Chapter 15 Willkie's Wager

January 1940
Unemployment (year): 14.6%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 151

Summary:

Oren Root, a young lawyer yearly in the year of 1940, attended one of Herbert Hoover's speech addressed to the Young Republicans Club of New York. Root believed that the struggle for Europe (As World War II had just begun) was similar to the struggles that the New Deal proposed in the US and the US was not yet ready to be involved in the war and if they ended up engaging in war, he believed that he presidency should go to someone who understood wartime politics like Wendell Willkie. This initially wasn't taken seriously. Eventually the Republican party and writers such as Hubert Kay began supporting Willkie against Roosevelt, arguing how inefficiently Roosevelt was using government spending's and using the weaknesses of Roosevelt's New Deal. Willkie used this politics views about freedom and growth to gain popularity with the Republicans. Still Roosevelts efforts in the depression such as providing millions of peoples with jobs, passing the social security act and etc, overshadowed Willkes argument and ideas. Not to mention that in wartime, Roosevelt would prove to be the better candidate, eventually leading him to be reelected in 1940. Willkie brought up the topic of who exactly the forgotten man was, and reminded people that the forgotten man was the person who wanted most to protect the country.

Key Terms:

Town Hall Meeting of the Air
Stryker
TVA
The New Deal
American Liberalism

Questions:

What did Willkie's wager prove to Americans?

Who is the Forgotten man towards the end of the book?

Pictures:




1940, March 16 2015, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Willkie





Dorothea Lange, March 16 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg

Chapter 14 "brace up, america"

January 1938
Unemployment: 17.4%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 121

Summary

Still in the depression, less server than it was in previous years, Americans were finally able to adjust to some extent and breathe. A meeting between Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Hitler at Munich were occurring but Roosevelt was aware that this was not likely stop war. During this time. the Mid Term elections were taking place, Roosevelt winning the election once more, leaving the Republicans without representation in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Hatch Act was passed in 1939, limiting the political activities by government that had proved especially useful during the presidential election. At the same time, a report made by the Associated Press about the cooperative farm experiment in Casa Grande was made by Robert Faul. As the events in 1938 began to unfold, Americans expressed their favoritism towards Europe by wanting to help support them with supplies and military support.

Key Terms:

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Spencer
Father Divine
Casa Grande
The Big Book
Alcoholics Anonymous

Questions:

What were the main themes of the election of 1940?

Pictures:



Atlanta Georgia, 1932, March 16 2015, http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt

Chapter 13 Black Tuesday, again

August 27, 1937
Unemployment: 13.5%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 187

Summary:

With Mellon's Death brought problems including undistributed tax profits, the fluctuation of bond prices. Businesses and  investors refused to buy anymore money because they didn't want to use it. The Fed law, caused banks to cut back on loans and made stricter policies for banks. The Fed, fearing inflation from vast amount of gold pouring back into the economy, restricted the flow of gold into the economy which as a result removed billions of dollars from circulation and caused banks to lend fewer loans to the public. With the social security program taking out money to fund retired people and the Wagner act making bushiness much more expensive, the New Deal seemed inefficient. The massive drop in industrial production ever recorded helped support the ineffectiveness of the New Deal. During this time, Roosevelt was taking advice from a group of Anti-big businessmen, Corcoran, Cohen, Ickles, Jackson, and Hopkins to take advantage of the downturn and eliminate big businesses, urging the president to take action against the elite. The New Deal revealed the competition between the elite and the government and continued to support Roosevelt's opposition to holding companies and Wilkes support of private and holding companies .

Key Terms:
 Civilian Conservation Corps
WPA
Agriculture Department
New Deal
Department of Commerce

Questions:

Where the programs and administrations that Roosevelt sponsored really helpful? What significant changes did they make?

What caused the depression within the depression in 1937?

Pictures:



Des Moines, Iowa June 8 1936, March 16 2015, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/resources/newdealprojects.html

Chapter 12 The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt

January 1937
Unemployment (January): 15.1%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 179

Summary:

Rex Tugwell, once a member of the Roosevelt Administration left this job at the undersecretary of agriculture and abandoned his projects to become a worker of a private molasses company. Compared to how the government was during the middle of the depression, the economy was slowly recovering but never recovered back to the way it was during the 1920's, this proving how the New Deal was in some aspects ineffective. As a result of Roosevelt laying off workers in the NIRA and WPA, employees standing behind the Wagner Act began protesting, adding to the problem was the solution of their or not to raise wages to see if the government could get the economy back to the way it was in the late 1920's. Meanwhile, the fear of communists and the soviet union became a persistent problem, ever since Roosevelt recognized the the Soviet Union. Journalist Oddete Keun, traveling from Europe to study organizations like the TVA, caused Americans to notice the effects the New Deal on the businesses and realize the effects of the Wagner act of companies and businesses.

