Many Americans are intrigued by the Roaring 20s and the “Greatest Generation” of the 1940s. But we tend to forget the generation between--those hardy people who survived the hardest economic times to hit this country, the Great Depression.
The Depression began in October, 1929, when the collapse of the stock market wiped out 40 per cent of its paper value. Vast improvements in technology had increased national productivity faster than people could consume the goods. Sharply rising profits led to speculation in stock and real estate.
Republican Herbert Hoover, who had become president eight months earlier, feeling pessimistic and hopeless, failed to take decisive action, depending instead on natural processes for recovery.
Meanwhile, severe drought hit the plains, causing crops to die and dust to blow from the over-plowed and over-grazed land.
Despite optimistic forecasts, by 1933 the value of stock had fallen to less than a fifth what it had been in four years earlier. As a result, businesses went under, factories closed, banks failed, and agricultural income plummeted. Approximately one in four Americans was unemployed. Bread lines were common, and thousands roamed the country, searching for food and work.
Hoovervilles, or shantytowns of makeshift residences for the unemployed or homeless, sprang up. Other widely-used terms included “Hoover blankets” (old newspapers used for bedding), “Hoover flag” (empty pocket turned inside out), “Hoover leather” (cardboard used to line a worn-through shoe), and “Hoover wagon” (horses pulling a car that the owner couldn’t afford gas for).
In his race for reelection, Hoover faced a formidable opponent. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the aristocratic governor of New York, had been crippled by polio. He understood suffering. He brought an air of confidence and optimism that the country deeply needed. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he declared in his inaugural address.
Roosevelt promised a New Deal, abandoning laissez-faire capitalism and introducing America to social and economic reforms that were common in Europe. He declared a four-day bank holiday, during which the Emergency Banking Act was passed. With the FDIC insuring deposits, people’s faith in the banking system increased. Stock sales were regulated, and inflation caused prices to rise, giving relief to some debtors.
New government agencies provided credit to farmers and industrialists. Programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Civil Works Administration helped put the nation back to work conserving natural resources and repairing the infrastructure.
The Dust Bowl led to a great migration westward. As John Steinbeck describes it in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath, “Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousands. They streamed over the mountains hungry and restless--restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do--to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut--anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land.”
The influx of people into the West led to reduced wages. In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the largest agricultural strike in American’s history began. More than 18,000 workers went on strike for 24 days.
Two men and a woman were killed and hundreds were injured. The union was recognized by growers, and wages were raised.
The New Deal improved economic conditions, though it wasn't until the fall of 1939 that rain brought an end to the drought, and the buildup of the defense industry before World War II brought full employment. |
