When the word Great Depression is mentioned, we who had not lived it can only imagine how hard the period must have been, and how difficult life was. Books about the Great Depression tell us of bank runs, unemployment, hunger, economic crash, and a changing of outlook about life.
In this essay, I will try to trace the effects of the depression not just on the people who lived it but also among the present Americans. I will show that despite the hardships of the people, they still believed in their government, in the American dream. In fact, I would go on to state that it was in fact due to the Great Depression that made the American people give their government a lot of power.
Background
It all began in the late 1920s. Life was doing well, everyday life was as normal as it could be during those times. Then, almost without warning, something went terribly wrong. The economy collapsed, the stock exchange crashed, banks failed, factories closed down, and millions of Americans suddenly found themselves out of jobs.
The disaster caught everyone by surprise. In fact, even the economists had not seen it coming. No one could give an explanation as to what exactly had gone wrong; no one could foretell just how much things might become. Everything was uncertain, thus producing a sense of helplessness and despair in everyone.
At first, the economists had thought it would not last long. They had been almost sure it would be a matter of time before things bounced back and everything would go back to normal. But normalcy did not happen. Soon, everything was going downhill (Collin County Community College, n.d.).
The then-president, President Herbert Hoover, was being optimistic about the situation. He did not think of interfering with the economy. He wanted to wait things out, believing that interference would only result in slowing the economy from bouncing back, and in the return of things to normal. President Hoover believed that the most important need was to restore public confidence so businesses would be restored. However, business owners, seeing no reason to increase production when their goods remain unsold on shelves, were less optimistic (McElvaine, 2007).
However, the people were not ready to wait things out. By then, there was already massive hunger, and a lot of people were already out of jobs. Few people actually died of starvation, but many were malnourished as there was not enough to eat. There were also those who searched garbage dumps for food or anything they could eat (McElvaine, 2007). People held a protest, demanding jobs and government programs.
Below is an account by McCormick (n.d.):
“In addition to tax protests, at least half a dozen demonstrations were held in Salt Lake City during the early years of the Depression. Typical were three in the Spring of 1931 when groups of more than one thousand unemployed men and women gathered on the grounds of the City and County building to hear speakers and then marched up Main Street to the State Capitol, carrying signs that read, “We Want Work, Not Charity,” “Organize or Starve,” and “We Want Milk for Our Children.” Following more speeches at the Capitol, they met with legislative leaders and presented them with a list of demands, including a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures, a free school lunch program, unemployment compensation, the establishment of free, state-operated employment bureaus, and thirty hours of work for forty hours pay.”
Dissatisfied with how President Hoover was handling the crisis, the Americans grew tired of him, so much so that in the 1932 elections, the Americans chose someone who they perceived could — and would — aggressively do something to at least alleviate the crisis and, eventually, lead them out of it. Franklin Delano Roosevelt thus became the 32nd (under the 1787 constitution) president of the United States of America.
President Roosevelt immediately planned ways on how to best deal with the Great Depression, instituting aggressive measures to combat it. He immediately called congress into a special session, where several bills were passed. He also created programs to fight the depression, which are now collectively called the New Deal (Chaplin, 1964).
The New Deal introduced many programs that aimed at assisting the Americans through reducing the rate of unemployment, giving assistance to agriculture and business, regulating the stock market and the backs, and giving the needy, the sick, and the elderly some security (Hakim, 1995). The New Deal likewise boosted the economy by sponsoring public works programs, thus creating jobs and building roads, dams, and schools. It also created relief measures for the Americans (McElvaine, 2007).
The New Deal was a great help for the people to survive the depression, although it could not be said that it solved the problem. Although unemployment was significantly reduced, it still remained high through the 1930s. Agricultural income also rose, from a mere $1.9 billion in 1932 to $4.2 in 1940 (McElvaine, 2007).
The New Deal likewise instituted social-security programs and accepted labor unions. Other facets of the New Deal include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission (Collin County Community College, n.d.).
Discussion
In the introductory paragraph of the essay, I have put forward my thesis: that the Americans never lost their hope in their government and in the American dream despite the massive economic collapse and the extremely difficult times they experienced during the Great Depression.
Moreover, I had dared say that the Americans in fact started to give their government unprecedented power because of the desperation and helplessness that they went through during the Great Depression, in the hope that their children or their children’s children, would never have to go through the hardships that they went through.
That the people did not lose hope in their government is very apparent in how, decades later, the Americans who experienced the ordeal would look back at their experience, not with terror, but with triumph, and some fondness for having gotten over it. An eyewitness of the period, Mr. Stewart Kent, who was interviewed for a school project, says: “Now when I look back on the Depression, I realize that the event could have been worse. My family came out of it” (Glynn County Schools, 2005).
The same is also illustrated in the Sevier project, where the people interviewed reminisce about the things they went through. They all say the period was awful, but they were all glad they got through it. They would even chuckle at some of the incidents that used to make them feel helpless, knowing that everything is now behind them.
