As you read about how people coped with hard times, use the headings below to summarize the Great Depression’s effects on various aspects of American life.
(is this suposed to be in paragraph form or just talk about each subject..?)
Employment
So many people where unemployed during the great depression. People started loosing their jobs one after another. There were so many families that weren't able to support themselves. Many men and women had given up on their families and traveled the country in search of food and work and a place to rest. It was hard to keep a job and harder to find one as days turned into months and months to years.
Housing
Both farmers and city-dwellers found it hard to hold onto their homes. Both lost land and house because they could no longer pay for their property. Shanty towns were built in many cities. People lived in boxes and crates. Living with the family was hard.
Farming
Many farmers lost their jobs as farmers. They traveled to cities and other places to look for more work or become farm hands. They had a hard time looking for new jobs.
Race relations
A lot of people who were of different ethnicity's, african americans and mexicans, where discriminated against and some people even got lynched because of what race they were.
Family life
Families had a hard time durring the depression. Mothers and fathers were put under a lot of pressure. They had to suport not only themselves, but their children also. Some family members left to try to either make a living as a hobo or thinking that if they left, they would help their families because it would be one less person to feed and look after.
Physical health
People lost their will to go on and try to make a living with what they could get. People killed themselves a lot... and many people were admitted to mental hospitals.
Emotional health
Families had to make sacrifices. Young adults gave up their bigger dreams of going to college or getting married. People also became friendlier... giving help to strangers in need and offering what food and clothing they could spare.
Explain or define each of the following:
Dust bowl
The dust bowl was created because when the farmers that lived on the planes in Kansas and Oklahoma got rid of the prairie grass that kept the soil stable and they also used up the land much to quickly because of over production of crops. They left the land open to the harsh sun and it became very dry because of the drought. The wind kicked up the dried dirt and grit on the ground and put all of the dust into the air, creating the dust bowl, which stretched thousands of miles and it even got all the way to New York.
Shantytown
Shay towns were towns made by people who had lost their jobs and built their houses with scraps that they had found. Some lived in houses of boxes and some lived in crates or just had newspaper to cover protect them from the cold.
Direct Relief
Direct relief is supposed to help people that cant support themselves by giving them money/food each week. It is supported by the government or state. In New York, the weekly payment they offered was $239, but it was hardly enough to support a family.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Causes of the Great Depression
1. What industrial weakness signaled a declining economy in the 1920s?
Many transportation industries lost prophet because of different ways of transportation. Trucks and cars and busses took over the function of the railroad. Coal was taken over by natural gasses and hydraulic power. The businesses that were once very powerful and got all the cash, were being taken over by new technologies and being outrun by better designs and innovations.
2. What did the experience of farmers and consumers at this time suggest about the health of the economy?
Both farmers and consumers were suffering durring this time. Durring the war, farmers had bought much more land to grow more crops for the nation and the soldiers. After the war, the loans the farmers used to buy all the land were much more than they had. Farmers had much more land than they needed and it was hard for them to pay their land taxes. They lost houses when the banks took them to pay for their debts. Soon banks were running out of money and they had to run auctions to try to get the banks money back.
Consumers also were having money troubles. They were not able to buy products because prices were rising and making it harder for people with an average wage to buy in the market. No one was getting promoted in their jobs and could not pay off their debt fast enough. The poor were getting poorer and the rich, richer.
3. How did speculation and margin buying cause stock prices to rise?
Speculation raised stock market prices, because people where not even looking at what stock they were buying into, giving money to random businesses to try to gain money in a faster way than just working a job. They were only giving a little money to the corporation itself, but borrowing the money so that they can get it back when they feel like they will have enough money. This lets the stock market expand and the economy to grow again- perhaps too quickly.
4. What happened to ordinary workers during the Great Depression?
Many workers lost their jobs or got their wages cut considerably. The business owners did not have enough money to keep everyones job. Unemployment was rising at a very fast rate and by 1933 more than 12 million people were without jobs.
5. How did the Great Depression affect the world economy?
Because of the US's fall in economy, the world's economy also crashed. Because the US was involved in so much trade with the waring counties before it joined, many counties were in debt and because of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, the US made it harder for the other counties to circulate the money and the Whole worlds economy crashed.
Define:
a. Price-Supports: The Government would buy crops that were of more use (wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco) and sell them on the world market
b. Credit: The buyer doesn't pay for the product at that time and pays the business later for that purchase.
c. Dow Jones Industrial Average: A measure based on the stock prices of 30 large firms trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
d. Speculation: The buying of stocks and bonds without thinking of the consequences. To gain money quickly.
e. Buying on Margin: When you pay a small percent of the stock's price and borrow the rest.
f. Black Tuesday: The day when the stock market crashed and when people were frantically trying to save their cash. There is also a Black Friday, the Friday after thanksgiving, where frantic shoppers wake up at 12 am and go shopping to get the best deals they can find at stores across America.
g. Hawley-Smoot Tariff: This tariff was ment to protect the US economy. It was the highest tariff in US history. It was suposed to protect US citizens and farmers from competing foreign businesses. It didn't work very well
Many transportation industries lost prophet because of different ways of transportation. Trucks and cars and busses took over the function of the railroad. Coal was taken over by natural gasses and hydraulic power. The businesses that were once very powerful and got all the cash, were being taken over by new technologies and being outrun by better designs and innovations.
