The Southern Tenant Farmers Union ( STFU ), later known as the National Farm Labor Union , the National Agricultural Workers Union , and the Agricultural and Allied Workers Union , was founded as a civil farmer's union to organize tenant farmers in the Southern United States . Many such tenant farmer sharecroppers were Black descendants of former slaves.
118-936: Originally set up in July 1934 during the Great Depression , the STFU was founded to help sharecroppers and tenant farmers get better arrangements from landowners. They were eager to improve their share of profit or subsidies and working conditions. The STFU was established as a response to policies of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). Part of the New Deal , the AAA was a program to reduce production in order to increase prices of commodities; landowners were paid subsidies, which they were supposed to pass on to their tenants. The program
236-577: A Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Europe for a year and did not return. For the next six years, leadership of Commonwealth passed to Lucien Koch , who oversaw a curriculum shift which focused more on labor activism, journalism , public speaking , and labor law . Under Koch's administration, the school sought to integrate itself with local labor movements and activism, travelling throughout Arkansas, and to Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kentucky to engage with local labor movements. Commonwealth College sent
354-634: A deflationary spiral started in 1931. Farmers faced a worse outlook; declining crop prices and a Great Plains drought crippled their economic outlook. At its peak, the Great Depression saw nearly 10% of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance. At first, the decline in the U.S. economy was the factor that triggered economic downturns in most other countries due to a decline in trade, capital movement, and global business confidence. Then, internal weaknesses or strengths in each country made conditions worse or better. For example,
472-418: A silver standard , almost avoided the depression entirely. The connection between leaving the gold standard as a strong predictor of that country's severity of its depression and the length of time of its recovery has been shown to be consistent for dozens of countries, including developing countries . This partly explains why the experience and length of the depression differed between regions and states around
590-762: A delegation, which included Koch, to Harlan County in 1932, to support striking workers in the Harlan County War . These activities further enraged many locals, but began attracting a wider, and more militant, student body. During this period, a number of students and faculty began turning away from the policies of the Socialist Party of America, and began joining and involving with the Communist Party , resulting in sharp divisions. Increasingly, students began criticizing Koch for refusing to affiliate with any political party , and, at one point,
708-407: A formal bargaining position because plantation owners used violence and intimidation against the STFU leadership and its members; for instance, the union's president, William H. Stultz, was arrested and threatened with death, and the visiting Director of western Arkansas's Commonwealth College , Lucien Koch, was seized at an STFU meeting, beaten and jailed. One of the first actions taken by the union
826-604: A former privately run bank, bearing no relation to the U.S. government (not to be confused with the Federal Reserve ). Unable to pay out to all of its creditors, the bank failed. Among the 608 American banks that closed in November and December 1930, the Bank of United States accounted for a third of the total $ 550 million deposits lost and, with its closure, bank failures reached a critical mass. In an initial response to
944-467: A greater reduction in credit. On 5 April 1933, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 making the private ownership of gold certificates , coins and bullion illegal, reducing the pressure on Federal Reserve gold. British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to
1062-405: A group of communist students asked the administration to racially integrate . When this was refused, a strike was called by the communists. The strike lasted for a short time until the communist students and a few others left the school en masse for Chicago. This strike resulted in a fatal blow to Commonwealth College. Many students then at Commonwealth believed that bringing a black student into
1180-412: A massive decline in income and to employment that was well below the average. In such a situation, the economy reached equilibrium at low levels of economic activity and high unemployment. Commonwealth College (Arkansas) Commonwealth College (1923–1940) was a college started to recruit and train people to take the lead in socio-economic reform and prepare them for unconventional roles in
1298-600: A modern industrial city handled shortages of money and resources. Often they updated strategies their mothers used when they were growing up in poor families. Cheap foods were used, such as soups, beans and noodles. They purchased the cheapest cuts of meat—sometimes even horse meat—and recycled the Sunday roast into sandwiches and soups. They sewed and patched clothing, traded with their neighbors for outgrown items, and made do with colder homes. New furniture and appliances were postponed until better days. Many women also worked outside
SECTION 10
#17327730321371416-402: A monetary contraction first-hand were forced to join the deflationary policy since higher interest rates in countries that performed a deflationary policy led to a gold outflow in countries with lower interest rates. Under the gold standard's price–specie flow mechanism , countries that lost gold but nevertheless wanted to maintain the gold standard had to permit their money supply to decrease and
1534-476: A new and different society. An outgrowth of Job Harriman 's New Llano Cooperative Colony in Louisiana , in 1923, William Zeuch , James McDonald, Kate Richards O'Hare , and Frank P. O'Hare joined with New Llano to found the institute in 1923. In the 1930s Commonwealth was essentially oriented towards training organizers for the rapidly growing labor movement. Tensions within the cooperative community led to
1652-567: A serious issue in the 1930s. Support for increasing welfare programs during the depression included a focus on women in the family. The Conseil Supérieur de la Natalité campaigned for provisions enacted in the Code de la Famille (1939) that increased state assistance to families with children and required employers to protect the jobs of fathers, even if they were immigrants. In rural and small-town areas, women expanded their operation of vegetable gardens to include as much food production as possible. In
