The Great DepressionI. Labor in the late 1920s

A. Failed ActivismB. Prelude to Reform

II.The Great DepressionA. The Stock MarketB. Business CollapseC. Farm Crisis

III. The Condition of the WorkerA. UnemploymentB. Homelessness C. Poverty

IV. ResponsesA. Institutional FailureB. Disappointment & Anger

Failed Activism

• Gastonia, N.C. textile strike, 1929

• Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1928– A. Philip

Randolph

The Meaning of Reform

• Al Smith-- NY Governor– NYC, Irish-Catholic, machine politician– Leads coalition of labor & reformers

• Belle Moscowitz, Sidney Hillman, Robert Wagner

– Favors new types of social programs

• Loses 1928 election to progressive businessman and efficiency expert Herbert Hoover

The Stock Market

• October 24, 1929-- Black Thursday• Stocks drop 40% in two months• Stockholders lose $40B• Workers in “American Plan” lose

everything

Bank Failures

• 10,000 collapse between 1929 and 1933 (40%)

• Over 4,000 failures in 1933 alone

American Union Bank of NY Bank 1931

Farm Crisis

• Dust Bowl

• Farm Foreclosures

1929: 2.0%1930: 2.0%1931: 2.5%1932: 3.5%1933: 5.5%

======Tot: 14.5%

Homelessness

• Philadelphia Sheriffs sell 1,300 homes each month

• 250,000 ride the rails seeking work

Unemployment

• 1933: 15 million unemployed

• 1/3 of all workers

• Non-whites hardest hit

• Masculinity

The Big Rock Candy MountainBy Harry McClintock

One evening as the sun went downAnd the jungle fire was burning,Down the track came a hobo hiking,And he said, “Boys, I'm not turningI'm heading for a land that's far awayBesides the crystal fountainsNow come with me we’ll go and seethe Big Rock Candy Mountain.”

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,It's a land that's fair and bright,Where the handouts grow on bushesAnd you sleep out every night.Where the boxcars all are emptyAnd the sun shines every dayOn the birds and the beesIn the cigarette treesAt the lemonade springsWhere the bluebird sings

In the Big Rock Candy MountainsThe cops have wooden legsThe bulldogs all have rubber teethAnd the hens lay soft-boiled eggsThe farmers trees are full of fruitAnd the barns are full of hayI'm bound to goWhere there ain't no snowWhere the rain don't fallAnd the wind don't blowIn the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

In the Big Rock Candy MountainYou never change your socksAnd little streams of alkyholCome trickling down the rocksO the brakemen all have to tip their hatsAnd the railroad bulls are blindThere's a lake of stewAnd whiskey tooAnd you can paddleAll around it in a big canoeIn the Big Rock Candy Mountain

In the Big Rock Candy Mountain,The jails are made of tin.You can slip right out again,As soon as they put you in.There ain't no short-handled shovels,No axes, saws nor picks,I'm bound to stayWhere you sleep all day,Where they hung the jerkThat invented workIn the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

I’ll see you all this coming fallIn the Big Rock Candy Mountains

Poverty

Institutional Failure

Hoover’s Policies• Self-help

– “Rugged Individualism”

• Economic Nationalism– Raise Tariffs

• Hawley-Smoot

• Corporate Welfare– Reconstruction Finance

Corporation lends money to banks, businesses, and coops

• Public Works– Boulder Dam

Anger • The Bonus Army • WWI veterans • March on

Washington• Demand pensions• Routed by army