2. What did the experience of farmers and consumers at this time suggest about the health of the economy?
Both farmers and consumers were suffering durring this time. Durring the war, farmers had bought much more land to grow more crops for the nation and the soldiers. After the war, the loans the farmers used to buy all the land were much more than they had. Farmers had much more land than they needed and it was hard for them to pay their land taxes. They lost houses when the banks took them to pay for their debts. Soon banks were running out of money and they had to run auctions to try to get the banks money back.
Consumers also were having money troubles. They were not able to buy products because prices were rising and making it harder for people with an average wage to buy in the market. No one was getting promoted in their jobs and could not pay off their debt fast enough. The poor were getting poorer and the rich, richer.
3. How did speculation and margin buying cause stock prices to rise?
Speculation raised stock market prices, because people where not even looking at what stock they were buying into, giving money to random businesses to try to gain money in a faster way than just working a job. They were only giving a little money to the corporation itself, but borrowing the money so that they can get it back when they feel like they will have enough money. This lets the stock market expand and the economy to grow again- perhaps too quickly.
4. What happened to ordinary workers during the Great Depression?
Many workers lost their jobs or got their wages cut considerably. The business owners did not have enough money to keep everyones job. Unemployment was rising at a very fast rate and by 1933 more than 12 million people were without jobs.
5. How did the Great Depression affect the world economy?
Because of the US's fall in economy, the world's economy also crashed. Because the US was involved in so much trade with the waring counties before it joined, many counties were in debt and because of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, the US made it harder for the other counties to circulate the money and the Whole worlds economy crashed.
Define:
a. Price-Supports: The Government would buy crops that were of more use (wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco) and sell them on the world market
b. Credit: The buyer doesn't pay for the product at that time and pays the business later for that purchase.
c. Dow Jones Industrial Average: A measure based on the stock prices of 30 large firms trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
d. Speculation: The buying of stocks and bonds without thinking of the consequences. To gain money quickly.
e. Buying on Margin: When you pay a small percent of the stock's price and borrow the rest.
f. Black Tuesday: The day when the stock market crashed and when people were frantically trying to save their cash. There is also a Black Friday, the Friday after thanksgiving, where frantic shoppers wake up at 12 am and go shopping to get the best deals they can find at stores across America.
g. Hawley-Smoot Tariff: This tariff was ment to protect the US economy. It was the highest tariff in US history. It was suposed to protect US citizens and farmers from competing foreign businesses. It didn't work very well
Monday, February 6, 2012
Schenck v US (Free Speech)
1. What was Justice Holmes’ main argument in the Court’s opinion in Schenck? Do you agree with the Court’s opinion?
Holmes thought that people should be able to have their free speech, but in times of war it was a different story. Although, Holmes also said that if someone say, shouted "Fire" in a crowded movie theater, free speech would not protect them from going to jail. There are 7 types of unprotected speech, where if you in fact said one, the freedom of speech would not protect you.
2. Do you think some limits on the freedom of speech are necessary? Explain. (Use your own opinion and support it using information from the reading.)
Yes, I believe that there should always be a limit to freedom of speech. Someone can not just go around and say whatever they fancy. If they create a panic, like Holmes said, in a crowded theater, that would probably cause mass panic and everyone would rush to an exit and that would cause a riot because not everyone would be able to get out and that is bad. You should also not be able to say something that would harm our country, information that, if known by the wrong person would be very bad/embarrassing to the US. Neither should some one be able to talk of hate speech, that would pass as a very likely threat or something. Lies are also bad.
3. List three examples of the "historical impact" of the Schenck decision.
-Under war time conditions, not all words are protected by free speech.
-Importance of a free exchange of ideas so that truth will win out in the intelectual marketplace.
-"School children do not shed their constitutional rights at the school yard gates." Students did have the right to freedom of speech when in school.
Holmes thought that people should be able to have their free speech, but in times of war it was a different story. Although, Holmes also said that if someone say, shouted "Fire" in a crowded movie theater, free speech would not protect them from going to jail. There are 7 types of unprotected speech, where if you in fact said one, the freedom of speech would not protect you.
2. Do you think some limits on the freedom of speech are necessary? Explain. (Use your own opinion and support it using information from the reading.)
Yes, I believe that there should always be a limit to freedom of speech. Someone can not just go around and say whatever they fancy. If they create a panic, like Holmes said, in a crowded theater, that would probably cause mass panic and everyone would rush to an exit and that would cause a riot because not everyone would be able to get out and that is bad. You should also not be able to say something that would harm our country, information that, if known by the wrong person would be very bad/embarrassing to the US. Neither should some one be able to talk of hate speech, that would pass as a very likely threat or something. Lies are also bad.
3. List three examples of the "historical impact" of the Schenck decision.
-Under war time conditions, not all words are protected by free speech.
-Importance of a free exchange of ideas so that truth will win out in the intelectual marketplace.
-"School children do not shed their constitutional rights at the school yard gates." Students did have the right to freedom of speech when in school.
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