1770-477: A small but significant amount of African Americans. Leaders of the union decided to organize a rank and file leadership due to the pressure of its members. The union soon discovered that a rank and file leadership was difficult to organize. Some farm worker wanted to transform the union into a fascist militant group and others wanted to run the union like a corporation; but as the union membership increased, land worker leadership also improved. The first chapters of
1888-480: A small cadre of Labour, but the vast majority of Labour leaders denounced MacDonald as a traitor for leading the new government. Britain went off the gold standard , and suffered relatively less than other major countries in the Great Depression. In the 1931 British election, the Labour Party was virtually destroyed, leaving MacDonald as prime minister for a largely Conservative coalition. In most countries of
2006-569: A split, and Zeuch and Kate Richards and Frank P. O'Hare moved to Mena , Arkansas in December 1924, where the institution re-opened the next year. The college's founders, who were members of the Socialist Party of America , named the school after the phrases "the cooperative commonwealth" and "the universal commonwealth", which were used by many party members to describe their vision of a post-capitalist society. While campaigning for
2124-662: A standstill agreement froze Germany's foreign liabilities for six months. Germany received emergency funding from private banks in New York as well as the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England. The funding only slowed the process. Industrial failures began in Germany, a major bank closed in July and a two-day holiday for all German banks was declared. Business failures were more frequent in July, and spread to Romania and Hungary. The crisis continued to get worse in Germany, bringing political upheaval that finally led to
2242-591: A strike in Corcoran, California . The strike was to fight against wage cuts for cotton pickers. The strike succeeded in regaining or increasing the workers' wages. When the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) created its agricultural affiliate, the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), the STFU saw an opportunity to become stronger and joined them. However,
2360-487: A team of giant white Arkansas mules. There was much curiosity nationally about Commonwealth. As an example, Roger Nash Baldwin , long-time director of the American Civil Liberties Union , was an active member of its advisory board. This curiosity often led to financial contributions. Upton Sinclair , Louis Brandeis , and V.F. Calverton are among the notable donors to Commonwealth. In 1926,
2478-658: Is a consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse, by expanding the money supply and acting as lender of last resort . If they had done this, the economic downturn would have been far less severe and much shorter. Modern mainstream economists see the reasons in Insufficient spending, the money supply reduction, and debt on margin led to falling prices and further bankruptcies ( Irving Fisher 's debt deflation). The monetarist explanation
SECTION 20
#17327730321372596-493: Is supported by the contrast in how the crisis progressed in, e.g., Britain, Argentina and Brazil, all of which devalued their currencies early and returned to normal patterns of growth relatively rapidly and countries which stuck to the gold standard , such as France or Belgium. Frantic attempts by individual countries to shore up their economies through protectionist policies – such as the 1930 U.S. Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries – exacerbated
2714-539: The 1932 election , Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt , who from 1933 pursued a series of " New Deal " policies and programs to provide relief and create jobs, including the Civilian Conservation Corps , Federal Emergency Relief Administration , Tennessee Valley Authority , and Works Progress Administration . Historians disagree on the effects of the New Deal, with some claiming that
2832-541: The American Legion condemned the school, accusing it of being funded by the Soviet Union . These allegations, although later proven untrue, were later amplified by local newspapers, who also accused the school of promoting countercultural practices such as free love, as well as Bolshevism . Although the school remained segregated, and its attempts to hire black faculty failed, locals were concerned that
2950-638: The Highlander Folk School or the operation of a drama center affiliated with the New Theatre League of New York City . However, these plans were thwarted by influential right-wing figures, legislators, and the American Legion. Ultimately the property was sold at a Polk County auction to satisfy fines levied against the institution. Material from the college's library deemed radical was confiscated, while other literature
3068-582: The New York Bank of United States – which produced panic and widespread runs on local banks, and the Federal Reserve sat idly by while banks collapsed. Friedman and Schwartz argued that, if the Fed had provided emergency lending to these key banks, or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of
3186-428: The Socialist Party of America , Kate Richards O'Hare and her husband Frank P. O'Hare met fellow activist William Zeuch , and the trio devised a plan for a college for workers who wished to develop their skills, as well as advance activism within the labor movement . They also envisioned for the college itself to double as a cooperative living space. Commonwealth College aimed to recruit and train people to take
3304-836: The United States , the largest economy in the world, with the devastating Wall Street stock market crash of October 1929 often considered the beginning of the Depression. The Depression was preceded by a period of industrial growth and social development known as the " Roaring Twenties ". Much of the profit generated by the boom was invested in speculation , such as on the stock market , which resulted in growing wealth inequality . Banks were subject to minimal regulation under laissez-faire economic policies, resulting in loose lending and widespread debt. By 1929, declining spending had led to reductions in manufacturing output and rising unemployment . Share values continued to rise until
3422-539: The coming to power of Hitler's Nazi regime in January 1933. The world financial crisis now began to overwhelm Britain; investors around the world started withdrawing their gold from London at the rate of £2.5 million per day. Credits of £25 million each from the Bank of France and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and an issue of £15 million fiduciary note slowed, but did not reverse,
