Intense dust storms and droughts plagued the Southwest and Midwest regions. These natural disasters were referred to as the Dust Bowl, in which numerous families in farming were completely eliminated by the rough circumstances surrounding the climate. The Great
Depression was a global, economic downfall in the 1930’s, ranking as the longest and most damaging time of job loss and business collapse in the 1900’s (McDaniel 22).
The Great Depression began in late 1929. It was around September that stock prices started plummeting, and as they dropped, investors became worrisome. They tried to sell the stocks quickly before prices fell more, but this only evoked a faster fall. Before Thursday,
October 24, …show more content…
Lots of companies either decreased salaries or laid off workers.
Inability to pay mortgages caused thousands to lose their homes. They constructed these from scrap metal, wood, cardboard, paper, canvas, and any other materials they could find in dumps. People that lost their houses during the Depression started to make temporary shelters for themselves. There were batches of shelters that appeared on empty lots in many cities, establishing run-down neighborhoods called “Hoovervilles” (Stone 11). The areas were named after President Hoover, who Americans blamed for the poverty which was brought on by the depression. “Hobo jungles” were camps near train stations where many youth lived as they traveled by train.
Nations all around the world became involved by the 1920’s. Workers in Southeast Asia made rubber for tires which also depended upon steel manufactured in American or British steel mills (Stone 13). Countries that grew coffee, like Brazil, relied on other countries to purchase their products. Because of this, bad and good economic progression in a certain nation would affect another nation. Unemployment struck other countries; fifteen to twenty-five percent of the workforce was without jobs …show more content…
The purpose of the organization was to rejuvenate industry and decrease unemployment. It set up fundamental privileges for employees concerning wages and working environments. Another weapon against the Depression was the Public Work
Administration. It created projects that supplied jobs and activated the economy. Lots of libraries, municipal buildings, and hospitals were constructed through the PWA. The invention of the Civilian Conservation Corps gave younger people a chance to discover jobs that involved fixing the nation’s parks and forests. They put together roads, campgrounds, trails, and planted trees. There were two other substantial New Deal curriculums that assisted in restoring the morale and economy of the nation. The Securities and Exchange Commission was established to make sure the stock market functioned justly and honorably. The Social Security Act was made to give funds and advantages for people once they had finished working after the age of sixtyfive.
It also lent aid to people with disabilities and to families in need (20).
The Great Depression was an intense, worldwide, economic collapse occurring in the
1930’s, and classified as the most catastrophic event of the 20th century (Mitchener 339).