The Great Depression – Film notes
Henry Ford had once been voted the greatest man in history after Napoleon and Jesus Christ. He revolutionized the automobile industry by introducing assembly line production. In 1914, He raised the pay to his assembly line workers to $5 per day.
People came from all over the country to try to get a job at Ford. Many were immigrants, Poles, Italians, Irish, Mexicans and black sharecroppers from the south.
Ford’s “River Rouge” plant was at that time the largest industrial complex in history. It was called the “Cathedral of Industry”. It could turn out 4 cars per minute, 240 per hour, 6,000 cars per day. At that time, ½ of all the cars in the world were Ford Model-T’s, the most widely used vehicle in human history.
Mass marketing and mass production of cars changed America forever. Easy credit was available to everyone. There was a glut of people looking for work in Detroit. Ford demanded a grueling pace from his workers on the assembly line. The rules were strict.
No talking, no leaving your position to use the restroom etc. The pay was good but the working conditions were miserable.
In 1927, in order to cut costs, Ford cut wages & speeded up the assembly line. That was the same year he gave his son Edsel 1 million dollars for his 21st birthday. Ford wanted to control the costs of production. He wanted control of other auto-related industries because strikes in those industries often interrupted his supply of materials. He bought a rubber plantation in Brazil and named it “Fordlandia”. He also bought coal companies in Kentucky and Iron mines in Michigan.
Ford also wanted to control the lives of his workers, many of whom lived in company homes near the plant. Ford was a conservative Christian. He would did not like Liquor, Jazzy music, or movies, and didn’t think his workers should partake of them either. He made workers children take square dancing lessons.
He founded the “Dearborn Independent”, a newspaper. In his paper he often wrote articles which were blatantly Anti-Semitic. He blamed the Jews for the high cost of rent and for the collapse of farm prices after World War I. He thought it was a “Jewish Conspiracy”. In the 1930’s a picture of Ford hung on the wall of Adolph Hitler’s office, and copies of his newspaper articles were often seen on Hitler’s desk.
After awhile, as he began to worry about labor unions which were forming in many industries to protect the rights of workers. He hired Harry Bennett to keep his men in control. Bennett ran Ford’s private police force in the plant. He speeded up the assembly line by placing a “speed king” (a very fast worker) at the front of the line to make others on the same line work faster. Ford often laid off workers over the age of 40 and hired younger workers to take their place. The sales of black hair dye skyrocketed at rehire time.
In the spring of 1927 Ford shut down the River Rouge assembly line to “re-tool” for a new model. In the fall of ’27 Ford introduced the “Model A”. Sales of the new model were a huge success. This allowed him to re-hire workers.
In October of 1929, a month before the Stock Market Crash, President Herbert Hoover visited Ford & his friend Thomas Edison, in Dearborn Michigan at Ford’s “Greenfield Village”, a tourist attraction which celebrated the simple life of the “good old days” of quiet farms and villages.
By 1929, many Americans were living beyond their means. Buying things on credit, many Americans were in debt. After the Stock Market Crash of ’29, Ford tried to keep his workers on the line, but soon demand for new cars dropped off. It was the same all over the country. Employers laid off workers as sales slumped. Cities set up “soup lines”, where unemployed people could get food. The U.S. was the only major industrial country in the world at the time that had no unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, or National Relief program for the unemployed.
As unemployment rose in the 1930’s, more and more families were going hungry. Communists organized “Hunger Marches” in the streets of major U.S. cities.
President Hoover had said that “Prosperity is just around the corner” and his campaign slogan was “A chicken in every pot, and a car in every garage”.
City governments provided the only “relief” to the unemployed.
In 1930, Henry Ford’s personal income was $30 Million. He bought a miniature farm with a working train for his grandchildren to play with.
The unemployment rate in Toledo Ohio in 1931 was 80%.
Since most people could no longer buy new cars, Ford could no longer make a profit, so Ford planned to close the plant in 1931.
In August of 1931 he closed the River Rouge plant, laying off 60,000 workers. They joined the other 100,000 in Detroit who were already unemployed.
Some homeless people began to build homes out of any wood, cardboard, or scrap metal they could find. They called these shacks “Hoovervilles”.
¾ of the Mexicans who had come to Detroit to work at Ford returned to Mexico.
By the end of 1931, in major U.S. cities, “unemployment councils” began to form. Hunger marches were organized by Communist or Socialist organizations. They held demonstrations for Unemployment Compensation, Jobs, and an end to evictions. There were nearly 150 evictions per day. There was one death by starvation every 7 hours.
