25 a month for their families and an extra $5 a month to spend on themselves.

 

4) When Franklin D. Roosevelt won the election, he had more than 57% of the popular vote.

 

5) Congress passed the Banking Act of 1933, this act strengthened the Federal Reserve System, established the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), and it also insured individual deposits up to $5,000.

 

6) Many women complained that the CCC did nothing to help women and a few special camps were put together for them, but only 8,000 women joined the program, which already had close 3 million members.

 

7) Native Americans lost more than 60% of the 138 million acres that they were given in1887, when the government encouraged people to settle on the land and take on the “habits of civilized life.”

 

8) In the 1930’s more women held high government positions than any other administration before it.

 

9) Leisure became a problem in the 1930s and there were 450 books published by professionals.

 10) After the fall of the motion picture industry in 1933, it experienced a rise in 1934 that was caused by a rise in attendance to movies.

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Kristen

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The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)- This was a government-sponsored conservation project between 1933 and 1942.  It helped nearly 3 million young men find work and also helped to improve 4 million acres of existing forests.   

Franklin D. Roosevelt- He was elected four times in office, from 1933 to 1945.  He created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic system.

 Herbert Hoover- He used the power of the federal government and the office of president to deal with an economic crisis more then any president before him.  He met with governors and mayors to speed up public work projects.   The Stock Market Crash- Launched a worldwide depression in the US.    The Social Security Act- On August 14, 1935, the Social Security Act established a system of old-age benefits for workers, benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the physically handicapped. Reconstruction Finance Corporation- It was authorized to make loans to banks, insurance companies, farm mortgage companies, and railroads.  It helped to improve some shaky financial institutions.  The Bonus Army- A group of about 20,00 WWI veterans who demonstrated in Washington, D.C. seeking immediate payment of a “bonus”.   The New Deal- A series of programs between 1933–1937 with the goal of relief, recovery and reform of the United States economy during the Great Depression. Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)- It restricted production during the New Deal by paying farmers to reduce crop area.   

The Dust Bowl- Was the result of a series of dust storms in the central United States from 1931 to 1939.



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CRYSTAL

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PART I

 
  1. The stock market crash revealed serious structural weaknesses in the financial and banking systems. The Federal Reserve Boared, fearing inflation, tightened credit—exactly the opposite of the actionit should have taken to fight a slowdown in purchasing.
 
  1. The stock market’s continued decline in 1930-1931 was in reponse to the European economic collapse that undermined international finance and trade.
 
  1. In 1930, an additional 1,300 banks failed. Many factories cut back on production, and some closed. U.S. Steel announced a 10 % wage cut in 1931. As the auto industry laid off workers, the unemployment rate rose to more than 40% in Detroit.
 
  1. The Wall Street Crash caused a spectacular business boom of the 1920s to collapse in October 1929. The stock prices had become both a symbol and a source of wealth during the 1920s. Millions of people did invest in the boom market of 1928 and millions lost their money in October 1929, when it collapsed.
 
  1. The effects of the Great Depression were great on economy. The U.S. Gross National Product—the value of all the goods and services produced by the nation in one year—dropped from $104 billion to $56 billiion in four years, while the nation’s income declined by over 50 percent. Some 20 percent of all banks closed, wiping out 10 million savings accounts. By 1933, the number of unemployed had reached 13 million people, or 25 percent of the workforce, not including farmers.
 
  1. Politically, Republican domination was at an end. The power of the federal government would increase significantly, as the people accepted dramatic changes in policies.
 
  1. Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) is a federally funded and government-owned corporation and was created by Congress early in 1932 as a measure for propping up faltering railroads, banks, life insurance companies, and other financial institutions. The RFC would help to stabilize these key businesses. The benefits would then “trickle down” to smaller businesses and bring recovery. The Democrats said that it would only help the rich.
 
  1. Farmers banded together to stop banks from foreclosing on their farms and evicting them from their homes. Farmers in the Midwest formed the Farm Holiday Association, which attempted to reverse the drop in prices by stopping the entire crop of grain harvested in 1932 from reaching the market. After some violence, the effort collapsed.
 
  1. The Election of 1932. 1932 was the depression’s worst year. The Republicans renominated Hoover, who warned that a Democratic victory would only result in worse economic problems.The Democrats nominated New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt for president and John Nance Garner of Texas for VP.
 10. The new president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his "new deal".

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Tanya

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Okay, I decided to change my person for Part 2...I'm going to do Larry Van Dusen, not Eileen Barth.
Also, for Part 1, I decided to go with Women and the New Deal as my topic.
and sorry about my 10 facts post being so spaced out.

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Krystal

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ok so im doing science & technology. not just technology.  dont know if it matters. but whatev.

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Krystal

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    During the Great Depression, there were many new advances in science and technology.  In the medical field, blood transfusions were done in a new and safer manner.  Cook County Hospital in Chicago opened the first blood bank to store the blood from donors.  With these new tactics, there was a much greater chance for patients to survive major surgeries.  Albert Einstein in 1933 became a professor at Princeton University.  He wrote a letter to President Roosevelt saying that he thought that uranium could be a new source of energy, therefore creating atomic bombs.  In 1930, the planet Pluto was discovered.  Food started to be better refridgerated, and synthetic materials contributed to making plexiglass, nylon, and cellophane.  Xerography was founded by Chester F. Carlson, which is the process of making copies.  The radio became most popular during this time.  About 80% of the population owned one by 1939.  This decade proved to have a major effect on society that still contributes to today's every day life.



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Krystal

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whoops...

http://www.geocities.com/bettye_sutton/greatdepression.html 

there we go.

