ilother and other

families were stranded

aftertTie pea crop they were to I
harvest failed The goverr
sent 20,000 pounds of food to
help the stranded workersat
farminC

THE STORY MATTERS LESSON I

The Causes of the Great
During the prosperous 1920s, optimism drove stock prices to new highs, but Depression
risky investment practices set the stage for a crash. Sensing danger, investors
sold their holdings, causing the market to lose billions of dollars and the nation’s LESSON 2
Life During the Great
banks to collapse.
Depression
Companies went out of business, millions of Americans were unemployed, and
families could not buy food. When a terrible drought struck the Great Plains, LESSON 3
farmers were unable to grow crops, leading to even more devastation. Hoover’s Response to the
Depression
ENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What causes changes in the economy over time?

• How do depressions affect societies?

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495
CHAPTERS

Place & Time: United States 1928-1933

to the profound despair of

When the stock market crashed in October 1929, the extreme optimism of the 1920s turned
the government’ s help. Veterans grew
the Great Depression. By the early 1930s, more Americans were demanding
a promised bonus. Wearing ragged
frustrated and began to march to Capitol Hill to demand the immediate payment of
railroads to Washington,
military uniforms and singing old war songs, this “Bonus Army” traveled the highways and
each asking the government for early
D.C., to protest their plight. By July 1932, more than 15,000 unemployed veterans,
payment of cash bonuses due to be paid in 1945, converged on the nation’s capital.

Step Into the Place

Read the quotes and ook at the information presented on the map.
Analyzing Historical Documents How do the following
I .4 DAa quotes reflect the ways people helped one another during -c

the Great Depression?

PRIMARY SOURCE

/iThe conductor’d want to find out how many guys were in the
yard, so he would know how many empty boxcars to put onto the
train. Of course, the railroad companies didn’t know this, but
these conductors, out of their sympathy, would put two or three co
empty boxcars in the train, so these bonus marchers could crawl
into them and ride comfortable into Washington.!!
—Jim 5heridan, a traveler with the Bonus Army in 1932, quoted in An American Epic

PRIMARY SOURCE

AiWith American flags flying before them, sixteen truckloads of war

veterans came to the end of a transcontinental hitch-hike today with
the avowed purpose of remaining in Washington until Congress pays
their bonus in full.
Weather-beaten, travel-strained and dog-tired, the former soldiers—330
from the Pacific Coast—crossed the District line in trucks supplied by
Maryland and found a hot stew, bread, milk and coffee awaiting them.”
—from the New York Times, May 30, 1932
- r1 n r\v

]D[
1. The staging point for
the U.S. Army tasked with
1expelling the Bonus Army
from Washington, D.C.
2. Camp Glassford the site where
-

veterans clashed with police.

Veterans William Hushka and Eric
Carison were killed when police
opened fire on the crowd. Camp
Glassford was the first site
forcibly evacuated by the army.

—‘—I—.’
3. The Red Camp the site
-

1 of the second evacuation

of veterans. Many of the
Communists that made up
this camp had fled before
the army arrived.

4. Camp Marks the camp

- I
of 7,000 veterans and
their families was cleared
and burned in the late
hours of July 28th.

ost

Anacostia
_________________________________

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LESSON I

I he Causes of the Great

Depression
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What causes changes in the economy over time?

• How do depressions affect societies?
READING HELPDESK
Academic Vocabulary
• collapse • sum IT MATTERS BECAUSE
• invest Although the 1920s were prosperous, speculation in the
stock market, risky lending policies, overproduction, and
Content Vocabulary uneven income distribution eventually undermined the
• stock market • margin call economy and led to the Great Depression.
• bull market • bank run

The Long Bull Market

. speculation . installment

• margin

GUIDING QUESTION What economic choices caused the economy to become

unstable in the late 1920s?

The economic collapse that began in 1929 seemed unimaginable months

TAKING NOTES: before. In the 1928 election, both presidential candidates painted a rosy
Key Ideas and Details picture of the future. Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover
Organizing As you read the lesson, declared, “We are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before
complete a graphic organizer similar in the history of any land.”
to the one below to list the causes of
the Depression. The Election of 1928
Causes For the presidential election of 1928, the Democrats chose Alfred E. Smith,
governor of New York. Smith was the first Roman Catholic to win a major
party’s presidential nomination. He faced a tough challenger, as Herbert Hoover
was secretary of commerce and former head of the Food Administration.
Snth’s religious beliefs became a campaign issue. Some Protestants
claimed the Catholic Church financed Smith’s campaign and would have
inappropriate influence on American politics. The attacks embarrassed
Hoover, a Quaker, and he tried to quash them, but the charges damaged
Smith’s candidacy.
The prosperity of the 1920s—for which the Republicans took full credit—
was a bigger challenge to Smith’s candidacy. Hoover won in a landslide. On
March 4, 1929, an estimated 50,000 onlookers stood in the rain to listen to
Hoover’s Inaugural Address. “I have no fears for the future of our country,”
proclaimed Hoover. “It is bright with hope.’

The Stock Market Soars

The optimism that svepLHon’c”
stock prices, or a bull market. The bull market of the 1920s convinced many to collapse a sudden loss of
invest in stocks. By 1929, approximately 10 percent of American households force, value, or effect
owned stocks.
stock market a system for
Before the late 1920s, stock prices generally reflected their true values. In the buying and selling stocks
late 1920s, however, many investors failed to consider a company’s earnings and in corporations
profits. Buyers engaged in speculation, or betting the market would continue to
climb, thus enabling them to seU stock and make money quickly. bull market long period of
rising stock prices
Many investors bought stocks on margin, making only a small cash down
payment (as low as 10 percent of the price). With $1,000, an investor could buy a invest to put money into a
sum of $10,000 worth of stock. The remaining $9,000 came as an interest-bearing company in order to gain a future
loan from the stockbroker. Quick profits were possible if stock prices kept rising, financial reward
but problems came when prices began to fall. To protect a loan, a broker could speculation act of buying
issue a margin call, demanding the investor repay the loan at once. stocks at great risk with the
anticipation that the prices
READING PROGRESS CHECK will rise
Summarizing What investment decisions destabilized the economy during the 1920s? margin buying a stock by
paying only a fraction of the stock
price and borrowing the rest
The Great Crash
sum a specified amount of money
GUIDING QUESTION How did the stock market crash trigger a chain of events that/ed to
the Depression? margin call demand by a
broker that investors pay back
The bull market lasted only as long as investors continued putting new money loans made for stocks purchased
into it. In September 1929, the market peaked. Prices then began an uneven on margin
downward slide. As investors decided the boom was over, they sold more stock,
causing prices to decline even further.

