Zusammenfassung der Ressource
America: Boom, Bust
& Recovery Part 2:
1917-1954
- Prohibition
(1917)
- Why did Prohibition fail?
- Factor 1: Bootleggers
- Sold illegal
alcohol
- ‘Medicinal whiskey’
- Al Capone made $60 million
from speakeasies
- 1925 more speakeasies
than saloons in 1919
- George Remus bought up
breweries on the eve of
Prohibition, then arranged
for 3,000 gangsters to hijack
his products and divert
them, making $5 million in 5
years
- Factor 2: Geographical
Difficulties
- 18,000 miles of coastline
- Smuggling was easy due
to large size
- Agents only intercepted 5% of
alcohol that was coming into
the country illegally
- By 1924, smuggling
business estimated to
reach about $800 million
- Factor 3: Problems for
Treasury Agents
- Only 3,000 employed
- Paid a salary of $2,500
- 10% of agents fined
for corruption, easily
bribed
- Factor 4:
Industrial Alcohol
- Drinks often dangerous
- Made from exotic mixes to
remove unpleasant smell and
taste
- Poisoning from wood alcohol (alcohol
made from wood spirit or methanol),
sometimes occurred. From one lot of
alcohol, 34 New Yorkers died.
- The Depression
(1929-)
- Why did the Depression
last so long?
- Factor 1: Inadequate
Government Interventions
- To solve the uneven distribution of wealth, the
government should have increased taxation of the
rich to help make income more evenly spread. They
could then increase employment using this new
revenue, ‘kick starting’ the economy.
- However, the prevailing government policies
had been the opposite of this, where they
regarded government spending more of a
priority than employment issues.
- Hoover believed in
‘self-help’ and charity
- Factor 2: Monetary Policy
- A decline in the amount of money in circulation was
seen before the Depression began. Failure to
increase the amount of money prolonged the
depression as people had less money to spend.
- Money in circulation fell
by 33% from 1929-1933
- If the government were to
slowly inject money into the
economy via quantitative
easing (avoiding inflation),
then the demand for goods
would increase and
consequently the economy
could restart.
- McNary-Haugen Bill
(bought surplus farm
produce to keep prices
high) vetoed by Hoover
RFC provided $500 million
in relief to businesses but
this was insanely
inadequate for the
amount of businesses
failing
- Factor 3: The Extent
of the Depression
- No area in the US
remained unaffected
- Due to overproduction and
under-consumption,
employment for industries
(e.g. vehicle manufacturing)
was almost non-existent
- The geographical extent of the Depression
meant that both rural and urban areas
suffered, meaning neither could help one
another
- Factor 4: Foreign Economic Crisis
- Continuation of
high tariffs, e.g.
1930 Hawley-Smoot
tariffs, 40% on
foreign trade
- US did not devalue its
currency when others
were losing value, thus
making US goods even
more expensive for
foreigners
- Were Hoover’s policies successful?
- Factor 1: Yes (Aiding
Unemployment)
- Hoover involved
the government in
the economy more
than any other
previous president
- Hoover set up building programmes
to provide new jobs e.g. The Hoover
Dam
- Factor 2: Yes (Reducing
the Banking Crisis)
- E.g. when businesses were failing because
banks wouldn’t lend them money, Hoover
set up the RFC in 1932, which provided
loans up to $500 million to help businesses
- RFC reduced bank closures for a short time
- Factor 3: No (Inadequate
Government Interventions)
- To solve the uneven distribution of wealth, the
government should have increased taxation of
the rich to help make income more evenly
spread. They could then increase employment
using this new revenue, ‘kick starting’ the
economy.
- However, the prevailing government
policies had been the opposite of this,
where they regarded government
spending more of a priority than
employment issues.
- Hoover believed in
‘self-help’ and charity
- Factor 4: No
(Hoover’s
Continuation of
Old Policies)
- McNary-Haugen Bill (bought
surplus farm produce to keep
prices high) vetoed by Hoover
Continuation of high tariffs,
e.g. 1930 Hawley-Smoot
tariffs, 40% on foreign trade
- US did not devalue its currency when others were
losing value, thus making US goods even more
expensive for foreigners
- The New Deal
(1933)
- How successful was the New
Deal? Relief or Recovery?
