Tertiary+material

1. When you think of the hobos created by the Great Depression the image that most readily comes to mind is middle-aged men who took to the rails in search of work. I had not heard of the **epidemic of teenaged boys and girls** leaving home and also taking to the rails to find work or food. These were given the name of the Boy & Girl Tramps of America. The high level of unemployment led to many families being unable to provide for all their children. Fathers would leave in search of work, which would leave the wives overworked and trying to feed the children. The schools did not have money to operate and many of them closed their doors – especially the high schools. These were factors that led teenagers to strike out on their own in order to feed themselves and alleviate that burden from their families. They numbered at roughly 250,000 and there were females as well as males. They faced malnutrition, societal scorn, and abuse (some of it from the railway inspectors who found them riding in the cargo cars). Because of the large epidemic of teens on the rails and on their own, the Civil Conservation Corps was formed to give work to the teens. Unfortunately, most of the jobs of the CCC were for males while the female issue was ignored. (from the Encyclopedia of the Great Depression) 3. **Cesar Chavez** was born in Yuma AZ and had a stable life until his family had to join the migrant worker force during the Great Depression. He finished his education at eighth grade at age 15, then soon joined the Navy. He married and soon had a family of eight children to support. This caused him to return to the migrant work force but he was soon recruited by the leader of the Community Service Organization (CSO) to join the organization and help fight for such causes as voter registration and greater access to education. After becoming a paid staff member of CSO Chavez turned his attention to the issues of migrant farm workers. He left the CSO and formed his own organization, the Farm Workers Association. This group joined with another group to become the National Farm Workers Organizing Committee (NFWOC). Chavez and his organization used the peaceful demonstration tactics of the Civil Rights movement to gain victories for the rights of migrant farm workers. The group was again renamed the United Farm Workers. This organization led to the farm workers having the ability to bargain for contracts as a unit as opposed to the individual contracts that had been given to families in the past. Chavez was familiar with the abuses that could come along with these loosely arranged contracts as he had experienced them in the Depression. The ability to negotiate as a group gave the farm workers a chance for fair wages and treatment.
 * John D Rockefeller Jr.** was the only son of Rockefeller Sr., founder of Standard Oil and one of the robber barons, and was expected from birth to step into his father’s shoes. He was raised by a devout mother and sent to college at Brown University where the president of the University taught the young Rockefeller the importance of Christian values in public life. Rockefeller Jr. was ill prepared for life as a business man and soon took over his father’s philanthropic organizations. He oversaw and expanded the charitable organizations begun by his father, even during the Great Depression when other backers were withdrawing their funds. Some of these included building projects that allowed workers to keep their jobs and others were charitable funds for women and children – which were much needed in the Depression era.

After reading more into the great depression, I have never realized the impact of the **working class families**. Families during the great depression had a hard time purchasing groceries, clothes, and medical care. There were programs set up to help families out during this hard time. Working-class families looked to their ethnic associations and religious institutions to help them through the crisis. Families had to deal with loss of job, a home, an insurance policy, or a bank account, slashing wages, and loss of hours.
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Workers turned to the labor unions that were set up, along with state agencies. Mayor Frank Murphy, who was the mayor of Detroit set up **municipal feeding stations** that served 14,000 people daily. Murphy also opened emergency lodging in empty factories and promoted "thrift gardens" for the jobless on vacant city land. Hoover refused to commit to federal funds to supply basic needs, Hoover argued that local entities should provide relief. Hoover's program was proven inadequate.

1.) After reading chapter 9 of Who Built America, I found myself very interested in the **Federal Arts Projec**t. I had never heard of this program in any of the reading I have done on the Great Depression. The Federal Arts Project was one of many programs that were included in the New Deal. It was meant to give much needed employment to thousands of out of work artists. They were to create art for libraries, schools, hospitals, and non-federal government buildings. This program helped to create thousands of art works from some very noticeable artists that without this program may have never been discovered. Unfortunately the program did not last. The Great Depression in America- vol 1: A-M A Cultural Encyclopedia pgs 157-161 2.) Three significant people that I found to be interesting are, **painter Jacob Lawrence, folk singer Woody Guthrie, and playwright Clifford Odets**. A.) Jacob Lawrence was an artist who concentrated on painting the hardships of African Americans. He is known for his series of sixty paintings titled, “The Migration of the Negro” and for the paintings of the lives of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas. Some of his paintings are on display at the State of Washington History Museum, The Museum of Modern Art to name two. There is also one of his paintings called The Builders which hangs in the White House Green Room. Sept 7. 1917-9 June 2000, Painters B.) Woody Guthrie was someone that I had heard of but did not know much about. He is known for his songs that represented and spoke for the plight of the conditions of the working class, the little people of America, during the Great Depression. He did a lot of cross country traveling with migrant workers which inspired many of his songs which he wrote as a protest to the conditions that people were living in. He is best known for a very popular song you might have heard, This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land, which in the last few verses of the song protests the class inequality of the time. July 14 1912-3 Oct. 1967, Songwriters, Folk Musicians / Singers C.) Clifford Odets was proclaimed to be the “great white hope” of the American theater. After becoming part of the Groups Theater he began writing his own plays that along with other plays of the time criticized the profiteers and those that exploited the economic system. His most famous play was, “Waiting for Lefty” which focused on the union of a taxi company and the difficult lives that the workers led. July 18 1906-14 Aug. 1963, Dramatists American national biography (24 vols. + supplements) (online edition)
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1.One idea that was touched upon in my reading of chapter 9 from WBA was the **Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Harry Hopkins**. I knew little about this project and nothing about Harry Hopkins and felt the need to explore it more. Hopkins directed the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), which was awarded $500 million dollars, in May 1933, to give to relief organizations. Hopkins was adamant about the idea of giving people jobs, not handouts and in November 1933 he helped create the Civil Works Administration (CWA) which quickly put over 4 million people to work but because of its out of control spending was shut down. In May 1935, Hopkins was put in charge of the WPA, which created over 8.5 million jobs in 8 years, and helped develop the Federal Theater Program, the Federal Writers’ Project, and the National Youth Administration.
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3.Another important figure during this time was **John L. Lewis, he formed the Committee for Industrial Organization** which tried to unite all workers in under one union so that they would be able to bargain more with the factory heads. Another person to note is Henry A. Wallace who was the Secretary of Agriculture when the Agricultural Adjustment Administration was passed. He was the one who made it common practice for farmers to not harvest all they could so they could drive up their prices it’s the idea that is there is less product there will be more demand.