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Kristen

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The Dust Bowl 

The Dust Bowl, 1931 to 1939, was a series of dust storms mainly in the central United States.  It was caused by decades of inappropriate farming techniques. Farmers were plowing land as they had never before without a thought as to the damage that was being done.  By plowing they removed the fertile soil of the Great Plains and when the drought hit the soil dried up and became dust and blew mainly eastward.  This disaster created a migration from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains and left over 500,000 Americans homeless.  Many farm families gave up and left because of homes foreclosed for unpayable debts.  This migration was severe and 15% of the state of Oklahoma moved to California.  They were looking for new rich land to start planting again on.  During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first 100 days, governmental programs were made to restore the ecologic balance of the nation.  The soil Conservation Service, now known as the Natural Resources Conservation, retained topsoil and prevented irreparable damage to the land. Farming techniques such as strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, contour plowing, and cover crops were advocated. Farmers were paid to practice soil-conserving farming techniques.  Roosevelt also thought that planting trees where the dust bowl was happening would help to stop or block the dust.  Rain finally came in the fall bringing this horrible drought and series of dust storms to an end.


http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
http://www.ptsi.net/user/museum/dustbowl.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/timeline/

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Kelsey Smith

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Amanda wrote:

Part 1 10 Facts:

1) The Works Progress Administration hired artists to create murals for public buildings from 1935 until 1943.  This showed that art was an important part of the community and deserved to be supported by the federal government.

 

2) On August 31, 1939 at one of Los Angeles’ largest food processing plants, almost all of the 430 workers, who were mostly Mexican American women, staged a massive walkout to receive fair treatment from employers.

 

3) Workers in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) earned $25 a month for their families and an extra $5 a month to spend on themselves.

 

4) When Franklin D. Roosevelt won the election, he had more than 57% of the popular vote.

 

5) Congress passed the Banking Act of 1933, this act strengthened the Federal Reserve System, established the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), and it also insured individual deposits up to $5,000.

 

6) Many women complained that the CCC did nothing to help women and a few special camps were put together for them, but only 8,000 women joined the program, which already had close 3 million members.

 

7) Native Americans lost more than 60% of the 138 million acres that they were given in1887, when the government encouraged people to settle on the land and take on the “habits of civilized life.”

 

8) In the 1930’s more women held high government positions than any other administration before it.

 

9) Leisure became a problem in the 1930s and there were 450 books published by professionals.

 10) After the fall of the motion picture industry in 1933, it experienced a rise in 1934 that was caused by a rise in attendance to movies.
Amanda what else did the Works Progress Administration do if anything else? When was it established? What kind of people were involved?



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steven

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The CCC( civilian conservations corp) a.k.a. Roosevelts tree Army was created to solve the problem of to many unemployed and/or drop out youths throughout the country. They were able to help in community with service projects assigned by the government and they were paid $30 a month for them and their family. They specialized in environmental conservation projects and planted 4 million acres of forest.

 

Herbert Hoover was the hardest working president ever to try and prevent an economic collapse until his time.

 

Fraklin Delano Roosevelt promised his voters a “New Deal” during the election of 1932 it was based on a superimposed walfare attribute off a capitalist system.

 

The great depression was an effect due to stock market speculation unbalanced distribution of income and too much use of credit. The high tariff and foreign imports and global economic problems also

 

The federal emergency relief administration was Roosevelt’s response to the growing number of Americans out of homes months later he created the CWA(civil works administration) which was believed to be the better administration. They were granted over 500 million dollars in grants and funds

 

The publics work Administration (PWA) built hospitals, libraries, schools, and courthouses. They also contributed to the Air corps and city homeless shelters/

 

The AAA (agricultural adjustment act) did more for large hold farmers than did for the tenant farmers it would often put them out of a job and put them out onto the street sides

 

Probably one of the most important sects of the New deal is the TVA (Tennessee valley authority) built hydroelectric plants and promoted everything from flood control to bookmobiles. The private utility industries butt heads with this administartion

 

A Banks closed at an alarming rate over 10 million bank accounts disappeared like a magic trick in effect a lot of people got layed off and business not doing so well closed down completely.

 

Some effects of the great depression were soup kitchens opening taxes were forced more on the richers class and pension payments were paid to wwI veterans.

 

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kathryn

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My topic is on how the Great Depression effected specific social classes, eventually separating the generations of the depression from after the depression.



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Tom

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In late 1931 most of the industrialized world was caught in the Great Depression.  (Argentina, Brazil, Japan etc…)

 

The twenty-first amendment ratified on December 5, 1933 repealed the eighteenth amendment, which ended Prohibition.

 

The Public Works Administration directed by Harold Ickles built houses, hospitals, schools and courthouses.  Also bridges and docks were constructed.

 

The Agricultural Adjustment Act help farmers by giving them control of major agricultural staples like wheat, cotton, corn, hogs, rice, tobacco and milk.

 

One single dust storm on May 11, 1934, removed 300 million tons of topsoil and blocked the sunlight.

 

The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 but an end to the use of public range in an attempt to stop the overgrazing.  This put an end the unlimited natural resources in the west.

 

 The Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenancy Act of 1937 created the Farm Security administration to aid tenant farmers and farm owners who lost there farms.

 

The 1930s brought a new age too Kitchens as improvements in appliances were developed.

 

In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Acts established a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and a maximum workweek of 40 hours in enterprises engaged in interstate commerce.

 

In 1935 the Social Security Act established unemployment compensation and old age and survivors’ insurance paid for by a joint tax on employers and employees.



