The development of the great depression

1920s This period is called the "new era", and wealth and opportunities seem to have opened their stingy doors to Americans who just won World War I.. The whole society is eager for new technologies and new lifestyles, and "conspicuous consumption" has become the trend of the times. President Hoover also believes that "we are on the eve of the war on poverty, and slums will disappear from the United States".

1October 24th, 1929, 10, the United States ushered in its "Black Thursday" (the sudden collapse of Wall Street stock market in the United States). On this day, the US financial sector crashed and the stock fell from the top to the abyss overnight. The price fell so fast that it couldn't keep up with the automatic display of the stock market. 1929101On October 29th, everyone in new york Stock Exchange fell into the whirlpool of selling stocks. The stock index suddenly fell by an average of 40 percentage points from the previous peak of 363 points, and thousands of Americans watched their life savings disappear in a few days. This is the darkest day in the history of American securities, and it is the most influential and harmful economic event in American history, affecting western countries and even the whole world. From then on, the United States and the world entered the Great Depression, which lasted for 10 years. Therefore, this day is regarded as a landmark event opened during the Great Depression, and it is called "Black Tuesday" because it falls on Tuesday. In just two weeks from 1929 to 1 13, * * has lost $30 billion in wealth, equivalent to the total expenditure of the United States in World War I. However, the collapse of the US stock market is nothing more than the crater of a disastrous economic crisis.

At that time, a children's song was popular in new york: "Mellon blew the whistle and Hoover rang the bell. Wall Street signals that the United States is heading for hell! " (Mellon sounded the whistle, Hoover rang the bell, Wall Street gave the signal, and the country went to hell.) With the collapse of the stock market, the American economy immediately fell into a devastating disaster, and terrible chain reactions quickly occurred: crazy runs, bank failures, factory closures, workers' unemployment, poverty, organized resistance, and the brink of civil war. Agricultural capitalists and large farmers destroyed a large number of "surplus" products, used wheat and corn as fuel for coal, and poured milk into the Mississippi River, turning the river into a "galaxy". Homeless people in the city set up simple shelters with wooden boards, old iron sheets, tarpaulins and even kraft paper. The village where these huts gather is called "Hoover Village". The tramp's begging bag is called "Hoover bag", the car pulled by animal power because it can't buy fuel is called "Hoover car", and even the newspaper covered by the tramp sleeping on the street bench is called "Hoover blanket". Apple vendors on the street became one of the most famous symbols during the Great Depression. Many of those who were forced to make a living by running mobile fruit stalls used to be successful businessmen and bankers.

The collapse of the stock market led to the Great Depression which lasted for four years. The economic crisis quickly spread from the United States to other industrial countries. For millions of people, life has become a struggle for food, clothing and shelter. In order to safeguard their own interests, countries have strengthened measures and means of trade protection, further aggravating and worsening the world economic situation, which is an important source of the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Great Depression also caused serious social problems: about 2-4 million middle school students dropped out of school during the Great Depression; Many people can't stand the physical and psychological pain and commit suicide; Social order is deteriorating. One of the most important problems is unemployment. In America, the total number of unemployed people has reached 8.3 million. In American cities, the poor line up for relief food for several blocks. In Britain, 5-7 million people are unemployed and have to wait in a longer queue in the labor exchange market. However, from 1930 to 1933 triggered by the Great Depression, a serious economic crisis broke out in the United States, causing famine and widespread malnutrition in various parts of the United States, resulting in a large number of abnormal deaths. According to the most conservative estimate, at least 70 million people starved to death, accounting for about 70% of the total population of the United States at that time.

People who have experienced the Great Depression have changed their minds. The workers woke up from the numbness in the 1920s and launched a high-spirited strike. Liberals were attracted by the prosperity of the Soviet Union and became Marxists. Conservatives who are afraid of Bolshevism are increasingly turning to fascism.

1929101On October 28th, the NYSE stock index plummeted 13%. The next day, the Dow Jones index plunged 22%. The most famous economic crisis in American history began, and the Great Depression lasted 10 years.