Hoover authorized the Federal government to make loans to businesses & State-run public works projects, but he refused to authorize “direct relief” to the unemployed.
He believed that people would become demoralized if the federal government “put them on the dole” (direct relief checks to the poor). He believed that people should be self-reliant, and that City Governments & privately run charities like the Red Cross or The Salvation Army should be responsible for any direct relief
In 1932 the city of Detroit was running out of money. Henry Ford loaned the city of Detroit $5 Million. Ford refused to give any direct aid to his laid off workers. He thought that the jobless were lazy and that they should be more industrious & get out and find work in order to earn money.
March 7, 1932, Communists organized a march on Ford’s River Rouge plant. Police & hired guards stopped the marchers. They fired tear gas canisters into the crowd. Firemen sprayed freezing water on the crowd trying to disperse them.
Some of Ford’s hired guards and the Detroit police opened fire on the retreating crowd.
24 marchers were shot, 1 reporter was shot. Four people died instantly.
Ford’s guards stockpiled the plant with guns and ammunition, and posted a machinegun at Ford’s home. At the funeral for the dead workers, a band played the National Anthem, and then the Communist Anthem (“the Internationale”). Some people in America began to worry that the U.S. might have a communist revolution like the one in Russia in 1917.
Part 2: “The Road to Rock Bottom”
In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s many farmers lost their farms to Foreclosure (bank confiscation of property for non-payment of loans).
In Oklahoma, “Pretty Boy” Floyd became a kind of legendary hero. He was an outlaw who robbed banks and gave money away to the poor. Newspapers called him “The Sagebrush Robin Hood”.
In the 1920’s many farmers expanded their farms, going in to debt to buy the land and machinery to farm it. But then as the depression began, land prices dropped and overproduction of food caused food prices to drop. Farmers could no longer afford to pay off the loans they had gotten from the banks. Then in 1930, America’s agricultural heartland was hit by one of the worst droughts in history.
President Hoover asked the Red Cross to help the farmers. Hoover believed that people should help each other voluntarily. But because the banks had often lost money in the stock market crash of ’29, many banks closed. In Arkansas, ¼ of the state’s banks closed. Red Cross relief money was frozen. The politicians in Washington D.C. knew very little about the farmers’ plight. President Hoover even denied publicly that people were starving because of the drought. As he had with laid-off industrial workers, Hoover opposed “the dole” (direct Federal relief checks) for farmers. Some congressmen from the Midwest proposed a new law providing direct Federal relief. Hoover threatened to veto any such new law.
In January of 1931, in England Arkansas, there had been no Red Cross food packages given out for 3 days. 500 farmers drove to the Red Cross headquarters and demanded that food packages that were stored there be given out. The national headquarters finally authorized $2.50 in food to be given out to the farmers. Although the farmer’s march had been peaceful, Newspapers reported it as a “Farmer’s Riot”. Bankers, depositors, and farmers were all getting worried. Public sentiment began to turn against the Banks.
Between 1929-1931, bank robberies increased dramatically. Most of the banks hit by robbers were small town banks. “Pretty-Boy” Floyd would rob a bank and then get into the bank’s files and destroy the mortgages that the banks held. He would often buy food and clothing for starving families that he knew. He became kind of a cult hero to many poor farmers. In 1931, Floyd robbed banks in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Ohio. In 5 months he stole $12,000. The state of Oklahoma led the nation in bank robberies in 1932.
Finally, Oklahoma hired retired sheriff Irv Kelly to catch Floyd. When Floyd went to visit his wife, Kelly set a trap for him. When Floyd shot and killed Kelly, the public turned against Floyd. They felt he had gone too far. Floyd was cornered by FBI agents in an Iowa corn field 2 years later where he was shot and killed.
President started the Reconstruction Finance Corp. to stimulate business & industry. He hoped the benefits would “trickle down” to the little guy.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt opposed Hoover in the election of 1932. As a child FDR had polio which left him unable to walk or stand without braces. This fact was not mentioned much by the press.
At the end of World War One, as the American Army was being demobilized, a grateful U.S. government passed legislation that authorized the payment of cash bonuses to war veterans, adjusted for length of service, due to be paid in 1945. However, the Crash of 1929 wiped out many veterans’ savings and jobs, forcing them out into the streets.