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Krystal

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Kristen wrote:

The Dust Bowl 

The Dust Bowl, 1931 to 1939, was a series of dust storms mainly in the central United States.  It was caused by decades of inappropriate farming techniques. Farmers were plowing land as they had never before without a thought as to the damage that was being done.  By plowing they removed the fertile soil of the Great Plains and when the drought hit the soil dried up and became dust and blew mainly eastward.  This disaster created a migration from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains and left over 500,000 Americans homeless.  Many farm families gave up and left because of homes foreclosed for unpayable debts.  This migration was severe and 15% of the state of Oklahoma moved to California.  They were looking for new rich land to start planting again on.  During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first 100 days, governmental programs were made to restore the ecologic balance of the nation.  The soil Conservation Service, now known as the Natural Resources Conservation, retained topsoil and prevented irreparable damage to the land. Farming techniques such as strip cropping, terracing, crop rotation, contour plowing, and cover crops were advocated. Farmers were paid to practice soil-conserving farming techniques.  Roosevelt also thought that planting trees where the dust bowl was happening would help to stop or block the dust.  Rain finally came in the fall bringing this horrible drought and series of dust storms to an end.


http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
http://www.ptsi.net/user/museum/dustbowl.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/timeline/
Kristen; very interesting facts.  I didn't know that there was a soil conservation service.  Or what that even meant. ha.

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Brandi

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Part One Essay

Topic: Different ethnic groups during the Depression, mostly the Mexicans.

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans that were brought the US to work in the 1920’s lost their jobs during the Depression.  In the southwest they found signs that said “Only White Labor Employed” and other horrible signs.  Some New Deal agencies actually strived to help the Mexicans during the Depression.  Some worked for the CCC and the WPA.  On the other hand, in order to be employed in a real job they had to qualify for state relief, and most immigrants did not.  The solution seemed to be to ship them back to Mexico.  Police from Los Angeles held aliens illegally.  In 1933, officials deported thousands of immigrants every month.  But come Mexicans remained and learned militant tactics that way they would obtain fair treatment.  On August 31, 1939, many Mexican American women walked out of the largest food processing plants in Los Angeles.  Thousands of Mexican coal miners also went on strike in Gallup, New Mexico.   Asians were also treated poorly during the depression.  They lost their jobs and were treated as foreigners.  Native Americans went through alienation and disease and also despair.  Government policy had tried to make Indians into farmers in poverty and tried to limit their tribunal rights.  They lost more than 60 percent of the land that was granted to them in 1887.  Franklin Roosevelt tried to help Indian affairs with the Reorganization Act of 1934, but not all Indians supported the act.  Many ethnics groups faced harshness during the depression that caused them to either lose their jobs, their land, or even their homes when they were forced back to their former homelands.

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Tom

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Part 1

In late 1931 most of the industrialized world was caught in the Great Depression.  (Argentina, Brazil, Japan etc…)

 

The twenty-first amendment ratified on December 5, 1933 repealed the eighteenth amendment, which ended Prohibition.

 

The Public Works Administration directed by Harold Ickles built houses, hospitals, schools and courthouses.  Also bridges and docks were constructed.

 

The Agricultural Adjustment Act help farmers by giving them control of major agricultural staples like wheat, cotton, corn, hogs, rice, tobacco and milk.

 

One single dust storm on May 11, 1934, removed 300 million tons of topsoil and blocked the sunlight.

 

The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 but an end to the use of public range in an attempt to stop the overgrazing.  This put an end the unlimited natural resources in the west.

 

 The Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenancy Act of 1937 created the Farm Security administration to aid tenant farmers and farm owners who lost there farms.

 

The 1930s brought a new age too Kitchens as improvements in appliances were developed.

 

In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Acts established a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and a maximum workweek of 40 hours in enterprises engaged in interstate commerce.

 

In 1935 the Social Security Act established unemployment compensation and old age and survivors’ insurance paid for by a joint tax on employers and employees.



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Makeda

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I'm doing Earl Dickerson

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Krystal

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i think im going to do mike widman. i dont think anyone has him right?

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Butchie

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part 2-2

One event that greatly influenced my life was the Farmer’s Holiday Association.  In 1932 there was a farmer’s strike.  Also, the farmers got together to resist foreclosure.  Some farmers burned crops which only lowered the supply, raised the costs and made the competition for the selling of crops even more fierce.

            Another event was the closing of many banks around the country.  When banks started closing, they foreclosed on many homes and businesses. If the Bank of the United Staes started  providing emergency lending to these key banks or simply bought government bonds on the open market, after the key banks fell all the rest of the banks that fell after the very large and public ones did would not have, the money supply would not have fallen to the extent it did, and would not have fallen at the speed it did.



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Brandi

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Ok, i think i finally found someone that no one has... I think his name is Ed Paulson?? But i don't feel like going back and checking because by then someone will probably take him

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CRYSTAL

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topic: stock-market crash of 1929, effects, banks, etc.

sorry that the list went (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,10) i didn't mean to...

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alex j

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In the 1920’s the government had faith in Americas business and did almost nothing to regulate it.

 

The depressions worst year was 1932

 

During the first hundred days after Roosevelt’s inauguration he held session with congress in which they passed every law he requested

 

In 1935 Roosevelt’s so called “new deal” the batch of new legislation was focused on the other two R’s relief and reform.

 Racial discrimination continued in the 1930’s. African Americans were last to get fired and the first to get fired. Their unemployment rate was higher than the national average. Often jobless African Americans were excluded from state and local relief programs.






the second five facts to complete the 10 facts from all the readings.

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Alex Z.

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The Great Depression Project
Part I – 10 facts

1. The bonus army was a group of WWI veterans who had not received their full bonus (hence bonus army) from the government, who, in an attempt to get the attention of those denying them their pay, 17,000 veterans camped in Washington, D.C. 
2. Government policies up to the 1920s had little restraint and lots of trust in big business, which damaged the farmers’ economy and ultimately played a hand in causing “the crash.” 
3. The U.S. Gross National Product, or the value of the total of goods produced by the country in one year, was lowest in 1933 – the year FDR began his Presidency. 
4. Unemployment was also highest in 1933, measuring as high as one fourth of people in cities being out of work. 
5. When conditions got so bad that the Dawes Plan could no longer function, President Hoover asked for a “moratorium” so that money owed to foreigners could be paid later. 
6. In 1931, Hoover attempted to set up programs like FDR would during his upcoming presidency, but the move was not enough to win reelection. 
7. Some angry farmers in 1932 refused to have their houses foreclosed and gathered together to “fight” those “oppressing” them. 
8. The only real issue voters were concerned with during the 1932 election was the depression, so it is no surprise that, seeing how Hoover and the Republicans had done, the “new guy” (FDR) won. 
9. In the 1932 and 1936 elections FDR ran against a Republican and a third party candidate, while in 1940 and 1944 he ran against only one Republican. 
10. John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, a novel that follows the troubled lives of a family of “Oakies” on their way to California during the Dust Bowl. 