By 1932, about 2 million Americans were wandering around-more than 250,000 of them were between the ages of 16 and 2 1 year. Among those who were called "homeless" by the media at that time during the Great Depression, there were empty-handed tenants; There are farmers who have left their homes because of the three-year drought; There are a large number of young people who have just graduated from college and can't find a job, and there are also middle-aged men who are suddenly unemployed and sad with sick babies-these people run around every day and have no place to live.

Among these people, there are many well-dressed middle class-high-spirited bank presidents or famous writers who have commented in famous newspapers, but now they knock on the door at night and beg, or huddle in the crowds waiting in line to buy bread in the city.

This is 1929 Black Tuesday, a microcosm of American real life since the Great Depression began. According to the estimation of Fortune magazine in September, 1932, there are 34 million adults, men, women and children in the United States without any income, which is close to 28% of the total population. This research report, like other reports, does not include 1 1 10,000 rural population suffering in another dungeon.

There are many legends about finding a job near 1932. Some sounds strange, but they are true. Someone was in front of the Detroit employment agency all night. An Arkansas man did walk 900 miles to find a job. An employment agency on Manhattan's sixth street recruited 300 people, and 5,000 people actually signed up. Someone did set a fire in the Woods of Washington State so that people could hire him as a fireman.

In such an era of economic depression, more than/kloc-0.5 million people are looking for jobs everywhere, but there is no job to do. Businessweek conducted a survey, which confirmed that many people no longer like America, some have left America, and some are trying to leave. In the early 1930s, the number of people who emigrated abroad exceeded the number who emigrated to China.

Eat wild grass roots and pick up garbage to live.

It's amazing that poor families have come up with all kinds of clever ways to save money. Men's shaving blades should be ground before use; Cigarette, or smoke "wings" brand (a pack of ten cents); In order to save electricity, switch to a 25-watt light bulb. Children pick up soda bottles in the store to get a refund, one for two points; Queue up at the bakery to buy overnight bread. Women cut off the old sheets and sewed the two sides together, thus moving the worn place in the middle to the two sides; Change your daughter's clothes so that you don't look shabby in front of your neighbor's wife-in fact, your neighbor is also short of money, so I'm afraid it's the same. Many people keep the cards they receive to celebrate Christmas and give them to other friends next year.

In rural areas, especially farmers in the central and western regions, life is extremely bleak. Due to the sharp drop in the prices of agricultural products, a large number of farmers went bankrupt. Only by living like animals can millions of people avoid death. Country people in Pennsylvania eat grass roots and dandelions; Kentucky people eat violet leaves, wild onions, forget-me-not, wild lettuce and weeds, which are specially eaten by animals. In the city, the mother of the child lingered on the dock and waited. As soon as rotten fruits and vegetables are thrown out, they go up and compete with wild dogs. Vegetables were loaded onto trucks from the dock, and they ran after them, picking up anything that fell. The chef of a hotel in the midwest put a bucket of leftover vegetables and soup in an alley outside the kitchen, and a dozen people rushed out of the darkness to grab it. People also saw people go into the garbage to pick up bones and watermelon skins. Because there are so many maggots, a widow in Chicago always takes off her glasses first when she picks up something to eat.

Roosevelt became the best radio propagandist.

Listening to the radio is the most common pastime in meditation.

The public's desire for news analysis and news interpretation has brought unprecedented prestige to current affairs commentators Raymond Gram Swing, H.V. Caltenbourne, Lowell Thomas and Gabriel Hitt, and millions of people have listened attentively to their views on international current affairs. From 1932 to 1939, the amount of information transmitted by radio almost doubled.

The best radio propagandist is President Roosevelt himself. His warm civilian address "my friend" was adopted as early as 1920' s campaign for vice president. He always appeals to the people directly and intimately, and this gesture creates a personal leadership style, which is unprecedented in terms of its influence. After a day of "fireside chat", I often receive 50,000 letters from listeners. The record of all these speeches shows the changes of Roosevelt's speech skills, from the old Hong Zhong Road style, plus the eloquent pause learned in the pre-radio era, to a deeper tone and a softer, more relaxed and charming speech, which is more suitable for those who only hear his voice but can't see him.

