American Depression

 In 1936 the natural disaster called “Dust Bowl” had aggregated the mishap of the people. The Dust Bowl was caused by overuse of agricultural lands. The farmers did not let the lands to rest but instead made use of them for production after production. The drought also caused the lands to crack. This together with the strong wind blew the covering soil of the agricultural land away making a dust storm over the areas. Carolyn Henderson mentioned “Wearing our shade hats, with the handkerchiefs tied over our faces and vaseline in our nostrils, we have been trying to rescue our home from the wind-blown dust which penetrates wherever air can go.” in Letters from the Dust Bowl. We can see that the condition of the residents was dreadful and it was a hopeless task for them as the dust clouds did not roll over. The Dust Bowl made those states like Oklahoma, Arkansas could not be lived as the land over there had turned into dust. People had to migrate to other state like California for a living. This had created the burden for the already dampening economy. Lots of people were competing between them for foods and jobs.

The attitude of people also added to the misery of the poverty. You can see from the novel, The Grapes of Wrath that contractors of California made use of the shortage in working opportunities to exploit the workers. In this novel, the writer talked about the journey of the migration of the Joad family from those deserted states to California. They faced loads of difficulties such that their grandpa died during the journey, yet, they did not have enough money to pay for his funeral. Afterwards, they reached California and finding for a job. However, the residents did not welcome for new migrants and paid them fifteen cents per hour. They could not find a job and this made their lives more awful. There was more evidence that residents of California did not want to lend a helping hand. A sign on the California border in 1935 was written like that - “Okies go home. No relief available in California”. The discrimination shown by the residents of California had created more misery to those people of mishap. If the Americans should help each other to cope with the Depression instead of bullying their countrymen, the situation might be better.

As a historian, we should look for the lesson to learn in this Depression. On reflection, the situation would be better if Government could intervene. This had paved the way to the theory of using public spending to boost the internal consumption thus avoiding the deepening of the depression.