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steven

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The Agricultural adjustment act(May 12, 1933) was created under Roosevelt’s new deal and it’s intention was to lower the surplus of crops for farmers. The Agricultural adjustment administration was directly created from this act. The Idea was to lessen all crops across the nation to bring up the unit value because the less of something there was the more it was worth and therefore the more they would receive or there efforts. However instead of a necessary good, most people saw most people saw the AAA as cruel and harmful. When the AAA was founded it was in the middle of the farming season so in order to do there work they would have to destroy somewhere around a quarter of all farmers holdings to be even. The most numerous crop was cotton so their effort was basically around that area at first. No other crops or animals were affected in 1933, but six million piglets and 220,000 pregnant cows were slaughtered in the AAA's effort to raise prices. The AAA actually was deemed unconstituional in the court case United States v. Butler(Jan. 6 1936)and it closed down the AAA with the justification that it taxed one farmer just to pay another. It was true that it only helped the large holding farmers. Under a new Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act the goal of the AAA was achieved and soon another AAA with a more generalized tax was created. By the way just to remind everyone I have Earl Dikinson…..

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s.bailey

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part 1
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Samantha Bailey

 

The dust bowl forced 3.5 million farmers to abandon their lives. Over 9 million acres were laid to waste by dust storms, making it impossible for farmers to continue their lifestyle. Also, the failure of banks caused many farmers to lose their homes due to their loans being called in, and mostly all of them could not pay. The most logical place these newly migrant farmers found to go was California. The mild climate and rich soil made California seem like paradise compared to their ruined homes. Also, the seemingly boundless supply of jobs brought hope for a new life to many of the dust bowl migrants.

            More than 350,000 from Oklahoma alone left for California. About 20% of the migrants to California were from Oklahoma, and Okie came to be a derogatory term for dust bowl migrant farmers. Californians, who were typically conservative and unexposed to other cultures, developed heavy prejudice against the ‘okies’. The fact that their state was already overburdened and they too were feeling the effects of the depression, only increased their prejudice against the migrants and the strain the brought upon the state system. Many were turned away at the borders after making their journey down the ‘Mother Road’ or ‘Main Street of America’ Route 66. The seemingly boundless employment opportunity was quickly dried up due to the extreme amount of migrants, and even those who did find jobs could barely keep going due to the very low wages.  California soon was realized by many of the dust bowl refugees not to be the home of their dreams.

migrant mother

“Migrant Mother”

Photograph by Dorthea Lange Nipomo, California, February 1936.

(Library of Congress)



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sarah

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RE: The Great Depression Project
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The stock market collapse in America triggered and international depression that affected almost every country in Europe. Germany was the first to collapse under the pressure of a failing economy. As early as the 1920’s, the lower class of Europe were experiencing unemployment and extreme poverty. Until the Great Depression hit America, the plight of the poor was ignored. Instead of coming to peaceful agreement between classes, the poor and unemployed retaliated against the upper classes. The deprivation couldn’t be ignored any longer.

 Since the end of World War 1 Germany had been in a downward spiral, and could not recover. The war debts they had to repay were insurmountable, and soon Germany experienced “hyperinflation”, which drastically reduced the value of German money. Finally, once America was unable to assist Germany with the war reparations anymore, the economy bottomed out and fell into chaos. The Chancellor of Germany tried his hardest to employ emergency powers given him by the President to create public benefits projects, but these were so limited in their ability to help that they made very little difference. Britain had also never fully recovered from World War 1. Shipping had not been able to cover the cost of submarines and ships lost during battles, and they also lost money as foreign interest and capital moved continuously to the United States. France was one of the only Western European countries that did well after World War 1. So much damage was caused by fighting in France, that the government had to put a majority of its money into reconstruction. Due to this, French industry received more advanced machinery, and learned new techniques, which helped them advance over other countries. Also, France was given control of many valuable territories in Germany. France felt the Great Depression only in the decline of tourism & food exports. These instances of economic instability showed that the United States were a major economic force, and helped support many instable countries before the eventual collapse of their own. The Great Depression lead to the reorganization of finance and capitalism in order to prevent anything like the Great Depression from happening ever again.  

http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/eu/mod04_depression/context.html
Part 1, Ch. 24

this was.....fun. lol Google didnt seem to know what I was talking about.
"Uhm...The Great Depression happened in AMERICA, stupid."



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kp

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Part I - continued
Topic: Dust Bowl

 

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was a direct result of a severe drought and decades of poor farming techniques that caused dust storms which are common in dry, arid regions. By exposing soil by plowing and leaving it to dry out, black clouds of dust would form and blow away into the air. During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, more than 500,000 American were left homeless, either dying of “dust phenomeia or escaped west to look for work and a better life for themselves and their family. Over-plowing on the fields was caused by the overproduction following World War I, which caused farmers to destroy their fields pushing its limits so that they could create profits from the war. What was known as “Black Sunday” (April 14, 1935) was considered to be one of the worst dust storms during the Depression. Clear skies had shown that morning but by mid-afternoon, day turned into night and a huge black cloud appeared. The dust storm on Black Sunday was the last major storm of that year but the damage was long lasting.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/filmmore/reference/interview/melt03.html

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Alex Z.

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essay topic

dibs on:

fireside chats

!