The Stock Market Crash

On Monday, October 21, 1929, the comedian Groucho Marx was awakened by a
telephone call from his broker. “You’d better get down here with some cash to
cover your margin,” the broker said. The stock market had plunged. The dazed
comedian had to pay back the money he had borrowed to buy stocks, which were
now selling for far less than he had paid for them. Other brokers made similar
margin calls. Customers put stocks up for sale at a frenzied pace, driving the
market into a tailspin.
On October 24, a day that came to be called Black Thursda the market
plummeted further. Marx was wiped out. His earnings from plays and films were

THE MARKET FALLS CHARTS/GRAPHS

$400 Until the crash of 1929,
investors pumped money
into the market, often
a) $300
I
buying stocks on margin.
1 Making Inferences What
a) $200 can you infer about the
a) health of the stock market
U
prior to 1929?
$100
2 Making Generalizations
What generalization can
o
you make about the
) O c’
variation in highs and lows
of the stock market from
Dow-Jones Industrial Averages
1920 to 1932?
Source: Standard and Poor’s Security Price Index Record.

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 gone, and he was deeply in debt. His son
recalled his visit to the brokerage firm, as
Groucho spotted his broker:

PRIMARY SOURCE

“He was sitting in front of the now-stilled ticker-

tape machine, with his head buried in his hands.
Ticker tape was strewn around him on the floor,
and the place . looked as if it hadn’t been
. .

swept out in a week. [Groucho] tapped [him] on

the shoulder, [and said] ‘Aren’t you the fellow
who said nothing could go wrong—that we were
in a world market?’ ‘I guess I made a mistake,’
said Mr. Green. ‘No, I’m the one who made a
mistake,’ said [Groucho]. ‘I listened
to you.’I
—from Life with Groucho, 1954

The following week, on October 29,

Mayhem erupted on Wall Street after a day that was later dubbed Black
the stock market crashed. Tuesday, prices took the steepest dive yet. That day, more than 16 million
CRITICAL THINKING shares of stock were sold, and the value of the industrial index (a measure
Identifying Central Ideas What of the value of leading industrial companies) dropped by 10 percent. By
investment practices most mid-November, the market price of stocks had dropped by more than
destabilized the stock market? one-third. Some $30 billion was lost, a sum roughly equal to the total wages
Americans earned in 1929. Although the stock market crash was not the
major cause of the Depression, it undermined the economy’s ability to
overcome other weaknesses.

Banks Begin to Close

The market crash weakened the nation’s banks in two ways. First, by 1929,
banks had lent billions to stock speculators. Second, many banks had
invested depositors’ money in the stock market, hoping for high returns.
When stock values collapsed, banks lost money on their investments, and
speculators defaulted on their loans. Having suffered serious losses, many
banks cut back drastically on loans. ‘Nith less credit available, consumers
and businesses were not able to borrow as much money, sending the
economy into a recession.
Some banks could not absorb the losses they suffered and had to close.
The government did not insure bank deposits, so if a bank failed, customers,
including even those who did not invest in the stock market, lost their
savings. As a growing number of banks closed in 1929 and 1930, a severe
crisis of confidence in the banking system further destabilized the economy,
News of bank failures worried Americans. Some depositors made runs
on banks, thus causing the banks to fail. A bank run takes place when
many depositors decide to withdraw their money at the same time, usually
out of fear that the bank will collapse. Most banks make a profit by lending
money received from depositors and collecting interest on the loans. The
bank keeps only a fraction of depositors’ money in reserve. Usually, that
reserve is enough to meet the bank’s needs. If too many people withdraw
their money, however, the bank will collapse. By 1932, about one in four
banks in the United States had gone out of business.

READING PROGRESS CHECK

Determining Cause and Effect How did the failure of the stock market contribute to a larger
economic decline?

500
The Roots of the Great Depression
GUIDING QUESTION What were the underlying conditions that led to the collapse of the
U.S. economy?

The stock market crash played a major role in putting the economy into a
recession. Yet the crash would not have led to a long-lasting depression if
other forces had not been at work. The roots of the Great Depression were
deeply entangled in the economy of the 1920s.

The Uneven Distribution of Income

Overproduction was a factor leading to the onset of the Great Depression.
More efficient machinery increased the production capacity of factories and
farms. Most Americans did not earn enough to buy up the goods they helped
produce. Manufacturing output per person-hour rose 32 percent, but the
average worker’s wage increased only 8 percent. In 1929, the top
5 percent of all American households earned 30 percent of the nation’s
income. In contrast, about two-thirds of families earned less than $2,500 a
year, leaving them with little disposable income. bank run persistent and heavy
demands by a bank’s depositors,
Farmers, in particular, did not share in the prosperity of the 1920s, as creditors, or customers to
many had gone into debt to buy land or equipment during World War I, withdraw money
when demand for their products was high. When prices fell, they tried to
produce even more to pay their debts, taxes, and living expenses. Prices
installment regular periodic
dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms. payment made to pay off the cost
During the 1920s, many Americans had purchased high-cost items, of an item when buying it on credit
such as refrigerators and cars, on the installment plan. Purchasers could
make small down payments and pay the remainder of the item’s price in
monthly installments. Paying off such debts eventually forced some buyers CHARTS/GRAPH
to stop making new purchases. Because of the decrease in demand for their
products, manufacturers in turn cut production and laid off employees. I identifying Central ideas
The slowdown in retail sales reverberated throughout the economy. What basic economic
When radio sales slumped, for example, orders for copper wire, wood principle underlay the cause
cabinets, and glass radio tubes slowed. Montana copper miners, Minnesota of the Great Depression?
lumberjacks, and Ohio glassworkers lost jobs. Jobless workers cut purchases,
further reducing sales. This put even more Americans out of work. 2 Analyzing Information
What effect did the decline
in automobile sales have on
CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION related industries?
I
What Caused the Economy to Collapse?
Low Interest Rates
Federal Reserve kept interest rates low; companies
borrowed money and expanded more than necessary.
meant less f
Overproduction A1rrn
Companies made more goods than could be sold.
A
Uneven Distribution of Wealth
Not everyone who wanted
Whicd
contribut U her to:

