Stock Market Crash Political Cartoon

PROSPERITY

4. Crash

Collected commentary on the 1929 stock market crash, 1928-1938 PDF

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Political cartoons on stock speculation and the crash, 1928-1929 (12) PDF

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Cartoonist assay nautical chart PDF

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There are pivotal moments in history. Volcanoes explode, droughts terminate, dictators die, enemies invade, revolutions succeed, economies collapse. For the United States, despite its recurring financial panics, "economic collapse" did not bring together its list of pivotal moments until the stock market crash of 1929. It can be argued that the pivotal moment was non Oct 29—"Black Tuesday"—but some instant after when the nation as a whole realized the economy was non going to bounce dorsum, prosperity had left the scene, and a dour new reality had arrived: "low." Here we examine commentary and political cartoons that illustrate this pivotal moment in American history.

Note: Financial terms are briefly explained in footnotes. For elaboration, run into Supplemental Sites beneath.

Collected commentary on economic prosperity in the 1920s PDF file

Collected commentary. Every bit many starstruck first-time investors fueled the unparalleled growth of the stock marketplace in the 1920s, how did financial leaders view the health of an economy so dependent on dreams and credit? Had the frenzied investment fad grown into a "mob motion" courting disaster? Were the "minor speculators" who risked their savings for quick profits no meliorate than weekend gamblers? Nonsense, said the Wall Street Periodical and others. Such fright-mongering is "sour grapes," they insisted, spurred past "propagandists of gloom and economic terror." Prices would continue to rise; the market would continue to deliver profits for centre class investors. The onslaught of prediction and punditry continued for months before—and later—the calamitous day soon immortalized as "the crash." Presented here is a sampling of the commentary before and after "Black Tuesday," illustrating that "the crash," while a shock, was no surprise. Selections tin can be divided amid students for research and classroom word. (11 pp.)

Political cartoons on 1920s prosperity PDF file

Political cartoons. Twelve political cartoons spanning the frenzied 18 months earlier "Blackness Tuesday" to the dismal New Year's Eve of 1929, offering a mini-history of the greatest economic collapse in U.S. history. Did the cartoonists applaud or complaining the unprecedented stock marketplace speculation that preceded the crash? How did they depict the tumultuous response after the crash? Complete the cartoonist assay nautical chart to study the visual and symbolic features of the cartoons. (xiii pp.)

See also "Age of Prosperity," Business concern, and Consumerism.

Discussion Questions

Commentary___

Why did some observers of the stock market boom, including Alan Temple, Roger Babson, and cartoonist "Ding" Darling, warn of a coming crash?
Why did others, including John Raskob, Irving Fisher, Charles Die, and the Wall Street Journal, dismiss such warnings?
Describe the multifariousness of editorial responses in the nation's newspapers on October thirty, 1929, the solar day after "Blackness Tuesday." Who and what was to blame? What was the nation to exercise?
Why was the 1929 crash described every bit a "new kind of panic"? How did information technology differ from the panics of 1907, 1901, 1896, and earlier years? (Come across Supplemental Sites below.)
Written report the diverseness of phrases coined to depict the unique nature and severity of the crash, such as "the prosperity panic of 1929" and "a stock market hurricane." What do they illustrate about the nation's response to the crash?
Why did some financial analysts believe the crash would not fundamentally disturb national prosperity?
What role did President Hoover presume during the financial crisis? What was expected of him as chief executive?
Why was the Federal Reserve Arrangement blamed by some and praised by others for its role in the stock market nail and crash?
How did analysts estimate the banking organisation? the "small speculator"? What other factors were singled out equally contributors to the crash?
According to two commentators, how did the stock market place nail fit the "American temperament"—its historic "pioneer spirit"?
In what way was the commentary by announcer Frederick Lewis Allen, written 2 years after the crash, an elegy for the lost optimism of the 1920s?
What did lawyer Barnie Winkelman mean by the "magic of red ink" in his study 10 Years on Wall Street, published three years subsequently the crash? What changes in national attitude were apparent by 1932?