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sarah

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L. Gonzalez wrote:

10. Many of the veterans that fought in World War I were among those who were unemployed.  So they wanted to be able to receive some of their bonuses for taking part in the war.  Then in 1931 a bill was passed in Congress giving those veterans the opportunity to receive 50percent of those bonuses to help them at least get by.

I hadn't found this in the chapter.
Anyways. My question.

How much would 50 % of their bonuses amout to? And how was the government able to pay these bills off?



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Butchie

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part 2-3

I experienced much racism in my life.  In my travels as a migrant worker many people would discriminate against my family because we were Mexican.  For example, one day my brother and I were shining shoes and we had made enough money to go buy hamburgers in town.  But when we went into the diner to get one they told us, “We don’t serve Mexicans here.”  Even though we had the money, they still didn’t want to serve us.

            Herbert Hoover made the Federal Farm Board, which was against farmers.  It was an abuse of economic power.  He raised crop prices and hurt us small farmers.  It made us foreclose on our house and we had to become migrant workers.

            The New Deal didn’t give many benefits to migrant workers and us small farmers.  They showed us no equality.  They gave many programs to help the inner city workers and people but all they did to us farmers was burn our crops and raise our prices.

            Many employers were very prejudice when it came to giving us the right amount of money for the amount of work we did.  Or they would treat us harsh and give us bad jobs just because we were new.  It wasn’t right.   

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Brittney

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Brittney Howell  Essay. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which was created in 1932 under the administration of Herbert Hoover. It played a great role in handling the Great Depression and helped in setting up the relief programs that were taken over by the New Deal in 1933. RFC was an independent U.S. government agency who’s purpose was to help with economic activity by lending money during the depression. At the beginning it only lent money to financial, industrial, and agricultural institutions but its operations was greatly expanded by the New Deal administrations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 
This agency gave out  $1.5 billion in 1932, $1.8 billion in 1933, and $1.8 billion in 1934. Then it dropped to about $350 million a year. Heading towards World War II it greatly expanded to build factories giving away $1.8 billion in 1941. The total from 1932 through 1941 was $9.465 billion.
Hoover had appointed Atlee Pomerence of Ohio be head of the agency in July 1932. His main reasons for his surprising reorganization of the RFC included: the broken health and resignations of M. Eugene Myers, Paul Bestor, and Charles Gates Dawes, the failure of banks to perform their duties or to aid American industry, the country’s lack of confidence in the current board, and Hoover’s inability to find another man who had the ability and was both nationally respected and available.

The RFC failed to disperse many of its funds, it also failed to reverse the growth of mass unemployment before 1933. It was shown that initially the RFC had succeeded in reducing bank failures but then at the demand of congress the names of the recipients of the loans need to be taken, it reduced the effectiveness of the loans because it appeared that political considerations had effected the loans.

Under the administrations of Roosevelt it financed the construction and operation of war plants, made loans to foreign governments, provided protection against war and disaster damages, and engaged in numerous other activities. In 1939 the RFC merged with other agencies to form the Federal Loan Agency.


 http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0841310.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Finance_Corporation

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C.Santos

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Jessica wrote:

The bonus Army  PART 1 Essay thing

      IN 1931 a bill overriding Hoover's veto was passed by congress to allow them to borrow 50% of the Bonus dues to pay war veterans. In mid-june the senate defeated the Bonus Bill which left many war veterans to resign.On july 28 in attempt to remove some of the Veterans Washington ended up shooting to veterans while the protesting Veterans severely beat most of Washingtons army. Hoover then ordered federal troops to remove them from the area.The federal army when sent to remove the vets from the area torched the veterans tents and used tear gas for them to evacuate.  Veterans evacuated and shared their demands with the new president Roosevelt.
After the presidential election,with Roosevelt president, his wife Ellenor was sent to the veterans and pursuaded many of them to work on the roadway in Florida Keys that became known as the Overseas Highway.  The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 ended up killing 259 veteran soldiers working on the Overseas Highway. After this horrid disaster Roosevelts veto was ignored making the Bonus Bill a reality


Jess did Roosevelt give money to the vets right away or did he at all give them their money? Do u think these poeple desereved this money after all the hardships they faced? How about the rights these people had to the money for fighting for the country they loved?



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melissa

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PART II
Biography

John Beecher was born in New York City on January 22, 1904. He was an activist poet who wrote about the Southern United States during the Great Depression and the American Civil Rights Movement. Beecher was extremely active in the American labor and Civil Rights movements. During the McCarthy era, Beecher lost his teaching job for refusing to sign a state loyalty oath; seventeen years later the California Supreme Court overturned this and reinstated him. Beecher's family was descended from New England abolitionists (including Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) and his father was a steel industry executive. In 1907, Beecher's father was transferred to Birmingham, Alabama to work for the United States Steel Corporation; as a result of this, Beecher spent the rest of his childhood in the American South. Beecher's family had intended their son to become an executive like his father. However, as a young man Beecher went to work in the steel mills at the outset of the Great Depression. The labor abuses he saw there caused him to become active in labor movement issues. He also began to write the radical activist poetry he eventually became known for. During World War II, he served as a commissioned officer of the interracial crew of the troop transport Booker T. Washington, and wrote a book about these experiences. Beecher used his books and poetry to address basic human issues such as justice and equality. Unlike these other writers, however, Beecher also addressed racism, in his writing; a problem he felt was significant in the pre-Civil Rights Movement South. Beecher's books included Report to the Stockholders, To Live and Die in Dixie, In Egypt Land, and a 1974 Macmillian edition of his collected poems. All are out of print, although a new collection of his poetry, One More River to Cross: The Selected Poetry of John Beecher, was published by New South Books in 2003.



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kp

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s.bailey wrote:

 

            Many were turned away at the borders after making their journey down the ‘Mother Road’ or ‘Main Street of America’ Route 66. .........California soon was realized by many of the dust bowl refugees not to be the home of their dreams.

migrant mother

“Migrant Mother”

Photograph by Dorthea Lange Nipomo, California, February 1936.