2,,.- Cyclical Textiles Oil

I
consumer goods could afford them. —

Effect
High Tariffs Unemployment
Tariffs restricted foreign demand for American goods.
Lower wages
Falling Demand Steel
With too many goods unsold, production
was cut back and employees were laid off.
Stock Market Speculation
Low interest rates encouraged borrowing money to
kS
speculate, endangering bank solvency.

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 Unemployment insurance was nonexistent. Many families had little or no
Analyzing
savings. Lost jobs often meant dire circumstances. In 1930 alone, about
PRIMARY SOURCES
26,000 businesses failed.
Hoover Rejects
The Loss of Export Sales
Government Intervention
Many jobs might have been saved if American manufacturers had sold
11You cannot extend the more goods abroad. As the bull market of the 1920s sped up, however,
mastery of the government over
U.S. banks made loans to speculators rather than loans to foreign
the daily working life of a
people without at the same
companies. Loans from U.S. banks had helped European nations make war
time making it the master reparations and pay down war debts. They had also secured foreign
of the people’s souls and markets for U.S. exports. Without these loans from U.S. banks, foreign
thoughts. . Free speech does companies purchased fewer American products.
not live many hours after free In 1929, Hoover wanted to encourage overseas trade by lowering tariffs.
industry and free commerce Congress, however, decided to protect American industry from foreign
die. Every step of competition by raising tariffs. The resulting legislation, the Hawlev-Smoot
bureaucratizing of the business
Tariff, raised the average tariff rate to the highest level in American history.
of our country poisons the very
roots of liberalism—thai is, In the end, it failed to help American businesses, because foreign countries
political equality, free speech, responded by raising their own tariffs. This meant fewer American
free assembly, free press, and products were sold overseas. By 1932, exports had fallen to less than half
equality of opportunity. It is the the level that they had been in 1929. A decrease in exports hurt both
road not to more liberty, but to American companies and farmers.
less liberty.!1
Mistakes by the Federal Reserve
—Herbert Hoover, from a speech Just as consumers were able to buy more goods on credit, access to easy money
delivered October 22, 1928 propelled the stock market. Instead of raising interest rates to curb excessive
speculation, the Federal Reserve Board kept its rates low throughout the 1920s.
LJi1 ANALYZING PRIMARY
The Board’s failure to raise interest rates significantly helped cause the
SOURCES Why did Hoover refuse
Depression in two ways. First, by keeping rates low, the Board encouraged
to support government
intervention in the economy? member banks to make risky loans. Second, the low interest rates led
business leaders to think that the economy was still expanding. As a result,
they borrowed more money to expand production. This was a serious
mistake because it led to overproduction when sales were falling. When the
Depression finally hit, companies had to lay off workers to cut costs. Then
the Federal Reserve made another mistake: it raised interest rates, thus
tightening credit. The economy continued to spiral downward.
READING PROGRESS CHECK
Determining Cause andEffect What were three existing economic conditions that
contributed to the Depression?

Reviewing Vocabulary Answering the Guiding Questions

1. Contrasting What is the difference between buying on 5. Evaluating What economic choices caused the economy to
margin and a margin call? become unstable in the late 1920s?

2. Describing What occurs during a bank run? 6. Describing How did the stock market crash trigger a chain
of events that led to the Depression?
3. Evaluating Why was buying stocks based on speculation
7. Analyzing What were the underlying conditions that led to
a risk?
the collapse of the U.S. economy?
Using Your Notes Writing Activity
4. Identifying Cause and Effect Use the notes that you 8. INFORMATIVE/EXPLANATORY Write an essay for a financial
completed during the lesson to write a few sentences magazine telling the chain of events leading to the Great
identifying the causes of the Great Depression. Depression. Be sure to sequence the events correctly to
make them easier for readers to understand.

502
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LESSON 2

Life During the Great

Depression
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What causes changes in the economy over time?

• How do depressions affect societies?
READING HELPDESK
Academic Vocabulary
• suspend • technique IT MATTERS BECAUSE
• colleague Large numbers of people lost their jobs and homes during
the Depression. To help people escape their troubles,
Content Vocabulary popular entertainment offered humorous and optimistic
• bailiff • soap opera movies and radio programs. Novelists and photographers
• hobo created more realistic portrayals of American life.