3540-404: The 1930s that was open to all races. They promoted non-violent protest to gain their fair share of the AAA money. They also promoted the goal of blacks and whites working efficiently together. The Farmers Union met with harsh resistance from the landowners and local public officials. The Southern Tenant Farmers Union leaders were often harassed, attacked and many were killed. In the 1930s the union
3658-447: The 1937 recession that interrupted it). The common view among most economists is that Roosevelt's New Deal policies either caused or accelerated the recovery, although his policies were never aggressive enough to bring the economy completely out of recession. Some economists have also called attention to the positive effects from expectations of reflation and rising nominal interest rates that Roosevelt's words and actions portended. It
Southern Tenant Farmers Union - Misplaced Pages Continue
3776-528: The Bootheel. The protest fizzled out as Communist and Socialist elements battled for control and STFU membership plunged. During World War II , the STFU leadership recommended its members find work outside of the plantation fields of Arkansas. They set up an "underground railroad" to transport more than 10,000 workers to jobs in the northern and eastern regions of the United States. After World War II,
3894-813: The British crisis. The financial crisis now caused a major political crisis in Britain in August 1931. With deficits mounting, the bankers demanded a balanced budget; the divided cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government agreed; it proposed to raise taxes, cut spending, and most controversially, to cut unemployment benefits 20%. The attack on welfare was unacceptable to the Labour movement. MacDonald wanted to resign, but King George V insisted he remain and form an all-party coalition " National Government ". The Conservative and Liberals parties signed on, along with
4012-471: The Depression. Businessmen ignored the mounting national debt and heavy new taxes, redoubling their efforts for greater output to take advantage of generous government contracts. During World War I many countries suspended their gold standard in varying ways. There was high inflation from WWI, and in the 1920s in the Weimar Republic , Austria , and throughout Europe. In the late 1920s there
4130-521: The Dow returning to 294 (pre-depression levels) in April 1930, before steadily declining for years, to a low of 41 in 1932. At the beginning, governments and businesses spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut expenditures by 10%. In addition, beginning in
4248-489: The Federal Reserve did not act to limit the decline of the money supply was the gold standard . At that time, the amount of credit the Federal Reserve could issue was limited by the Federal Reserve Act , which required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes issued. By the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit that could be backed by the gold in its possession. This credit
4366-442: The Great Depression is right, or the traditional Keynesian explanation that a fall in autonomous spending, particularly investment, is the primary explanation for the onset of the Great Depression. Today there is also significant academic support for the debt deflation theory and the expectations hypothesis that – building on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz – add non-monetary explanations. There
4484-642: The Great Depression. According to the U.S. Senate website, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act is among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history. Many economists have argued that the sharp decline in international trade after 1930 helped to worsen the depression, especially for countries significantly dependent on foreign trade. Most historians and economists blame the Act for worsening the depression by seriously reducing international trade and causing retaliatory tariffs in other countries. While foreign trade
4602-481: The New Deal prolonged the Great Depression, as they argue that National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and National Labor Relations Act of 1935 restricted competition and established price fixing. John Maynard Keynes did not think that the New Deal under Roosevelt single-handedly ended the Great Depression: "It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organize expenditure on
4720-624: The Reverend Claude C. Williams , "the preaching hillbilly," then served as director from 1937 until 1940. During this period, several people identified with Commonwealth were actively involved with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Education for racial tolerance was a key element of this campaign and Commonwealth developed theater and puppet programs for this purpose. In response to Commonwealth's higher profile, right-wing pastors and legislators in Arkansas began targeting
4838-770: The STFU changed their name to the National Farm Labor Union and were chartered by the American Federation of Labor . From these changes, the organization began operating in California . In this state the NFLU was involved in the DiGiorgio Fruit Corporation strike of 1947. After a year and a half on strike, the union succeeded in improving conditions for its workers. The union organized 30,000 men and women to coordinate
Southern Tenant Farmers Union - Misplaced Pages Continue
4956-434: The STFU did not go through racial tensions since blacks and white lived and worked closely. However, when the STFU reached large towns, racial antagonisms were prominent since interracial relations were less frequent in these highly populated regions. In these towns the STFU created black and white localities, with their racially respective organizers to gain confidence from their union members. The union sent white organizers to
5074-427: The STFU, delegations from Commonwealth would travel throughout Arkansas to help organize . In one such event, Koch and a student travelled to Gilmore, Arkansas to collaborate with black organizers, but were interrupted, beat, and kidnapped by a white mob. They were eventually let go, however, STFU leader H. L. Mitchell became concerned that the student with Koch was distributing Communist Party literature, harming
5192-525: The STFU. Even though racial antagonisms were deeply rooted in the South, the STFU was able to create interracial cooperation within the union. In Marked Tree, Arkansas , the African-American local invited the white local to their meeting. In this meeting white and blacks sat in the same room and worked for a common purpose. This led Mitchell to believe that the creation of a racially united movement