(Library of Congress)


I've done a lot of research of the Great Depression not only this year in Mr. Everett's class but also back in elementary school for a social fair were my topic was the depression. I was not suprised to hear most of this information until i came across the "Mother Road' or "Main Street of America," why do you think so many helpless people were turned away and who made these decisions. All along i thought that California was a "dream" for many people who moved west, thanks for enlightening me =}


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Julia Greene

Date:
Part II
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My name is Jane Yoder, and I am one of the few women that lived during the Great Depression and were fortunate enough to make something out of themselves.  I grew up in a middle class family with my father working as a blacksmith who was soon out of a job when the mines closed around 1928-1930. This would affect my whole family.

This is when the Great Depression hit me.  My family was struggling. Struggling to find jobs and struggling to keep warm.  We had no blankets, no coats.  When I was finally able to buy myself a coat, I was made fun of, but it didn’t matter to me- I was warm.  Shoes and clothes were used over and over no matter how ragged they were.  (Poverty)

In the Yoder family, it was actually a prize to become sick.  If a child threw up, our mother would bring them oranges and bananas and everything would be “all right.”  We rarely went grocery shopping in fear of what the bill would look like.  Instead, the children would sit around and talk about the food.

A miracle happened when my father became employed in the WPA. For the Yoder family, this meant survival. Although this was a great advancement in our family, the WPA was always criticized. (Prejudice –not good enough)

I finally got the pleasure of being able to get into nursing training.  Co-workers would talk about how the employees at WPA were lazy.  I would sit back and think, “you don’t know what it’s like.” Shouldn’t everyone have a chance to have a job? (Equality)

I was a strong woman who came from a poor, middle-class family and was lucky enough to get myself a respectable job in the nursing field. (Gender)

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Kelsey Smith

Date:
RE: The Great Depression Project
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Cast:
Vincent Murray
People:
My name is Sergeant Vincent Murray both my father and brother worked in the stockyards. At the time my father made 10 cents an hour, and my brother worked 10 hours for a dollar a day. If you mentioned unions to workers or to the bosses you would get fired. The American Federation of Labor did nothing but the Congress of Industrial Organizations did. The CIO was formed in 1938 and had many communists held power within the union causing people to call them left wings or Bolsheviks. Me on the other had I worked at the American Express Company for 10 years before I was laid off in 1933. After I was laid off I couldn’t find work for a year, I went to different aldermen but there were no jobs to offer. In 1935 I joined the force along with 500 other young fellows that day. We had a starting salary of $2300a year, and we had to buy all of our cetera from uniforms, guns, and shirts. I went to work on a streetcar along with about 95% of the other policemen at that time. Now you almost never see a policeman on the bus to get to work. Back then we lived with what we could have; now everyone lives over their heads, living in debt. They could moonlight, which wasn’t an option in my day, people were grateful to have their one job let along having two. Moonlighting is when you pick up an extra job, working as a cab driver at night or having their wives go to work. People were so desperate for work that they would believe anyone if they were offered a job. One man by the name of Mr. Parsons was a man who took advantage of people in this desperate time. Mr. Parsons would confront young men and ask them if they were in need for a job, when replying yes he would have them follow him with an intent to work the next day. He said he could give them a job working an elevator for $30 a week, and all they needed was $50 for a uniform that he would pick up and provide to them when they showed up for work. When these young men showed up for their work they would soon find out that Mr. Parsons was not there, and no one knew of him. There were multiple accounts of this occurring to men, with just about 50 complaints. To catch Mr. Parsons policemen put on plain clothes and walked around the employment agencies till he confronted him. Once taken in to custody 30 men came in and identified him as the man who lied to them about work.
Other sites used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations#Purging_the Communists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Labor

I hope that was long enough and i did it right.

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s.bailey

Date:
part 2
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I was a young, small, pretty woman, but a ‘troublemaker’ none-the-less. I worked as a seamstress in the early depression, and was fired from many jobs for organizing the other girls. I just had a knack for telling people off.  I once had a boss who was quite a caller. He would ask me out often, until one day I agreed. He asked where we were to go, and I told him his house, seeing how his wife was such a nice a woman and I would very much like to eat dinner with her. Needless to say, she was very happy to see me, but not so much her husband. I had another job where I was a pieceworker. A pieceworker gets paid not by the clock, but by the amount of work they do. Seeing as how I was very fast and rather good, this seemed about right for me. However, they tried to get us to ring a time clock, which I of course, refused. They were some of the few employers I had who would deal with my stubbornness. They couldn’t afford to lose my skill. It was my skill that kept my in work and alive during the depression. If I hadn’t been so good at what I done, I wouldn’t have had a penny to my name. Due to my lack of fear of my bosses, I became chairlady of our union. When the union wasn’t up to getting us what we wanted, I organized a sit in with the girls. The bosses and the union were not very amused. Called us a bunch of communists. If they wanted to be so rude, I just decided to take the girls on a walk. We all up and left that shop. Every single last one of us. Even if they were to fire me, I wasn’t scared. Even with having to care for my little girl. I am Evelyn Finn of St. Louis, a seamstress and labor organizer during the great depression.

 (I’m not gunna lie, I was a little unsure of how to go about this work…I don’t know if this is completely off track or not)

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mre

Date:
RE: The Great Depression Project
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Grades updated - end of class, Wednesday

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Kelsey Rae Lewin

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Ten Facts from Reading:  Part I. 

1.  In 1932, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) granted emergency loans to banks, life insurance companies, and railroads (passed during Hoover administration).

 

2.  In 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed young men (and a few women) in reforestation, road construction, and flood control projects.  Also in 1933 the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) granted farmers direct payments for reducing production of certain products; funds for payments provided by a processing tax, which was later declared unconstitutional, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) created independent public corporation to construct dams and power projects and to develop the economy of a nine-state area in the Tennessee River Valley.

