Source e is data on death rates and infant mortality rates in Jarrow and nationally published by the Jarrow public health committee. It is telling us how much death rates and infant mortality has gone up from 1919 to 1931 and to 1936 .it is useful because it lets us compare Jarrow’s death rates and infant mortality to the national average and lets us see what is happening through the years. it is a reliable source as it is statistics but we also have to take in account that it might be used to get help from the government. It gives us information of the whole of Jarrow and the nation which is useful because it’s not just based on a small amount of data. it is useful because it tells us that Jarrow’s death rates is always been above the national average even before the great depression which tell us that Jarrow might have been going through problems already and after the great depression death rates are still higher than the national average so it might be because of the great depression many people died. it is also useful because it tells us that a lot of children died before and after which is more than half of the national average which tells us a lot of people are dyeing in Jarrow which is a small town compared to the nation but the death rates and infant mortality is still higher than the national government. it also tells us that not only did the great depression have an huge effect on adults and workers but also children had to suffer too which can mean that Jarrow was in a very bad state that not only people was out of jobs because of the great depression they were losing their lives too.
Source e is not useful because it just tells us death rates and infant mortality of 1919, 1931 and 1936 but not any other years so the other years that haven’t been showed to us the death rates and infant mortality can be very low. we do not know why more years was not given to us so this source can be unreliable because there is a possibility that they had a reason to just put the years when the death rates and infant mortality is bad up on the report. Also in the 1920s is when the great depression was taking place but we do not know how many people died during the great depression. Also it is just figures we do not know why these figures were published and there are no text to tell us more information therefore the source given is limited. it just doesn’t tell us enough information on the great depression we just know what happens before the great depression and after but not when it is taking place. we also do not know what caused these deaths was it just a disease in Jarrow or was it because of the great depression so it is not useful in telling us about the effects of the great depression if there is no support or evidence to tell us that these death rates and infant mortality is due to the great depression .it also doesn’t tell us the population of Jarrow because it might just be a small proportion of people that died in Jarrow.
Overall I think both of the sources are useful to some extent they are both written by the Jarrow public health committee so therefore both sources are very similar and might even be written for the same reason. But both of the sources are only useful to some extent because it doesn’t give us enough information on the great depression and the sources are limited. In both of the sources the great depression wasn’t even mentioned once. We also do not know if these problems are cause by the great depression there can be many reasons for these problems to occur. I think that source e is probably a better and more useful source as it talks about the whole of Jarrow unlike source d as it only talks about one family and one house out of the many houses and families in Jarrow. It also explores a larger proportion of people and talks about the nation too so we are able to compare Jarrow with the rest of the world.
4. Study source F and H
Use sources F and H and your own knowledge to explain why the Jarrow crusade took place.
Jarrow is a small town in England it was most famous for its shipbuilding. Most people in the town depended upon shipyards and shipbuilding. Jarrow was one of the worst affected towns of all during the great depression. The depression is an economic depression, business just isn’t working and most people was unemployed and went bankrupt. it started in America and had affected the whole world .it all started because of the wall street crash in 1929 when the us stock market crashed in October 1929. Jarrow was affected badly as no one had money to make ships for exporting and importing and also no warship needed to be built. The government also closed down most of the old ship yards. The problem was world wide and many marchers and petitions were made to show that something was needed to be done and to get the government to do something about it.