In the spring of 1932, a group of unemployed World War One Veterans, led by Walter Waters decided to organize a march on Washington to lobby Congress to pass a “Bonus Bill”. They had been promised a veterans bonus which would be given to them in 1945. They wanted to petition Congress to authorize an early payment of the bonus to help them through the hard times they were experiencing.
A group of about 300 veterans left Portland Oregon, and as they traveled across the country other veterans joined the march. Veterans from all over the country decided to join their “March”. Some came by train, some came by car, and some even came on foot.
When they arrived in Washington D.C. they moved in to abandoned houses near the Capitol building which were scheduled for demolition. Many veterans brought their families with them, and when their numbers grew too great for the abandoned buildings, they erected a small tent city on the flats across the Anacostia River. President Hoover authorized food to be sent to the veterans camps. As summer approached the number of veterans rose to over 3,000. They built little houses they called “Hoovervilles” on the Anacostia flats.
In June, a group of Communists claimed that the “Bonus March” had been their idea, although there were never more than 200 communists among the 3,000 + veterans. Many of the politicians in Washington were alarmed by the presence of even a small number of communists in the nation’s capital.
President Hoover had promised to maintain a balanced budget, and there was no money budgeted to pay the veterans any bonus. The Bonus bill was opposed by many of the Congressmen and Senators, but the House of Representatives finally passed a bonus bill. The veterans thought they had won a great victory, but they still had to get the bill through the Senate. Two days later the Senate voted to kill the bill. The veterans tried to get the Senate to reconsider before they adjourned at the end of their summer session.
The Veterans organized a “Death March” around the Capitol building. On the last day of their session Congress adjourned without reconsidering the bonus bill. While veterans waited on the steps of the Capitol building, the Senators escaped through the underground tunnel that led to the Senate Office Building. President Hoover considered the Bonus Army Marchers a threat to public order and his personal safety.
The veterans decided to stay. Twelve days later, the veterans were evicted by police from the abandoned buildings they had been living in on Pennsylvania Avenue. Many other veterans came across the Anacostia River to join them. When veterans resisted the police, some of the police officers opened fire on a group of the veterans. One veteran was killed and one was wounded. President then ordered U.S. Army troops to be sent in to assist in the evacuation of the veterans. At 4:00 p.m. the infantrymen donned gas masks and fixed bayonets, the cavalry drew sabers, and the whole force under the command of General Douglas MacArthur (followed by several light tanks) moved down Pennsylvania Avenue to clear it of people.
President Hoover had ordered General MacArthur to clear Pennsylvania Avenue only, but MacArthur immediately began to clear all of downtown Washington, herding the Marchers out and torching their huts and tents. Tear gas was used liberally and many bricks were thrown, but no shots were fired during the entire operation. By 8:00 p.m. the downtown area had been cleared and the bridge across the Anacostia River, leading to the Hoovervilles where most of the Marchers lived, was blocked by several tanks.
That evening Hoover twice sent orders via two officers to MacArthur forbidding him to cross the Anacostia to clear the Marchers’ camp, but MacArthur flatly ignored the President’s orders, saying that he was ‘too busy’ and could not be bothered by people coming down and pretending to bring orders.’ MacArthur crossed the Anacostia at 11:00 p.m., routed the marchers along with 600 of their wives and children out of the camp, and burned it to the ground.
That evening the fires in the nation’s capital could be seen miles away. Many people who witnessed it said that it was the sight of the capital burning that insured Franklin Roosevelt’s victory in the presidential election that fall.
In his campaign for president Franklin Roosevelt promised the American people a “New Deal” between the government and the people. In November of 1932 Franklin Roosevelt won the presidential election in a “Landslide”.
Part 3 – “New Deal – New York”
The theme song of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” was “Happy Days are Here Again”.
New York was a city of 7 Million people in 1932. As the depression worsened, many Banks began to go bankrupt and closed their doors. One-third of New Yorkers were poor who lived in tenement houses (crowded apartments which became ghettos). Harlem became the largest black community in the U.S.
New York’s most famous congressman was Fiorello La Guardia.