After reading chapter 9 of Who Built America, I realized that I knew very little about the **Wagner Act**. I did some research and found that the Senator of New York in 1935, Robert Wagner; lobbied and had a law passed called the Wagner Act. This act stated workers have the right to form unions that are separate from their management that can come together and petition the work place for equal rights and fair wages. From this act the National Labor Relations Board was formed that oversaw these laws created in favor of labor unions. Encyclopedia of American Political History Vol. 2. National Labor Relations Act. p.225
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 * 1) 3 Two significant people during the Great Depression was **Robert Wagner and Mary Harriman Rumsey.** Senator Robert Wagner was responsible for the creation of the Wagner Act which allowed labor unions to form. Wagers other claim to fame was his involvement with the Social Security Act of 1935. Robert Wager was considered to be the “leading architect of the New Deal.” The second person, Mary Harriman Rumsey was a member of the board of the NRA. She was a very active in trying to defeat unemployment and had a league in which she aided those who were in need of jobs.

Olson, James J. Historical Dictionary of the Great Depression 1929-1940. Wagner Act p.300McElvaine. Encyclopedia of the Great Depression Vol. 2: L-Z. Mary Harriman Rumsey p.853.

1. **African Americans** were denied many of the benefits from the New Deal social programs. This was because of the power of southern Democrats in the New Deal coalition. The **Agricultural Adjustment Acts** hit blacks hard because around 40 percent of them made their living as sharecroppers, and tenant farmers. White landlords could make more money by leaving land untilled than by putting land back into production. As a result, the AAA's policies forced more than 100,000 blacks off the land in 1933 and 1934. The Social Security Act, also excluded job categories that blacks traditionally filled. Yet, the New Deal did have a few civil rights gains. Roosevelt named Mary McLeod Bethune, a black educator, to the advisory committee of the National Youth Administration (NYA). Because of her efforts, blacks received a fair share of NYA funds. The WPA benefited blacks living in northern cities. African Americans appointed to New Deal positions achieved a new visibility in the government.
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Cravens, Hamilton. 2009. Great Depression: People and Perspectives. Oxford, UK: ABC-CLIO.

3.**Harold Ickes** was a political activist, and social reformer who sought to help minorities. He was the Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, under President Roosevelt. He was responsible for implementing much of the New Deal. His greatest contribution was his administration of the Public Works Administration, a massive New Deal construction program. Through the PWA, Ickes oversaw the construction of the Triborough Bridge (New York), Lincoln Tunnel (New York), the Grand Coulee Dam (Washington), the Key West Highway (Florida), as well as numerous sewer systems, schools, hospitals, and other public buildings.
 * Henry A. Wallace was the Secretary of Agriculture from 1933 to 1940**. He promoted change in America’s agricultural system with the goal of restoring profitability to the farm business. He understood that farming was a business, and that the best way to preserve the rural way of life was to ensure that it became a profitable business. To achieve this goal, Wallace was behind New Deal programs, such as the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, **the Rural Electrification Administration, the Soil Conservation Service**, the Farm Credit Administration, the food stamp and school lunch programs, and many others. In the process, he also transformed the Department of Agriculture into one of the largest and most powerful entities in Washington.