Another thing that should be looked into is the way the Americans reacted to the perceived inaction of President Hoover. The message of the American people when they replaced him with President Roosevelt is clear: they wanted to see some action; they wanted to know that their government was doing something; they needed and — were demanding — help from the government.
People who did not have any trust in their government would not ask for help from it. They would not ask for some changes in that government so that it would be led by someone who could do something to alleviate their woes and lead them away from their troubles if they did not trust, let alone believe, that the government, under strong leadership, could do it.
The massive discontent on how President Hoover seemed to be not doing anything to combat the crisis is evident that while they did not believe that the current leadership was capable of doing — or was willing to do — something to combat the problem, they had faith that the government could get them out of the crisis, if only it were led by someone who had strong enough determination.
The choice of President Roosevelt to succeed President Hoover is an indication that the people wanted someone tougher to do the job, someone who was not willing to wait up until things righted themselves. They wanted someone ready to roll up his sleeves and explore all the possible ways and means to lessen the burden.
Another indication that the people still trusted their government is the lasting effects of many of the facets of the New Deal. The New Deal ushered in the social security system through the Social Security Act of 1935. The social security system was used as a measure to guarantee government help to its citizens who were unemployed or disabled, the elderly, and to mothers and children. The New Deal likewise embraced the labor unions through the creation of the National Labor Relations Act (1935), which gave protection for union activity (Bern, 1991; McElvaine, 2007; Johnson, n.d). Another facet of the New Deal that is still present is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC, a government corporation created in 1933 through the Glass-Steagall Act, provides guarantees to the safety of checking and savings deposits in member banks, up to a certain amount (Britanica Online).
These facets of the New Deal were originally created to overcome the devastating effects of the Great Depression, but they are still in effect at present and are likely to stay. Had the people lost their trust in the government, these aspects of the government should have been put to a stop long ago, but the Americans still continue to embrace them.
The continuing existence of the facets of the New Deal is not just an indication of the people’s faith and trust in their government; it is also an indication of their dependence upon their government. Prior to the Great Depression, the Americans believed in self-reliance; that if they worked hard enough, they will get all the success they deserved. But the Great Depression showed them that while that belief was true most of the time, there were also instances where they would need to rely on others, like their government.
Indeed, the Great Depression and the New Deal changed the relationship between the government and the people. The federal government became larger and more powerful, as its role in the social and economic aspects of American life was greatly expanded. Americans came to realize the need for more government involvement in their lives and thus accepted the need to give it more power to ensure help and care of the members of the society that are in great need and to regulate many aspects of the country’s economy (McElvaine, 2007).
Finally, the New Deal gave minority Americans a better place in society. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as important proponents of the New Deal, was a champion of black rights; hence, many of the programs of the New Deal promoted the welfare of the minority and prohibited racial discrimination. Needless to say, this important aspect of the New Deal has been enhanced through the years (McElvaine, 2007). At present, racial discrimination is already hated in American Society.
Given the examples above, we go back to the question: Did the American people lose faith in progress, their government, and the American Dream?
The answer had been given. The Americans did not lose their faith in their government, or in the American dream, despite the things they went through during the Great Depression. In fact, it was because of the ordeal that they went through that they demanded and clamored for the government to intervene and to give them support. It was a clear message of trust of what the government can do if it so chose. And the fact that many of the government programs introduced during the Great Depression are still very much part of the system today is an indication that the Americans embraced — and continue to embrace — what the government had designed to do in order to protect them. No, the American people never turned their back on their government.
Finally, to wrap up my argument and to further support my stand, I would like to employ a psychological perspective of the issue. I ask, would people who had already triumphed over one of the most difficult times in history, still lose hope and faith? I don’t think so. One will always remember the hardship; the ordeal they had been through will forever remain etched in their memory, but having gone out of that ordeal, they have most probably become tougher and comforted in the thought that if they could surmount an ordeal of that magnitude, they could overcome anything.
The responses of the interviewees in the Sevier project are proof of this. Those who had experienced the Great Depression now look back to the past with fondness; they could even chuckle as they remember how they had been. These moods are not a sign of losing hope or belief in anything, including their government and the American Dream. On the contrary, these are signs that their ordeal made them so much stronger.
The American Dream — “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement… a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position” (Adams, 1931) — will never go away. It will always remain in the heart of every American who recognizes that the best way to live is to hope and to dream.
Bibliography
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Celler, Emanuel. (1953). You Never Leave Brooklyn. NY: The John Day Co.
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Chaplin, Charlie. (1964). My autobiography. US: Simon and Schuster.
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Hakim, Joy. (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace, and All that Jazz. NY: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, Brent. The Rise and Fall of the American Dream. The Voice of Freedom. Web.
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MrCormick, John. (N.d.). The Great Depression. Utah History Encyclopedia. Web.
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