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113-592: William Allen White (February 10, 1868 – January 29, 1944) was an American newspaper editor , politician, author, and leader of the Progressive movement . Between 1896 and his death, White became a spokesman for middle America . At a 1937 banquet held in his honor by the Kansas Editorial Association, he was called "the most loved and most distinguished member" of the Kansas press. White

226-702: A Great Contraction of the economy from 1929 until the New Deal began in 1933. This view was endorsed by Fed Governor Ben Bernanke who in 2002 said in a speech honoring Friedman and Schwartz: 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. — Ben S. Bernanke The Wall Street Crash of 1929

339-624: A B-29 bomber in early 1945. They unsurprisingly chose to name it after their most famous citizen, William Allen White. This bomber was sent with a crew of men to the island of Tinian in the South Pacific and was part of the same bomber squadron that the Enola Gay was in. During World War II, the William Allen White Liberty ship was launched from Richmond, California on May 8, 1944. His autobiography, which

452-603: A baffled spectator. Nevertheless, he clung to his vision of a cooperative society until his death in 1944. White became a leader of the Progressive movement in Kansas, forming the Kansas Republican League in 1912 to oppose railroads . White helped Theodore Roosevelt form the Progressive (Bull-Moose) Party in the 1912 presidential election in opposition to the conservative forces surrounding incumbent Republican president William Howard Taft . White

565-484: A deficit for the first time (the deficit was less than 2.8% of GDP). By the end of 1931, Hoover had decided to recommend a large increase in taxes to balance the budget; in addition, Congress approved the tax increase in 1932, a substantial reduction in personal immunity to increase the number of taxpayers, and the interest rates had risen sharply, the lowest marginal rate rose from 25% on taxable income in excess of $ 100,000 to 63% on taxable income in excess of $ 1 million as

678-590: A famous eulogy, "Mary White," on May 17, 1921. White visited six of the seven continents at least once in his long life. Due to his fame and success, he received 10 honorary degrees from universities, including one from Harvard. White taught his son William L. the importance of journalism, and after his death, William L. took charge of the Gazette and continued its local success; after he died, his wife Kathrine ran it. Their daughter Barbara and her husband, David Walker, took it over much as William had earlier, and today

791-572: A fraction of the submitted manuscripts. Typical responsibilities of editors-in-chief include: Great Depression in the United States The usual explanations include numerous factors, especially high consumer debt , ill-regulated markets that permitted overoptimistic loans by banks and investors, and the lack of high-growth new industries. These all interacted to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending, falling confidence and lowered production. Industries that suffered

904-470: A job to anyone who showed up at the factory gate. The war brought a restoration of prosperity and hopeful expectations for the future across the nation. It had the greatest impact on the cities of the West Coast, especially Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. Economic historians led by Price Fishback have examined the impact of New Deal spending on improving health conditions in

1017-606: A normal part of economic life. Worried depositors started to withdraw savings, so the money multiplier worked in reverse. Banks were forced to liquidate assets (such as calling in loans rather than creating new loans). This caused the money supply to shrink and the economy to contract (the Great Contraction ), resulting in a significant decline in aggregate investment. The decreased money supply further aggravated price deflation , putting more pressure on already struggling businesses. The U.S. Government 's commitment to

1130-475: A number of important political analyses on the subjugation of Black women, termed "triple exploitation" by Louise Thompson Patterson in her 1936 article "Toward a Brighter Dawn." As the Great Depression trekked onward, homelessness spiked. For the first time in American history, the issue of homelessness was brought to the forefront of the public eye. In search of work, men would board trains and travel across

1243-477: A physician or a midwife to perform the abortion. The Comstock laws effectively prevented women from accessing or talking about contraception until 1950 when it was repealed with the Griswold v. Connecticut case. Only a few states allowed physicians to provide information and contraception. Despite this, women and companies found ways around this law to receive and provide birth control. The most popular method

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1356-436: A result caused several of the everyday individuals to speculate on the economy in the coming months. Rumors of market stability and banking conditions began to spread, consumer confidence continued to drop and panic began to set in. Contagion spread like wildfire pushing Americans all over the country to withdraw their deposits en masse . This idea would continue from 1929 to 1933 causing the greatest financial crisis ever seen at

1469-525: A sense of humor but sometimes housewife rage exploded. In Chicago, angry Polish housewives doused thousands of pounds of meat with kerosene and set it on fire at the warehouses of the Armour Company to dramatize their belief that high prices were not the result of shortages. Formal organizations were formed by housewives as well, based on the power of these earlier community-based demonstrations: United Council of Working Class Women, Women's Committee of

1582-424: A single day, more than $ 30 billion in the week. The value that evaporated that week was ten times more than the entire federal budget and more than all of what the U.S. had spent on World War I . By 1930 the value of shares had fallen by 90%. Since many banks had also invested their clients' savings in the stock market, these banks were forced to close when the stock market crashed. After the stock market crash and