5310-540: The South in order to create a stronger Popular Front . The STFU was among many unions to take part in this Popular Front. The STFU benefited from its association with the Communist Party because the organizations in the Front supported each other in protests and fights against plantation owners. Not every member of the STFU belonged to the Communist Party. Relatively few members considered themselves to be Communists;
5428-544: The U.K. economy, which experienced an economic downturn throughout most of the late 1920s, was less severely impacted by the shock of the depression than the U.S. By contrast, the German economy saw a similar decline in industrial output as that observed in the U.S. Some economic historians attribute the differences in the rates of recovery and relative severity of the economic decline to whether particular countries had been able to effectively devaluate their currencies or not. This
5546-490: The U.S. unemployment rate down below 10%. World War II had a dramatic effect on many parts of the American economy. Government-financed capital spending accounted for only 5% of the annual U.S. investment in industrial capital in 1940; by 1943, the government accounted for 67% of U.S. capital investment. The massive war spending doubled economic growth rates, either masking the effects of the Depression or essentially ending
5664-517: The Union. Furthermore, Clay East was able to promote socialist ideas within Tyronza through his leadership position by distribution its most successful journal, American Guardian , edited by Oscar Ameringer . Due to East's success in selling a large amount of subscriptions, the small town became known as "Red Square." Moreover, about a 1000 people signed up to the socialist organizations that included
5782-622: The United States, agricultural organizations sponsored programs to teach housewives how to optimize their gardens and to raise poultry for meat and eggs. Rural women made feed sack dresses and other items for themselves and their families and homes from feed sacks. In American cities, African American women quiltmakers enlarged their activities, promoted collaboration, and trained neophytes. Quilts were created for practical use from various inexpensive materials and increased social interaction for women and promoted camaraderie and personal fulfillment. Oral history provides evidence for how housewives in
5900-543: The United States, remained on the gold standard into 1932 or 1933, while a few countries in the so-called "gold bloc", led by France and including Poland, Belgium and Switzerland, stayed on the standard until 1935–36. According to later analysis, the earliness with which a country left the gold standard reliably predicted its economic recovery. For example, The UK and Scandinavia, which left the gold standard in 1931, recovered much earlier than France and Belgium, which remained on gold much longer. Countries such as China, which had
6018-638: The Wall Street crash, after which the slide continued for three years, which was accompanied by a loss of confidence in the financial system. By 1933, the U.S. unemployment rate had risen to 25 percent, about one-third of farmers had lost their land, and about half of the country's 25,000 banks had gone out of business. Many people, unable to pay mortgages or rent, became homeless and relied on begging or charities to feed themselves. The U.S. federal government initially did little to help. President Herbert Hoover , like many of his fellow Republicans , believed in
SECTION 50
#17327730321376136-490: The alliance. By separating themselves from the Communist Party, the union maintained its alliance between white and black workers and members, which was crucial to its identity and program. Federal relief enacted by the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was distributed mainly to plantation owners. The AAA was a New Deal program that was supposed to reduce food production and increase food prices ; this
6254-460: The banks would not have fallen after the large ones did, and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did. With significantly less money to go around, businesses could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing. This interpretation blames the Federal Reserve for inaction, especially the New York branch . One reason why
6372-465: The behavior of housewives. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from the Great Depression, though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery, though it did help in reducing unemployment. The rearmament policies leading up to World War II helped stimulate
6490-462: The collapse in global trade, contributing to the depression. By 1933, the economic decline pushed world trade to one third of its level compared to four years earlier. While the precise causes for the occurrence of the Great depression are disputed and can be traced to both global and national phenomena, its immediate origins are most conveniently examined in the context of the U.S. economy, from which
6608-418: The continual eviction of tenant farmers. The first strike of the STFU was in 1935. Cotton pickers were demanding a better pay rate. Cotton planters wanted to pay forty cents per one-hundred pounds that fall season of 1935 but the union, under H. L. Mitchell's direction, demanded one dollar. After a few days of the strike, many cotton plantations offered seventy-five cents and fewer offered a dollar. This marked
6726-475: The crash was a mere symptom of more general economic trends of the time, which had already been underway in the late 1920s. A contrasting set of views, which rose to prominence in the later part of the 20th century, ascribes a more prominent role to failures of monetary policy . According to those authors, while general economic trends can explain the emergence of the downturn, they fail to account for its severity and longevity; they argue that these were caused by
6844-625: The crisis, the U.S. Congress passed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act on 17 June 1930. The Act was ostensibly aimed at protecting the American economy from foreign competition by imposing high tariffs on foreign imports. The consensus view among economists and economic historians (including Keynesians , Monetarists and Austrian economists ) is that the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff had, in fact, achieved an opposite effect to what
