Great Depression of the 1930s (1929-1940) By: Brandon Parks On October 24th, 1929 the complete collapse of the stock market began, about 13 million shares of stock were sold. Tuesday, October 29th (known every since as BlackTuesday) made the damage worse, more than 16 million shares were sold. The value ofmost shares fell sharply, leaving financial ruin and panic in its place.There had been panics like this before and there has been many afterward, butnever did a market crash have such a long-term effect on our country. Banks fell by thehundreds. Pay for the people still lucky enough to have a job fell badly. The value ofmoney fell as the demand for products fell. Most of the farmers of the south were inenough trouble as it, but with the arrival of the depression they were ruined. The droughtthat created the Dust Bowl just made their problems worse. The structure of world tradefell, and each nation decided to protect its trade by putting high taxes on importedproducts. This made matters worse. In the fall of 1931 the international gold standardhad fell, making any hope for recovery out of reach,GOVERNMENT RESPONSE State governments were in no position to do much to aid depression victims, sohard-pressed were they for revenues. The response of the federal government was, atleast in the early years, too little and too late. President Herbert Hoover and his aideswere convinced that prosperity is just around the corner. Although the government hadbeen heavily involved in helping large corporations for decades, the idea of direct aid tocitizens in distress was regarded with disfavor by many in the Hoover administration.Realistic measures to deal with the depression were undertaken with theinstallation of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House. But even the energy spent ondevising new programs was insufficient to undo the depression damage. The economiccrisis was not solved until World War II began a...