1695-725: A way for the hungry to access free food. However, these kitchens were also overcrowded and often ran out of food before everyone could be served, so they were not always a reliable source of food. Homeless individuals that did not stay in shelters sometimes stayed in shantytowns, or "Hoovervilles" (named after Herbert Hoover, the president in office when the Depression began). These "Hoovervilles" were self-made communities of homeless people that followed their own rules and established their own society. Men, women, and even some children lived in these shantytowns and people from all different types of socio-economic backgrounds lived together, which

1808-527: A whole experienced a massive reduction in banking footholds across the country amounting to more than nine thousand closed banks by 1933. The closures resulted in a massive withdrawal of deposits by millions of Americans estimated at near $ 6.8 billion ($ 136 billion in 2023 dollars). During this time the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was not in place resulting in a loss of roughly $ 1.36 billion (or 20%) of

1921-424: Is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members and managing them. The term is often used at newspapers , magazines , yearbooks , and television news programs. The editor-in-chief is commonly the link between the publisher or proprietor and

2034-413: Is by Michael Darby in 1976. He put the unemployment rate at a peak of 22.5 percent in 1932. Job losses were less severe among women, workers in non durable industries (such as food and clothing), services and sales workers, and those employed by the government. Unskilled inner city men had much higher unemployment rates. Age also played a factor. Young people had a hard time getting their first job. Men over

2147-511: Is evident that the banking system suffered massive reductions across the country due to the lack of consumer confidence. As withdraw requests would exceed cash availability banks began conducting steed discount sales such as fire sales and short sales. Due to the inability to immediately determine current value worth these fire sales and short sales would result in massive losses when recuperating any possible revenue for outstanding and defaulted loans. This would allow healthy banks to take advantage of

2260-577: Is noted by many to have been the biggest player in reforming healthcare for Black folks during the Depression. The efforts of these "Militant Housewives" had lasting effects on the United States, predominantly the expansion of welfare and the growth of diverse feminist movements, as well as the strengthening of unionization movements in the US. Black women's involvement in Communist organizing produced

2373-669: Is often cited as the beginning of the Great Depression. It began on October 24, 1929, and kept going down until March 1933. It was the longest and most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. Much of the stock market crash can be attributed to exuberance and false expectations. In the years leading up to 1929, the rising stock market prices had created vast sums of wealth in relation to amounts invested, in turn encouraging borrowing to buy more stock. However, on October 24 (Black Thursday), share prices began to fall and panic selling caused prices to fall sharply. On October 29 (Black Tuesday), share prices fell by $ 14 billion in

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2486-449: Is precisely because of the shaky banking system, the United States was using monetary policy to save the economy that had been severely constrained. The American economist Charles P. Kindleberger of long-term studying of the Great Depression pointed out that in the 1929, before and after the collapse of the stock market, the Fed lowered interest rates, tried to expand the money supply and eased

2599-418: Is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow. From a 1933 editorial about the futility of war (referring to World War I ): The boys who died just went out and died. To their own souls' glory of course -- but what else? ... Yet the next war will see the same hurrah and the same bowwow of the big dogs to get the little dogs to go out and follow

2712-515: Is the most difficult thing in the world for a people to accomplish. It is not a matter that a nation acquires by adopting a set of laws. Only Anglo-Saxons can govern themselves. The Cubans will need a despotic government for many years to restrain anarchy until Cuba is filled with Yankees. Uncle Sam, the First, will have to govern Cuba as Alphonso, the Thirteenth, governed it if there is any peace in

2825-530: The 1938 United States elections the Republicans made an unexpected comeback, and Roosevelt's efforts to purge the Democratic Party of his political opponents backfired badly. The conservative coalition of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats took control of Congress, outvoted the urban liberals, and halted the expansion of New Deal ideas. Roosevelt survived in 1940 thanks to his margin in

2938-536: The Children's Book Award . The town of Emporia honors him to this day with city limits signs on I-35 , US-50 , and K-99 announcing "Home of William Allen White." A photograph of White has been used by the band They Might Be Giants in stagecraft and music videos throughout their entire career. From editorial "Mary White": A rift in the clouds in a gray day threw a shaft of sunlight upon her coffin as her nervous, energetic little body sank to its last sleep. But

3051-532: The Democratic National Committee , to refer sardonically to President Herbert Hoover whose policies Michelson blamed for the depression. The government did not calculate unemployment rates in the 1930s. The most widely accepted estimates of unemployment rates for the Great Depression are those by Stanley Lebergott from the 1950s. He estimated that unemployment reached 24.9 percent in the worst days of 1933. Another commonly cited estimate

3164-545: The Gold Standard as the country's currency gauge throughout the following years. As a result, the American shareholders with the majority of the gold reserves began to grow wary of the value of gold in the near future. Europe 's decision to move away from the Gold Standard caused individuals to start to withdraw gold shares and move the investments out of the country or began to hoard gold for future investment. The market continued to suffer due to these reactions, and as

