Great Depression example essay topic

The year was 1929. Lifestyles, family, and employment in the United States, up until then, was great. Herbert Hoover was in the White House and millions upon millions of stocks were being traded on the New York Stock Exchange. On October 24, 1929; people sold their stocks more furiously than before. As many as 1.1 billion shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange on October 29, 1929 (3, 17).

"During this period, the market value of all stocks jumped from twenty-seven billion dollars to sixty-seven and a half billion dollars (3, 17)!" But on the October 29th, "Black Tuesday", so many shares were sold that the market collapsed completely. When the stock market crashed, President Hoover attempted to prevent it from deepening business activity, wages, and spending (1, 35). Immediately, it affected the poor and the middle class, who kept their entire savings in banks and savings and loans. Their financial institutions closed due to the fact that they invested their depositor's funds within the stock market.

All of this, plus poor banking practices and a government that allowed businesses to do whatever they wished, were determined to be the main causes of the Great Depression. Prior to October 1929, Americans began to realize that they were not living through a mere monetary panic. They were in fact, trapped. It was to be the greatest financial crisis of their era. "First came the dramatic drop of stock prices.

The years 1930 and 1931 were marked by serious declines in industrial production and exports. By 1932, these consequences were reflected in massive unemployment" (3, 3). Hoover's tactics basically stunk, and the depression gradually worsened during 1930 (1, 35). "Hoover's attempt to ward off a depression rather than simply waiting for the economy to readjust represented a major new departure in American public policy" (1, 35). President Hoover had also conceded to farm organizations and farm state congressmen, to create a federal way to increase prices of farm commodities (1, 42).

In addition to these trends at home, the United States was affected by an international economic crisis (3, np). "What millions of people realized during the four years of Hoover's presidency was the efforts to relieve unemployment and social distress such as hunger, homelessness, or medical rises, were inadequate in dealing with a situation of such wide scope as the Great Depression " (3, 3-4). Several weaknesses in the economy, though, seemed to be operating. There were: maladjustment's created by technological changes, unequal distribution of the national income, stock market abuse, weaknesses in the architecture of large corporations, and questionable policies of the federal government (3, 15). By 1929, two hundred large corporations in the United States controlled forty-nine percent of all corporate assets and received forty-three percent of all corporate income (3, 16).

"A second way corporate structure contributed to the Depression was through the abuse of holding companies. Holding companies were those that held stock in hundreds of subsidiary corporations, following a practice known as pyramiding, especially in the field of public utilities" (3, 16-17). Oligopoly contributed to the Depression by tending to lead to price rigidity and tended to set arbitrary "administered prices". Those prices were those not determined by supply and demand (3, 16). To some extent, excessive speculation on the stock market contributed to the outbreak of the Great Depression (3, 17). By late 1931, American's economic condition had become desperate.

It worsened during the next year as well. Farm prices dropped by fifty-five percent between 1929 and 1932 which lowered farm income and worsened the burden of fixed debt most farmers were carrying (1, 9). Hundreds of thousands of farm families, many from the Dust Bowl states, lost their farms and thus became seasonal farm workers (1, 10). The Dust Bowl was a fifty million acre area stretching from Texas to North Dakota (5, 15). During the darkest hours of the depression, farmers and workers that grew up there became so desperate that some observers believed the country was ripe for violent revolution (5, 17). "A terrible drought, that lasted for 7 years, struck the Midwest in 1931" (5, 15).

The drought shriveled all crops in the Southwest (6, np). During the Dust Bowl; men, women and children took to jalopies and drove onto the Old West for work (6, np). "Farms that lost money, were seized by banks for nonpayment of loans and were auctioned off to the highest bidder" (5, 11). During the cold months, people put newspapers under their clothes to keep the cold off. Others walked along with cardboard stuffed into their shoes to cover up the holes (5, 11). "The very symbol of the depression were breadlines; a block long line of people waiting to get free food from missions or welfare agencies" (5, 11-12).

On November 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to the first of four terms as President of the United States. In March 1932, there were thirteen million unemployed Americans, and almost every bank had been closed. Within 3 months of the '32 election, Roosevelt declared a national bank holiday. "Within days, he rushed legislation, and put the Emergency Bank Act of 1933" into effect (1, 39). The president communicated to the people by explaining his actions in chatty, radio talks "fireside chats" (1, 39). In his first "one hundred days" he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, he also brought relief to the unemployed, and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority reform (1, 39).

The Tennessee Valley Authority (T.V.A.) launched an ambitious construction project designed to harness the Tennessee River and provide electrical power to much of the rural south (5, 21). "Hope, for the time being, replaced despair. Critics fell silent, and Americans of all classes and conditions, from business moguls to dirt farmers, rallied around what the newspaper people, called 'The New Deal' " (1, 39). The "Brains Trust" of three professors, Raymond Moley, Rexford G. Tug well, and Adolph A. Berle, contributed substantially to the shaping of the New Deal program that emerged during the First Hundred Days (1, 40). By 1935, the nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal.

They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the nation off the gold standard, allowed deficits, and disliked the concessions to labor (1, np). But thirty-two agencies, corporations, administrations, projects, acts, and leagues were created all during F.D.R.'s four-term presidency (1, np). In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt was reelected President for a second term. By 1937, the unemployment statistics, which first had begun to recede, now approached the 10-million mark (5, 24). In September 1938, 1/2 million workers worked in work camps created by the New Deal (6, np). Single men from ages 18-25 in good health were employed to work in their New Deal camps.

They were paid thirty dollars a month, and sent the majority of that home to their families, who didn't have money (6, np). Henry Ford said without irony, "That young men and boys traveling through the country to find work were getting good education" (6, np). "Even during the frustrating years of the depression, however, people found ways to have fun. Family entertainment had to be inexpensive. Chess, checkers, and card games enjoyed great popularity" (5, 28). All families enjoyed listening to radio programs.

The favorites among the depression-weary people were comedy and musical-variety shows (5, 29). "For a special treat, a family could go to the movies. Ticket prices ranged from 10 c to twenty-five cents. More people saw the lavish Civil War drama Gone with the Wind than any other movie of its time.

The movie fantasy The Wizard of Oz remains a favorite today" (5, 30). Due to the fact that the banks invested their depositors' funds in the stock market; plus poor banking practices and a government that allowed businesses to do whatever they wished, were determined to be the main causes of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a worldwide calamity and contributed to the rise of totalitarian governments. The increased production of weapons and other war materials gave steam to the economy and provided thousands of new jobs (6, np). But in a twist of irony, the United States simply went from one crisis to another.

The 1940's brought America out of the depression-and into the bloodiest war in world history. Today some people romanticize the hardships of the 1930's. They claim that the depression toughened Americans and was, in the long run, good for the country. But most of those who lived through the era, and felt its heartbreak, disagree.