The popularity of "Buji Wooji"

1934 at the beginning, perhaps as a harbinger of economic recovery, jazz spirit was reborn. This revival was mainly played by gorgeous clarinet record companies and dance bands in Benny Goodman. Benny perfectly explained what European connoisseurs called "hot jazz". It soon got a new name: Swing Music.

1935- 1936 in the winter, when impromptu music and pop music clubs blossomed everywhere in the United States, a reporter wrote: "Swing music is to jazz what the soul of poetry is to poetry." A popular word became popular inadvertently, that is, "Buji Wooji". It means a kind of piano music, in which the player keeps rolling with his left hand and improvises with his right hand.

Millions of young people have realized this new style. Those enthusiastic appreciators call themselves hep-cat, and those who actively participate in it call themselves jitterbug. When they "get into the best state", the result is often more energetic, not more elegant.

Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are out.

Film-In the past ten years, it has been the fourth largest industry in China, and it is still the most important commercial entertainment. Especially in silent movies, the joy of hearing the voice of the long-admired star pushed the film industry to the first wave of climax during the Great Depression.

Disney came to Hollywood from the Midwest in 1926, and created Mickey Mouse two years later. Mickey Mouse in the silent film was not successful until the sound film Steamboat Willie (1928) put this resourceful rodent on the road to world hero. At the end of1930s, it was said that Mickey Mouse had gradually given way to another cartoon image "Donald Duck" created by Disney.

Disney, the author of these fairy tales in the machine age, also showed his versatility in Snow White (1938) and Fantasia (1940). The former is his first feature-length film, which was shot by nearly 500,000 paintings in turn, while the latter is a bold attempt to combine classical music with painting art.

Most movies are designed to escape from reality, and most of them reflect the tastes of tired or bored adults. What they seek is a paradise of luxury and legend, sex and emotion. For young fans, this paradise is far less healthy than Disney's world.

"Without the library, I would have been crazy."

When the Great Depression came, about 65,438+09 of the 20 adults were newspaper readers, three quarters of whom read magazines and half read books. The economic crisis has only caused slight damage to newsstands and magazine shelves-the cost of visiting these places is always small, but it has brought a serious blow to the book industry. At the same time, the rapidly developing public libraries are also in a difficult period of tight funds.

Millions of people who have nothing to do suddenly find that the public library is simply a club for the poor, a warm and quiet place where they can browse casually and take a nap.

1933, the American Library Association estimated that since 1929, the number of new borrowers has been between 2 million and 3 million, and the total book circulation has increased by nearly 50%. Occasionally, customers will say to the librarian, "If it weren't for the library, I might have gone crazy or committed suicide."

At first, novels were the biggest beneficiaries, and a large number of readers of western novels and light magazines gradually increased, and then slowly turned to books on technical and intellectual topics. Unfortunately, however, at this moment of greatest development opportunity, the library is groaning under the burden of poverty.

In 60 big cities, the expenditure on books has been reduced from 193 1 two or three million dollars a year to less than 1933/ten thousand dollars. In the year of hosting the 1933 Chicago World Expo, Chicago tried its best to present its best side to the world. On the other hand, the Chicago Library is facing the third consecutive quarter that it has no money to buy books. The most common obstacles are the inability to replace damaged old books, the inability to improve poor service and shorten the borrowing time. It was not until the middle of the Great Depression that the recovered national economy restored the library to its previous level.

Reader's Digest has a large circulation.

Under the impact of the Great Depression, the magazine remained stable on the whole and its circulation increased slightly. Weekly magazines have advantages over monthly magazines. Documentary stories and love magazines are spiritual opium to escape from reality, boasting that their total circulation in 1935 is almost one third more than that in 192 1; However, Humor Magazine, another hypothetical placebo, failed to recover. By 1935, its circulation was only a little more than half that before the Great Depression. Apart from the temporary success of "the legendary swordsman", the crisis of "the legendary swordsman" failed to meet people's needs.

Religious magazines continued to decline, but popular science and mechanical magazines persisted. Liberal and radical magazines hit a new high at 193 1, but in the following year, their circulation decreased by nearly half, reaching the lowest point at 1934, but began to climb slightly after 1935.