6962-633: The decade. The Depression had devastating economic effects on both wealthy and poor countries: all experienced drops in personal income , prices ( deflation ), tax revenues, and profits. International trade fell by more than 50%, and unemployment in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities around the world , especially those dependent on heavy industry , were heavily affected. Construction virtually halted in many countries, and farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by up to 60%. Faced with plummeting demand and few job alternatives, areas dependent on primary sector industries suffered
7080-408: The depression. Not all governments enforced the same measures of protectionism. Some countries raised tariffs drastically and enforced severe restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, while other countries reduced "trade and exchange restrictions only marginally": The gold standard was the primary transmission mechanism of the Great Depression. Even countries that did not face bank failures and
7198-435: The domestic price level to decline ( deflation ). There is also consensus that protectionist policies, and primarily the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , helped to exacerbate, or even cause the Great Depression. Some economic studies have indicated that the rigidities of the gold standard not only spread the downturn worldwide, but also suspended gold convertibility (devaluing the currency in gold terms) that did
SECTION 60
#17327730321377316-402: The drop in demand. Monetarists believe that the Great Depression started as an ordinary recession, but the shrinking of the money supply greatly exacerbated the economic situation, causing a recession to descend into the Great Depression. Economists and economic historians are almost evenly split as to whether the traditional monetary explanation that monetary forces were the primary cause of
7434-427: The economies of Europe in 1937–1939. By 1937, unemployment in Britain had fallen to 1.5 million. The mobilization of manpower following the outbreak of war in 1939 ended unemployment. The American mobilization for World War II at the end of 1941 moved approximately ten million people out of the civilian labor force and into the war. This finally eliminated the last effects from the Great Depression and brought
7552-576: The end of the month. A large sell-off of stocks began in mid-October. Finally, on 24 October, Black Thursday , the American stock market crashed 11% at the opening bell. Actions to stabilize the market failed, and on 28 October, Black Monday, the market crashed another 12%. The panic peaked the next day on Black Tuesday, when the market saw another 11% drop. Thousands of investors were ruined, and billions of dollars had been lost; many stocks could not be sold at any price. The market recovered 12% on Wednesday but by then significant damage had been done. Though
7670-500: The explanations of the Keynesians and monetarists. The consensus among demand-driven theories is that a large-scale loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending. Once panic and deflation set in, many people believed they could avoid further losses by keeping clear of the markets. Holding money became profitable as prices dropped lower and a given amount of money bought ever more goods, exacerbating
7788-574: The fear that UCAPAWA communist leadership might take over STFU and that UCAPAWA practices might break the racial alliance between blacks and white in the STFU made the STFU resolve to leave the CIO in 1939. After the end of the alliance, UCAPAWA decided to leave the agricultural field and concentrate its labor campaign on food-processing workers. The Communist Party by 1934 was willing to form alliances with progressives and socialists. It began to assist agricultural workers to allied various organizations from
7906-503: The few women in the labor force, layoffs were less common in the white-collar jobs and they were typically found in light manufacturing work. However, there was a widespread demand to limit families to one paid job, so that wives might lose employment if their husband was employed. Across Britain, there was a tendency for married women to join the labor force, competing for part-time jobs especially. In France, very slow population growth, especially in comparison to Germany continued to be
8024-505: The first week of June, 540 million in the second, and 150 million in two days, 19–20 June. Collapse was at hand. U.S. President Herbert Hoover called for a moratorium on payment of war reparations . This angered Paris, which depended on a steady flow of German payments, but it slowed the crisis down, and the moratorium was agreed to in July 1931. An International conference in London later in July produced no agreements but on 19 August
8142-606: The government tried to reshape private household consumption under the Four-Year Plan of 1936 to achieve German economic self-sufficiency. The Nazi women's organizations, other propaganda agencies and the authorities all attempted to shape such consumption as economic self-sufficiency was needed to prepare for and to sustain the coming war. The organizations, propaganda agencies and authorities employed slogans that called up traditional values of thrift and healthy living. However, these efforts were only partly successful in changing
8260-519: The home, or took boarders, did laundry for trade or cash, and did sewing for neighbors in exchange for something they could offer. Extended families used mutual aid—extra food, spare rooms, repair-work, cash loans—to help cousins and in-laws. In Japan, official government policy was deflationary and the opposite of Keynesian spending. Consequently, the government launched a campaign across the country to induce households to reduce their consumption, focusing attention on spending by housewives. In Germany,
8378-423: The increased value and produce more income for farmers. In order to decrease food production, the AAA paid farmers to hold some of their land out of production; the money was paid to the landowners. The landowners were expected to share this money with the tenant farmers. While a small percentage of the landowners did share the income, the majority did not. The Southern Tenant Farmers Union was one of few unions in
8496-527: The initial crisis spread to the rest of the world. In the aftermath of World War I , the Roaring Twenties brought considerable wealth to the United States and Western Europe. Initially, the year 1929 dawned with good economic prospects: despite a minor crash on 25 March 1929, the market seemed to gradually improve through September. Stock prices began to slump in September, and were volatile at
8614-563: The lack of an adequate response to the crises of liquidity that followed the initial economic shock of 1929 and the subsequent bank failures accompanied by a general collapse of the financial markets. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 , when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped from 381 to 198 over the course of two months, optimism persisted for some time. The stock market rose in early 1930, with
