James Lincoln Collier - Progressivism, the Great Depression, and the New Deal: 1901 - 1941

T HE D RAMA OF A MERICAN H ISTORY

PROGRESSIVISM, the GREAT DEPRESSION, and the NEW DEAL

19011941

Christopher Collier

James Lincoln Collier

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors wish to thank Alan Brinkley, Professor of History, Columbia University, for his careful reading of the text of this volume of The Drama of American History and his thoughtful and useful comments. The work has been much improved by Professor Brinkley's notes. The authors are deeply in his debt, but, of course, assume full responsibility for the substance of the work, including any errors that may appear.

Photo research by James Lincoln Collier.

COVER PHOTO: Corbis/Bettmann

PICTURE CREDITS: The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Chapter I: Corbis/Bettmann : "Puck Boy" burying his money, unemployed businessmen selling apples, shoeless boys. New York Public Library : factory town in 1872, Bird's Custard Powder ad, Mansion Polish ad, industrialization, railroad strike.

Chapter II: Corbis/Bettmann : Teddy Roosevelt standing up to Thomas Collier Platt. New York Public Library : textile strike, William Howard Taft as Roosevelt's successor, Woodrow Wilson, "Buy War Bonds."

Chapter III: Corbis/Bettmann : Woman Suffrage Headquarters, lynching. New York Public Library : Willys-Overland ad, busy street in Washington, Victorian style, 1920s style.

Chapter IV: Corbis/Bettmann : Black Thursday, clerks sleeping.

Chapter V: Corbis/Bettmann : car for sale, Dust Bowl, "Okies" head for California. Library of Congress : migrant mother & children. New York Public Library : Alabama sharecropper & family.

Chapter VI: Corbis/Bettmann : Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge & his wife, Herbert Hoover, CCC planting trees, PWA-built pool. New York Public Library : WPA mural.

Chapter VII: Corbis/Bettmann : women demonstrators, Central Park Hooverville, hobo camp, Adolf Hitler, bombing of Pearl Harbor, FDR campaign buttons, Roosevelt pointing to a map.

2001 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holders.

First ebook edition 2012 by AudioGO. All Rights Reserved.

Trade ISBN 978-1-62064-527-7

Library ISBN 978-0-7927-9587-2

PROGRESSIVISM, the GREAT DEPRESSION, and the NEW DEAL

19011941

C ONTENTS

P REFACE

OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.

In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.

The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.

In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions that are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.

This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the Pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the Revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.

Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.

Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.

C HAPTER I: T HE S TRUGGLE TO C OME

THE GREAT DEPRESSION of the 1930s was one of the worst calamities to hit the United States in its entire history. Probably only the Civil War brought more misery to so many Americans. Almost everybody was affected by the Depression, and a great many people lost everything, many never to fully recover. Today unemployment much above 6 percent is considered unacceptable, and over 10 percent won't be tolerated. During the Depression a quarter , and by some estimates, a third, of all American workers were out of jobs. Many of those who had jobs were working reduced hours, and almost every worker had taken a significant pay cut. Thousands of boys and girls as young as ten and twelve were homeless, wandering about the country, the girls often dressed as boys for safety. Others were living in shacks in shantytowns on the outskirts of cities.

There had been depressions, or financial "panics," before, but none so severe or long lasting. In earlier depressions, the main sufferers had been laboring people; the middle class had usually been able to scrape by. But in the Great Depression of the 1930s the middle class, too, suffered. Many professionals, like lawyers, business executives, and accountants, found themselves begging for pick-and-shovel jobs, or selling apples on street corners. Millions of families lost their homes and had to take small apartments or move in with parents or other relatives. Few people actually starved to death, but many families ate cheap foods like spaghetti and rice night after night, and had for breakfast coffee and perhaps a roll. People got used to wearing shoes with holes in their soles, stuffing a piece of cardboard inside the shoe to cover the hole. By the standards of the Depression, people considered poor today would have been thought well-off.