Great Depression in Rural
America vs. Urban America
September 7, 2010
Great Depression affected EVERYONE!!!
 25% Teens leave home
 Jump freight trains
 People have job one day
 No job the next (constant fear)
 Lose homes
 Unemployment rate
 1921 - 1929: avg. 3.7%
 1933: 25%
 Wages or hours cut
 Paychecks 30% lower
 Cook smaller meals/ bread lines
 Water replaces milk/ no meat
 People feel betrayed (soldiers)
Minorities
 Great Depression hit EVERYONE
 But NOT equally
 African Americans
 LAST to be hired; FIRST to be fired
 Unemployment rate: 50%
 “Born into depression…”
 Mexican Americans
 Competition for jobs
 Discrimination
 Repatriation: encourage Mexican Americans to
go back to Mexico with children
In the cities…
 LOSE HOMES
 Sold furniture, jewelry,
moved to cheaper homes
 Evicted
 Live on streets
 Sleep on park benches,
empty railroad cars,
cardboard boxes
 Hoovervilles
 Makshift towns of tents &
shacks built on public land/
vacant lots
 Largest: NYC (Central Park)
In the country…
 Farmers suffered before Depression hit
Crop prices DOWN after WWI
 Example: Wheat
 $2.16 (1919) - 38 cents (1932)
 Great Plains (drought for years)
 Dust Bowl
 8000 feet high/ “Black Blizzard”
 Daylight to night/ blinded/ choked people
 Destroy crops/ kill animals
 Income NOT enough to keep farms
 Can’t pay debt; buy seed; repair equipment; etc.
RESULT: Farmers lose farms
 1 million farms lost (1930 - 1934)
 Leave farms/ move to cities
 Okies: dust bowl refugees
Government Response…
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Unemployment
Homeless
Dust Storms
No crops
HOOVER FAILS
TO RESPOND
 Hoover did NOT cause Great Depression
 BUT Americans wanted him to solve it
 HOOVER
 Smart/ business savvy
 Worked long hours to solve problem
 Still FAILED
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1.
2.
3.
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Start of Great Depression
 “Hands Off” policy in gov’t/ stay out of business
 Natural to have UPS and DOWNS (strong survive)
Soon realized…doing NOTHING is not a good policy
Asked businesses to keep employment, wages, &
prices the SAME
Asked Congress to reduce taxes, lower interest
rates, & create public works programs
Suggest wealthy give more $$$ to charities
Good Plan
 PROBLEM: too much VOLUNTEERISM
Localism: rely on local gov’t to fix economy

Doesn’t work
 NEED: Federal Action!!!
 Americans blame Hoover
 And…Bonus Army issue
 Congress promise bonuses to WWI vets
 Vets want them NOW/ gov’t can’t do
 Army marches to D.C.
 Use tear gas & bayonets to force out
 Shocks Nation
 Hoover did NOT fix Great Depression
 But…did ONE good thing
 Hoover Dam
 Increased employment
 Irrigation system
 1932 Election
 Hoover has no chance of winning
 Americans want CHANGE
 More gov’t control (some think SOCIALISM)