Key Terms:

New York Herald Tribune
McCarthy
Middletown in Transition
Keun
Casa Grande
Stalin and Communists


Questions:

How were workers able to use the Wagner Act to lead strikes?

What kind of power did it give them?

Pictures:



Rexford Tugwell, March 16 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rexford_Tugwell

Chapter 11 Roosevelt's Revolution

January 1937

Unemployment: 15 percent

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 179

Summary: 

Roosevelt was elected again in 1937 and gave his election speech during his inauguration on January 1937. During this year of his presidency, Roosevelt skipped state ratification and increased the number of Supreme Court Justices from 9 to around 15 and possible even more. This elicited strong disapproval from many American citizens and old-fashioned liberals who found it illiberal. As a result, the court supported unions and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) which gave the government power to regulate manufacturing and giving the Wager Act more power. While Roosevelt began prosecuting Mellon and his connection to the Aluminum Company of America due to revenue, tax, and monopoly, a national convention for doctors, the American Medical Association, a new drug called sulfanilamide was being introduced. Claiming that the drug could easily fight off bacterial infection, it help form on an idea to giving American Citizens national health care and required all the nation's doctors to become a member/officer of the Federal Health Service.

Key Terms:

West Coast Hotel Company v Parrish
Fireside Chats
Adkins v Children's Hospital
NLFA
Sulfanilamide
Federal Public Health Service
American Medical Association

Question:

What was the significance of Roosevelt adding more Justices to the already existing group?

Why did it make Republicans and classical liberals angry?

Pictures:



Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, June 16 1933, March 16 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/509263/Franklin-D-Roosevelt

Chapter 10 Mellon's Gift

December 1936
Unemployment (December): 15.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 182

Summary:

Mellon approaching somewhere near his late 70's wanted to give back to the American community by building a national art gallery in Washington that would display his precious art collection that the had been collecting for years. At first, Mellon had wanted to keep the idea a secret but eventually disregarded the idea it after it had been leaked. Mellon had been an avid connoisseur of art and collected many pieces of art such as Madonna of the House of Alba, a portrait of Pocahontas painted origination in Britain from 1616, and many of van Eyck's paintings. A couple of weeks after Roosevelt was reelected into office, Mellon proposed the idea of constructing an art museum made entirely out of marble and named The National museum of art, with no mention of Mellon's name in the museums name or in the collection of paintings that were going to be displayed in the museum. It was graciously accepted by Roosevelt. Building the museum to be much bigger than what he had intended to fit his collection in, he was hoping that it would encourage the elite class philanthropist to donate to the community when he no longer could, thus proving that the elite could indeed contribute to the community.

Key Terms:

Van Eyck's Annunciation
Alba Madonna
Duveen
Tennessee Marble

Questions:

How might Mellon's Art Gallery become significant in the future?

What did Mellon's Art donation prove to the Elite Class and the rest of the Americans?

Pictures:



National Gallery of Art, west building, March 16 2015, http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/andrew_mellon

Chapter 9 Roosevelt's Wager

July 1935
Unemployment (July): 21.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 119

Summary:

By Funding projects such as the NRA, Roosevelt, hoped that his experiments would prove valuable
to the efforts in improving the situation of the economy, but after seeing how it didn't help the situation, he turned to politics, something that he was more familiar with. Formulating a plan to get him reelected and gain more supporters, Roosevelt, Tugwell, and his administration worked to foster projects like the National Youth Administration which created jobs for hundreds of employees, the Wagner act that denied jobs to anyone who was not in a union, close shop, the Social Security act; which guaranteed citizens that when they retired, they would receive government aid, the TVA, and Guffey coal Act. Roosevelt targeted the rich elite business men, and sympathized with the lower classes by forcing the elites to pay taxes to redistribute and recirculate money into the economy. Doing all of this caused Roosevelt to reevaluate his definition of the "Forgotten Man" to mean something like the different groups such as; Farmers, veterans, blacks, women, and industrial workers, that he planned to help, changing the definition of the Forgotten man. All of these acts, apart of the New Deal helped the situation of the Great Depression and reassured Americans. As a result of the US being in a depression for such an extended period of time, unemployment no longer seemed as harsh as it did towards the beginning of the Depression and stock markets began slowly recovering. Confidence that the New Deal would bring about prosperity, alleviated many of the worries that Americans harbored and allowed the country to recover. Meanwhile, Roosevelt and Congress looked for ways to redistribute revenue and tax profits efficiently.