- Factor 1: Yes
(Agriculture, Recovery)
- AAA reduced farm production and provided
relief for farmers by paying them to reduce
productions = less overproduction
- Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) created cheap electricity
- Farm Credit Act (1933) - offered
short-term loans for farmers
threatened by closure. Small farmers
were able to refinance their
mortgages
- Factor 2: Yes (Industrial/Banking
Recovery, Recovery)
- Glass-Steagall Act (1933) –
high street banks were not
able to take part in
investment = removed the
problem of stock brokers
taking a percentage of
profits in shares
- Truth in Securities Act
(1934) – giving correct
information on stocks
- PWA – constructed
schools, hospitals =
reviving industry
- Federal Emergancy
Relief Act – work
training for unemployed
- CCC – short-term jobs on
projects
- Factor 3: No (Inadequate
Policies, Relief)
- TVA – one area
- CCC – short term
- AAA – artificial prices
that will decrease in
the long term
- Factor 4: No
(Minorities, Relief)
- Policies favoured white
males, women and
minorities excluded
- AAA – pushed African
Americans off farms as it
paid white landowners
- Poverty for blacks was
so intense that any relief
had little effect
- Opposition to
Roosevelt’s New Deals:
- Opposition from the left: Liberals and
radicals opposed due to the lack of
relief being provided and for not
monitoring the aspects of Capitalism
e.g. no tax on rich
- Opposition from the right:
claimed policies were
Communist in disguise, and
that government intervention
was destroying a proud
history of self-reliance
- NRA: (gave self-regulating
codes for economic
recovery) – declared
unconstitutional
- The ‘sick’ chicken case:
firm of butchers in NYC
who were selling
chickens unfit for
eating, were
prosecuted by NRA for
breaking codes. Codes
became illegal and
made it so government
had no right to
interfere in internal
state issues
- AAA: dominated by white powerful landowners,
discrimination of African Americans. Roosevelt was
reluctant to intervene as he gained so much support from
them
- Impact of WWII (1939-1945)
- Social
- Blacks still earned only
40% of whites in the
same job
- Unemployment dropped from
9 million to 780,000 from
1940-1943
- Women in work grew by 50%
- Greater equality in distribution of
income; richest 5% - their national
income dropped from 26% to 16% due to
taxation
- People left farms to work in cities, ‘melting pot’
- Over 1 million black people
moved to war production areas
- Infant mortality fell by 1/3
- Political
- 1940 election – Roosevelt
won 27-22 million votes, lost
traditional support for
sending US boys to war
- Using the atomic bomb showed
power, but did lead to cold war
- Roosevelt gained a world-scale personality
- Support for
Democrats
increased
- America shown as a
‘superpower’
- War demand brought pressure of
presidential activity. War Power Act
allowed unprecedented authority to
lead the US into war, increasing power
- Economic
- Became largely based on
consumer goods
- In 1947, despite only possessing
7% of the world’s population, the
US produced half the world’s
manufactured goods
- 43% of world’s electricity
- 62% of world’s oil
- 1945 = 69,000 cars on
road, 1955 = 7.9 million
- In 1952, Americans spent $255 million
on chewing gum and $23 million on
mouthwash, showing Americans once
again had disposable income
- McCarthyism
- Was McCarthyism successful?
- Factor 1: Yes
(McCarthy himself)
- Although he had no evidence,
many listened and believed him
- Became most popular man
in the USA in the beginning
- Gained a variety
of support e.g.
from Christian
fundamentalists
- Factor 2: Yes
(Examples of
McCarthyism)
- One school librarian in
Indiana banned books
about Robin Hood
because she said in
robing the rich and
giving to the poor his
story promoted
Communism
- Many books
including classics
were re-examined
for subversive
content
- Factor 3: No
(McCarthy
himself)
- Appeared on TV
drunk
- Had hardly any evidence
to support his claims
- Mocked people favoured
by the US e.g. George
Marshall (Marshall Aid)
- Factor 4: No
(Opposition)
- Children mocked
him at school
- President Eisenhower
criticised his investigation
of the army