8732-414: The lead in social and economic reform and prepare them for unconventional roles in a new and different society. Students, staff, and faculty all worked together in the operation of the institution, from growing and preparing food to the construction and maintenance of buildings. Each student was required to donate 20 hours of labor per week either in the carpentry shop or in the fields, sometimes even driving
8850-400: The league disbanded. The cause and organization were revived in 1934 when the STFU was created. STFU's main goal was to advocate for the distribution of New Deal subsidies from plantation owners to tenant farmers. Later on, the leadership of STFU decided to make the union an established collective bargaining organization, similar to the industrial unions in big cities. However, it never reached
8968-408: The local public. Students and faculty at Commonwealth College often grew much of their own food, with much of the remaining food sourced from local farms. Many students at Commonwealth were in their twenties, with significant work experience, leading to students and faculty typically having a relationship "as equals". Students typically ate dinner together, alongside faculty. These dinners were often
9086-480: The localities composed of white people. Similarly, the union sent African-Americans to localities composed of African-Americans. E. B. McKinney was an organizer and the first African American to become vice president of the union. Before becoming vice president of the Union he was an active participator in the Socialist party along with Clay East. Owen Whitfield was another African-American leader associated with
9204-465: The market entered a period of recovery from 14 November until 17 April 1930, the general situation had been a prolonged slump. From 17 April 1930 until 8 July 1932, the market continued to lose 89% of its value. Despite the crash, the worst of the crisis did not reverberate around the world until after 1929. The crisis hit panic levels again in December 1930, with a bank run on the Bank of United States ,
9322-414: The mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U.S. Interest rates dropped to low levels by mid-1930, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment remained low. By May 1930, automobile sales declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices, in general, began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930. Then
9440-423: The monetary base and by not injecting liquidity into the banking system to prevent it from crumbling, the Federal Reserve passively watched the transformation of a normal recession into the Great Depression. Friedman and Schwartz argued that the downward turn in the economy, starting with the stock market crash, would merely have been an ordinary recession if the Federal Reserve had taken aggressive action. This view
9558-502: The most to make recovery possible. Every major currency left the gold standard during the Great Depression. The UK was the first to do so. Facing speculative attacks on the pound and depleting gold reserves , in September 1931 the Bank of England ceased exchanging pound notes for gold and the pound was floated on foreign exchange markets. Japan and the Scandinavian countries followed in 1931. Other countries, such as Italy and
9676-427: The most. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 ended the Depression, as it stimulated factory production, providing jobs for women as militaries absorbed large numbers of young, unemployed men. The precise causes for the Great Depression are disputed. One set of historians, for example, focuses on non-monetary economic causes. Among these, some regard the Wall Street crash itself as the main cause; others consider that
9794-582: The need to balance the national budget and was unwilling to implement expensive welfare spending . In 1930, Hoover signed the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act , which taxed imports with the intention of encouraging buyers to purchase American products, which worsened the Depression because foreign governments retaliated with tariffs on American exports. In 1932, Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation , which offered loans to businesses and support to local governments. In
9912-445: The other hand, whites were more individualistic and were easier for managers to coerce. Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty; drastic reductions in liquidity , industrial production, and trade; and widespread bank and business failures around the world. The economic contagion began in 1929 in
10030-470: The outdoors, or in the simple cottages which the school's faculty lived in. Students at Commonwealth College would typically take four hours of classes per day, labor at the school for an additional four or five hours, and spend the remaining time studying or partaking in recreational activities. Common recreational activities for students at Commonwealth included baseball, tennis, and volleyball, swimming, hiking, picnicking, and foraging. On Saturday nights,
10148-489: The overproduction of crops during World War I . Additionally, natural disasters in the 1920s and 1930s prepared an agricultural deterioration in southern states. When the Great Depression started, the southern agriculture sector had inherited weak foundations. In order to alleviate this sector, the federal government under the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration, through the New Deal , started economic incentives to reduce
10266-483: The physical volume of exports fall, but also the prices fell by about 1 ⁄ 3 as written. Hardest hit were farm commodities such as wheat, cotton, tobacco, and lumber. Governments around the world took various steps into spending less money on foreign goods such as: "imposing tariffs, import quotas, and exchange controls". These restrictions triggered much tension among countries that had large amounts of bilateral trade, causing major export-import reductions during
10384-613: The plantation owners and left tenant farmers and sharecroppers unemployed without any aid from the federal government. East and Mitchell created the Unemployed League with other farmers in Tyronza, Arkansas , in the Arkansas Delta , to fight the local plantation owners' retention of federal relief payments under the New Deal. The Unemployed League was able to distribute this aid among the land workers of Delta; soon after
