The Depression Era Presentation

Dear Classmates,

This is the presentation for the Depression Era. There are several posts on this blog so please make sure to read them all in order to get answers for the quiz. You can reach other posts by clicking the "older posts" tab at the bottom of the screen.

Happy Reading!

Kelley's Army

In winter of 1914 a group of 75,000 migratory laborers organized a march to the state capitol. They were organized by General Kelley and they camped outside the capitol but again they faced harsh opposition which lead to violence and they disassembled. The workers lobbied tirelessly and we can connect to how far we’ve come by thinking about today’s employment laws.

Reported by:
Maria Martinez

The International Workers of the World (I.W.W.)

The International Workers of the World was formed and they are a group of organized field workers who wanted to unionize and make changes to their deplorable working conditions and wages. The members of the IWW were also know as wobblies who went from farm to farm to encourage new members throughout California. The wobblies however were feared by the Californians as organized labor was not something they supported. Starting in the mid 1850s Vigilance Committees were formed to police the organized laborers. They weren’t fairly promoting a lawful environment since the vigilance committees were made up of people on the side of the farm owners and “the propertied class” (507) The battle was rich against poor working class laborers in which the people at the top of the food chain if you want to call it wanted to keep the laborers in their place.

Reported by:
Maria Martinez

The Wheatland Riot

The Wheatland Riot is an event that took place August 3, 1913 “on the ranch of a large hop grower named Durst near Wheatland, California.” (507) Durst had falsely advertised he was hiring 2700 workers and in reality he could only hire 1500 workers. May families caravanned to seek employment only to be met with a lack of water and sanitation while camping out. Durst had advertised for more workers than he needed so it could “drive wages down” he also intentionally kept the living conditions at the camp as inhumane living conditions purposefully hoping workers would leave and he could withhold ten percent of their wages. The people had enough of the terrible conditions which lead them to organize to improve working conditions. Their meeting was interrupted by “the sheriff and his men who fired a gun in the air” and then everyone started fighting. The riot caused a stir and resulted in deaths and there were many people arrested.


Reported by:
Maria Martinez

What caused the Depression

One of the major causes of the depression was the stock market crash of 1929. After World War I, the mood of the 1920s, also known as the "roaring twenties" consisted of new technologies and businesses. Many businesses opened up and people started buying shares because they were not seen as a threat. Many people of the time only thought that the value of stocks went up. In April of 1930, stocks were up almost 13 percent, but started to decline after. As a result, a lot of people invested their life savings into stocks because it was seen as a "sure thing". When the stock market crashed, a lot of people had no money and businesses laid people off to save money. Unemployment went up. In 1929, unemployment was at 3.2%, in 1930 it rose to 8.9 percent, and in 1933 almost 25% of the people were unemployed. Unemployment also meant people did not have a lot of money that would go into the economy, which hurt the economy even more.




President Herbert Hoover took action by approving a program that urged the federal goverment to "accelerate their spending" and build some buildings. Hoover even asked companies, such as railroad and utilities, to promise investments and to keep their employees. However, businesses responded to what was going on by cutting down their labor force and cutting costs. Along with unemployment, many people and businesses filed for bankruptcy. "In 1929 there had been 659 bank failures. That number in 1930 rose to 1,352" (The great depression). Even with Hoover's plan, the economy continued to go down.











The Depression affected many states, but took a toll on California. Many of the immigrant workers lost their jobs. Houses were made out of almost anything, "Shelters were made of almost every conceivable thing - burlap, canvas, palm branches." (Picture this). Wages dropped because of more people in the labor force, and protests and strikes were held to battle against the bad conditions and wages. In the United States, agriculture suffered because of the Dust Bowl in the midwest. California was not harmed by this, however, California farm owners actually benefited because there were many immigrants fighting for the same job, farm owners had access to cheap labor. The Depression hurt many people. Many lost their jobs, but in California the owners benefited from the cheap labor of people trying to find jobs.

Reported by:
Mercedez Rodriquez

For more information, check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oUcaodWSDE

sources:
http://www.stock-market-crash.net/1929.htm
http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch15wd.html
http://www.educationreport.org/article.aspx?ID=4018
http://www.museumca.org/picturethis/3_2.html

The Farm workers had long been searching for better treatment. They tried to do this by organizing into labor unions. However, they were strongly opposed by “Vigilante Committees” set up by the middle and merchant classes who were strongly opposed to unionization. These committees sought to stop the migrant laborers by any means necessary, up to and including violence.


Reported by:
Wesley Sam

Many Californians were very upset about the effects that the migrant workers were having on the area. One of the results of these feelings was the persecution of these people. One of these was the so-called “anti-okie law” of 1937, which read: "Every person, firm or corporation, or officer or agent thereof that brings or assists in bringing into the State any indigent person who is not a resident of the State, knowing him to be an indigent person, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Reported by:
Wesley Sam

All of these people moving into California put a lot of strain on the local economy. An over-saturation of workers led to the average salary of a farm worker to drop drastically. On average, a White migrant farm worker made about $1300 per year. This was $500 less than the average wage of a White Californian during the same time period.


Reported by:
Wesley Sam

Many people moved to California during the Great Depression in order to work in the agricultural industry. This was because, while many areas in the country were in poor shape due to drought, California's climate was still doing fine. This led to between 200,000 and 300,000 people moving to the state searching for work.



Reported by:
Wesley Sam

Journey from the Dust Bowl

The Depression continued with the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. For nearly ten years the southern part of the Great Plains was plagued with hazardous weather conditions, including blizzards, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and dirt storms. The drought followed by dirt storms, which moved as fast as 60 mph, literally caused farms to dry up and blow away. The area of the southern plains became known as “The Dust Bowl”. These extreme weather conditions caused thousands farmers to lose their land and their families were forced to move out west in hopes of a new start.

California was appealing to many people because of its climate and the abundance of work that was advertised for its agricultural industry. Migrants came from all over the southern Plains, including Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and parts of Nebraska. Nearly 20% of the migrants came from Oklahoma. Most migrants were generally referred to as “Okies”.

The journey out west was a difficult one. People piled their families and a few possessions into their vehicles. The extreme heat added to the uncomfortable journey and cars suffered lots of wear and tear. Many times the family would have to stop for several days to rest and to repair the car. Those without a vehicle resorted to hitchhiking with few belongings. With so many people traveling out west, Route 66 was the most convenient and safest way to travel because it ran from the Dust Bowl all the way through to the Central Valley of California.

However, life did not always get better once reaching the golden land of California. Many were turned away at the state border and if a family did manage to get across the border there was little chance of decent work to make a fresh start. There was not enough work available for the plethora of migrants coming to the state. The migrants had to set up temporary camps along the side of the road and in irrigation ditches. These were highly unsanitary camps and they caused many health problems.

To help the newcomers, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) began establishing refugee camps. These camps provided a safe place for families to re-establish themselves in the new land and it also sheltered them from the discrimination they faced from Californians. Here the migrants were able to build a sense of community and security. The FSA was a large contributor in giving people a helping hand to start over.

Perhaps the greatest literary piece that exemplifies the struggles that so many people faced while traveling to California is John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck describes the journey of the Joad family, who travel to California from Oklahoma. Though fictional, Steinbeck’s novel gives a very clear and very accurate depiction of what many other migrants encountered on their way to California.

By the end of 1940, the Dust Bowl had caused nearly two million people to leave their homes in the southern Plains. About 20% of those people settled down in California, causing the states' population to boom once again.

Reported by:
Nahela Utler

Sources:
The Library of Congress

Living History Farm

Westward Expansion
Lycos