Women's periodicals-whose120,000 subscribers did not decrease significantly in difficult times-continued to supply romantic legends and sentimentality, only making small concessions to the rising economic and political debates. The first men's magazine Esquire was founded on 1933.

Reader's Digest is a pocket monthly magazine. At the beginning of this period, there were 250,000 subscribers. By the end of this period, its circulation was close to seven or eight million copies, including foreign language versions and Braille versions. This is a magazine with the largest circulation in history. Its success partly stems from the Great Depression, when many families could not afford to subscribe to several magazines with different purposes, so they had to subscribe to this multifunctional magazine, and partly from its practice of refining the essence of other publications. Its recipes cover a wide range, from articles seeking a glimmer of hope to stories of happy life told by the lame and the blind, mixed with anecdotes about smart dogs and chipmunks and serious yellow jokes.

Hemingway, the tough guy, influenced a generation.

In the whole field of fictional literature, the most important novelist is ernest miller hemingway. During the Great Depression, he began with A Farewell to Arms (1929) and ended with For whom the bell tolls (1940). The former tells a touching love story in the shadow of war and death, while the latter has a similar theme, but the background is a new struggle: the Spanish Civil War, this man.

Hemingway's enthusiasm for pen and ink, intermittent dialogue and special description of men to the outside world have deeply influenced this generation, and the disciples of the tough guy urbanism are even more tenacious than the masters.

Thomas Wolff painted an unforgettable picture of the Great Depression with his pen: poor Manhattan people huddled in the toilets of city hall to keep warm, foreign residents in cheap apartments, and those ragged and lonely people who haunt the subway and overnight mobile coffee stalls. Wolff has always been shuddering at entering the Nazi abyss, such as Time and Rivers (1935) and You'll Never Go Home (1938, published two years after his early death). These works symbolize that Americans are lost in confusion, glory, depression and a sense of death for life itself.

1933 At the beginning of the year, franklin roosevelt was elected as the 32nd president of the United States, replacing the embarrassed Hoover. In view of the reality at that time and in line with the wishes of the broad masses of the people, he implemented a series of policies and measures aimed at overcoming the crisis, which was called "Roosevelt's New Deal" in history. The main contents of the New Deal can be summarized by "three Rs", namely, restoration, relief and reform. Because the Great Depression was triggered by a financial crisis triggered by crazy speculation. President Roosevelt's New Deal also began with the consolidation of finance. Among the 15 important pieces of legislation made during the period known as the "100-day New Deal" (1March 9, 933 to1June), the laws related to finance accounted for 1/3. 1when Roosevelt was sworn in as president on March 4, 933, almost no banks in the country were open for business, and checks could not be cashed in Washington. At Roosevelt's request, on March 9, the US Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act, which decided to adopt a system of individual examination and licensing for banks and allow solvent banks to resume business as soon as possible. From March of 13 to March of 15, 1477 1 banks were allowed to reopen, compared with 25,568 before the crisis of 1929, and 10797 banks were eliminated. Roosevelt's extraordinary measures to rectify finance played a great role in cleaning up the mess and stabilizing people's hearts. Public opinion believes that this action is like "a flash of lightning in the dark sky." While reorganizing banks, Roosevelt also took actions to strengthen the foreign economic position of the United States. 1933 since March 10 announced the cessation of gold export, major measures have been taken one after another: on April 5, it was announced that private storage of gold and gold securities was prohibited, and US dollar bills stopped being exchanged for gold. /kloc-In April of 0/9, the export of gold was banned and the gold standard was abandoned; On June 5, the public and private debts were abolished and paid in gold; 1934 65438+1October 10, announcing the issuance of US$ 3 billion banknotes guaranteed by state securities, with the US dollar depreciating by 40.94%. Through the depreciation of the dollar, the competitiveness of American goods abroad has been strengthened. These measures have played an important role in stabilizing the situation and dredging the blood circulation of economic life.