Political Cartoons___

Did the cartoonists applaud or lament the unprecedented stock market speculation that preceded the crash?
How did they depict the tumultuous response afterward the crash?
Complete the cartoonist analysis chart to analyze their viewpoints and the visual devices they used to convey them.
How is the "small speculator" depicted in the cartoons? Is he wise or foolish? informed or gullible?
How did the cartoonists use the common symbols of Uncle Sam, the bull and the bear (markets), the wealthy man with cigar and top hat, and the bankrupt human wearing a wooden barrel? What common symbols appear in political cartoons today?
How did the cartoonists use recent news events unrelated to the stock market equally fundamental symbols in their cartoons, every bit in "Some other Tape for Sustained Flight" and "This Way Out"?
Consider cartoonists' choice of objects to serve as symbols. For example, in "Halted!" why might Holleran have depicted a horse-drawn railroad vehicle instead of an automobile? In "Apprentice Night," why did Darling not depict standard jugglers' fare similar plates, assurance, etc.? In "Somebody Had to Relieve Him from Himself," why did Gale not depict Uncle Sam drinking too much beer instead of eating too much food?

Check the political cartoons for details, frequently unlabeled, that one might miss on start view. What does each add to the drawing'southward pregnant? Add together examples to the chart beneath.

*Cartoons*	*Details*
Des Moines Register, Nov. 24, 1928	balked audience members
Washington Post, Jan. iv, 1929	robot-similar pilot equally ticker tape car dollar-sign drops of gasoline
Los Angeles Times, Oct. eighteen, 1929	lamb'due south tear drop
Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 31, 1929	astonished emergency medics
Atlanta Constitution, November. 17, 1929	speculator's black centre horse's broken reins
Los Angeles Times, December. 31, 1929	globe every bit the dwelling house awaiting a new resident

Cartoon evidence from the commentary and cartoons in this section, write an overview of the 1929 stock market crash. Include the preceding years of stock speculation and the postal service-crash inquiry into causes and consequences. Begin or end your summary with one of these statements:
- —"It's fine equally long as you're going up."
  Jay N. "Ding" Darling, political cartoon, Des Moines Annals, March 29, 1928
- —"Fair weather cannot proceed. . . . Sooner or later on a crash is coming and it may be terrific."
  Roger Babson, businessman and investment analyst, address, July 1928
- —"Don't you know when yous've had enough?"
  Waiter in cartoon by Edmund Gale, Los Angeles Times, Feb. viii, 1929
- —"It is clear that the Street is going through the greatest disaster in its history. No fair words tin gloss over that fact."
  New York Evening Mail service, Oct. 30, 1929
- —"[T]he country will exist amend off for the lesson information technology has had, costly though it be."
  Nashville [Tennessee] Banner, October. 30, 1929
- —"Never once again—until the next ane comes along."
  Jay N. "Ding" Darling, political cartoon, Des Moines Register, Nov. eight, 1929
- —"Oh information technology was a great game while information technology lasted."
  Will Rogers, syndicated column, Nov. 24, 1929
- —"Is the country headed for calamity, with the stock market place carrying the flag?"
  The Nation, Nov. 27, 1929
- —"It is impossible to grasp the change in life and idea produced by the economic upheaval."
  Barnie Winkelman, X Years of Wall Street, 1932
- —"On that twenty-four hours of October 29, they told me I needed more than cash to cover up. I couldn't become it. I was wiped out that solar day."
  George Mehales, WPA Life Histories interview, December 1938

Framing Questions

What factors nurtured or weakened the unprecedented prosperity of the 1920s?
How did "prosperity" go a authentication of national pride? How was the word adapted for political and psychological aspirations of the nation?
What part did "workingmen" and labor unions play in the economical panorama of the period?
Compare the Twenties' smash-and-bust with like economic cycles before and afterward the decade.

Printing

Commentary
Political cartoons
Cartoonist analysis nautical chart
TOTAL
11 pp.
xiii pp.
1 p.
25 pp.

Supplemental Sites

Images:
– "Wall Street Lays an Egg," Variety, October thirty, 1929, front folio. Reproduced by permission of Variety; © 1929 Reed Business Data, a segmentation of Reed Elsevier, Inc.
– James N. Rosenberg, Oct 29 Dies Irae, lithograph, 1929 (detail). Search in procedure for current agent for the estate of James Rosenberg; digital prototype courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-00816.
– News articles, The New York Times (details): (1) "Realty Man Missing after Stock Crash," Oct. 26, 1929; (2) "Falls Dead at Ticker as Stocks Decline," Oct. 30, 1929. Permission request in process; digital images courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
– Jay N. "Ding" Darling, "Never Again—Until the Adjacent One Comes Along," political cartoon, Des Moines Register, November eight, 1929. Reproduced by permission of the Jay N. "Ding" Darling Wildlife Society; digital image courtesy of the Academy of Iowa Libraries.
– Edmund Gale, "This Fashion Out!" political drawing, Los Angeles Times, Dec 31, 1929. Reproduced by permission of the Los Angeles Times; digital image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

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