 

3.       In 1933 the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) sought to revive business through a series of fair-competition codes; Section 7a guaranteed labor’s right to organize (later declared unconstitutional).

 

4.      In 1933 the Public Works Administration (PWA) sought to increase employment and business activity through construction of roads, buildings, and other projects.

 

5.     In 1934 the National Housing Act—created Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which insured loans, made by banks for construction of new homes and repair of old homes.

 

6.     In 1935 the Emergency relief Appropriation Act—created Works Progress Administration (WPA) employing more than 8 million people to repair roads, build bridges, and work on other projects; also hired artists and writers.

 

7.     In 1935, the Social Security Act established unemployment compensation and old age and survivors’ insurance paid for by a joint tax on employers and employees.

 

8.       In 1935 the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Connery Act) recognized the right of employees to join labor unions and to bargain collectively; created a National Labor Relations Board to supervise elections and to prevent unfair labor practices.

 

9.     In 1937 the National Housing Act (Wagner-Steagall Act) authorized low rent public housing projects.

  

10.    In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act established minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and maximum workweek of 40 hours in enterprises engaged in interstate commerce, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) continued price supports and payments to farmers to limit production, as in the 1933 act earlier, but replaced processing tax with direct federal payment.

  -kels.

now i have to find a free topic to research that hasn't already been chosen.

 

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C.Santos

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Part 2: Biography: Aaron Barkman

 

         Aaron Barkman was born in West Virginia during the times of hard times in the United States. Aaron’s family lived on a small farm and owned a hog and a cow, which meant his parents weren’t great farmers but made enough to get by. His dad worked in the coalmines and later died of his arteries clogging on him. His father belonged tosome group who after his death paid his mother $11 dollars a month to help them out. When Prohibition was a big deal in the United States, Aaron and his brothers would merchandise moonshine and rum and would get away with it. Aaron himself was very young at the time and would be a rumrunner for his brothers. They would make a bit of profit off of it but they got away with everything. His father was part of the KKK and in during the Great Depression he witnessed the KKK actually as the law enforcers at the time in his city. Aaron used to run around the city away from his cousin who was the sheriff and actually manage to drop off his moonshine to his buyers and was never caught.

 The Events:·        The Rise of the KKK- when the sheriff’s office began a bitter fight with unions over money making in the city a new election would actually kick my cousin out of his job and put the union under control. The KKK, a group of people who my father used to be a leader of came into town and enforced the law in the town and promoted our rights. The funny thing was that they were not only against Negroes but against anyone who would be hurting the city. All they would do was whip people and run them and their family out of town.·        Prohibition- since alcohol was illegal and everyone wanted it my brothers and I began rum running. We would buy illegal gallons of moonshine for $1 a gallon and then we’d sell a pint of it for 25 cents each making more profit. When the dealers were getting in trouble and being fined for selling whole gallons we would get away with it because we only bought ½ gallon moonshine bottles and then we’d reduce it to our pints and sell it.·        The Great Depression- So many people lost their jobs and people would be paid less. When everyone used to get paid a few dollars to load a 4-ton truck with things after the Depression the same job would be harder and if anyone messed up but managed the job we wouldn’t get paid. No one person was rich and there were actually fights over the unions and big businessmen over jobs. I remember having to bring my gun with me in one union meeting to make sure no one started any funny business. The news of bombs going off destroying union meetings and buildings scared everyone and I for a fact wanted my union but I didn’t really want to die of a bomb.·        The Labor Relations Board- was involved with granting permission for unions to be created but we in the south totally avoided it. We needed the most protection because the law was hurting us a lot. We couldn’t sell anything and hardly had enough to survive.

Issues:

  • Economic Power: Don’t you think that the government should help the people out by giving us jobs down here in the South to actually allow us to live good lives? Shouldn’t we have the rights to create unions for the protection of our rights as workers especially in this time of struggle?
  • Justice: Shouldn’t we have the government put its foot down to these tyrants in the South who just cared about their business over the well being of their workers?
  • Patriotism: Shouldn’t it be up to the government to actually bring the nation up as a whole? The KKK was the law in the community and was actually helping out people try to get together and survive. They fought for unions and our rights. This group who were considered bad were also affected the same way and tried to pull together to keep the patriotic idea of working together alive.
  • Equality: At this time the racial ideas of the KKK seemed a bit lessened. In the story Aaron refers to the account of a black man slapping a white man and he was whipped for it but if a white man hit a Black man he also received the same punishment.
 

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Brandi

Date:
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Part 2

Ed Paulsen

My name is Ed Paulsen.  Ever since I was 14 I would always love to ride the freights across the land, and I especially loved to ride to my home in South Dakota.  I have one sister who is married.  I also have two brothers.  My sister and her husband used to live on a little farm.  When I was young I also loved to play baseball.  I played semi-pro baseball and I even played against Satchell Paige.  The way I made money was through punching cattle.  This way I was able to earn ten dollars a month.  But I always loved to move around so I never wanted to stay there.  I always wanted to go to Los Angeles or San Francisco.  See, people like me out here in the small towns in the west didn’t even realize there was a crash in ’29.  It’s not like we had enough money to hold stocks anyways.  But things got tougher and it was scary to see people so many people in soup lines.  We didn’t know how to join a soup line.  I tried to get a job in San Francisco on the docks, but now you had to have a college degree to do that kind of work.  I remember many men demanding many things.  They would demand shelter for their families, they would demand work, and they would demand groceries.  Most of the men who were demanding things were Negroes.  I remember clearly people trying to sell apples on the corners of streets, even though not much came out of it.  There would be people yelling, then the police would come.  Sooner or later there would be shooting.  There was a constant struggle even though they all knew they would never win.  I ran into Upton Sinclair in 1934.  He had an audience listening to him and his idea was to relate the unemployed to the resources not being used.  That got me so mad because the hungry should be eating the food. I ended up getting a job singing with the quartet that was campaigning with him. I could not stand the American Legion at this time.  They would drive people out of Hoovervilles with bats and they raided them.  I remember going to the Transient Camp.  We checked in, took a bath, and even had a wonderful meal.  We had beds, toothbrushes, towels, and it felt so good. I remember someone asking me what kind of place this was, and I answered that I didn’t know, but it sure was different.