During the "100-day New Deal", while solving the banking problem, Roosevelt tried his best to urge the parliament to pass the agricultural adjustment law and the national industrial revival law successively, becoming the right-hand man of the whole New Deal. Roosevelt asked capitalists to abide by the rules of "fair competition" and stipulate the scale, price and sales scope of each enterprise; Set minimum wages and maximum working hours for workers, so as to limit monopoly and reduce and ease tense class contradictions. After receiving the reluctant support of large enterprises, Roosevelt then tried his best to win the support of small and medium-sized business owners. He said that it is very important for large enterprises to accept the industrial revival law. "The field that produces fruitful results lies in small employers, and their contribution will be to provide new employment opportunities for 1 to 10 people. These small employers are actually an extremely important part of the backbone of the country, and the success or failure of our plan depends largely on them. " The development of small and medium-sized enterprises has played a positive role in social stability and economic recovery in the United States.

Another important content of the New Deal is relief work. 1933 in may, congress passed the federal emergency relief law, established the federal emergency relief agency, and quickly allocated various relief funds and materials to the States. The following year, the simple relief was changed to "work for relief", which provided the unemployed with opportunities to engage in public utilities and safeguarded their self-reliance and self-esteem. In the early days of Roosevelt's administration, more than170,000 unemployed people and their relatives in China depended on the help and charity of the state government, the municipal government and private charities to make a living. However, compared with such a huge army of unemployed people, this part of the financial resources is tantamount to a drop in the bucket. Only the federal government can solve this complex social problem. The first measure of Roosevelt's New Deal was to urge Congress to pass the plan of the private resource protection group. The plan specifically recruits/kloc-young people aged 0/8 to 25 who are physically strong and have high unemployment rate, and are engaged in tree planting and forest protection, flood control, soil and water conservation, road construction, opening forest fire prevention routes, and setting up forest watchtowers. The first batch recruited 250,000 people to work in Quanzhou 1500 camp. Before going to the United States to fight in the war, more than 2 million young people worked in this institution, and they opened up more than 7.4 million acres of state-owned forest areas and a large number of state-owned parks. On average, everyone works for 9 months, and most of the monthly salary is used as family support, thus expanding the relief area and corresponding purchasing power of the whole society. For those people in Qian Qian who absolutely depend on cities to support themselves, Roosevelt also urged Congress to pass the federal emergency relief law, set up federal relief agencies, rationally divide the use ratio between the federal government and the states, formulate preferential policies, and encourage local governments to directly help the poor and the unemployed. During the New Deal, there were various relief agencies in the United States, which could be divided into the Ministry of Public Works (the government allocated more than 4 billion US dollars) and the Ministry of Civil Engineering (the investment was nearly 65.438 billion US dollars). The latter built 65.438+0.8 million small-scale engineering projects nationwide, including school buildings, bridges, dikes and dikes. Later, several new relief organizations were established. Among them, the most famous ones are the project establishment organization set up by the National Congress with a grant of 5 billion dollars and the National Youth Administration for young people. They employ a total of 23 million people, accounting for more than half of the national labor force. By the eve of World War II, the federal government had spent $654.38+08 billion on various projects and a small amount of direct relief expenses. The US government had built nearly 6,543.8+0,000 airports, 6,543.8+0,200 sports fields and more than 800 school buildings and hospitals, which not only created employment opportunities for craftsmen, unskilled workers and the construction industry, but also provided various jobs for thousands of unemployed artists. The money goes through the pockets of workers, through different channels and consumption, and returns to the hands of capitalists, becoming the "detonating water" to stimulate private consumption and personal investment with government investment.

The second "New Deal" began with 1935. On the basis of the first stage, the achievements of the New Deal were consolidated in the form of legislation through social insurance bill, national labor relations bill, public utilities bill and other laws and regulations. Roosevelt believed that if a government "can't take care of the elderly and the sick, can't provide jobs for the strong, can't inject young people into the industrial system, and let the shadow of insecurity hang over every family, it is not a government that can or should exist", and social insurance should be responsible for the whole life from cradle to grave. To this end, the Social Insurance Law was promulgated. According to the law, all wage workers who retire at the age of 65 can get a monthly pension of 10 to $85 according to different wage levels. Regarding unemployment insurance, Roosevelt explained: "It can not only help individuals avoid relying on relief when they are dismissed in the future, but also alleviate the impact of economic difficulties by maintaining purchasing power." The source of insurance premium is that half of the insurance premium is paid by employees and employers, equivalent to 1% of workers' wages, and the other half is allocated by the federal government. This social insurance law reflects the strong desire of the broad masses of working people and is welcomed and praised by the vast majority of Americans.