The Depression Worsens

TAKING NOTES: GUIDING QUESTION How did economic changes affect everyday life during
the 1930s?
Key Ideas and Details
Organizing As you read, use a graphic The Depression grew steadily worse during President Hoover’s
organizer such as the one below to
describe the effects of the Depression.
administration. In 1930, across the nation, 1,352 banks suspended
operations, more than twice the number of bank failures in 1929. In
I
Effects of the Great Depression
1932 alone, some 30,000 companies went out of business. By 1933,
roughly one-fourth of the workforce was unemployed.
F
Struggling to Get By
The jobless often went hungry. When possible, they stood in
breadlines for free food or lined up outside soup kitchens set up by
private groups. People who could not pay their rent or mortgage lost
their homes. Some, paralyzed by fear and humiliation, did not move
and were evicted. Court officers called bailiffs ejected them and their
belongings. Throughout the country, newly homeless people put up
shacks on unused or public lands. They built shantytowns, which they
called Hoovervilles after the president they blamed for their plight.
In search of work or a better life, many homeless, unemployed
Americans began walking, hitchhiking, or, most often, “riding the
rails” across the country. These wanderers, called hoboes, would
sneak past railroad police to slip into open boxcars on freight
trains. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly boys and young
men, wandered from place to place in this way.
The Depression also caused many immigrants to return to their
native countries. In some cases, this repatriation was voluntary as jobs
became scarce. In other cases, repatriation was forced. The federal

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Many Americans abandoned their
homes as windstorms and drought
turned the Great Plains into a
Dust Bowl.
CRITICAL THINKING
Making Generalizations How
does this photo illustrate the
Depression experience of
some Americans?

suspend to cease or stop government launched repatriation drives to send poor immigrants back to their
home countries. It also stepped up efforts to deport immigrants who had
bailiff minor officer of violated the law. In the Southwest, federal officials rounded up Mexicans (often
the courts
without regard to their citizenship status) and forcibly returned them to Mexico.
hobo a homeless and usually Although estimates vary, historians believe that the Mexican Repatriation
penniless wanderer resulted in somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million people of Mexican
heritage, perhaps more than half of whom were American citizens, being forced
to move to Mexico. Mexicans were probably targeted more than others, in part
because of racism, and in part because of cost. Hispanics were one of the most
highly visible immigrant minorities remaining after the immigration laws of the
1920s had restricted other immigrants, and deporting Hispanics was easier and
less expensive than shipping hundreds of thousands of people back to Europe.

The Dust Bowl

Farmers soon faced a new disaster. The Great Plains were very dry with high
winds. Topsoil was held in place by deep rooted prairie grasses that preserved
moisture in times of low rainfall. The Homestead Act encouraged large-scale
settlement of the region, and as the population grew, tractors and combines
came into widespread use. Much of the Great Plains were extensively deep-
plowed making the topsoil susceptible to rapid erosion.
Deep-plowing was not a problem for many decades, as the Great Plains
experienced higher than normal rainfall from the late 1800s to the 1920s.
But when crop prices dropped in the 1920s, many farmers left their fields
uncultivated even as temperatures had begun to climb and rainfall had
begun to decline. In the early 1930s, a severe drought hit, and there was
nothing anchoring the soil or retaining moisture. The soil turned to dust.
Human and physical geographic factors had combined to create a disaster.
Winds blew the arid earth aloft, blackening the sky for hundreds of
miles. Dust buried crops and livestock. Humans and animals caught
outdoors sometimes died of suffocation when the dust filled their lungs.
During most of the 1930s, an average of 50 dust storms a year hit the Plains.
Some Great Plains farmers managed to hold on to their land, but others
were not as lucky. If their land was mortgaged, they had to turn the property
over to the banks. Then, nearly penniless, many families headed west, hoping
for a better life in California. Because many migrants were from Oklahoma,
they became known as “Okies.” In California, their struggles continued:

504
 PRIMARY SOURCE
Ii [They have] one-room shacks usually about 10 by 12
feet, have no rug, no water, no
bed. In one corner there is a little iron wood stove. Water
must be carried from the
faucet at the end of the
—John Steinbeck, from The Harvest Gypsies, 1936
READING PROGRESS CHECK

Explaining What changes to daily life occurred for people

affected by the economic hardships
of the Great Depression?

Arts and Entertainment

GUIDING QUESTION In what ways did culture reflect
the Depression experience?
The hard times of the 1930s led many American
s to want to escape their
worries—if only for an hour or two—through
entertainment. Most people
could scrape together the money to go to the movie
s, or they could sit with
their families and listen to one of the many radio
programs broadcast across
the country. Entertainment provided an escape
from the difficult times.
Movies and radio programs grew increasing
ly popular. During the 1930s,
more than 60 million Americans went to the movie
s each week. Child stars
delighted viewers, and comedies provided a
relief from daily worries. The
Marx Brothers amused audiences in such films
as Animal Crackers.
Moviegoers also loved cartoons. Walt Disney prod
uced the first feature-
length animated film, Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, in 1937.
Serious films often celebrated ordinary peop
le and the values of small-
town America. In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,
Jimmy Stewart played a
decent but naïve senator who refuses to compr
omise his principles and
exposes the corruption of some of his colleague
s. Although few movies colleague a person who
portrayed the hard times of the era, dramas tend
ed to show heroes, often works in the same, or a similar,
regular people, standing up to corruption or powerf
ul forces. These films profession
resonated with Americans because they offset
the feelings of helplessness
the Depression had caused, and also reflected the
belief of many people
that they were victims of corruption among the
wealthy and powerful.
In 1939, MGM produced The Wizard of Oz, a colorfu
l musical that lifted
viewers’ spirits. That same year, Vivien Leigh
and Clark Gable thrilled
audiences in Gone with the Wind, a Civil War epic
that won nine Academy
Awards. Hattie McDaniel won Best Supportin
g Actress, becoming the first
African American to win an Academy Award.
While movies captured the imagination, radio
offered information and
entertainment. Tens of millions of people liste
ned to the radio daily.
Comedians such as Jack Benny were popular,
as were the adventures of
superheroes such as the Green Hornet. Daytime
dramas continued their
story lines from day to day. Programs such as The
Guiding Light presented
the personal struggles of middle-class families.
The sponsors were often
makers of laundry soaps, so the shows were nick
named soap operas. Radio soap opera a serial drama on
also exposed listeners to a variety of musical styles.
Americans enjoyed hit television or radio using
songs from movies and Broadway musicals to
swing music to country. melodramatic situations
Literature and the visual arts also flourished durin
g the 1930s. Writers
and artists tried to portray life around them, usin
g the homeless and
unemployed as their subjects in stories and pictu
res. Novelists developed
new writing techniques. In The Sound and the Fury,
William Faulkner shows
what characters are thinking and feeling before
they speak. Using this
stream of consciousness technique, he exposes
hidden attitudes of the technique a method of
residents of a fictional Mississippi county. Ano
ther Southern writer named achieving a desired aim