Key Terms

Guffey Coal Act
Horse and the Buggy
Hallie Flanagan
CIO
Cardozo
PWA
Gone with the Wind
AAA
Tipaldo
Grapes of Wrath

Questions:

How are Hoover and FDR alike?

 How are they different?

Pictures:



Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal pin, 1932, March 16 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/411331/New-Deal





Civilian Conservation Corps, New Jersey 1935, March 16 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/411331/New-Deal

Chapter 8 The Chicken Versus the Eagle

November 1, 1934
Unemployment (November): 23.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 93

Summary

In the Schechter brothers were first generation Jewish immigrants who originally supported the New Deal and made their living by selling poultry and keeping a kosher butcher business. They were convicted of selling unfit chicken meat to customers. Finding the NRA to be unjust, they; the Chicken, decided that they would fight for their case, against the government; the eagle. The Court sided with the Schechter brothers, causing the NRA to lose its credibility and people to criticize the New Deal. Many people sought different ways to avoid the reality of the depression like in the ways Father Divine used this time to commit civil disobedience and Father Coughlin was on the radio ranting about evil doles. During this time, Roosevelt was finding ways to keep the bond market in bad shape so that after he received approval from congress about the Resettlement Administration, citizens would seek his help. The New Dealers were planning a new act called the Public Utilities Holding Company.

Key Terms:

Kosher Buisness
Shochtim
Alampi
Rice
Social Security program
Belcher
Ashwander

Questions:

How did the outcome of the Schechter case affect the New Deal?

What did it prove to Americans, more specifically Immigrants?

Pictures:



The White Court. Supreme Court of the United States, March 16 2015, http://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_court_white.html

Chapter 7 A Year of Prosecutions

January 1934
Unemployment: 21.2%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 100

Summary:

The Roosevelt administration looking for scapegoats for the causes of the Depression prosecuted people such as Andrew Mellon, Sam Insull whose failure affected million of shareholders, and the Schechter Brothers for violating NRA codes for distributing unfit poultry to customers. The Roosevelt administration knew how difficult it was going to be to prosecute them knowing that they were well respected in their hometowns and had much political influence in their cities, however,they still found evidence and proof to do so. Insull, already foreshadowing the outcome of the prosecution fled to Greece where he evaded the Greek authorities when the American government asked for Insull and embarrassed themselves when Insull slipped past Greek security and escaped on a Ship to Egypt. Eventually, the American Government was able to track down the ship with the aid of many countries and captured Insull for Prosecution. In the end, Insull was determined not guilty proving how difficult it was to send a rich and powerful man to jail versus sending a wage worker who had very little influence. Mellon on the other had, turned himself in and later left his job to become an emissary for another powerful political figure and dedicated the remainder of his life to collecting and admiring artwork. Meanwhile the Schechter brothers were prosecuted on the Sick Chicken Case for selling unfit chicken to customers and were found to be break 60 violations of the NRA. Meanwhile, Roosevelt was dedicating himself to executing the New Deal plan and having fireside chats to sell and assuage american citizens.

Key Terms:

Commonwealth and Southern
Ishmael and Insull
The Money Muddle
SEC
NRA
Exilona
Willkie

Question

In what ways did the prosecution of Mellon and Insull significant? How did it affect Americans during the Depression?

Pictures:

Andrew Mellon, March 16 2015, http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/book-reviews/2006/10/22/Mellon-An-American-Life-by-David-Cannadine/stories/200610220177






Insull, Samuel, March 16 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289532/Samuel-Insull

Chapter 6 A River Utopia

November 1933

Unemployment: 23.2% and heading down

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 90

Summary

The dam projects that Roosevelt was funding provided him with the kind of utopia that he and nation sought, therefore giving him the kind of inspiration he would need to spur on more projects. The dams provided new sources of cheaper and more efficient power source. The TVA was created and put in charge of it was Morgan, Lilienthal and another Harcourt. This project utilized the land the surrounding a certain river in Tennessee and provided thousands of jobs to families in desperate need of them. Under the construction of the dam, new settlements and beginnings of towns began to spring up as living spaces for workers as well as libraries and etc were provided for their use and their families. The electricity produced from the dam provided rates of energy and prices of energy at a more cheaper rate than provided in NYC and Chicago. As the TVA began growing momentum, Morgan and the growing face of the company Lilienthal, began wrestling each other for power over the company. Lilienthal, growing more ambitious oversaw projects like making fertilizer to increase the production of agriculture to gain more favor. Morgan, using a more political approach talked about plans to supply cities that lacked electricity, electricity at a reasonable price also gaining favor. The TVA proved to be a success and help raise the standard of living.

