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The Great Depression of the 1930’s was an
event that changed the world:
Says The Canadian encyclopedia.ca: “The Great Depression of the early 1930s was a worldwide social and
economic shock. Few countries were affected as severely as Canada. Millions of
Canadians were left unemployed, hungry and often homeless. The decade became known as the Dirty Thirties due to a crippling drought in the Prairies, as well as Canada’s dependence on raw material
and farm exports. Widespread
losses of jobs and savings transformed the country. The Depression triggered
the birth of social welfare and the rise of populist political movements. It
also led the government to take a more activist role in the economy.”
The romantic suspense novel, WATCHED is set in this
time period (1932) in Eastern Canada, where like most places, jobs were scarce.
Many men, transient due to loss of employment, were prepared to accept whatever
remuneration might be offered to them in payment for a days’ hard labour. Such
was the case with Shay McGregor, an out-of-work coalminer, introduced to Cherry
Orchard Farm owner, Rietta Nicholson. He needed a job. She needed help with the
farm:
“’There’s certainly plenty to
be done around here, but I can’t afford to pay wages. I can only afford to feed
you. I have a good supply of food so I can promise you they’ll be appetizing,
nourishing meals.’
She’d need lots of food to feed this tall rugged looking man. He had
to be six feet tall or more, and sturdily built.
Shay smiled and it was something he did especially well. ‘It’s tough
all over and I’d be grateful for three square meals a day and a roof over my
head.’
Rietta smiled too, pulling a regretful face. ‘I’m afraid I don’t
have much to offer in the way of a roof.’ She pointed toward the bunkhouse. ‘That’s
the roof over your head. Nothing fancy, but it is clean. I’ve spent the
afternoon taking care of that. That’s why I look like this,’ she added by way
of apology. ‘I don’t usually receive guests in my overhauls.’
Shay chuckled and she liked the sound of that too, enjoying his good
humour. All she’d had for company over the past four years was surly, insulting
Edwin. Already Shay felt like the first sweet breath of spring. She had a gut
feeling they’d get along, and she honestly couldn’t think of any more questions
to ask him. She’d made it plain she couldn’t pay him, and he’d graciously
accepted her terms. That, coupled with the Staffords’ good opinion of him, and
her own, helped make up her mind. She could see no reason not to take him on.”
Many similar deals were struck during that desperate time, but what precipitated
this dreadful economic situation in the first place? Again according to The
Canadian encyclopedia.ca, it’s still debated among economists as to whether it
was actually a specific event that sent the world economy into a tailspin. Many
believe it was the 1929 Wall Street stock market crash; others point to the
widespread drop in global commodity prices coupled with “sudden declines in
economic demand and credit.” Of course those factors negatively impacted global
trade, which in turn caused a dramatic rise in unemployment.
Canada’s prairie provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
suffered the added debilitating burden of years of drought, grasshopper plagues
and hailstorms, which resulted in crippling crop losses. The situation became
dire before the Canadian government decided to provide even the most meagre aid
for these destitute families. The shameful sentiment during that time, by those
possessing the ultimate power as they sat wealthy and relatively unaffected by
this humanitarian disaster, was that people should pull themselves up by their
own bootstraps.
In the United States there was also widespread destitution:
(Fdrlibrary.org)
“At the height of the Depression in 1933, 24.9% of the total work
force or 12,830,000 people was unemployed. Although farmers technically were
not counted among the unemployed, drastic drops in farm commodity prices
resulted in farmers losing their lands and homes to foreclosure.
“The displacement of the American work force and farming communities
caused families to split up or to migrate from their homes in search of work.
"Hoovervilles," or shantytowns built of packing crates, abandoned
cars, and other scraps, sprung up across the nation. Residents of the Great
Plains area, where the effects of the Depression were intensified by drought
and dust storms, simply abandoned their farms and headed for California in
hopes of finding the ‘land of milk and honey.’ Gangs of unemployed youth, whose
families could no longer support them, rode the rails as hobos in search of
work. America 's unemployed citizens were on the move, but there was no place
to go that offered relief from the Great Depression.”
Located at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in
Washington, D.C., the “Depression Bread Line” sculpture is a prominent statue
representing the Great Depression (Bronze by George Segal, 1991)
The effects of the worst economic downturn in modern
history varied from country to country, with some recovering more quickly than
others. According to Britannica.com: The British economy stopped declining
after 1931 when Great Britain abandoned the gold standard, “genuine recovery”
getting underway in earnest at the close of 1932. In Latin America it was late
1931 into 1932 as was the case with Germany and Japan (the fall of 1932);
Canada and the US in early 1933, but in France true relief from a delayed
severely depressed economy didn’t begin to happen until 1938.
Unemployment, on a scale never witnessed before the
Depression era saw global belt-tightening cause a devastating effect on
non-mainstream economies such as those in Latin America and European economies
in Africa and Asia. Says Oerproject.com:
“Europeans had been using many of their colonies to
grow cash crops like rubber, sugar, and coffee. Cash crops aren’t for local
consumption, and they’re not necessities.
“West African rubber trees helped build the growing
auto industries of Europe and North America. Pop quiz: What do people not buy
when they’ve just lost their job and all their money? If you said ‘cars’ you
are correct! So British and French colonies in West Africa (and Southeast Asia)
suddenly found themselves with a bunch of rubber that no one wanted to buy.
They couldn’t use it, sell it, or eat it.
“As cash-strapped consumers in the United States and
Europe cut back on non-essentials like chocolate, coffee, cars, and diamonds,
it was Latin America and the colonized world who paid the price. Tariffs were
particularly harmful, but in addition, colonial governments tried to wring as
much resource and tax value out of them as possible to benefit struggling
European economies. Of course, colonized people did resist. Moses Ochonu, a
historian of colonial Africa, details how Nigerians found methods to cope with
economic decline and resist further colonial exploitation. Organized labor
strikes and tax revolts directly resisted the increasingly harsh conditions.
But some found other methods to escape or resist worsening laws and taxation.
For example, Nigerian women started local textile businesses, and farmers
turned their cash crops into food crops for local sale.”
The scars went deep for those who lived through The
Great Depression and the grinding poverty of that time. They never forgot the
necessity of being frugal. Self-sufficient farmers utilized bartering systems
to survive this unprecedented crisis, and were therefore not as reliant on the
strained (collapsed) cash economy. My grandparents grew what they needed on the
family farm, and bartered fresh vegetables and meat for sugar, coffee/tea,
flour, salt and spices. And the cotton bags those necessities came in, were cut
up and sewn into a variety of uses, including clothing. Very little went to
waste.
The comfortably well off were not as greatly impacted
either, except those who lost fortunes overnight in the stock market crash.
Nevertheless, everyone, both rich and poor alike, learned the valuable lesson about
the tenuous nature of financial security.
At Cherry Orchard Farm, the cherry trees kept
blooming and producing delicious fruit despite whatever crises might be going
on in the world around them. Like murder for instance.
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