10502-480: The policies prolonged the Depression instead of shortening it. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%; in the U.S., the Depression resulted in a 30% contraction in GDP. Recovery varied greatly around the world. Some economies, such as the U.S., Germany and Japan started to recover by the mid-1930s; others, like France, did not return to pre-shock growth rates until later in
10620-406: The political situation in Europe. In their book, A Monetary History of the United States , Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz also attributed the recovery to monetary factors, and contended that it was much slowed by poor management of money by the Federal Reserve System . Chairman of the Federal Reserve (2006–2014) Ben Bernanke agreed that monetary factors played important roles both in
10738-432: The production output of plantations; thereby, decreasing the number of sharecroppers and farmers needed in the fields. The implications of the policies from the AAA caused unemployment and the eviction of tenant farmers to rise dramatically. Harry Leland Mitchell (better known as H. L. Mitchell ), a socialist and sharecropper , and Clay East , a gasoline station owner, realized that the federal subsidies went mainly to
10856-512: The relationship between the STFU and Commonwealth College. Despite this, the relationship between the two continued, with STFU members enrolling at Commonwealth College, and STFU organizers teaching at the school. In 1936, Lucien Koch stepped down as the school's director, and left Commonwealth College. In August 1937, John Markey became educational director, while wife Dorothy Markey ( Myra Page ) taught English writing. Eleanor Roosevelt visited during their year there. Christian socialist
10974-428: The rest belonged to many different political parties or ideologies. The STFU was not entirely comfortable in its alliance with the Communist Party. Many problems between the STFU and the Communist Party (such as mismanagement of funds, lack of financial support from the party delaying the union's mission, conflict of interests between the organizations and minimal interest of the Communist Party toward STFU members) broke
11092-434: The scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case—except in war conditions." According to Christina Romer , the money supply growth caused by huge international gold inflows was a crucial source of the recovery of the United States economy, and that the economy showed little sign of self-correction. The gold inflows were partly due to devaluation of the U.S. dollar and partly due to deterioration of
11210-467: The school held a dance, which attracted youths from nearby areas. Folklorist Vance Randolph noted that these dances were remarkable in that their participants danced in traditional southern styles, but due to the influx of northern students, also included dances common in northern cities, as well as various European folk dances. On Sunday evenings, the college's faculty and visiting socialists gave lectures to Commonwealth students, which were also open to
11328-440: The school was hit with a series of financial setbacks, such as a fire which destroyed part of the school's campus, a declining student body, the departure of Claude C. Williams, and a series of fines imposed by the local government for charges such as failing to fly the American flag, for displaying a hammer and sickle , and for “anarchy”. Weakened ties with traditional supporters and shaky finances led to proposals for merger with
11446-434: The school was promoting racial equality . In response to the poor relations with surrounding communities, Zeuch, who already exhibited socially conservative tendencies, attempted to implement a strict behavioral policy for students, which prohibited "inappropriate dress, language, interdormitory visits, drinking", and other types of behavior. However, these policies alienated many of the school's students. Divisions between
11564-540: The school would result in serious trouble, if not a lynching , in the then all-white Polk County in which the school was located. Reportedly a black person had not stayed overnight for years. In the early months of 1935, Koch would pledge loyalty to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU), a racially integrated sharecroppers' union, hoping that the sharecroppers' cause would help bring unity to Commonwealth. Through this collaboration with
11682-410: The school's administrators and students were also exacerbated by differences over the school's curriculum. While Commonwealth's founders sought to equip students with a liberal arts education , many of the school's students, and some of their faculty, wanted more practical training, particularly in regards to labor activism. Zeuch quit as director in 1931, when, after a student-led revolt, he accepted
11800-670: The school's students to become disillusioned with H. L. Mitchell and the STFU, and in 1938, a group of them attempted to write to the Communist Party to persuade them to provide material support to communist students. As a result, the STFU cut all ties with Commonwealth College. In 1938, the House Un-American Activities Committee was re-formed, and began targeting the American Civil Liberties Union, deeply impacting their ability to support Commonwealth. From late 1938 to 1940,
11918-524: The school. A magazine article alleging ties with the Soviet Union, as well as a proposed state bill targeting the school with sedition , led to nationwide scrutiny of the school. In response, the STFU and the American Fund for Public Service launched a reluctant defense of Commonwealth College, although simultaneously attempting to persuade the school to become less radical. This led many of
12036-520: The union's first victory. In 1939, STFU activists organized protests by hundreds of cotton sharecroppers in the Bootheel district of southeastern Missouri, alleging there were mass evictions of tenants by landlords who did not wish to share federal AAA checks with them. The Farm Security Administration , a New Deal agency, responded by providing low-cost rental housing for 500 cropper families. In 1939 they paid $ 500,000 in grants to 11,000 families in
12154-476: The world, recovery from the Great Depression began in 1933. In the U.S., recovery began in early 1933, but the U.S. did not return to 1929 GNP for over a decade and still had an unemployment rate of about 15% in 1940, albeit down from the high of 25% in 1933. There is no consensus among economists regarding the motive force for the U.S. economic expansion that continued through most of the Roosevelt years (and
12272-673: The world. The financial crisis escalated out of control in mid-1931, starting with the collapse of the Credit Anstalt in Vienna in May. This put heavy pressure on Germany, which was already in political turmoil. With the rise in violence of National Socialist ('Nazi') and Communist movements, as well as investor nervousness at harsh government financial policies, investors withdrew their short-term money from Germany as confidence spiraled downward. The Reichsbank lost 150 million marks in