FDR was a pragmatic politician, not an intellectual or an idealist. He culled his policies from the suggestions of members of his “Brain Trust,” based on which seemed most politically viable. One example of FDR’s pragmatic use of the presidency--and of the public’s faith in their leader--was the National Bank Holiday. By the time he came to office, 5,000 banks had failed and 47 of the 48 states had declared “bank holidays,” stopping some or all bank activity. Some liberal members of Congress wanted FDR to nationalize the banks, but FDR had no intention of taking such a radical step. Instead, he declared a “national bank holiday”, closing all banks, purportedly in order to give inspectors time to review their solvency. FDR declared that only those banks in sound financial health, those which had passed inspection, would be allowed to reopen. Most banks were only closed for four days, so, of course, only a very few were actually investigated. Nonetheless, when the banks reopened, the American public entrusted them with their money once more, which actually made the banks solvent. Merely by restoring public confidence in the banking system of America, Roosevelt saved it at no cost to bankers or to the government.
FDR spoke to the people on the radio in what came to be called “fire-side chats”. He spoke to them in a personal way and tried to restore the confidence of the people. He told them that “...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.
In his first 100 days in office, he created ten new agencies to help fight the depression.
Roosevelt introduced a new notion of the presidency whereby the president, not Congress, was the legislative leader. Most of the bills he proposed set up new government agencies, called the “alphabet soup” agencies because of their array of acronyms.
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)--A public works project, operated under the control of the army, which was designed to promote environmental conservation while getting young, unemployed men off city street corners. Recruits planted trees, built wildlife shelters, stocked rivers and lakes with fish, and cleared beaches and campgrounds. The CCC housed the young men in tents and barracks, gave them three square meals a day, and paid them a small stipend. The army’s experience in managing and training large numbers of civilians would prove invaluable in WWII.
He sent a bill to Congress establishing the first direct Federal relief in history. The bill called for the establishment of the Federal Emergency Relief Act which would provide 500 Million Dollars in federal funds for relief of the poor.
NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act)--The NIRA established the NRA (National Recovery Administration) to stimulate production and competition by having American industries set up a series of voluntary codes designed to regulate prices, industrial output, and general trade practices. The federal government, in turn, would agree to enforce these codes. In return for their cooperation, federal officials promised to suspend anti-trust legislation. Section 7A of the NIRA recognized the rights of workers to organize labor unions and to have collective bargaining with management for better wages & working conditions. The NIRA was the most controversial piece of legislation to come out of the Hundred Days and many of its opponents charged it with being un-American, socialist, even communist, even though it did not violate the sanctity of private property or alter the American wage system.
Roosevelt was willing to try anything.
In New York, FDR had to fight against “Tammany Hall”. Tammany Hall was the name given to the Democratic political machine that had dominated New York City politics since 1854. Tammany Hall was notorious for being populated with corrupt politicians who regularly squandered the people’s tax money. Shortly after the Stock Market crash of ’29, investigations into New York’s police, lawyers, and municipal officials would circle closer and closer to City Hall until they eventually led to Jimmy Walker, the Mayor of New York City, who was forced to resign.
In 1933, Fiorello LaGuardia ran for election as a part of the “fusion party” – He pledged to clean up Tammany Hall and end corruption in New York politics. LaGuardia stayed in constant touch with FDR.
One of FDR’s New Deal programs was the CWA – the Civil Works Administration. This public work program gave the unemployed jobs building or repairing roads, parks, airports, etc. The CWA provided a psychological and physical boost to its 4 million workers.
Another New Deal program, the PWA, (the Public Works Administration) launched projects such as the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River.
Segregation in New York City was a real problem. Blacks began to boycott white businesses who would not hire blacks. Adam Clayton Powell was a preacher who led the movement in New York. Their slogan was “Don’t buy where you can’t work”. The courts ruled that picketing the stores was illegal. One out of every seven families in N.Y. depended on relief to get by.
FDR’s New Deal was roundly criticized by many. The NRA was blamed for boosting prices, lowering wages, and holding back business recovery. In 1935 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NRA was unconstitutional.
Part 5 UNIONS ORGANIZE
FDR’s New Deal program called the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) tried to raise farm prices. It used proceeds from a new tax to pay farmers not to raise specific crops and animals. Lower production would, in turn, increase prices. However, the money was sent to the owners of the farms, not to Sharecroppers and Tenant farmers. It was the duty of the owners to disperse any of the relief money to Sharecroppers and Tenants on their farms.
The Sharecroppers and Tenant Farmers tried to organize a union. Blacks & whites worked together. H.L. Mitchell headed the S.T.F.U. (Southern Tenant Farmers Union).
By 1934, the S.T.F.U. had 1,000 members. The planters (farm owners) evicted anyone suspected of Union organizing so Tenant Farmers had to meet in secret. Mitchell tried meeting with Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, but Wallace sided with the Planters.