Dan T. Carter “Scott Case”; www.anb.org/articles/cush/e1363.html Encyclopedia of American History: The Great Depression and World War II Edition 8 3. a. John Maynard Keynes was an economist from Britain in the 1930’s. He believed that government spending money during the depression would help get the country out of a recession. His ideas have influenced macroeconomics and Keynesian economics. FDR was the first president to try this when he started his New Deal. b. Andrew W. Mellon was the Secretary of Treasury from Warren Harding’s presidency, up through Collage’s administration, and most of Hoover’s term. Mellon’s plan to help the nation deficit was to lower top income rates from 73 to 24, change lower income rates from 4 to ½ percent, and reduce federal estimate tax. During the depression he planned to weed out weak banks, this made him very unpopular during this time. At the end of his term he spent a lot of time in Europe negotiating debts, and then became the UK Ambassador before retiring one year later.
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 * Escalation of racism and the Scottsboro Case**


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 * 1) 1 An event that I heard little about and interested me in my readings in chapter eight of Who Built America?, was the **Bonus Marchers** and their physical clash which took place at our country’s capital in 1932. In that year about seventeen thousand veterans arrived in Washington D.C. to demand an immediate payment of their veteran bonuses in full. These bonuses were promised to be paid in increments with a final large sum of money given to them in 1945. As the depression worsened and hundreds of thousands of veterans lost their jobs a large movement was started to receive their full bonuses immediately. The conflict came to a climax in 1932 when those veterans gathered and called themselves the Bonus Army Marchers. They were not successful in receiving their bonuses and fifteen thousand veterans left after Hoover help pass a bill providing a hundred thousand dollars to be distributed to the veterans to get them back home. However, two thousand of the angry veterans stayed behind in abandoned government buildings refusing to leave. A riot broke out with the police and two police officers were dead along with two veterans. President Hoover ordered his sectary of war, Hurley, to have General MacArthur move the occupants out of the government buildings and into their own camps. Both Hurley and MacArthur both stretched the president’s orders and drove the Bonus Army out of the buildings with tanks, tear gas, torches, and riffle fire. The veterans were also driven away from their camps and past the Anacostia Flats. This would prove to be a political disaster for President Hoover.


 * 1) 3 The first person a decided to cover was Andrew Mellon, who was the sectary of the treasury for Harding and then Hoover’s administration. His time as sectary of the treasury was controversial. He worked hard to cut federal spending and fought for tax cuts on the rich. Mellon did actually accumulate surpluses of eight billion dollars during his time as sectary and felt that those cuts on the rich’s taxes would help the economy because they would then invest their savings. He was criticized during Hoover’s administration for benefiting personally from the federal tax cuts he supported. As the economy declined into depression in 1929 and 1930 Mellon was the symbol of all that was wrong with America, which was the huge distance between the rich and poor and a federal government ignoring the poor while trying to meet the needs of the rich. He was an ultraconservative and believed in no government intervention regarding the economy. This type of thinking made the depression even worse than it was in the late 20’s and early 30’s.

The next person a decided to cover was **John Collier. He was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1933 as the commissioner of Indian affair**s and directed him to implement his suggested reforms. The main legislation Collier help pass was the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. This act authorized tribes to incorporate, reestablish their governments and draft tribal constitutions. Collier also ceased allotment and authorized the Bureau of Indian Affairs to buy back tribal lands. He also established programs to support economic development on the reservations. Even though he did not accomplish a lot of his goals he did help create an Indian claims commission which awarded millions of dollars to Indians for violating treaties. This was passed a year after he resigned in 1946.

1. Drawing on my reading of Who Built America, I used the tertiary sources to research the plight of the **married woman living during the Great Depression.** I learned that married women were more often than not the first ones to be let go from the work place. This prejudice against married women was acceptable during in that time period, women could rely on their husbands who were the traditional “breadwinners,” so they were seen as the best targets to be let go. Single women had no-one that they could rely on, so they were more apt to keep their jobs. However, more women kept their jobs more so then men did, simply because the “women’s work” that they were doing was in demand, and no man wanted to take a “woman’s work.” The advancement of women in this time slowed, but it never came to a stop and by the start of World War II, women were working more than ever.
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3. Major Figures

a. **Bernard Baruch made millions as a stock speculator**. By the time he was 30, Baruch was already a multi-millionaire. He lent his economic savvy to many great leaders in history. Baruch was a special advisor to President Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Baruch was the mentor of the people who developed much of the New Deal, and went on to advise many presidents after Roosevelt. He was a brilliant mind, who helped engineer Roosevelt’s New Deal in an attempt to alleviate the burden on struggling Americans.

b. **John Nance Garner was FDR’s vice** president from 1933 till 1941. Garner didn’t like his position in office, claiming it was “not worth a pitcher of spit.” Garner desired to return to his seat at the House of Representatives, where he was the Speaker of the House. In the beginning, Garner supported Roosevelt, even though Roosevelt was a Democrat and Garner was a Conservative. Garner worked hard in the beginning supporting and contributing to the New Deal. Soon however Garner turned against the new deal, throwing all of his political power against it. In 1941 Garner retired, and lived out the rest of his days in Texas, vowing to never cross the Potomac River again as long as he lived.

Dictionary of American History, Vol. 4 p.47, The Great Depression: Effects of Gender and Race.

Encyclopedia of American History, Vol. 8 p. 203, 62-63