1930s America Flashcards
(33 cards)
What was the unemployment rate in 1929?
2.3% of the workforce
What was the unemployment rate in 1932?
23.6% of the workforce (12 million people)
What was the wage drop from 1929 to 1932?
$28 to $22 a week
Why did people accept wage cuts?
There was high demand for jobs so they could be replaced easily
What percentage of Blacks were unemployed?
75% in Memphis and 70% in Charleston in 1931
What did the unemployed do for money?
- apple selling
- shoe shining
- begging
What were Hobos?
People who travelled illegally in goods wagons.
- 1m in 1933
How many people lost their homes?
250,000 in 1932
What were the most popular shelters?
- park benches
- bus shelters
- jails
What is the most famous Hoovervilles?
Bonus Army in Washington DC
What percentage of children were in poverty?
50%, who did not have enough food/clothes
Huey Long
- Louisiana Senator
- Fortunes over £3m to be distributed to poor
- Incomes over £1m to be taxed at 100%
Father Charles Coughlin
- priest
- 40m listeners to radio show
- government should take over banks
Republican opposition to ND
- went against rugged individualism and laissez-faire
- FDR acting as dictator
- did not want to tax the wealthy
- mirrored Communist projects in USSR
Supreme Court opposition
- majority opposed ND
- FDR threatened to make 6 new judges
- backs down due to criticism
- SC support him in future
Relief agencies (3)
- CWA: 4m giving jobs to survive 1933/34 winter
- FERA: $500m given to states
- SSA: pensions for over 65s
Recovery agencies
- TVA: 20 dams and construction/leisure jobs
- PWA: $3.3bn to prime pump (50,000 miles of road, 13,000 schools)
- WPA: gave over 2m jobs in civil works projects like 8000 hospitals/schools
ND budget cut
- cut in 1937 due to high spending
- 14.3% to 19% unemployment in 1938
ND criticisms
- CCC: for young white men and no long term jobs like CWA
- jobs paid by government which could not be continued forever
- unemployment at 10m in 1939
Ww2 effects
- sells weapons to Britain reducing employment to 14.6%
- trades instead of busy countries
- Lend Lease Act gives USA $50bn armaments
- unemployment at almost 0% by end of war
EBA?
- banks closed for four days
- guaranteed money in banks under $2,500
- monitored stock exchange
AAA?
- 10.5m acres of cotton ploughed
- 6m piglets slaughtered
- 1/3 of farms closed down (dust bowl)
- farm income went from $4.5bn in 1932 to $6.9bn in 1935
FERA?
- $500m for state governments
- half conditional on other half being used
CCC?
- 3m 17-24 (then 28) year olds involved
- 1.3bn trees planted
- 65,100 miles of telephone lines
