Hardship and Suffering During the Depression

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.

Employment
The Great Depression had a huge effect on employment during the time. The unemployment rate grew greatly, higher then it had ever been during this time, especially for African American's who were already the lowest paid employees and were no suffering from job loss even more so then the white Americans. Most men were accustomed to providing for their families, so when they lost their jobs, they would go out and look for a new one and try to get hired again because they felt they needed to fill their role as a provider for their family. 

Housing
As the reading says "During the Great Depression, as many as 300,000 transients-- or "hoboes" as they were called-- wandered the country hitching rides on railroad box cars and sleeping under bridges" many people were losing their houses because they could no longer pay for them so they were forced to live on the streets during this time. Some even slept in sewer pipes.

Farming
As the reading says "Between 1929 and 1932, about 400,000 farms were lost through foreclosure" There was however an advantage to farming, families could raise their own food and everyone could pretty much eat, but with debt and raising prices during the time, many farmers soon lost their land and could no longer provide for themselves and their families. 


Race relations
The Great Depression hit everyone hard, but the hardest hit were the African Americans. These employees already had the lowest pay and then they started struggling with unemployment as well. According to the reading, the unemployment rate of the African Americans was over 50 percent but the overall unemployment rate was somewhere around 25 percent. In addition to this they had to deal with racial violence and were constantly competing with white Americans for jobs. 

Family life
Although the Great Depression was a struggle placed on families, families were a very positive thing to have during this time. People believed in strong unity of their families during hardship, and instead of being sad, they would spend time together entertaining themselves with board games and listening to the radio even though times were tough. It was important for them to stay strong together. 


Physical health
obviously the physical health of most people decreased during the Great depression. People were starving because they couldn't afford a decent amount of food, for one thing. Another being that people were facing foreclosure and were forced to live on the streets, and this is not a good condition for living and optimum health. to add on to that, some people would sleep in sewer pipes and wrap themselves in newspapers, which is unsanitary. lastly, people often had to give up going to the doctor's or the dentist because they couldn't afford to. 

Emotional health
To start, a lot of people were demoralized to the point where they didn't want to try and survive any longer. During this time the suicide rate rose more then 30 percent and three times as many people were being admitted into mental hospitals compared to the norm. Also, young adults would have to give up their dreams of going to college which is crushing as well as people putting off getting married and having children because they couldn't afford to.  

Explain or define each of the following:

 Dust bowl
The region hit hardest by the Great Depression including parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. 

Shantytown
Little towns consisting of shacks 

Direct Relief

Cash payments or food provided by the government to the poor (did not exist during the great depression)

Causes of the Great Depression

1. What industrial weakness signaled a declining economy in the 1920s?    
The industrial weakness that signaled a declining economy in the 1920's was the superficial prosperity. As the reading states "The superficial prosperity of the late 1920's shrouded weaknesses that would signal the onset of the great depression"
2. What did the experience of farmers and consumers at this time suggest about the health of the economy?    
The experience of farmers and consumers at this time suggests that everyone during the time was going into greater and greater debt. Considering at one time, the farmers were doing well in their business, but after the war demand fell and they lowered their prices. This only forced them into more debt because with lower prices they were farming more products and in order to farm more products you need equipment and you have to take out loans to get equipment. Demand for crops still weren't good. As the reading says "Many lost their farms when banks foreclosed and seized the property as payment for the debt" This suggests that the economy was digging itself a deeper hole and everything was just going badly during this time.
3. How did speculation and margin buying cause stock prices to rise?    
Speculation and margin buying caused stock prices to rise because people were using the little money they had to invest it in stocks and margin buying encouraged this because someone could pay "a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest" made people want to invest what they had on the off chance of gaining a profit from it. This was not discouraged and the unruly buying and selling made the stock prices rise.
4. What happened to ordinary workers during the Great Depression?    
During the great depression, ordinary workers were losing there jobs, millions and millions of people were being laid off. As the reading says "unemployment leaped from 3 percent" up to 25 percent during The Great Depression.
5. How did the Great Depression affect the world economy?    
The Great Depression affected the world economy because in Europe and Germany, they were paying off their debts from the war, Germany paying for damages they had caused and Europe "trying to recover from the ravages of World War I" This made trading and importing European goods difficult as well as selling American products and manufacturing goods abroad.
Define: 
a. Price-Supports: The government would buy surplus crops and sell them on the world market for guaranteed prices.  
b. Credit:  An arrangement in which costumers agreed to buy products now and pay later for their purchases.
c. Dow Jones Industrial Average: The most widely used barometer of the stock market's health                     d. Speculation:   buying stocks and bonds on the chance of a quick profit
e. Buying on Margin:    paying a small percentage of a stock's price as a down payment and borrowing the rest
f. Black Tuesday:    October 29, when the bottom of the market and the nation's confidence fell out
g. Hawley-Smoot Tariff: An act that established the highest protective tariff in united states's history   

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?   

Justice Holmes's main argument in the court's opinion in Schneck was that the words printed in the leaflets were not protected under the freedom of speech during wartime. I very much disagree with this opinion because, although wartime and the draft were a time where nationalism should've been increasing, of course there's going to be people who do not conform to something that is forcing people to risk their lives. it's understood that everyone should be supportive of something the government puts into play, but just because someone has a different opinion then those in the government shouldn't mean they get in trouble for it, and of course this should be protected under the first amendment, 

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.)     
Of course there should be some limits on freedom of speech, but at the same time, certain limits are not to be put into place. For example, because students wore black bands during the Vietnam war, to protest it, that is in no way a fair reason to be suspended, that's not putting anyone in danger, it's simply having the freedom of speech. With this being said, limitations on the first amendment should be placed if it is putting a person or group of people in danger. If someone was hang=ding out leaflets that said, "kill the president" then this would obviously be something that shouldn't be protected by the first amendment, but if something is just getting one's point across and they're expressing themselves then it should not have limitation placed on it.
3. List three examples of the "historical impact" of the Schenck decision. 

You can burn the American flag- This was decided in an 1989 court case, Texas vs. Johnson, many were outraged at this possibly because it was so controversial, and because of this simply being a some type of hate crime against America. 
readmission of students ho had been suspended- In 1969 in the case of tinker vs des moines decided that students who had been suspended from their school because of wearing and anti war band that they must be readmitted.
People jailed for supporting communism- in the 1950's people ere being jailed for supporting communism, a controversial issue, such as this, would reach the supreme court, just as many cases now a days. The first amendment is still being used some 200 years later in court.