Vocabulary
Terms to Know: Influential People:
boll weevil Franklin D. Roosevelt drought Eugene Talmadge Black Tuesday Stock Market Stock Market Crash Warm Springs Little White House |
The New Deal:
Agricultural Adjustment Act Civilian Conservation Corps Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Rural Electrification Act Social Security Act |
Terms to Know:
Boll Weevil: The Boll Weevil was a small, grayish, long snouted beetle from Mexico that had come to the South in the 1890s. It destroyed the primary source of income for many farmers: Cotton. They hatch in the yellow flower of the cotton plant. When the flower becomes a boll, the places where the fiber is formed, the larvae feeds on the growing white, fluffy cotton, rendering the cotton useless. The boll weevil came to GA in 1915, destroyed thousands of acres of GA’s agricultural crop. In 1923, cotton bales went from 2.8 million in 1914, to 600,000. The post war price was around 16 cents a pound.
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Drought: In 1924, a major drought came to GA. The destruction of the boll weevils grew to a stop due to the sun baked fields, but numerous crops were ruined. Between 1920 and 1925, around 375,000 GA farmers left. Working farms went from 310,132-249,095. Due to farms failing, banks started to fail, which led to depression in GA.
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Stock Market: The Stock Market is the place where shares of ownership in corporations (stock) are bought and sold. It had experienced mini crashes in March of 1929. On Thursday, October 24, 1929, investors tried to sell their stocks for whatever price they could manage. A small rebound carried into Friday and everyone was relieved when the market closed on the weekend.
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Warm Springs: The Rural Electrification Authority (REA) started because of President Roosevelt’s first night at Warm Springs, Georgia. He was sitting on the porch of his small cottage when he noticed that no lights were showing from neighboring farms. After receiving his electric bill at the end of the month, he saw that it was many times higher than what he paid at his mansion in Hyde Park, New York. On May 11, 1935, he signed into law the act creating the REA, which loaned more than $300 million to farmers’ cooperatives to help them extend their own power lines and buy power wholesale. It was one of the most important and far-reaching of the New Deal programs. Around 1940, a significant percentage of farmers in Georgia and other parts of the nation had electricity. Electric water pumps, lights, milking machines, and appliances made farm life much easier.
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Influential People:
Franklin D. Roosevelt: He beat President Hoover in 1932 for Presidency. He was previously governor of NY. He promised a New Deal. His New Deal was aimed at Relief, Reform, and Recovery. He was a Democrat. He settled down at the Little White House in Warm Springs, GA to treat his polio, and he then made the Rural Electrification Authority, or the REA. He was elected to 3 terms total. When he was first elected to presidency, he beat Wilson by a landslide.
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Eugene Talmadge: A controversial and colorful politician, Eugene Talmadge played a leading role in the state's politics from 1926 to 1946. During his three terms as state commissioner of agriculture and three terms as governor, his personality and actions polarized voters into Talmadge and anti-Talmadge factions in the state's one-party politics of that era. He was elected to a fourth term as the state's chief executive in 1946 but died before taking office.Also, he figured the New Deal threatened Georgia’s Way of Life. He argued about minimum wage law. He vetoed many Georgia Assembly laws concerning the New Deal. For examples, he vetoed Social Security benefits for the retired and unemployment insurance in Georgia. He called Roosevelt a Socialist.
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The New Deal:
Civilian Conservation Corps: The CCC started in 1933. It provided jobs for young single men building forest trails and roads, planting trees to reforest the land and control flooding, and building parks. They also did work on dams, roads, forest fire prevention and mosquito control projects. They lived in army-type camps and were paid $30 by the government, of which $22 went to their parents.
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Rural Electrification Act: On May 11, 1935, the REA was created. The REA loaned more than $300 million to farmers’ cooperatives to help them extend their own power lines and buy power wholesale. It was one the most important and far-reaching of the New Deal programs. Around 1940, a significant percentage of farmers in Georgia and other parts of the nation had electricity. Electric water pumps, lights, milking machines, and appliances made farm life much easier.
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