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The Great Depression Begins 505 -:
 to examine the theme of artistic
Thomas Wolfe used the facts of his own life
BIOGRAPHY creation in his powerful novels, including Look
Homeward Angel.
novelist John Steinbeck to
Perhaps no writer did more than reporter and
ession. Steinbeck focused on
capture the characteristics and issues of the Depr
ers and farmers. He created a sense
the rural poor, particularly agricultural work
ing how people said things and
of realism with rich, detailed descriptions, show
He focused on how their
what they and their surroundings looked like.
econ omic system, but he also stressed
circumstances were partly the result of the
ing people survive hardship.
the importance of friendship and family in help
alists’ reports of poverty and
Steinbeck’s writings added flesh and blood to journ
acters and indignation at social
misfortune and evoked both sympathy for his char
tells the story of a family fleeing
injustice. In The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Steinbeck
Steinbeck had visited the camps of
the Dust Bowl to find a new life in California.
In his novel, he describes the
migrant families and sympathized with their fears.
California after losing their farm.
experiences of the Joad family who headed to
l. Photographers roamed
Images were also becoming more influentia
ras, seeking new subjects. In
the nation with the new 35-millimeter came
Margaret Bourke-White 1936, TIME magazine publisher Henry Luce
introduced LIFE, a weekly
(1904—1971) nt success. The striking
photojournalism magazine that enjoyed insta
e and Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White was Life pictures of photojournalists Dorothea Lang
average Americans.
magazine’s first female showed how the Great Depression affected
photojournalist. Her picture of cisco and poor migrant
Lange photographed homeless people in San Fran
the construction of Fort Peck . One of her most famous
agricultural workers in California’s Central Valley
Dam appeared on the magazine’s plifi es the Depression era’s
photos, entitled “Migrant Mother” (1936), exem
first cover. sad, weary woman with seven
characteristics and issues. The photo depicts a
food. Lange also traveled
children who had just sold her car’s tires to buy
es of the devastated region.
CRITICAL THINKING throughout the Dust Bowl states capturing imag
ng book An American Exodus (1939),
Making Generalizations Why When the images were collected in a best-selli
camps to shelter migrant workers.
do you think photojournalism the state of California responded by setting up
er at using photography to
became so influential? Like Lange, Margaret Bourke-White was a mast
LIFE magazine carried one of
capture the era’s ironies and contrasts. In 1937,
line of poor African American
her most famous photographs. It showed a
billboard which declared, “World’s
flood victims waiting for help in front of a
e family happily driving a car.
Highest Standard of Living” and showed a whit
Benton and Grant Wood,
Painters of the 1930s included Thomas Hart
t school. Their work emphasized
whose styles were referred to as the regionalis
of the rural Midwest and South.
traditional American values, especially those
Gothic, which portrays a stern
Wood’s best-known painting today is American
ble farmhouse. The portrait pays
farmer and his daughter in front of their hum
e ly making fun of their severity.
tribute to no-nonsense Midwesterners whil gent
E
READING PROGRESS CHECK
?
Examining How did the Depression influence culture

4. Describing In what ways did culture reflect the

Reviewing Vocabulary Depression experience?
difficult during
1. Summarizing Why were the lives of hoboes
the Depression? Writing Activity
5. INFORMATIVE/EXPLANATORY Write two to three
Using Your Notes paragraphs describing the Dust Bowl, its causes, its
2. Identifying How did some radio shows
come to be sion
effect on people, and how it made the Great Depres
nicknamed soap operas? worse for those living on the Great Plains.

Answering the Guiding Questions

everyday life
3. Evaluating How did economic changes affect
during the 1930s?

506
 Determining Cause
I and Effect slowly over time. These are short and
long-range effects.
Why Learn This Skill? • Be sure you have causes and events in the
Why do we study history? We know things correct sequence.
have happened in the past that have shaped the • Make sure there is a logical or reasonable
world we live in today. There are many things connection between the causes and effects
we appreciate and other things that we think you have identified. Sometimes things
are wrong. The purpose of history, perhaps more happen close together, but that doesn’t
than anything else, is to explain why things mean one caused the other. Writing
happened and what changed as a result. In short, history is all about explaining why your
understanding history requires you to identify evidence proves a cause and effect
cause-and-effect relationships. relationship.

Learning the Skill

Practicing this Skill
Determining cause and effect involves
considering why an event occurred. A cause is an Open the lesson “Life During the Great
action, an event, a condition, or a decision that Depression.” Read the section entitled “The Dust
makes something else happen. What happens is Bowl” and answer these questions:
the effect. 1. What event is being explained in this
There are three kinds of causes. Necessary section?
causes are causes that you have to have or the 2. What causes are said to have explained
event cannot happen. A sufficient cause is a the event?
cause that all by itself can cause an event. But it 3. Which causes are long-range causes?
is not the only possible cause. Contributory Which causes are short term causes?
causes cannot cause an event by themselves, but 4. Which causes are necessary? Which are
they can help shape the conditions under which contributory?
it happens. 5. What were the effects of these causes?
To determine cause and effect, follow these
steps:
• Ask why an event happened. List possible
reasons for the event.
• Look at the list. Which causes are necessary?
Are they all necessary? Which ones might be
sufficient but not needed to explain the
event? Which causes only contributed to Applying the Skill
shaping the event? Open the lesson “The Causes of the Great
• Look at the timing of the causes. Which Depression.” Reread the lesson and apply
ones established conditions far in the past? your skills at determining cause and effect.
These are long range causes. Which ones Write a brief essay describing the causes of
helped trigger an event once conditions the Great Depression. Be sure to identify
were in place? These are short-term or short term and long term causes, and point
immediate causes. out which causes led to effects that in turn
• To determine effects, ask “What happened led to even more causes that made the
because of this?” or “What were the Depression worse. Identify which causes
results of this?” were necessary to the Depression, and
• Examine which effects happened right which ones were contributory.
away and which ones only developed

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LESSON 3

Hoover’s Response to

the Depression
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What causes changes in the economy over time?