Key Terms:

Harold Ickles

Boulder Dam

Hoover Dam

TVA

Tennessee Valley

Muscle Shoals

Willikie

Dnieprostroi

Frankfurter

Lilienthal

Morgan

Question:

What was the nature of the struggle between Willkie and the TVA?

Pictures:



Tennessee Valley Authority, March 16 2015, http://www.shmoop.com/fdr-new-deal/timeline.html

Chapter 5 The Experimenter

October 1933

Unemployment: 22.9%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 93

Summary:

Roosevelt being elected into Office, allowed him to finally experiment on economics and give the people what they desperately wanted; change in the situation of the great depression. As a result, Roosevelt brought down the gold standard, which he was against and enforced that by making citizens cash in their gold for paper currency, collecting the gold and thus weakening the gold standard. Silver during this time was more plentiful and many people began to advocate for the idea of adding silver to the gold standard making proposing a bimetallic system. The plan proving unfruitful and receiving much criticism,  he eventually reenacted the gold standard. Roosevelt wanted to buy gold to force up the price and control depletion despite the criticism of his adviser like Morgenthau.  In the following months Roosevelt also experimented with Agriculture.

Key Terms:

Glass-Steagall Act
National Industrial Recovery Act
NRA
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
AAA
Hull and Warburg
Civilian Conservation Corps

Questions:

In what ways did the AAA and the NRA help the economy?

What were the trends in Roosevelt's monetary policy?

Pictures:

Brigham Young High School History, 1931 to 1940, March 16 2015, http://becuo.com/roosevelt-great-depression

Chapter 4 The Hour of the Vallar

September 1931

Unemployment: 17.4%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 140

Summary

As the reality of the Great Depression began to set in, many Americans, to escape the reality began to improvise and avoid the problem. Pretending as if nothing had happened, they improvised and went on with their daily lives before realizing that they could no longer continue that. Since deflation, one of the major contributors to the Great Depression, caused the american currency to become more valuable, it caused the currency to become more scarce, making paying for bill, rent and, and mortgage to become harder.This especially affected the wage workers and the businessmen who made up majority of the population as well as blacks in the north, and veterans of world war one who were promised grants as reward for their service. This in turn caused people to abandon the currency and turn to a new form of economy, bartering. Still unhappy with the deflated currency and the slow response of the federal government and the banks, a new organization called the NDA formed and created a new form of currency, the vallar. States in turn  began to generate and adopt new forms of currency such as scripts and etc in an attempt to replace a value on the deflated currency, giving it the value that they desired. The government, in an attempt to bring about order to the mayhem began looking for scapegoats such as Mellon and Insull to blame for the failure of the economy. The president along with his advisors, introduced the New Deal in hopes that it would ameliorate the situation of the depression and used the power of mass media, during this time the radio, to organize his action to the citizens and bring about supporters, relieving the anxieties of the people.

Key Terms
Eccles
Deflation
Smoot-Hawley
Tugwell
Father Divine
Sayville v Divine
New York Times
Moley

Questions:
Why were Mellon and Insull being accused for the failure of the economy during the Great Depression?

How was the Vallar system able to function? Did it simply just replace the currency?

Pictures:



Great Depression: African American workers at a canning plant during the Great Depression, Florida, March 16 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243118/Great-Depression

Chapter 3: The accident

October 1929
Unemployment: Heading toward 5 percent
Bow Jones Industrial Average (October 1): 343

Summary: 

The stock market crashed on Tuesday October 1929 due to inconsistent fluctuations in the market and over speculation. At the moment, it was not a concern to most politicians such as  Paul Douglas, who was preoccupied in a municipal battle, Andrew Mellon, and Samuel Crowther. It was regarded as "paper losses" and believed that the economy would recover in a timely fashion. It was people such as Tugwell who noted the crash and foreshadowed the future problem born from this incident. As the economy worsened and employment rates soared, as well as inflation which caused a problem in trading because it hindered international trade with Europe worsening the economy. Leaning towards the gold standard to fix the inflation problem and pull them out of the depression, citizens began looking towards President Hoover for help. He attempted so by proposing not to stop public works, but proposing new wage ideas of sustaining employment and wages requiring that companies to take the hit in profits instead of employment. He urged congress to endorse in public spending. Hoover also worked to improve farm prices to help support his idea of tariffs to support domestic economy, however the tariffs provided to be toxic to the general economy and deprived foreign governments of trade, hurting other nations and employees. Failure of the idea of tariff plummeted the US further into the depression and caused criticism on Hoover's part. Hoover then passed the flexible tariff  hoping that it would fix the economy and unemployment rate despite what the republicans and economist warned him about. Congress eventually granted Hoover his tariff. The tariff did not allow countries that were indebted to the US to pay back their loans, which would have provide useful to the Great Depression.
Roosevelt, running for re-election during this time criticized Hoover that he had failed to expand public spending sufficiently and insisted that inflation was the problem, which was a point Hoover failed to address properly. Roosevelt won the election against Tuttle in 1932 shifting favor of the house and senate to the democrats. The closing and failure of the Bank of United States affected many immigrants who invested their money in the bank. The caused more banks in the area to close, causing more people to lose their money.

