Desperation Over the Great Depression

The feeling that was highlighted in both stories was the feeling of desperation. The Great Depression put the population into a new experience that was unusual. Struggle was a very usual thing at the end of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s. One story shared the perspective of a wealthy business man who dealt with the stock market crash and had several close connections with other business men who truly suffered. Friends in the business constantly asked for loans and grew more and more anxious. Arthur A. Robertson recalled, "I must have gotten calls from a dozen and a half friends who were desperate. In each case, there was no sense in loaning them the money that they would give the broker. Tomorrow they'd be worse off than yesterday. Suicides, left and right, made a terrific impression on me, of course. People I knew. It was heartbreaking." The Depression affected people emotionally and mentally. It seems surprising to me that these people ended their own lives by committing suicide rather than trying to live through the hard times and keep moving. It is difficult to imagine that times were so difficult and debts were so great that life was no longer worth living. I admire those who kept their families in mind and chose to live even if they would forever work because of their previous risks. But, the feeling of uncertainty did create a constant worry and led many to violence. Oscar Heline, a farmer during the depression, stated, "What I remember most of those times is that poverty creates desperation, and desperation creates violence." The common feeling of the country was that of desperation and frustration which ultimately led to violence in some cases. Everyone was put into a bad position and Oscar's story describes farmers experiences. Big business men on Wall Street were in the same bad situation as farmers. Foreclosures and bank takeovers were a constant issue for both. The country did learn several lessons from the depression and many mistakes that led to it will no longer be made. Robertson described a contribution to the crash, "Today, if you want to buy $100 worth of stock, you have to put up $80 and the broker will put up $20. In those days, you could put up $8 or $10. That was really responsible for the collapse. The slightest shake-up caused calamity because people didn't have the money required to cover the other $90 or so. There were not the controls you have today. They just sold you out: an unwilling seller to an unwilling buyer." The basic problem of the 1920s was the public buying things they did not have the money for. Many new restrictions and controls now protect the market. The depression reflected how people act in fear and uncertainty but also helped the country progress into one where such a great economic collapse can be prevented.