The most famous of these marches came from the ship building town Jarrow in the north east of England. In 1935 three quarters of Jarrow’s workers had no job and many ship yards were closed down. Therefore Jarrow had to do something to show that they need help so the Jarrow crusade took place. The Jarrow crusade was lead by Miss Ellen Wilkinson, MP for Jarrow, carrying a petition for presentation to the house of command which was signed by 11,572 people. There are many reasons that the people of Jarrow decided to do on the march
Source f is a part of the book the town that was murdered, written in 1938 by Ellen Wilkinson, this can be bias as it is written after the march and the government turned down the petition so therefore Ellen Wilkinson might hold a grudge against the government for not helping Jarrow. Source f suggests that the Jarrow crusade took place because “in 1930 the national ship builders security LTD was set up” this affected Jarrow a lot because it “scrapped one third of the British shipyard industry” which meant that a lot of shipyard was shut down in Jarrow which caused a lot of unemployment. One of the shipyards that was affected is “palmers” which employed 10,000 men and 19,000 people depended on the shipyard workers. Jarrow needed the governments help to save the town so they went on the crusade to get help because “protests were made, but nothing effective could be done unless the government was prepared to act” Ellen Wilkinson wanted the shipyard to be reopened so therefore they went on the Jarrow crusade to show they want something done with the problem. The government did try to help by introducing the means test in 1931.the means test is an unemployment benefit that lasted for 26 weeks: when this was up, people were given transitional payments. Before you get the benefit the government would send inspectors over to make sure you have nothing valuable that you can sell and that you really need the money. The money the government given was very little and often doesn’t really help the people at all. Source f is not an reliable source so therefore we can not believe everything the source tells us as it is biased. It is just Ellen Wilkinson’s point of view. Also Ellen Wilkinson named the book “the town that got murdered” from the title we can tell that Ellen Wilkinson has her own strong views on Jarrow and the government and it is not balanced information and the source is limited.
Source H suggests that the Jarrow crusade took place because people were simply out of jobs and families were hungry and had no food. The Jarrow crusade was intended to be called “the hunger march” this shows that Jarrow was in a poor state and they have no jobs and money that they are in need of food. A man in the Jarrow crusade was given some ham from one of the supporters in a town they stopped at and he sent they ham back home because his family hasn’t eaten meat in ages. Another reason why the Jarrow crusade took place is because “a number of marches being held all over the country” so Jarrow might have wanted to get involved and wanted publicity. also it was the only thing that they could have done. The people had nothing left and no other solution. The Jarrow crusade and other marches like it didn’t bring any benefits-but it did make people aware of how bad the situation was amongst the unemployed.
The Jarrow crusade didn’t get what they wanted. The government didn’t get what they wanted. The government didn’t do anything about it but at the time the government couldn’t do anything about it as it had problems itself. Overall I think that the Jarrow crusade took place because of the great depression because it made many people in Jarrow unemployed and there was simply nothing else they can do so it was the only solution to show that they wanted to help and to show they need help.
5. Study all of the sources
“Jarrow’s problems were caused by the polices of the national government” use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view.
Jarrow is a town near Newcastle. Jarrow was mainly famous for shipbuilding and many of the people in Jarrow relied on ship building as a living. Jarrow only had about 35,000 inhabitants and only 6,000 people did not have connections with the palmers which is one of the famous ship yards in Jarrow; during the first world war Jarrow was doing very well, it did all the work that it could manage, but in 1920s things began to change. There were fewer warships being built and after 1929 fewer and fewer cargo ships. In the early 1930s orders dried up completely. “There was no prospect of a job and the streets were becoming dilapidated” as stated in source this shows that Jarrow is suffering and has many problems. Many people say that these problems were cause by the policies of the national government but on the other hand many people have different views and reasons for Jarrow’s problems.
People agree with the statement “Jarrow’s problems were caused by the policies of the national government” because “in 1930 the national ship builder’s security LTD was set up” this meant that the old shipyards was closed including one of the main shipyards the palmers. During the clasp of Jarrow Stanley Baldwin was prime minister and although the government was a coalition of different parties it was mainly conservative. This meant they expected people to be able to sort out their own problems instead of relying on help from the government. This meant that the government would do very little to help Jarrow even before the clasp of Jarrow. If the government had helped Jarrow from the start then maybe Jarrow wouldn’t have to be in such state. also if the government didn’t shut 0.down the old shipyards then the people of Jarrow would still have jobs and then they would be able to feed there family instead of having to go “without a meal on Sunday in order to feed the children” and having to “patch up” all their clothes.