• How do depressions affect societies?
READING HELPDESK
Academic Vocabulary
• series • community IT MATTERS BECAUSE
iding
President Hoover tried to fix the economy by prov
ic
Content Vocabulary loans to banks and corporations and by starting publ
orted direc t aid
• public works • foreclose works projects. Later, he reluctantly supp
• relief to impoverished families. By the early 1930s, more
.
Americans were demanding the government’s help

TAKING NOTES:
Promoting Recovery
Key Ideas and Details philosophy influence
GUIDING QUESTION How did President Hoover’s governing
Organizing As you read about Herbert his efforts to combat the Great Depression?
Hoover’s response to the Depression,
av President
create a graphic organizer listing his On Friday, October 25, 1929, the day after Black Thursd
major initiatives and their results. ss of the country
Herbert Hoover declared that “the fundamental busine
1930, he told the
is on a sound and prosperous basis.” On March 7,
Major Recovery Plans yment will have
press that “the worst effects of the crash upon emplo
Critics derided his optimism as
passed during the next sixty days.”
d to downp lay the public ’s fears and
conditions worsened. Hoover hope
consum ers and business
Results Resii I Results to avoid more bank runs and layoffs. He urged
Hoove r’s efforts failed to
leaders to make rational decisions. In the end,
contin ued its
inspire the public’s confidence, and the economy
downward slide.
lism” would
Hoover believed that American “rugged individua
nt should not
keep the economy moving and that the governme
r World War I, many European
step in to help individuals. Afte
sociali sm, whic h Hoove r felt
countries implemented a form of
recove ry. In 1922, Hoove r had
contributed to their lack of economic
ainin g why the Ame rican
written a book, American Individualism, expl
al, spiri tual, and
system of individualism was the best social, politic
propose more
economic system. Thus, it was difficult for him to
government control.
in trouble,
Despite public statements that the economy was not
zed a serie s of confer ences, bringing
Hoover was worried. He organi
other big busine sses, as well as
together heads of banks, railroads, and
ize about solutio ns.
labor leaders and government officials, to strateg

508
 Industry leaders pledged
to keep factories open and
wages, but by 1931, they to stop slashing
funding for public works
had broken those pledges.
Hoover increased Thinking Like a
, or government-financed
resulting construction job
s employed a small fractio
building projects. The HISTORIAN
unemployed. The only way n of the millions of
the government could cre Analyzing Secondary Sou
was through massive spendi ate enough new jobs rces
ng, which Hoover refuse Historians debate whether
Someone had to pay for pub d to do.
lic works projects. If the gov Hoover’s intervention after
taxes, consumers would hav ernment raised the
e less money to spend, hur stock market crash was
government kept taxes low tin g business. If the too
and ran a budget deficit—spen much or insufficient,
collected—it would have to ding more than it premature, or tardy. It has
borrow money, making less
1930 congressional electio available for loans. As the been argued that Hoover
ns approached, most Ameri ’s
power for the ailing econom cans blamed the party in actions were responsible
y. The Republicans lost 49 for
in the House of Representati seats and their majority the length of the Depress
ves; they held on to the Sen ion.
ate by a single vote. Would you agree or disa
gree?
Trying to Rescue the Banks Review the steps Hoover
took
To get the economy growin to promote recovery and
g, Hoover wanted to increa
to help banks make loans se the money supply evaluate their effects, not
ing
to corporations. They cou whether they were too sev
production and rehire wo ld then expand ere
rkers. The president asked or weak, or too early or
Board to put more curren the Federal Reserve late.
cy into circulation, but the
the money shortage, Hoove Bo ard refused. To ease
r set up the National Cre
in October 1931. The NC dit Corporation (NCC)
C created a pool of money
banks to continue lendin tha t allowed troubled
g money in their communit series a number of events that
however, failed to meet ies. This program,
the nation’s needs. come one after another
In 1932, Hoover requested
Congress to set up the Re
Corporation (RFC) to make construction Finance
loans to businesses. By earl public works projects
lent about $238 million to y 1932, the RFC had such as highways, parks, and
banks, railroads, and buildi
associations. Overly cautio ng-and-loan libraries built with public fun
us, the RFC failed to increa ds
sufficiently. The econom se its lending for public use
y continued its decline.
Direct Help for Citizens
community people with
Hoover strongly opposed
the federal government’s par common characteristics livin
money given directly to im ticipation in relief— g in
poverished families. He bel the same area
and local governments sho ieved that only state
uld dole out relief, with any
met by private charity. By other needs being relief aid in the form of mo
the spring of 1932, howeve ney
governments were runnin r, sta te and local or supplies for those in nee
g out of money, and privat d
resources to handle the cri e charities lacked the
sis.
Support for a federal relief
measure increased, and Co
Emergency Relief and Co ngress passed the
nstruction Act in July. Reluc
tantly, Hoover signed it.

CAN HOOVER FIGHT THE DE

PRESSION?
4OLITlCAL CARTOONS
Like any president during

I
a
crisis, Hoover’s actions wer
e
debated in the press.

I Drawing Conclusions
How are Hoover and the
Democrats portrayed in
the cartoon on the left?

2 Interpreting What does

the cartoon on the right
While the Democratic Party don suggest about Hoover’s
key marches Herbert Hoover reassures a farm plan to help farmers?
outside singing old songs, Hoo er his
ver tries to deal scarecrow labeled “Farm Relief”
with economic problems cau will help.
sed by high tariffs,
depression, and drought.

