National Farming Crisis Of The Great Depression example essay topic

Towards the end of the nineteen twenties and through the nineteen thirties of the twentieth century the United States was struck with the largest economic dilemma; the Great Depression. Throughout the Great Depression president's Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt tried their hardest at reconstructing the nation's economy so that it would be able to continue it's path to becoming the world's greatest nation ever. However, it was a long and several times unsuccessful road which would come to see more than two decades when traveling down it. During this great depression the farmers of America were greatly effected, maybe more than any other single group of persons in the nation (Bubble Bursts, 133).

What came to be known as "Hooverville's" popped up across the country, composed primarily of unavailing farmers and their families. In the central area of the United States is where most farmers were affected as it was made of mostly plains and open dirt roads. It was here in central America that farmers gained their most known name used throughout the Depression, "okie's". These, simply, were the farmers which harshly suffered during the economic downfall. Through times of terror and hardship, when the nation's economy bottomed out, America's farmers were faced with the most complex quandary ever; the national farming crisis of the Great Depression. It is overt to all persons that when materials are grown or produced for sale that a profit is to be made so that money is made back.

Between the years of nineteen fifteen and nineteen-nineteen many farmers in the United States actually prospered very well (Baughman, 89). This acute onset of "good times" was a direct result of European agriculture being temporarily destroyed by World War I (89). As Europe looked to rebuild domestic agriculture they simultaneously looked at nations afar to ephemerally support them. The United States was one of these nations which was looked to for help. Using the supply and demand theory American farmers increased and expanded their supply of crops in order to meet the short-term demand of Europe. This proved to be detrimental to the farming economy of America just several short years later (89).

Eventually, .".. Europe was recovering and beginning to rebuild its agricultural sector, it no longer needed to import huge amounts of farm products from abroad... ". (Baughman, 89).

It was at this time in the early nineteen twenties that the economy of American farming began to plump downward. This was the plummet caused by the enormous overproduction of farm products (89). Another cause of this downfall was the introduction of technology into society and its modernization. This outcome of technological advance allowed for there to be a lack of attention towards the once, art of, farming (Baughman, 89). Presidential administrations such as Harding and Coolidge paid more attention towards business and the public neglected farming by becoming intrigued with automobiles and... ". fads and crazes of the Jazz Age... ".

(89). While technology and modernization had a negative effect on American farming, they had a positive effect as well. With new machines being made and introduced into society, some of them were directed towards farming. One of the machines which aided farmers in their daily chores was the electric milker which allowed cows to be milked without the farmer having to do it; the machine simply did it (Baughman, 89). So with machines such as this farms could now be operated with less less hired help and the number of workers devoted to agriculture rapidly declined. While there was technology advancements which were both positive and negative towards farming, these advancements meant nothing if the weather was not under right conditions.

And unfortunately, during the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, the weather wasn't exactly perfect for farming. In the early nineteen thirties a drought began which would continue throughout the entire decade and was only considered awesome because of its severity of the United States. This is the drought, along with other combinations of factors, which created what is known as the "Dust Bowl", argued by many to be the worst environmental disaster in United States history. The Dust Bowl dried out top layers of soil and airborne soil formed thick clouds of dust. "Walls of dust, sometimes rising as high as five miles into the air, swept across the farmlands and cities of the Midwest, turning day into night and often burying farm animals, cars, and even houses". While farmers were in over their heads at the beginning of the Depression with overproduction, as it truly started they were the first and hardest to be hit.

However, they were not the only group of persons who suffered. By nineteen thirty bank failure rose from six hundred and forty-two in nineteen twenty-nine to one thousand, three hundred and forty-five. Unemployment was on a steady rise and. ".. everybody had a story about a former rich man who had to file papers in bankruptcy or live on peanuts from a vending machine". (Bubble Bursts 133).