In October of 1929 the economic bubble the United States and the majority of the world had reveled in burst. The stock market crashed and the United States found itself deep in the worst economic depression the country had ever known. The year before, Harvey Parnell, a farmer and the Lieutenant Governor, rose to the highest office in the State of Arkansas after John Martineau left his post to pursue a position as a federal judge. Parnell’s governorship will be tainted by the depression and will, for a short time, be viewed as the worst in the State’s history. Even though Harvey Parnell was viewed by many as the “Herbert Hoover of Arkansas,” he did attempt and accomplish some rather impressive reforms and improvements in the State, some of which include: road improvements, education reform, and his attempts to save the farming community from complete obliteration. Unfortunately, his success was often clouded by the Great Depression, which would eventually lead to his retirement from office.
Harvey Parnell once said that “[at] one time public roads in Arkansas were so bad that the wild geese, honking southward, would go around them.” In 1927, Parnell, as Lieutenant Governor, helped get the legislation for the Martineau Road Plan passed in the State Legislature. This legislation dealt with the improvement of the state highway system. Parnell also proposed the building of roads in the rural areas connecting outlying communities with the main state highway. Parnell, and Martineau before him, worked to make sure that the new highway system would not be paid for by personal property taxes but by the taxes on gasoline and vehicle licenses. This way the people paying for the new highway would be the people who actually use it. As ...
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Harvey Parnell speech on crop conditions, 1931. Harvey Parnell Speeches and Clippings (MS/P24), folder 3. Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville.
Inaugural address of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1933. http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1933a.htm.
McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd., 1984.
Romasco, Albert U. The Poverty of Abundance: Hoover, the Nation, the Depression. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Smiley, Gene. Rethinking the Great Depression. American Ways Series. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 2004.
“Taxation and Rural School Development in Arkansas,” Lincoln County School News, 17 June 1930.
Williams, C. Fred, et al. A Documentary History of Arkansas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1984.
Hoover is also vilified repeatedly for his inaction with the Depression. His personal policy and his party’s policy were designed to let the country find its own way, for if it became dependent on government aide, it would be a weaker nation that if it found it’s own way. This was a flawed assumption on their behalf though, because even in the 1920’s, there was a movement from many of the nation’s younger voters advocating change.
Ganzel,Bill “farming in the 1930s” Wessels living history farms. 2003. Web. 19 Nov. 2013 http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/farminginthe1930s.html
Hoover’s nation was coming out of a war and was facing an economy plummeting into an unknown Great Depression. Hoover proclaimed a need for reform of the criminal justice system, the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, cooperation of government and businesses, the development of education, organization of the public health services, and maintaining the integrity of the He called for restoration with action, and promised solutions to the economic crisis, unemployment, world policy. He however, does remind the people, “We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed.”
Nelson, Sheila. Crisis at Home and Abroad: the Great Depression, World War II, and Beyond,
"America's Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal."DPLA. Digital Public Library of America. Web. 20 Nov 2013. .
The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine covers many topics of American history during the "Great Depression" through 1941. The topic that I have selected to compare to the text of American, Past and Present, written by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Frederickson and R. Hal Williams, is Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president of the United States and America's president during the horrible "Great Depression".
The country at the time was in the deepest and soon to be longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world and this caused years of over-cultivation of wheat, because “during the laissez-faire, expansionist 1920’s the plains were extensively and put to wheat - turned into highly mechanized factory farms that produced highly unprecedented harvests” (Worster 12). The farmer’s actions were prompted by the economic decline America was facing. With the economy in a recession, farmers were looking for a way to make a living and in 1930 wheat crops were becoming very popular. In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over twelve million bushels of wheat. Wheat was emerging all over the plains.
For many people the very mention of the word “Arkansas” conjures up images that are unflattering and certainly not very complimentary. To suggest that Arkansas is “a different state” is to guarantee almost immediate agreement from any given audience, but such agreement is usually about the negative aspects of the state instead of the ones making for actual difference.
Watkins, T.H.. The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1993.
"The Depression, The New Deal, and World War II." African American Odyssey: (Part 1). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
The 1930s were a difficult time for Americans due to the the Great Depression. Due to the economic crisis, Americans were left unemployed, hungry, and homeless. Without an income and a tangible place to call home, many families has to resort to living run-down shanty towns. These shanty towns which were dubbed as Hoovervilles, after the president at the time, Herbert Hoover whom received blame for the country’s economic crisis. President Hoover did not make any efforts to better the Depression by offering government assistance to provide relief. The Onion’s article, President Hoover Signs Accord with King of Hobos, makes light of the unfortunate living arrangements many families has to endure in the early 1930s. The article refers to the the shanty towns as a “Hobo Kingdom” when in reality living in poverty was the
Griffith, Lucille. Alabama: A Documentary History to 1900. Tuscaloosa, Al: The University of Alabama Press, 1968.
When tragedy struck the United States in the form of an impossibly damaging economic collapse, better known as the Great Depression, Herbert Clark Hoover found himself simply in the wrong place at the wrong time; the oval office, guiding the United States of America as president. Despite the common misconception that Hoover should take the blame as the catalyst for this great state of emergency, a collection of lesser well-known facts prove that Hoover actually accomplished much as a humanitarian, and an economic innovator and savior, quite the opposite of his stereotype. The 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover affected humanity in both socially and fiscally advantageous ways, thus allowing him the title of a beneficial person
The Roaring Twenties approached and the citizens in Colorado were facing rough times. In 1920, many people such as farm owners, manufacturers, and even miners were having a hard time making a living due to an economic downfall. The farmers especially, where facing the toughest of times. The price of various farm-grown goods like wheat, sugar beets, and even cattle was dropping because their goods were no longer needed by the public. Wheat had dropped in price from $2.02 in 1918 to $0.76 by the time 1921 came around. Sadly, the land that they were using to grow wheat became dry and many farmers had to learn to grow through “dryland farming” which became very popular in the eastern plains from 1910 to 1930 (Hard Times: 1920 - 1940). Apple trees began to die due to the lack of desire for apples, poor land, and decreased prices. Over the course of World War I, the prices of farm goods began to increase slowly. Farmers were not the only one facing this economic hardship while others in big cities were enjoying the Roaring Twenties.
"Great Depression in the United States." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. CD-ROM. 2001 ed. Microsoft Corporation. 2001