The Thirties: A decade of
despair
AKA: THE DIRTY THIRTIES
 Why did the depression begin?
 The stock market crashed on October 29, 1029.
 WHY?
 Some cautious investors started selling their stocks
in order to cash in on high profits, others rushed to
follow their lead. Sellers panicked as the value of
stocks fell dramatically.
 The effects of the collapse were devastating.
Investors who had borrowed heavily to buy shares
went bankrupt in a single day.
 The collapse of the stock market was the beginning
of the DEPRESSION
 The depression: a period of severe economic and
social hardship, massive unemployment, and terrible
suffering.
 The crash was not the single reason for the
depression.
Leading up to the Depression 1
 1927- price of wheat on world market began to fall.
 More was being produced than sold.
 Wheat farmer depended on foreign market –
countries began growing own crops.
 Income of farmers dropped – couldn’t $
mortgage/loans
Leading up to the depression 2
 Same for goods in general.
 US imposed a high tariffs on foreign goods coming
in.
 Tariffs = protect the US domestic market by making
foreign items more expensive.
 PROTECTIONISM= had harmful effects as other
countries imposed their own tariffs in response
Leading up to the depression 3
 Germany’s inability to meet its financial obligations
under the 1919 peace agreement (outcome of WWI).
 Vicious circle. Make a diagram representing this by
reading on p. 76, last paragraph under “leading up to
the depression”
Canada and the Depression
 The depression illustrated a major weakness in the
Canadian economy: its dependence on the export of
primary resources.
 Two exports in particular: wheat from the prairies
and newsprint from BC, ONT, QUE
40%
65%
No $ No Buy
 The world of consumerism:
With these industry jobs being cut, you loose your
income. With no income you can’t buy new things.
Those working in factories making those new things
(radios, tv…) then get laid off because no one can buy
the things they make.
 Why was Canada so affected by the “crash” in the
U.S?
 Because… U.S had become Canada’s biggest trading
partner and largest investor. Are we still?
Desperate Years and the “Aid”
 Thousands of Canadians then became dependent on
“pogey” – government relief payments given to
those who had no alternative source of income.
 The government did not make this easy to get
though.
 People had to wait in line for HOURS and then
publicly declare their financial failure, and swear
they owned nothing of value and were being evicted
from their home.
A humiliating experience…
 By 1933, more than one-quarter of Canada’s
workforce was unemployed.
 The beginning of “hopping” freight trains moving
from shanty town to shanty town, typically referred
to as “jungles”
Drought on the Prairies
 The Prairies got the worst of the depression because:
Collapse of wheat market + drought = worse.
The drought started in 1928 and last 8 years!!!!
 The “dust bowl” (p.79). Trouble in the Fields.
 High winds, and to top it off… grasshoppers.
 In 1953 gov’t = Prairie Farm Rehabilitation
Administration Act.
 Unfortunately… a little too late.
Disadvantaged
 Women = Chatelaine Magazine even said that women should
stay home from their job and let the men do it.
 Aboriginal families got $5 a month and were expected to “live
off the land”
 Chinese were expected to be fed half of what it cost to feed a
white man
 Prejudice was shown against Jews (business closed to them
and no jobs).
 Immigration was stopped and 10, 000 were deported.
Responding to the Depression
 PM Mackenzie King was not prepared to deal with
this. Pushed it onto municipal and provincial gov’ts,
who of course were bankrupt.
 When questioned by the Conservatives (the
opposition) he stated: he wouldn’t contribute a “five
cent piece” to a Tory provincial gov’t.
 Of course, he lost the next election to the
Conservatives and R.B Bennett came into power.
 PBS Oakie Clip
 CBC Clip from farmer 1930
 CBC Clip of 1960 Dust Bowl
Bennett
 Not much better than King.
 Funded work-creation programs that didn’t do much.
 Increased tariffs to protect some Canadian businesses,
but just as in the U.S, this did more harm than good.
 He got scared that men would be influenced by the
communist party and so banned them.
 Created work-camps for single, unemployed men.
Bennett what???? Can you guess what it is?
 Bennett barnyard =
Deserted prairie farm
 Bennett blanket =
newspaper
 Bennett coffee=
roasted wheat
 Eggs Bennett=
boiled chestnuts
Work Camps
 Conditions were poor, locations were isolated, and
men were paid 20 cents a day with room and board.
 In 1935 over a thousand men left the camps in BC to
Ottawa to protest against the conditions under the
leadership of their union. This was known as the Onto-Ottawa Trek.
 Bennett attacked the leaders as radicals and trouble.
Politics of Protest
 So… things got violent, camps were closed…
 And Ottawa struggled to find ways of coping with the
Depression.
 And what may happen when citizens are not happy
with their government????
 Look to alternative parties for solutions.
Cooperative Commonwealth Federation
 CCF – 1932, in the West. Appealed to famers,
labourers, socialists, and intellectuals. Their leader
was J.S Woodsworth.
 What was the platform/manifesto of the
CCF???? See page 86. Write them down.
Provincial Solutions
 Many ruling provincial parties were voted out.
Out with Bennett Back with King
 1935, they kicked out Bennett and returned King to
power, even though his stance had not changed.
 Still, even with a commission done in 1936, that
found unemployment to be a national problem and
recommended the federal gov’t to spend millions on
job creation and training programs, King only spent
a fraction of the recommendation.
TENSIONS!!!!
 In 1937 the Rowell-Sirois Commission examined the
issue of federal-provincial relations.
 There was disagreement over which gov’t had the
right to collect tax money and which gov’t should pay
for social and employment assistance.
 Commission recommendations: fed gov’t more
control over taxes and equalization payments
(giving poorest prov more money).
But..
 By the time the report was made, the economy had
begun to turn around.
 Also, recommendations were pushed aside through
Canada’s involvement in WWII.
Distractions from Despair.
 What do you do to distract yourself from
hardships/stress?
 Make a list, and compare with those around you.
 What do you think people did in the depression for a
distraction? Make a list and compare to yours.
 Read “Distraction from Despair” on p. 90. And see
how much you got right!