March to June in 1933 in dealing with consequences of the Wall
Street Crash?
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had drastic consequences which affected the
whole of the USA and plunged it into a Great Depression, the worst economic
crisis in history. 600 banks shut down in 1929 which lost many Americans all
their life savings, industrial production fell by 40% and wages by 60%, unem-
ployment soared to 25% of the workforce or 13 million which led to many peo-
ple living in extreme poverty and famine as seen by the number of
‘Hooverville’ slums and soup kitchen which appeared across the country. The
most extreme case was Cleveland where 50% of the workforce was unem-
ployed. After President Roosevelt was elected in 1932, his main aim was to
provide a solution to the consequences of the 1929 crash through his “Hun-
dred Days” in which he attempted to reform the banking system, increase
government spending to restart the economy and put people back to work,
and creating social service networks to support those who had fallen on hard
times. However, historians have been questioning whether the “Hundred
Days” actually had an impact on solving the depression.
Paragraph One
The measures taken in the “First Hundred days” helped stabilise the economy
and the American people from a constant, deepening cycle of depression.
• Emergency Bank Act- Closed all banks for 4 days, only reopened viable
ones. Deposits exceeded withdrawals and due to 1933 Bank Act in 1936
no banks failed in the first time in 59 years.
• Alphabet Agencies:
• PWA, CWA & CCC provided temporary work in construction in or-
der to improve self-esteem, give the unemployed small wages and
improve infrastructure of USA to benefit all Americans. CCC em-
ployed 2.5 million people and planted 1 million trees.
• AAA- provided farmers with subsides to stop producing food and
reducing livestock to prevent overproduction and lower prices.
Farmers’ income doubled by 1939 and agricultural debt reduced
by $1billion.
• FCA- provided relief for farmers to stop them being evicted.
Helped 300 farmers a day
• TVA- built 21 dams in 10 years in Tennessee Valley area, pro-
vided millions of jobs and cheap, clean electricity for people living
in the area. Allowed for 9 in 10 houses in the area to have cheap
electricity.
• FERA- $500 million given to states to provide soup kitchens, shel-
ter and bedding for those suffering the most from the depression.