THE GREAT DEPRESSION ★^813“The American way of life,” the con-
fident slogan of the consumer culture,
and common sayings like “safe as a
bank” took on a hollow ring. The image
of big business, carefully cultivated
during the 1920s, collapsed as congres-
sional investigations revealed massive
irregularities committed by bankers
and stockbrokers. Banks had know-
ingly sold worthless bonds. Prominent
Wall Streeters had unloaded their own
portfolios while advising small inves-
tors to maintain their holdings. Richard
Whitney, the president of the New York
Stock Exchange, was convicted of steal-
ing from customers, including from
a fund to aid widows and orphans. He
ended up in jail.
Resignation and Protest
Many Americans reacted to the Depres-
sion with resignation or blamed themselves for economic misfortune. Others
responded with protests that were at first spontaneous and uncoordinated,
since unions, socialist organizations, and other groups that might have pro-
vided disciplined leadership had been decimated during the 1920s. In the
spring of 1932, 20,000 unemployed World War I veterans descended on Wash-
ington to demand early payment of a bonus due in 1945, only to be driven
away by federal soldiers led by the army’s chief of staff, Douglas MacArthur.
Throughout the country, the unemployed demonstrated for jobs and public
relief. That summer, led by the charismatic Milo Reno, a former Iowa Populist,
the National Farmers’ Holiday Association protested low prices by temporarily
blocking roads in the Midwest to prevent farm goods from getting to market.
Only the minuscule Communist Party seemed able to give a political focus
to the anger and despair. “The most fully employed persons I met during the
Depression,” one labor leader later recalled, “were the Communists.” They
“brought misery out of hiding,” forming unemployed councils, sponsoring
marches and demonstrations for public assistance, and protesting the eviction
of unemployed families from their homes. The press discussed the idea that
the United States was on the verge of a revolution. The insurance firm Lloyd’s
of London reported an upsurge in American requests for riot insurance. The
What were the causes of the Great Depression, and how effective were
the government’s responses by 1932?The celebrated photographer Dorothea Lange
took this photograph of an unemployed man on
a San Francisco breadline in 1933.