12390-778: The worldwide economic decline and eventual recovery. Bernanke also saw a strong role for institutional factors, particularly the rebuilding and restructuring of the financial system, and pointed out that the Depression should be examined in an international perspective. Women's primary role was as housewives; without a steady flow of family income, their work became much harder in dealing with food and clothing and medical care. Birthrates fell everywhere, as children were postponed until families could financially support them. The average birthrate for 14 major countries fell 12% from 19.3 births per thousand population in 1930, to 17.0 in 1935. In Canada, half of Roman Catholic women defied Church teachings and used contraception to postpone births. Among
12508-658: Was a scramble to deflate prices to get the gold standard's conversation rates back on track to pre-WWI levels, by causing deflation and high unemployment through monetary policy. In 1933 FDR signed Executive Order 6102 and in 1934 signed the Gold Reserve Act . The two classic competing economic theories of the Great Depression are the Keynesian (demand-driven) and the Monetarist explanation. There are also various heterodox theories that downplay or reject
12626-478: Was a small part of overall economic activity in the U.S. and was concentrated in a few businesses like farming, it was a much larger factor in many other countries. The average ad valorem (value based) rate of duties on dutiable imports for 1921–1925 was 25.9% but under the new tariff it jumped to 50% during 1931–1935. In dollar terms, American exports declined over the next four years from about $ 5.2 billion in 1929 to $ 1.7 billion in 1933; so, not only did
12744-465: Was active in Arkansas , Oklahoma , Mississippi , Missouri , Tennessee and Texas . It later spread into the southeastern states and to California , sometimes affiliating with larger national labor federations. Its headquarters was mainly at Memphis, Tennessee . From 1948 to 1960, when it was dissolved, the STFU was based at Washington, D.C. Agriculture in the south never fully recovered after
12862-402: Was designed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help revive the United States' agricultural industry and to recharge the depressed economy . The AAA called for a reduction in food production, which would, through a controlled shortage of food, raise the price for any given food item through supply and demand . The desired effect was that the agricultural industry would prosper due to
12980-406: Was donated to other local institutions. Other labor schools were: Denver Labor College , Work People's College , Brookwood Labor College , Seattle Labor College , and Highlander Folk School . Commonwealth differed by offering college-level instruction. Due to a lack of funds, Commonwealth College lacked electricity and running water in its early days. During this time, classes were taught in
13098-474: Was endorsed in 2002 by Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke in a speech honoring Friedman and Schwartz with this statement: Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again. The Federal Reserve allowed some large public bank failures – particularly that of
13216-426: Was given by American economists Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz . They argued that the Great Depression was caused by the banking crisis that caused one-third of all banks to vanish, a reduction of bank shareholder wealth and more importantly monetary contraction of 35%, which they called "The Great Contraction ". This caused a price drop of 33% ( deflation ). By not lowering interest rates, by not increasing
13334-500: Was in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes. A "promise of gold" is not as good as "gold in the hand", particularly when they only had enough gold to cover 40% of the Federal Reserve Notes outstanding. During the bank panics, a portion of those demand notes was redeemed for Federal Reserve gold. Since the Federal Reserve had hit its limit on allowable credit, any reduction in gold in its vaults had to be accompanied by
13452-641: Was intended to improve the agricultural economy. Once again, Mitchell, East, and liberal members of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration observed that this program had negative effects on land workers, leaving many unemployed. Therefore, they created and became the leaders of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union (STFU) to fight this maldistribution. The leadership of STFU upheld Mitchell and East attracted many socialists and pro-New Deal liberals to
13570-446: Was intended. It exacerbated the Great Depression by preventing economic recovery after domestic production recovered, hampering the volume of trade; still there is disagreement as to the precise extent of the Act's influence. In the popular view, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff was one of the leading causes of the depression. In a 1995 survey of American economic historians, two-thirds agreed that the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act at least worsened
13688-431: Was possible in other regions. Indeed, most of the important union events and meetings took place in interracial settings. Even though Mitchell wanted an interracial union, he observed drastic behavioral differences between blacks and whites. African-Americans in the union had a strong collective conscience and unity; therefore, through their unity they were more capable of resisting repressions through collective action. On
13806-567: Was the filing of a lawsuit against Hiram Norcross. This was to ensure that the rights of sharecroppers under the AAA were protected and that they received a share from the government subsidies as the act envisioned. The union wrote many letters protesting the eviction of hundreds of farmers. The STFU sent five men to Washington to carry out an appeal to the Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace . Two African Americans, E. B. McKinney and N. W. Webb , were chosen to go to Washington to denounce
13924-470: Was the rollback of those same reflationary policies that led to the interruption of a recession beginning in late 1937. One contributing policy that reversed reflation was the Banking Act of 1935 , which effectively raised reserve requirements, causing a monetary contraction that helped to thwart the recovery. GDP returned to its upward trend in 1938. A revisionist view among some economists holds that
#136863