3277-871: The Great Plains (the Okies ) and the South to places such as California and the cities of the North (the Great Migration ). Racial tensions also increased during this time. The memory of the Depression also shaped modern theories of government and economics and resulted in many changes in how the government dealt with economic downturns, such as the use of stimulus packages , Keynesian economics , and Social Security . It also shaped modern American literature, resulting in famous novels such as John Steinbeck 's The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men . Examining

3390-594: The Ku Klux Klan – a crusade that led him to run for governor of Kansas in 1924 so that his anti-Klan message would reach a broader state and national audience. As expected, White did not win the election, but he was widely credited with deflating Klan intentions in Kansas. In the 1928 presidential election , he condemned the Democratic nominee Al Smith as the candidate of "the saloon , prostitution , and gambling " for Smith's opposition to Prohibition . He

3503-523: The New Deal , but voted against Franklin D. Roosevelt every time. Life described White: He is the small-town boy who made good at home. To the small-town man who envies the glamour of the city, he is living assurance that small-town life may be preferable. To the city man who looks back with nostalgia on a small-town youth, he is a living symbol of small-town simplicity and kindliness and common sense. The city of Emporia raised $ 25,000 in war bonds during World War II and were granted naming rights for

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3616-519: The causes of the Great Depression raises multiple issues: what factors set off the first downturn in 1929; what structural weaknesses and specific events turned it into a major depression; how the downturn spread from country to country; and why the economic recovery was so prolonged. Many rural banks began to fail in October 1930 when farmers defaulted on loans. There was no federal deposit insurance during that time as bank failures were considered

3729-421: The gold standard prevented it from engaging in expansionary monetary policy . High interest rates needed to be maintained in order to attract international investors who bought foreign assets with gold. However, the high interest also inhibited domestic business borrowing. The U.S. interest rates were also affected by France 's decision to raise their interest rates to attract gold to their vaults. In theory,

3842-416: The 114 largest cities, 1929–1937. They estimated that every additional $ 153,000 in relief spending (in 1935 dollars, or $ 1.95 million in year 2000 dollars) was associated with a reduction of one infant death, one suicide, and 2.4 deaths from infectious disease. The Great Depression's political landscape proved conducive to the first large-scale movement of class-conscious working-class women organizers since

3955-496: The Great Depression due to the lack of confidence in the regulatory and recovery displayed during the 1920s, this ultimately drove a nation of doubts, uneasiness, and lack of consumer confidence in the banking system. With a lack of consumer confidence in the economic direction given by the federal government panic started to spread across the country shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 . President Hoover retained

4068-638: The Heart of a Fool (1918), White fully developed the idea that reform remained the soundest ally of property rights . He felt that the Spanish–American War fostered political unity, and believed that a moral victory and an advance in civilization would be compensation for the devastation of World War I . White concluded that democracy in the New Era inevitably lacked direction, and the New Deal found him

4181-474: The Matter With Kansas?" and "Mary White" (a tribute to his 16-year-old daughter on her death in 1921) were his best-known writings. Locally he was known as the greatest booster for Emporia. He won a 1923 Pulitzer Prize for his editorial " To an Anxious Friend ", published July 27, 1922, after being arrested in a dispute over free speech following objections to the way the state of Kansas handled

4294-457: The New Deal through the Hoover and Roosevelt administration. One visible effect of the depression was the advent of Hoovervilles , which were ramshackle assemblages on vacant lots of cardboard boxes, tents, and small rickety wooden sheds built by homeless people. Residents lived in the shacks and begged for food or went to soup kitchens. The term was coined by Charles Michelson, publicity chief of

4407-403: The North were limited, they were nonexistent in the South. Many homeless African Americans relied on aid from their own communities. Churches and Black-run organizations often provided their own soup kitchens and shelters to make up for aid the government wasn't providing its African American citizens. Both birth control and abortion were illegal prior to and during the Great Depression. With

4520-571: The Sage of Emporia, he continued to write editorials for the Gazette until his death in 1944. He was also a founding editor of the Book of the Month Club , along with longtime friend Dorothy Canfield . White married Sallie Lindsay in 1893. They had two children, William Lindsay , born in 1900, and Mary Katherine, born in 1904. Mary died in a 1921 horse-riding accident, prompting her father to publish

4633-474: The Solid South and in the cities. In the North the cities over 100,000 gave Roosevelt 60% of their votes, while the rest of the North favored Willkie 52–48%. With the start of full-scale war mobilization in the summer of 1940, the economies of the cities rebounded. Even before Pearl Harbor, Washington pumped massive investments into new factories and funded round-the-clock munitions production, guaranteeing