In 1935, Congress passed the Wagner Act which gave workers the right to form labor unions, but Sharecroppers were excluded. In the fall of ’35 the S.T.F.U. called a cotton pickers strike. After 10 days of the strike, the landlords gave in and increased wages for the pickers. Membership in the S.T.F.U. soared. In December of ’35, C.H. Dibble ordered union people off his land.
January 16, 1936, in Earl Arkansas, law officers broke into a union meeting and shot two people. The next day the workers met in a Church. Raiders broke in and took the union organizer to the woods. They were going to lynch him, but he talked his way out of it. In return for his freedom, he agreed to leave town. Terrorism ruled in Arkansas. Night riders intimidated anyone who might try to organize a union. The S.T.F.U. wanted the federal government to stand up for the rights of Tenant Farmers. The S.T.F.U. asked for a meeting with FDR, but Roosevelt refused to meet with them. Instead, he agreed to meet with the leader of the Planters – the Planters had more political power. In 1938 the federal government finally agreed to send aid directly to Sharecroppers & Tenant Farmers. The Planters simply evicted the tenants from the land. The S.T.F.U. was defeated – their effort to improve life for poor tenant farmers was a failure.
Steel towns – Aliquippa Pennsylvania
J&L Steel (Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation) built the town of Aliquippa Pennsylvania as a “Company Town”. Workers lived in housing owned by the company, and shopped in the general store owned by the company. The workers were completely dependent on the company for their survival. Tom Girdler was President of J & L a fiercely anti-union president. He called his presidency a “benevolent (kind) dictatorship” but the workers didn’t see him as being very benevolent. Tom Girdler eventually became the Chairman of the Board of Republic Steel. He was a tough, fiercely anti-union president. In 1933 the NRA had recognized the right of industrial workers to form and join unions. Congress passed the Wagner Act in 1935. Girdler refused to accept the Wagner Act.
During the 1930s tensions between workers and their employers were very high. Workers tried to form unions to push for better working conditions, but business owners responded to their actions harshly, blacklisting organizers and using force to prevent strikes. President Roosevelt first addressed this problem with the National Industrial Recovery Act (NLRA), but when the Supreme Court ruled that act unconstitutional, President Roosevelt made an even bolder stand with labor. The National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act after New York Senator Robert Wagner, gave workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively with their employers. The act also created the National Labor Relations Board to oversee union certification, arrange meetings with unions and employers, and investigate violations of the law. Like other New Deal programs, the NLRA's constitutionality was questioned, but the Supreme Court upheld the act in the Jones & Laughlin Steel case.
J&L had tried to defy the Wagner Act. Girdler refused to allow Unions in the J&L plant. When Girdler became the head of Republic Steel he continued to fight against the formation of unions. John L. Lewis wanted to unionize all workers (not just skilled labor) into a single union. He called his organization the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). Lewis’s main target was the Steel Industry. In June of 1936 the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was formed. The unions backed FDR in the election. Labor unions organized at “Big Steel” companies like U.S. Steel Corporation. Early in 1936, the leaders of the United States Steel and the SWOC quietly came to an agreement without a strike. By the end of 1936, the 510,000 men in the steel workers union formed a unit second in size only to the United Mine Workers.
“Little Steel” vowed to stop the CIO. In 1937 the Supreme Court ruled against “Little Steel” and upheld the Wagner Act. SWOC won the election and began to organize the workers at J & L. Tom Girdler began to arm the company for the strike. Republic used espionage, firing of union men, and hiring of strikebreakers. It built up a stockpile of industrial munitions, including guns, tear gas, and clubs. These munitions were placed in the various plants of Republic Steel in preparation for a strike which the company anticipated. He hired “goons” (hired guards) to protect the plant.
SWOC called for a nation-wide strike against “Little Steel”. At a Memorial Day rally organized by the union, protestors at Girdler’s Republic Steel plant in south Chicago were fired upon by police and company guards. Ten workers were killed and thirty wounded. Most of them had been shot in the back.
The “Republic Steel Massacre” stopped SWOC’s momentum. People went back to work. The strikes were called off. Girdler blamed the shootings on the leader of the CIO, John L. Lewis, whom he considered to be a Communist.
The National Labor Relations Board ordered elections in all “Little Steel” plants. Unions won the elections at every “Little Steel” plant. In 1941, the National Labor Relations Board ordered the “Little Steel” plants to cease their unfair labor practices. Republic Steel finally relented and signed their first contracts with the new United Steelworkers of America Union.