On May 24th, 1937, Roosevelt submitted a widely concerned speech to Congress on the legislation of minimum wage and maximum working hours. The speech admitted that "one third of China's population, mostly engaged in agriculture or industry, can't eat well, wear well and live well"; "We must bear in mind that our goal is to improve rather than reduce the living standards of those who are now malnourished, poorly dressed and living in poor conditions. We know that when a large part of our workers are unemployed, overtime and low-level wages cannot increase national income. " Congress did not take action on the bill,1October 1937 12, and Roosevelt proposed it again until June 1938 14. This is the "fair labor standards act" (also known as the "Wage and Working Hours Law"). Its main regulations include working 40 hours a week and minimum wage of 40 cents an hour; It is forbidden to use/kloc-children under 0/6 years old, and it is forbidden to use/kloc-workers under 0/8 years old in dangerous industries. With the development of economy, the regulations on minimum wage will be adjusted in the future. Although these social legislations belong to the category of social improvement, they are very beneficial to the broad masses of the people, especially the working class. In order to solve the problem of federal funds for the social insurance system, Roosevelt first implemented a progressive tax based on income and assets. Net income of $50,000 and inheritance of $40,000 are levied at 365,438+0%, and inheritance of more than $5 million is levied at 75%; In the past, the corporate tax was always 13.75%. According to the tax law 1935, the tax rate of companies with incomes below $50,000 is reduced to 12.5%, and the tax rate of companies with incomes above $50,000 is increased to 15%.

By 1939, President Roosevelt's New Deal had achieved great success. The New Deal involves almost all aspects of American social and economic life, most of which are specific considerations for the United States to get rid of the crisis and minimize its consequences, and some of them are long-term plans based on the long-term development goals of capitalism. Its direct role is to prevent the collapse of the American economy and help the United States out of the crisis. Since 1935, almost all economic indicators in the United States have steadily picked up. The gross national product increased from $74.2 billion in 1933 to $204.9 billion in 1939, and the number of unemployed people dropped from170,000 to 8 million, which restored people's confidence in the state system and got rid of the threat of fascism to the democratic system. It prevented the United States from violent social unrest in the crisis, created favorable environment and conditions for the United States to participate in the anti-fascist war later, and largely determined the social and economic development direction of the United States after World War II.

It is true that the ultimate goal of Roosevelt's "New Deal" measures is to strengthen state capitalism in order to overcome the economic crisis and consolidate the capitalist system. The "New Deal" is an experimental therapy that he tried to treat diseases in capitalist society when conventional therapy failed. In fact, some measures of the "New Deal" also have shortcomings, which often become the reason for his political opponents to attack. During the implementation of the "New Deal", the classes whose interests were damaged also resisted and vilified. Even the Industrial Recovery Act and two other bills, which were important contents in the early days of the New Deal, were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court two years later. However, as long as we really look at the "New Deal" with the attitude of historical materialism, it is not difficult to see that the "New Deal" has kept the pulse of American economic and social life, and the slogan of "getting people back to work and revitalizing our enterprises" conforms to the interests of the broad masses of working people and fully mobilizes their enthusiasm. Roosevelt took it as the government's responsibility to maintain the normal operation of the national economy and ensure citizens' employment, especially a large number of engineering projects built in the form of work for relief, which not only greatly eased the unemployment difficulties and stimulated the early recovery of the economy, but also benefited the American economy from many infrastructure construction. The New Deal left many measures and policies to prevent the recurrence of the Great Depression, which laid a solid foundation for the United States to enter World War II and its rapid rise after the war. Therefore, Roosevelt became the most popular president in the United States and the world since abraham lincoln, and will go down in history forever.