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4746-517: The U.S. and some others the negative economic impact often lasted until the beginning of World War II, when war industries stimulated recovery. There is little agreement on what caused the Great Depression, and the topic has become highly politicized. At the time the great majority of economists around the world recommended the "orthodox" solution of cutting government spending and raising taxes. However, British economist John Maynard Keynes advocated large-scale government deficit spending to make up for

4859-466: The U.S. government. Due to the downturned economy, jobs were scarce and Black men were a huge target of the lay-offs, making up a large population of the unemployed during the Depression. Black folks were also still unable to vote at this time in the Jim Crow south, meaning Black families were facing immense compounding pressures. These conditions set the precedent for Black women to take action and demand

4972-440: The U.S. would have two potential responses to that: allow the exchange rate to adjust, or increase their own interest rates to maintain the gold standard. At the time, the U.S. was pegged to the gold standard. Therefore, Americans converted their dollars into francs to buy more French assets, the demand for the U.S. dollar fell, and the exchange rate increased. One of the only things the U.S. could do to get back into equilibrium

5085-405: The United States have a long history of activism regarding housing and the cost of food despite the common and longstanding misconception that homemakers are passive and apolitical. The rising prices in the U.S. meant a new issue for consumers: the concept of being an "ethical consumer" and reckoning with their own consumer behavior in the ever-changing markets. As the government acted minimally at

5198-670: The Washington Commonwealth Federation, Women's Committee against the High Cost of Living, Housewives Industrial League, and the Housewives' League of Detroit to name a few. New ways of activism came out of these boycotts and a renewed awareness of where folks were putting their money came with concerns from American consumers. One unique demonstration by the League of Women Shoppers and Lee Simonson

5311-426: The age of 45, if they lost their job, would rarely find another one because employers had their choice of younger men. Millions were hired in the Great Depression, but men with weaker credentials were not, and they fell into a long-term unemployment trap. The migration in the 1920s that brought millions of farmers and townspeople to the bigger cities suddenly reversed itself. Unemployment made the cities unattractive, and

5424-404: The aid that was offered there. While other shelters accepted African Americans, the fear of racial violence and discrimination from the municipal organizers or other residents was still a threat that lingered over their heads. Many homeless shelters were also located in inconvenient neighborhoods for African Americans, so they were unable to access them. If municipal shelters for African Americans in

5537-438: The bank closures, people were afraid of losing more money. Because of their fears of further economic challenge, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing and consuming. Thousands of individual investors who believed they could get rich by investing on margin lost everything they had. The stock market crash severely impacted the American economy. A large contribution was the closure and suspension of thousands of banks across

5650-432: The banking crisis as state bank and trust companies were not compelled to be a member, paper eligible discount member banks heavily restricted access to the Federal Reserve, power between the twelve Federal Reserve banks was decentralized and federal level leadership was ineffective, inexperienced, and weak. Throughout the early 1900s banking regulations were extremely lax if not non-existent. The Currency Act of 1900 lowered

5763-401: The banking level pushing the economic recovery efforts further from resolution. An increase in the currency-deposit ratio and a money stock determinant forced money stock to fall and income to decline. This panic-induced banking failure took a mild recession to a major recession. Whether this caused the Great Depression is still heavily debated due to many other attributing factors. However, it

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5876-490: The banks to resort to short or liquidate existing loans. In the race to liquidate assets the banking system began to fail on a wide scale. In November 1930 the first major banking crisis began with over 800 banks closing their doors by January 1931. By October 1931 over 2100 banks were suspended with the highest suspension rate recorded in the St. Louis Federal Reserve District, with 2 out of every 5 banks suspended. The economy as

5989-635: The blood scent and get their entrails tangled in the barbed wire. From an editorial published in February 1943, shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt returned from the Casablanca Conference with Winston Churchill : We who hate your gaudy guts salute you." From a March 20, 1899 editorial, The Emporia Gazette : Riots against the police are occurring in Havana. They will keep occurring. No Latin country governs itself. Self-government

6102-414: The cheapest possible relief, including soup kitchens providing free meals to anyone who showed up. After 1933, new sales taxes and infusions of federal money helped relieve the fiscal distress of the cities, but the budgets did not fully recover until 1941. The federal programs launched by Hoover and greatly expanded by President Roosevelt's New Deal used massive construction projects to try to jump-start

6215-557: The cities, turned out 80% for FDR, as did Irish, Italian and Jewish communities. In all, the nation's 106 cities over 100,000 population voted 70% for FDR in 1936, compared to his 59% elsewhere. Roosevelt worked very well with the big city machines, with the one exception of his old nemesis, Tammany Hall in Manhattan. There he supported the complicated coalition built around the nominal Republican Fiorello La Guardia , and based on Jewish and Italian voters mobilized by labor unions. In

6328-441: The cost in the future. Maternal mortality rates rose during the depression, resulting from infections or hemorrhages of self-performed abortions, or methods that women used to try and control their reproduction. The New York Academy of Medicine conducted a study and found that 12.8% of maternal deaths were due to septic abortion. With lower-class women attempting to self-abort due to their new poverty, preventing them from visiting

