From 1865 to 1900 agriculture was at war, shifting from small, individual farms to larger commercialized farms because of the devaluing of currency, competition from corporate farms with more land and better technology, and government policies that proved detrimental to those clinging to old ways of life. To escape debt and seek profit in new lands, many farmers started working westward but so did corporations looking to expand. Because of westward expansion, companies like the union pacific railroad company built railroads that connected lands all across the U.S. and earned 10 miles of land in either direction of the railroad. This land put the railroad in control of many western lands and in control of the prices of land, travel and resource transportation. Out of everything that changed agriculture, the increasing economic difficulty was arguably the most powerful. With so many farms, the amount of produce rose while the prices of produce fell, in some cases, like with Cotton, prices fell over ⅛ of the original price (Doc A). Because of the extremely low prices, as low as 10 cents in some places, some farmers did not make enough to survive and promptly went out of business. Even with groups like the the Farmer's Alliance defending smaller farmers by pooling together resources and money in …show more content…
With inventions such as the combine (Doc D), fewer men could plow more land much faster, meaning that corporations could afford more expensive equipment leading to a cycle of profit. A monthly magazine talks about a "slaughtering capacity of 400,000" (Doc F), showing just how powerful these farms were becoming. While the increase in resources did benefit the consumer, it led to overproduction. Mary Elizabeth Lease writes "10,000 little children...starve to death every year" (Doc G), because she, like many others, were furious about the loss of economic stability in
The relationship of acute crisis in agriculture and the industrial crisis has made the economic depression worse, famers were angry with their government. The banks looked shaky and depositors wanted their money, making them shakier still, and in time many were forced to close. Factories and businesses got rid of large numbers of employees or closed down altogether, and soon there was no money to buy the farmer’s products or anything else and this causes people is inability to buy Agricultural products. “Farmers struggled with low prices all through the 1920s. " Desperate bankers called in their loans, but farmers had no money to pay them and foreclosures and bankruptcy sales became daily events.
During the Roaring Twenties many people had, as William H. Leuchtenberg said, ‘“get-rich-quick”’, [Doc 2]. And man people did get rich quick. Everybody wanted a piece o the pie that was economic prosperity, but that pie has to run out eventually. With this idea in the heads of millions of Americans extreme overexpansion of many aspects of society led to the “adversity soon demonstrated,” [Doc 1]. John D. Hicks cites just some of the factors that “account for the plunge from prosperity to adversity”.
In the 1930’s, our economy took a major downturn when the stock market crashed on Black Tuesday in October of 1929, which affected many Americans in every aspect, including a rise in the unemployment rate. This resulted in farmers migrating from Oklahoma to California, as we see in The Grapes of Wrath when Tod Joad and his family take on this journey. Although the Great Depression lasted between 1929 and 1939, the people had hope in the restoration of the economy when Roosevelt came into office in 1933. He proposed the New Plan guaranteeing security in the economy. Unfortunately, it was not much help with the onset of the Dust Bowl during these tragic times.
Farmers, on the other hand, experienced the full extent of the 1920s as crop prices declined dramatically, but even this setback did not leave the agriculture industry hindered for too
It was too expensive to pay workers and buy materials for their items all at once, considering they were not getting enough buyers that were willing to pay. A sketch from St. Paul Daily News shows a man being booted out of a barn with eggs. The eggs represent prices for certain commodities and they are being cracked on the ground (Doc 11). This image shows how fast prices and employees were being dropped because of the lack of customers. As a matter of fact, overproduction made it necessary to drop prices but the low prices led to the farmers being unable to repay loans.
The 31st United States President: Herbert Hoover Introduction Even though 31st President of the United States Herbert Hoover was a good man in some ways, he made some choices that weren't the smartest ones. Herbert Hoover’s presidency went on from March 4, 1929, to March 4, 1933. His one term that he served was famously noted for the massive stock crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Early Life Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1879.
Snap! As I stepped on the last bit of a wilted cornstalk, I fretted the next harvest hoping it would be better. I barely could support my family, and I can not think about going through this again next year. The Dust Bowl practically killed all my crops, and the crops that were left had no profit. I can just hear my daughter asking again, “Daddy when can we eat something besides bread and corn.”
Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930’s Donald Worster’s Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930’s was written by a Kansas Native who demonstrates the horrendous plague that destroyed the once prosperous plains in the American West. Worster depicts the primary reasons of the economical and agricultural struggles that generated the ‘Dirty 30’s’. In the Preface of the book Worster explains his reasoning for writing his book as ‘selfish’, due to the fact that he wrote it for himself in remembrance of the plains where he grew up. He explains the derivation of his information as so, “It is, however, based on not only on extensive library research, but on conversations with farmers, agronomists, and storekeepers;...”
Before the Transcontinental Railroads there were few lines running West. There was a huge gap of hundreds of miles between many places. After the development of the Transcontinental Railroads manufactured goods as well as people could be quickly transported across the country. Many of the goods needed such as coal, timber, oil and iron could be carried to and from factories and mills. To encourage settlers to inhabits lands purchase prices were low but much of the land was turned over to railroad companies to continue to build additional
The farmers’ success was very dependent on farm prices and other factors so the west was not as profitable as it originally seemed. (why did enthusiasm lead to the deflation of the economy that took place during the 1880s and harsh times for those
As farmers were not needed as much, property prices lowered. Small town banks were shut down in this mess. In one year thirty-six hundred banks shut down. Farmers failed to pay loans and made fewer payments. Because of this, the farmers
Dust storms in the Dust Bowl area wreaked havoc on the Great Plains and Southwestern United States and caused the death of many. Once upon a time (The 1930’s to be exact), there was a bright young fellow named Bob. His family consisted of six people: Bob, June (his sister), Billy (his one year-old brother who was very sick), his older brother (Eric), Bob’s dad, and Bob’s mom. They lived in a rural area of Oklahoma. In the “Dirty Thirties,” their lives changed drastically.
Whether it was due to the large drought or their financial status, many farmers found themselves without a way to make a living. Daniel Cobalt states: “Other countries and the United States had surplus supplies, creating less demand for agricultural products” (Cobalt, sec. California). As a result of the little need for agricultural products, farmers made little money and therefore had to find other work. As a result, many farmers were forced to become migrant workers.
In a time when America was coming out of the bloodiest war that was ever fought, against themselves, The Civil War, and when America looked overseas for a new frontier with Imperialism. It is in this context that America started to grow westward with farm land and in industry with the million of workers, but America still felt growing pains. Two significant ways in which farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age (1865-1900) were the formation of organizations to protect farmers, and the creation of labor unions and the use of strikes to protect the workers. One significant way in which farmers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age (1865 - 1900) was the formation of organizations to protect farmers. During Westward Expansion farmers fell victims to the low pricing of the crops.
The 1930’s was a horrendous, dreadful time period that affected the whole world. The U.S got hit especially hard considering the country was very strong and prosperous the previous decade. Farmers that lived in the Panhandle of Oklahoma, Okies, were hit especially hard. The Okies were affected more than any other group in the U.S. during The Great Depression because not only did they suffer the economic problems of no money or jobs, but they also had to deal with dust storms and moving across the country. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the price of corn and wheat dropped so low, that it was no longer profitable to grow.