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The Great Depression Begins
509
 rks and $300 million in
5 billion for public wo
The new act called for $1. r the first time in American
states for direct relief. Fo
emergency loans to the relief funds. By this
fed era l gov ern ment was supplying direct
his tor y, the damage that had
e, how eve r, the new pro gram could not reverse the
tim
been done.
READING PROGRESS CHECK
te economic recovery?
two maj or stra tegi es did President Hoover use to promo
Identifying Wh at

In an Angry Mood s try to change government policy during the

GUIDING QUESTION Why
did citizen
y yea rs? How did they change it?
Depression’s earl
ericans were resigned
Wall Street crash, most Am
In the months after the were becoming
By 1931, however, many
to bad economic news.
increasingly discontent.
otests by Farmers
Hunger Marches and Pr y looted a grocery
residents of Oklahoma Cit
In January 1931, about 500 citizens smashed the
fol low ing mo nth , hundreds of unemployed
store. Th e mselves to meat,
s of a Mi nne apo lis gro cery store and helped the
window g up at rallies and
ds. Crowds began showin
produce, and canned goo unist Party. On
zed by the American Comm
“hunger marches” organi about 1,200 hunger
shington, D.C., a group of
December 5, 1932, in Wa , tax the rich.” Police herded the
m into
“Fe ed the hun gry
marchers chanted, me members of Congress
den ied them food and water. So
a cul -de -sa c and ernment. With that, the
iste d on the ma rch ers ’ right to petition their gov
ins
to Capitol Hill.
marchers made their way only people who began to
protest
poo r we re not the
The hun gry m that took
ing the De pre ssi on. During the agricultural boo
conditions dur aged their land
rld Wa r I, ma ny farmers had heavily mortg
place during Wo so low that
equ ipm ent , and fee d. After the war, prices sank
to pay for seed, d on nearly one million
money. Creditors foreclose
.

foreclose to take possession farmers began losing ship of the land and evicte
d
ger 1934. They took owner
of a property from a mortga far ms bet we en 193 0 and
ps, desperate ly try ing to
on pay men ts an destroying their cro
because of default s
families. Some farmers beg ska , far mers burned corn to
red uci ng the sup ply. In Nebra
raise pri ces by ays and stopped
ir hom es. Ge org ia dai ry farmers blocked highw
heat the
milk into ditches.
milk trucks, dumping the

by
Farmers protest low dairy prices
destroying supply.
CRITICAL THINKING
Analyzing Primary Sources
How do you think poor and
hungry people might have
responded to this photo?

510
 The Bonus Marchers
After World War I, Congress had enacted a
$1,000 bonus for each veteran, to
be distributed in 1945. In 1929, Texas congressm
an Wright Patman introduced
a bill that would authorize early payment of these
bonuses. In May 1932,
several hundred Oregon veterans began marc
hing to Washington, D.C., to
lobby for passage of the legislation. As they mov
ed eastward, other veterans
joined them until they numbered about 1,00
0. Wearing ragged military
uniforms, they trudged along the highways
or rode the rails, singing old war
songs. The press termed the marchers the
“Bonus Army.”
Once in Washington, the veterans camped
in Hoovervilles. More
veterans joined them until the Bonus Arm
y swelled to an estimated
15,000. President Hoover acknowledged the
veterans’ right to
petition but refused to meet with them. Whe
n the Senate voted
down the bonus bill, veterans outside the
Capitol began to
grumble. In a statement, Hoover said, “Con
gress made provision
for the return home of the so-called bonus marc
hers who have
for many weeks been given every opportuni
ty of free assembly,
free speech and free petition to the Congress
.” Many returned
home, but some marchers stayed on. Som
e lived in the camps;
others squatted in vacant buildings downtow
n.
In late July, Hoover ordered the buildings clear
ed. The police
tried, but when an officer panicked and fired
into a crowd, killing two
veterans, the secretary of war asked if he coul
General Douglas MacArthur ignored Hoover’s
d send in army troops.
orders to clear the
I
buildings but to leave the camps alone. Mac
Arthur sent in cavalry, infantry,
and tanks to clear the camps. Soon, unarmed
veterans were running away,
pursued by some 700 soldiers. The soldiers Guards clash with Bonus Army
teargassed stragglers and
burned the shacks. National press coverage marchers.
of troops assaulting veterans
further harmed Hoover’s reputation and houn
ded him throughout the CRITICAL THINKING
1932 campaign. Interpreting What do you
Although Hoover failed to resolve the econ observe about the Bonus Army’s
omic crisis, he did more than
any prior president to expand the federal gove attempt to defend itself?
rnment’s role in the economy.
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was
the first federal agency created to
stimulate the economy during peacetime. The
rout of the Bonus Army marchers
U and the lingering Depression, however, tarni
shed Hoover’s public image.
READING PROGRESS CHECK
0

Identifying Between 1931 and 1932, what federal govern

F ment programs and acts were created
to promote economic recovery, and what was each intend
ed to do?

Reviewing Vocabulary
1. Evaluating What was the purpose of the increas
Answering the Guiding Questions
ed funding 4. Assessing How did President Hoover’s governing
to public works? philosophy
influence his efforts to combat the Great Depression?
2. Summarizing Why did creditors foreclose on so
many farms 5. Describing Why and how did citizens try to change
during the Depression?
government policy during the Depression’s early
years?
Using Your Notes
Writing Activity
3. Analyzing Use the notes that you completed during 6. ARGUMENT Suppose that you are a World War
the veteran in
lesson to explain why the strategies that the Hoover 1932. Write a persuasive letter to your congressman
administration used were successful or not succes explaining why you need your bonus now, not in
sful.
1945.

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The Great Depression Begins 511
 STUDY GUIDE
THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION
LESSON I

borrowed money and expanded

Federal Reserve kept interest rates low; companies
more than necessary.