6441-424: The country and was personally attractive, but White considered his solutions haphazard. White saw the country uniting behind old ideals by 1940, in the face of foreign threats. White sought to encourage a viable moral order that would provide the nation with a sense of community. He recognized the powerful forces of corruption but called for slow, remedial change having its origin in the middle class. In his novel In

6554-524: The country mobilized in this ongoing time of hardship. Historian Annelise Orleck recounts the following demonstrations from a variety of communities: In New York City, organized bands of Jewish housewives fiercely resisted eviction, arguing that they were merely doing their jobs by defending their homes and those of their neighbors. Barricading themselves in apartments, they made speeches from tenement windows, wielded kettles of boiling water, and threatened to scald anyone who attempted to move furniture out on to

6667-530: The country's founding. Housewives, mothers, and working-class women regardless of employment status were driven by rising market prices to become political players within their communities. Black women and immigrant women were essential to these movements, mobilizing their communities to advocate for better conditions. This activism included food boycotts, anti-eviction rallies, the establishment of barter networks, calls for price regulations for food and housing, and gardening co-ops to battle food insecurity. Women in

6780-780: The country, in hopes of finding a way of sending money to their families back home. These men became known as "transients", which was the most common way to refer to these unemployed, homeless individuals. Large urban areas, such as Los Angeles , San Francisco , Chicago , and New York City , became flooded with transients searching for work, causing major train stations to be overcrowded with illegal passengers. Homeless individuals who were not transient often stayed in municipal shelters, which were government-run homeless shelters that provided housing and food. Because these shelters were often placed in large urban areas, they were often overcrowded with poor-quality food and state of living. Soup kitchens also became popular during this time as they were

6893-410: The country. Financial institutions failed for several reasons, including unregulated lending procedures, confidence in the gold standard , consumer confidence in future economics, and agricultural defaults on outstanding loans. With these compounding issues the banking system struggled to keep up with the public's increasing demand for cash withdrawals. This overall decreased the money supply and forced

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7006-519: The current economic and population standards. Banking profitability and loan standards begin to deteriorate as early as 1900 as a result. Crop failures beginning in 1921 began to impact this poorly regulated system, the expansion areas of corn and cotton suffered the largest due to the Dust Bowl era resulting in real estate value reductions. In addition, the year 1921 was the peak for banking expansion with roughly 31,000 banks in activity, however, with

7119-543: The depression, President Herbert Hoover , widely blamed for not doing enough to combat the crisis, lost the election of 1932 to Franklin Delano Roosevelt by a landslide. Roosevelt's economic recovery plan, the New Deal , instituted unprecedented programs for relief, recovery and reform, and brought about a major realignment of politics with liberalism dominant and conservatism in retreat until 1938. There were mass migrations of people from badly hit areas in

7232-502: The dichotomy of the positions they assumed in society under early feminism: The home may be the woman's place, but the "home" was no longer just the family's isolated home and property. Black women served a particularly radical role through the furthering of working-class women's movements. The Great Depression had particularly strong effects on the Black community in the 1920s and 30s, forcing Black women to reckon with their relationship to

7345-531: The economic downturn, more families turned toward birth control and abortion to help control family sizing, due to not being able to afford children. In 1936, thousands of women in New Jersey had an abortion "insurance" with more being card-carrying members to a "Birth Control Club", which allowed them access to regular exams and abortions for a fee. This shows that compared to the past, women were now expecting to have abortions, and looking for ways to help lower

7458-418: The economy and solve the unemployment crisis. The alphabet agencies CCC , FERA , WPA and PWA built and repaired the public infrastructure in dramatic fashion, but did little to foster the recovery of the private sector. FERA, CCC and especially WPA focused on providing unskilled jobs for long-term unemployed men. The Democrats won easy landslide victories in 1932 and 1934, and an even bigger one in 1936;

7571-438: The editorial staff. The term is also applied to academic journals , where the editor-in-chief gives the ultimate decision whether a submitted manuscript will be published. This decision is made by the editor-in-chief after seeking input from reviewers selected on the basis of relevant expertise. For larger journals, the decision is often upon the recommendation of one of several associate editors who each have responsibility for

7684-462: The failure of private investment. No major nation adopted his policies in the 1930s. The stock market crash in 1929 not only affected the business community and the public's economic confidence, but it also led to the banking system soon after the turmoil. The boom of the US economy in the 1920s was based on high indebtedness, and the rupture of the debt chain caused by the collapse of the bank had produced widespread and far-reaching adverse effects. It

7797-426: The failures at the agricultural level 505 banks would close between 1921 and 1930 marking the largest banking system failure on record. Regulatory questions began to hit the debating table around banking qualifications as a result; discussions would continue into the Great Depression as not only were banks failing but some would disappear altogether with no rhyme or reason. The panic of financial crisis would increase in

