Great Depression 1930s

The Great Depression lasted throughout this decade and it truly was a time of suffering for many families. Unemployment was high and it was a day-to-day struggle to get food. The unemployment rate reach nearly 25% and throughout the 1930s it was always higher than 15%. In the mid west things even got worse. Drought caused crop failures and many farmers in the Dust Bowl left their farms to look for work in the west. American farmers began uniting to try to prevent insurance companies from repossessing their neighbors’ farms. By the end of 1930 the United States government was under great pressure to do something about the crisis. Money for drought relief and public works was allocated.

At the beginning of the 1930s world trade declined rapidly. As the credit structure collapsed in many European countries, European investments in the US were withdrawn, adding to the crisis in America. The Federal Reserve Board responded by increasing interest rates which effectively made borrowing even more difficult. The Europeans blamed the United States for the financial collapse there and also for reducing European imports and lending to those countries. The European economies were at their lowest in 1932.

The Great Depression was at its worst during 1932. In this year manufacturing was nearly 50% down from what it had been at the start. Over a quarter of the workforce was unemployed and the stock market was down 80% on the 1929 values. Not everybody suffered during the Great Depression years as the more wealthy managed to get through this time without too much hardship. Groups like the Communists began mobilizing in the 1930s. Over three thousand Communists staged a hunger march in WashingtonD.C. They saw the failure of capitalism bringing the poorer Americans into the Communist fold.