Key Terms:
Wall Street
Flexible Tariff
Le Quotidien
AFL
The Dow
Liquidation
The Gold Standard
Inflation
Joseph Broderick

Questions:
Why was Inflation a major factor during the Great Depression?

Were there any positives to Hoovers Tariff policies?

Pictures:



New York Stock Exchange: crowds gathering on Black Thursday, 1929 , New York, March 16 2015.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/68373/Black-Thursday

Chapter 2: The Junket

July 1927

Average Unemployment(year): 3.3 percent

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 168

Summary: 

On July 1927 the steamship President Roosevelt left the ports of New York for England. Aboard the ship were Professor R.G Tugwell, Brebner, Stuart Chase, Schlink, and others. Meeting up with another man in England, Paul Douglass, the men were on their way to the Soviet Union. Once they arrived there they met Stalin, who wanted to negotiated terms with them, asking for aid to help the dire state that the soviet economy was in. The men saw the various projects that the Soviets were building and received tours of the "Bolshevik paradise". Eventually they met Stalin and conversed about the ethnic diversity of this country and communism. After coming back from the Soviet union the labor advocates raced each others to write volumes about the trip which provided a unique experience for them and provided a unique insight about communism and Stalin. A couple of years later in 1929, Stalin started a reign of terror and set up concentration camps later known as Gulag, where Russian workers were sent.

Key Terms:

Adkins v Children's Hospital
NEP
Sacco and Vanzetti
Fischer
My Disillusionment with Russia
Political Science Quarterly 
Soviet Russia in the Second Decade
Liberty Under the Soviets

Questions

What did Stuart Chase mean by " Why should Russians have all the fun remkaing a world?"?

Pictures:



March 16 2015, https://libcom.org/history/stalin-didnt-fall-moon-workers-solidarity-movement

Chapter 1 The Beneficent Hand

January 1927
Average Unemployment: 3.3%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 155

Summary

  As the a recession taking place between 1923 began to take place, many people were losing their jobs and struggling businesses began cutting wages, however, the county was able to bounce back fast. Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover had many difference in terms of political reputation, personalities, and ideas, exaggerating the differences by making Coolidge seem more demure and silent while Hoover fiery and passionate. Adding to Hoover's reputation was his assistance and help during the flood of 1927 in the Mississippi, therefore building up his reputation. Their different personality and backgrounds, political achievement both nationally and internationally, and differing views of their approach to politics place them at odds with each other and eventually leading for more political opportunities for Hoover. Occurring this time was the introduction of electricity, via Thomas Edison into society, revolutionizing industry and standard of living and giving birth to new ideas for engineers and other people. Also during this time was the massive amount of immigration into the US, diversify the economy, social classes,and allowing immigrants to become symbols of success as a result of the American Dream.

Key Terms:

Sam Insull
Henry Clay Frick
Andrew Mellon
The Beneficent Man
Laissez-Faire
Father Divine
Ford
Hoover Dam
John L Lewis
Kyshtim
The Dow
The Gold Standard
The Gilded Age
The Recession of 1920
The Gospel of Plenty
Theodore Roosevelt

Questions:

How had Hoovers international experiences and career in geology helped shed a more revering light on him, making him seem more assertive and prominent than Coolidge?

Although Coolidge and Hoover were so different in every almost every aspect, why did Hoover loyally support Coolidge during the election of 1924?

Is Mellon's formula of "invest in the private sector, do not intervene too much, wait silently, and the returns would be all the greater" (Page 26, Shlaes) still work and apply in today's world of bushiness and investments?

How had Europe hindered and placed itself behind the growing U.S by not acknowledging engineering as a profession?

How were Hoovers and Mellon's philosophies alike and how were they different?

What was the significance of the gold standard, what kind of people supported it and why? And what kind of people opposed it and why?





Herbert Hoover on his way to attend the American Legion Convention



Calvin Coolidge 



Jewish immigrants migrating to America in search of new opportunities