7910-406: The financial market tensions for several times; however, they were not successful. The fundamental reason was that the relationship between various credit institutions and the community was in a drastic adjustment process, the normal supply channels for money supply were blocked. Later, some economists argued that the Fed should do a large-scale opening market business at that time, but the essence of

8023-458: The first two decades of the 1900s. The unregulated growth of small rural banking institutions can be partially attributed to the rising cost of agriculture especially in the Corn Belt and Cotton Belt . Throughout the corn and cotton belts real estate increases drove the demand for more local funding to continue to supply rising agricultural economics. The rural banking structures would supply

8136-598: The government expand welfare. In collaboration with their white counterparts, Black women would help to form the National Welfare Rights Organization . "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" boycotts broke out in Black communities, using the role of the homemaking consumer to leverage jobs for Black adults. Black housewives lead marches calling for the government to regulate prices on food while nurses from Black communities set up reproductive health and pre/post natal clinics. Midwife Maude E. Callen

8249-461: The hapless Republican Party seemed doomed. The Democrats capitalized on the magnetic appeal of Roosevelt to urban America. The key groups were low-skilled and Catholics, Jews, and Blacks were especially impacted. The Democrats promised and delivered in terms of political recognition, labor union membership, and relief jobs. The cities' political machines were stronger than ever, for they mobilized their precinct workers to help families who needed help

8362-603: The intensely fought presidential election of 1896 , providing White with national exposure. With his warm sense of humor, articulate editorial pen, and uncommon sense approach to life, White soon became known throughout the country. His Gazette editorials were widely reprinted; he wrote stories on politics syndicated by the George Matthew Adams Service ; and he published many books, including biographies of Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge . "What's

8475-600: The island at all. The Cubans are not and, of right, ought not to be free. To say that they are, or that they should be, is folly. Riot will follow riot. Anarchy will rise to be crushed. And unrest will prevail until the Yankee takes possession of the land. Then the Cubans will be an inferior—if not a servile—race. Then there will be peace in the land. Then will Cuba be free. It is the Anglo-Saxon's manifest destiny to go forth in

8588-420: The lending process. Over banked conditions existed which pressured struggling banks to increase their services (specifically to the agricultural customers) without any additional regulatory oversight or qualifications. This dilemma introduced several high-risk and marginal business returns to the banking market. Banking growth would continue through the first two decades well outside of previous trends disregarding

8701-526: The men who participated in the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 . In his novels and short stories, White developed his idea of the small town as a metaphor for understanding social change and for preaching the necessity of community. While he expressed his views in terms of the small town, he tailored his rhetoric to the needs and values of emerging urban America. The cynicism of the post-World War I world stilled his imaginary literature, but for

8814-494: The most included construction, shipping, mining, logging, and agriculture. Also hard hit was the manufacturing of durable goods like automobiles and appliances, whose purchase consumers could postpone. The economy hit bottom in the winter of 1932–1933; then came four years of growth until the recession of 1937–1938 brought back high levels of unemployment. The Depression caused major political changes in America. Three years into

8927-502: The most navigate the bureaucracy and get on relief. FDR won the vote of practically every demographic in 1936, including taxpayers, small business and the middle class. However, the Protestant middle-class voters turned sharply against him after the recession of 1937–38 undermined repeated promises that recovery was at hand. Historically, local political machines were primarily interested in controlling their wards and citywide elections;

9040-512: The needed capital to meet the farm commodity market , however, this came with a price of reliability and low risk lending. Economic growth was promising from 1887 to 1920 with an average of 6 percent growth in GDP. In particular, the participation in World War I drove a booming agricultural market that drove optimism at the consumer and lending level which, in turn, resulted in a more lax approach in

9153-429: The network of kinfolk and more ample food supplies made it wise for many to go back. City governments in 1930–31 tried to meet the depression by expanding public works projects , as President Herbert Hoover strongly encouraged. However, tax revenues were plunging, and the cities as well as private relief agencies were totally overwhelmed by 1931; no one was able to provide significant additional relief. People fell back on

9266-456: The paper remains family-run, currently headed by William Allen White's great-grandson, Christopher White Walker. White developed a friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt in the 1890s that lasted until Roosevelt's death in 1919. Roosevelt spent several nights at White's Wight and Wight -designed home, Red Rocks , during trips across the United States. White was to say later, "Roosevelt bit me and I went mad." Later, White supported much of

9379-510: The rates were made much more progressive. Hoover changed his approach to fighting the Depression. He justified his call for more federal assistance by noting that "We used such emergency powers to win the war; we can use them to fight the Depression, the misery, and suffering from which are equally great." This new approach embraced a number of initiatives. Unfortunately for the President, none proved especially effective. Just as important, with