Companies made more goods than could be sold.

afford them.
Not everyone who wanted consumer goods could

Tariffs restricted foreign demand for American goods.

back and employees were laid off.

With too many goods unsold, production was cut

to speculate, endangering
Low interest rates encouraged borrowing money
bank solvency.

LIFE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

LESSON 2

The Dust Bowl covered much

of the Great Plains
• Overcultivated soil and drought
exposed fragile topsoil
• 2.5 million left the Plains
and migrated west

HOOVER’S RESPONSE TO THE DEPRESSION

LESSON 3

National Credit . Emergency Relief and

Corporation Construction Act
• Started in October1931
• Passed by Congress in
July 1932; reluctantly
• Increased money supply
for banks to lend to signed by Hoover
business • $1.5 billion in public
works finances provided
Reconstruction Finance
Corporation • $300 million in
emergency loans
• Begun in 1932
provided to state
• over $230 milion loaned
governments
to lenders, railroads

512
 CHAPTER 18 Assessment
Directions: On a separate sheet of pap
er answer the questions below. Ma
you read carefully and answer all par ke sure
ts to the question.

Lesson Review
Specifying What did the Emergency
Relief and
Lesson I Construction Act offer, and what was
its impact?
0 Describing Describe the effect the
stock market Q Identifying Cause and Effect Wha
t did World
crash had on banks and identify how War I veterans do to try to get their
bank failures service
contributed to the coming of the Grea bonuses early, and how did the public
t Depression. react to it?
O Identifying What is monetary policy
and which Exploring the Essential Quest
organization controls monetary policy ions
in the United
States? What is the main tool the orga Analyzing Write an essay that iden
nization uses tifies factors
to try to regulate the American econ that contribute to change in the econ
omy? omy over
time. The essay should be supported
O Explaining How did the uneven distr
ibution of knowledge of the booming 1920s econ
with your
income, in combination with the use omy and
of installment Great Depression of the 1930s.
plans and easy credit, help cause the
Great Depression? ® Synthesizing How do depressions
affect
societies? Use your knowledge of
the Great
Lesson 2 Depression to explain your answer.
0 Describing How were the character
istics and
issues of the Great Depression reflected Critical Thinking
in the
era’s visual arts? What new visual art Drawing Conclusions Why did the
form rose to Depression
prominence during the Great Depressio lead to the forced deportation of
n? Who immigrants and
were some of its best known practition especially large numbers of Mexican
ers? immigrants?
O Defining What is repatriation?
O Identifying Cause and Effect How did
runs on
banks contribute to the high rate of
o Identifying Cause and Effect What
impact did during the Great Depression?
bank failures
the Dust Bowl have on farmers living
on the
Great Plains? O Analyzing What were the effects of
widespread
unemployment during the Great Depr
0 Describing Many people were poor
in the 1930s, ession?
yet 60 million people went to the mov
week. Why do you think they chose
ies each O Economics Explain the purpose of
the
to spend their Reconstruction Finance Corporation
limited amount of money in that way? (RFC) created
How were by President Hoover. Who benefited
the movies of the 1930s a reaction from
to the issues this program?
and characteristics of the Depressio
n?
21st Century Skills
Lesson 3
O Interpreting Significance What three
major
O Categorizing Information Many peop
le traveled
around, relocated within, or permanen
initiatives did President Hoover take tly left the
to help the United States during the Great Depr
economy of the United States? ession.
Categorize the kinds of movement
and groups of
0 Summarizing Describe the measures
some people. Analyze how groups were simi
lar or
farmers took in an attempt to raise different from one another.
prices on
agricultural goods.

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The Great Depression Begins 513
C HAP Ssessment
By Sequencing Analyzing Visuals
O Applying Relative Chronology ng questions.
Research popular movies of the
1930s, either Use the map to answer the followi
time line listing
online or at the library. Create a
s. Identify
popular movies produced in the 1930
ic plot. Wha t patterns
each movie’s theme or bas
ular mov ies suggest
do you see? What do the pop
rican publ ic?
to you about the mood of the Ame

Sources
LL1i Analyzing Primary
by Herbert
Read the excerpt below from a speech
questions.
Hoover then answer the following
PRIMARY SOURCE
the government over the
‘You cannot extend the mastery of
at the same time
daily working life of a people without
peop le’s soul s and thoughts.
making it the master of the
s after free industry and
-

Free speech does not live many hour

MEXICO

free commerce die. . . Every step of bureaucratizing of the

. • S
c ....•‘‘‘‘
Golf of MfOiCo

very roots of liberalism—

‘-

business of our country poisons the \__••__

, free assembly, free

that is, political equality, free speech
It is the road not to more
press, and equality of opportunity.
liberty, but to less liberty.”
delivered Analyzing Geographic Patterns and
—Herbert Hoover, from a speech severity and
October 22, 1928 Distributions When you look at the
in whic h states
the length of time, which regions
Bowl for the
Hoover’s main suffered the worst effects of the Dust
Finding the Main Idea What is
ern men t should not longest period of time?
idea? Why does he think gov
you agr ee with his phic
interfere in the economy? Do J Posing Questions about Geogra
ainin g your point moved to nearby
main idea? Write a paragraph expl Patterns Although many farmers
e number
of view. cities to escape the Dust Bowl, a larg
ns do you
ce When did migrated to California. What questio
J Identifying Frame of Referen tify the rou te mo st of them
why that date is need to pose to iden
Hoover make this speech? Explain why they mad e such a long
pen later. Why did followed and to explain
significant given what would hap ed Sta tes, roughly
cor rect at the trip? Using a map of the Unit
Hoover have reason to think he was ers had to migrate if
ut both the estimate how many miles farm
time he gave his speech? Think abo ey.
eriences. they went to California’s Central Vall
date and Hoover’s previous exp

Extended Response Question

how the Great
Summarizing Write a summary of
y. Be sure to
Depression affected the U.S. econom
that were
describe new government programs
ion’s effects
implemented, as well as the Depress
on workers and businesses.

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514