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melanie<3

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The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) was known as Roosevelt’s “tree army” because the corps planted trees covering more than 2 million acres, improved more than 4 million acres of existing forest and fought forest fires.

2)     
There had been recessions and depressions in American history, notably in the 1830’s, 1870’s, and 1890’s, but nothing compared with the devastating economic collapse of 1930’s.

3)   
   More than 4 million Americans were out of work in 1930 and at least 12 million by 1932.

4)   
   More than a collapsing market afflicted the economy; an additional 1,300 banks failed in 1930.

5)   
   The first New Deal, lasting from 1933 to early 1935, focused mainly on recovery from the Depression and relief of the poor an unemployed.

6)   
   The Beer-wine Revenue Act legalized beer that had an alcohol content of 3.2 percent and light wines and levied a tax on both.

7)   
   The 21st amendment, ratified on December 5, 1933, repealed the 18th amendment and ended the Prohibition experiment.

8)   
   Stock market prices rose slightly, and industrial production was up 11 percent at the end of 1933.

9)   
   The number of people over age of 65 in the country increased from 5.7 million in 1925 to 7.8 million 1935, and that group demanded action.

10) 
By 1941 black federal employees totaled 150,000, more that three times the number during the Hoover administration.

    


* The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) was a work relief program that was established in March 1933. It was created by FDR in his first hundred days for young men from unemployed families. It was on of the most popular and successful New Deal programs. Young men were paid to do heavy construction work in rural camps for about six months. The army ran the actual camps. These young men did not need any training and were paid about 1$ a day. The slogan of the CCC was “We can take it!” The CCC first limited the ages of workers 18-25 but changed it to 17-23 in 1937. More than half the enrollees who entered CCC in 1937 were seventeen years of age. Work, marching drill, good food, and medical care feature the CCC health program. The CCC planted trees, improved acres, and stoped forest fires. They built buildings and state parks as well as national parks. Instalation of power and telephone lines was also a job of the CCC. These young men were guarenteed 40 hours of work a week, being paid 30$ a month. They were required to send 25$ home to family. The Civilian Conservation Corp helped these men by not only giving them a job but also providing them with uniforms and good food. The CCC was a very successful New Deal program that helped relieve many young men from the terror of depression. 



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s.bailey

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kp wrote:

s.bailey wrote:

 

            Many were turned away at the borders after making their journey down the ‘Mother Road’ or ‘Main Street of America’ Route 66. .........California soon was realized by many of the dust bowl refugees not to be the home of their dreams.


I've done a lot of research of the Great Depression not only this year in Mr. Everett's class but also back in elementary school for a social fair were my topic was the depression. I was not suprised to hear most of this information until i came across the "Mother Road' or "Main Street of America," why do you think so many helpless people were turned away and who made these decisions. All along i thought that California was a "dream" for many people who moved west, thanks for enlightening me =}

Many were turned away due to the state government just being so overwhlemed. it kind of closed many of its borders. once many people got their would leave anyways, seeing as how thier was no oportunity for work. route 66 became the mother road, because it lead straight from the dust bowl area to california. it was almost like the yellow brick road in the wizard of oz. it lead to the salvation of all your problems, but once people got thier they realized that the 'wizard' was not all that helpful and powerful.also the native people of california made things very difficult for migrants, giving them low wages and often not hiring them at all. california was actually very rampant with prejudice and forced many of the refugees not turned away by the government to live in unsanitary poverty.



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Jarred

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Civilian Conservation Corps

By Jarred Rose

 

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a program formed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first hundred days of his presidency. It was a work relief program for young men in unemployed families to make money for themselves and their families. It became one of the most popular New Deal agency to be formed.

The enrollees worked in camps, mostly on construction jobs. They would receive an average of $30 a month, $5 for themselves and $25 for their families. IT was first run under the Labor and Agricultural departments but would eventually run itself. The Army using 3,000 reserve troops who became the camp directors ran the actual camps. The CCC had about 13% of all it enrollees doing leadership roles (at about $36-45 a month). Due to this it cost the government about $1100 per person per year. In 1936 annual expenses for the CCC by the government reached an all time high of about $894 billion. In August 1935 the CCC hit its highest amount of people with 502,000 in 2,600 camps.

The Labor Department feared the CCC in the beginning because they believed that if these new people were trained they would compete with the established unions and the people in them for already scarce jobs. Roosevelt however promised that they would not be trained in anyway for their jobs. After an exhausting day of work the youth could, if they wanted, at different night classes at different educational levels from college-level U.S. History and Civics to basic literacy. Also other skills were taught such as motor repair, cooking, and baking.

Many of their tasks were based on construction and conservation throughout the country. They would impound lakes and prevent soil erosion. The CCC constructed many trails and building in state and national parks that are still used today. They did everything that needed doing such as fence construction, installation of telephone and power lines, construction of logging and fire roads, tree-planting, and even beekeeping, archaeological excavation, and furniture manufacture. They were the first true wildland fire suppression unit and planted and estimated 5 billion trees. Life in the camps was surpisingly good. At the time of their entry over 70% of everyone joining were malnurished and poorly clothed. They received two sets of cloths, plenty of food, and wooden baracks to sleep in. They lived in semi-military style but never received any military training.

When the draft for World War 2 began fewer and fewer eligiable men were available and all of the work (except wildfire fighting) shifted to construction and reconstuction of military bases. On June 30th, 1942 Congress cut its funding entirly to use for the war.   



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