9492-454: The remainder of his life he continued to propagate his vision of small-town community. He opposed chain stores and mail order firms as a threat to the business owner on Main Street . The Great Depression shook his faith in a cooperative, selfless, middle-class America. Like most old Progressives his attitude toward the New Deal was ambivalent: President Franklin D. Roosevelt cared for

9605-435: The required capital of investors from 50,000 to 25,000 to create a national bank . As a result of this change nearly two thirds of the banks formed over the next ten years were quite small, averaging just above the 25,000 in required capital. The number of banks would nearly double (number of banks divided by Real GDP) from 1890 to 1920 due to the lack of oversight and qualification when banking charters were being issued in

9718-524: The show marched in protest of the boycott, opening a national conversation about the definition of ethical consumerism. This was one of America's first highly effective acts of fashion activism . As women either returned or began to enter the workforce, the deplorable conditions quickly became clear to them. The lack of sanitation practices, poor wages, and otherwise unsafe work environments were no longer issues that workers were willing to power through when so many other burdens were weighing on them outside of

9831-497: The smaller the turnout on election day, the easier it was to control the system. However, for Roosevelt to win the presidency in 1936 and 1940, he needed to carry the electoral college and that meant he needed the largest possible majorities in the cities to overwhelm rural voters. The machines came through for him. The 3.5 million voters on relief payrolls during the 1936 election cast 82% percent of their ballots for Roosevelt. The rapidly growing, energetic labor unions, chiefly based in

9944-457: The soul of her, the glowing, gorgeous, fervent soul of her, surely was flaming in eager joy upon some other dawn. From editorial "Student Riots", The Emporia Gazette , April 8, 1932: As a matter of fact student riots of one sort or another, protests against the order that is, kicks against college and university management indicate a healthy growth and a normal functioning of the academic mind. Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in

10057-402: The state. White wrote: "There are two ideas of government," said our noble Bryan at Chicago. "There are those who believe that if you legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, this prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class and rest upon them." That's

10170-610: The statement was that the US government should be quick to implement measures to expand fiscal spending and fiscal deficits. Between the 1920s and 1930s, The United States began to try the tight money policy to promote economic growth. In terms of the fiscal policy, the US government failed to reach a consensus on the fiscal issue. President Hoover began to expand federal spending, setting up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to provide emergency assistance to banks and financial institutions that were on

10283-624: The street. Black mothers in Cleveland, unable to convince a local power company to delay shutting off electricity in the homes of families who had not paid their bills, won restoration of power after they hung wet laundry over every utility line in the neighborhood. They also left crying babies on the desks of caseworkers at the Cleveland Emergency Relief Association, refusing to retrieve them until free milk had been provided for each child. These actions reflected

10396-543: The struggling units forcing additional losses resulting in banks not being able to deliver on depositor demands and creating a failing cycle that would become widespread. Investment would continue to stay low through the next half-decade as the private sector would hoard savings due to uncertainty of the future. The federal government would run additional policy changes such as the Check tax, monetary restrictions (including reduction of money supply by burning), High Wage Policy, and

10509-418: The stuff! Give the prosperous man the dickens! Legislate the thriftless man into ease, whack the stuffing out of the creditors and tell the debtors who borrowed the money five years ago when money "per capita" was greater than it is now, that the contraction of currency gives him a right to repudiate. The Republicans sent out hundreds of thousands of copies of the editorial in support of William McKinley during

10622-627: The support of Governor Walter Huxman and other politicians, and the result was the prestigious invitation to paint murals for the Kansas Capitol . The result was Tragic Prelude . The last quarter century of White's life was spent as an unofficial national spokesman for Middle America . This led President Franklin Roosevelt to ask White to help generate public support for the Allies before America's entry into World War II . In 1940 White

10735-563: The time to protect consumers from predatory market tactics, many women as workers, housewives, and mothers found activism a natural part of their role in the name of protecting their families. The boycotts done by housewives predominantly revolved around targeting unfair businesses in their communities that price-gauged their shops or refused to support their workers' livelihoods to an acceptable degree. Housewives in New York were particularly active at this time, but housewives and mothers across

10848-474: The total $ 6.8 billion accounted for within the failed banks. These losses came directly from everyday individuals' savings, investments and bank accounts. As a result, GDP fell from the high seven-hundreds in 1929 to the low to mid six-hundreds in 1933 before seeing any recovery for the first time in nearly 4 years. Federal leadership intervention is highly debated on its effectiveness and overall participation. The Federal Reserve Act could not effectively tackle

10961-420: The verge of bankruptcy. Hoover's fiscal policy had accelerated the recession. In December 1929, as means of showing government confidence in the economy, Hoover reduced all income tax rates by 1% in 1929 due to the continuing budget surplus. By 1930, the surplus had turned into a fast-growing deficit of economic contraction. In 1931, the US federal fiscal revenue and expenditure changed from the financial surplus to

11074-590: The workplace. The 1930s brought falling wages and high unemployment, which had workplaces implementing strong efforts to keep women and Black folks out of jobs to better employ the preferred white male population, as well as keeping the few female and/or Black workers out of unions. International Ladies Garment Workers Union , Farmer-Labor Women's Federation of Minnesota, and American Federation of Labor were all run by working-class women demanding better conditions to work and raise their families under. The speeches and demonstrations done by these groups of women underscored

11187-459: The world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry . Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as grain farming, mining and logging, as well as construction, suffered the most. Most economies started to recover by 1933–34. However, in

11300-559: The world as a world conqueror. He will take possession of all the islands of the sea. He will exterminate the peoples he cannot subjugate. That is what fate holds for the chosen people. It is so written. Those who would protest, will find their objections overruled. It is to be. White had 22 works published throughout his life. Many of these works were collections of short stories, magazine articles, or speeches he gave throughout his long career. Newspaper editor An editor-in-chief ( EIC ), also known as lead editor or chief editor ,

11413-449: The world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily—certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn't enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay. If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all their youthful vim and vigor, then there

11526-470: Was a fashion show, attended by high society women of D.C. , urging consumers to boycott unethically sourced (to protest Japanese actions during the 30's) and overpriced Japanese silk (a popular luxury fabric at the time). Simultaneously, a large number of predominantly unemployed women (as well as some garment workers and representatives from the American Federation of Hosiery Workers ) outside

11639-588: Was a political conservative at this early stage of his career. In 1896 a White editorial titled " What's the Matter With Kansas? " attracted national attention with a scathing attack on William Jennings Bryan , the Democrats , and the Populists . White sharply ridiculed Populist leaders for letting Kansas slip into economic stagnation and not keeping up economically with neighboring states because their anti-business policies frightened away economic capital from

11752-576: Was a reporter at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and a strong supporter of Woodrow Wilson 's proposal for the League of Nations . The League went into operation but the U.S. never joined. During the 1920s, White was critical of both the isolationism and the conservatism of the Republican Party. According to Roger Bresnahan: White's finest hour came in his vigorous assault, beginning with Gazette editorials in 1921, on

11865-549: Was an early supporter of Republican presidential nominees Alf Landon of Kansas in 1936 and Wendell Willkie in 1940. However, White was on the liberal wing of the Republican Party and wrote many editorials praising the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt . White was the leader in persuading Kansas newspaper editors and publishers to run a fund-raising campaign so as to invite Kansas's most famous artist, John Steuart Curry , to paint murals for Kansas. He got

11978-689: Was born in Emporia, Kansas and moved to El Dorado, Kansas , with his parents, Allen and Mary Ann Hatten White, where he spent the majority of his childhood. He loved animals and reading books. He attended the College of Emporia and the University of Kansas , and in 1889 started work at The Kansas City Star as an editorial writer. In 1895, White bought the Emporia Gazette for $ 3,000 from William Yoast Morgan and became its editor. White

12091-646: Was fundamental in the formation of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies , sometimes known as the White Committee. He resigned on January 3, 1941, writing to a newspaper columnist that "In our New York and Washington chapters we have a bunch of war mongers and under our organization we have no way to oust them and I just can't remain at the head of an organization that is being used by those chapters to ghost dance for war." Sometimes referred to as

12204-639: Was increase interest rates. In the late 20th century, Winner of the Swedish Central Bank Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences economist Milton Friedman and his fellow monetarist Anna Schwartz argued that the Federal Reserve could have stemmed the severity of the Depression, but failed to exercise its role of managing the monetary system and ameliorating banking panics , resulting in

12317-602: Was published posthumously in 1946, won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography . In 1948 a 3¢ stamp was issued in his honor by the U.S. Postal Service . The University of Kansas Journalism School is named for him, as is the library building at Emporia State University . There are also two awards the William Allen White Foundation has created: the William Allen White Award for outstanding journalistic merit and

12430-404: Was rapidly growing. Department stores became the most popular place to receive female contraception and these stores created departments where women could shop for contraception in privacy. When women were becoming wary of purchasing inside department stores, manufacturers switched to selling at their homes. In 1930, female contraceptives outnumbered condom sales five to one. By 1940, the market size

12543-429: Was three times what it was in 1935. The Great Depression began in the United States of America and quickly spread worldwide. It had severe effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal income, consumption, industrial output, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around

12656-416: Was to conceal the intended function of products by marketing them as "feminine hygiene products", "protections", "security", and "dependability". In 1930, a legal verdict allowed contraceptive companies to freely advertise their products if the product's sole purpose was not birth control. Companies that previously avoided the birth control market capitalized on this opportunity and the demand for birth control

12769-479: Was very uncommon during the time of segregation . Although the African American community was one of the hardest hit during the Great Depression, their struggle during this time often went unnoticed. Homeless African Americans were practically invisible during this time as the effects of Jim Crow and segregation were in full force. Many municipal shelters in the North were segregated and turned away from

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