A Short History of Wisconsin by Erika Janik

Author:Erika Janik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press

14

DEPRESSION

THE AUTOMOBILE, ELECTRIC APPLIANCES, and other new technologies expanded business opportunities in the 1920s. To fuel that growth, many companies borrowed money from banks. Factory production and stock prices rose as more and more people bought new goods and a share in the profits being made from them. The horrors of World War I behind them, many felt optimistic about the new possibilities opening for women and small entrepreneurs and believed that the prosperity of the decade would continue indefinitely.

The stock market crash came as a surprise and drastically curtailed a creative period of economic growth throughout the country. On October 29, 1929, many more investors tried to sell stock than tried to buy new shares. Stock prices tumbled far below what investors had paid. Within hours people who owned great wealth on paper were unable to pay back their loans. Many tried to sell stock to raise cash, which further lowered prices; in only ninety days the stock market lost 40 percent of its value and $26 billion of wealth disappeared.

In Wisconsin, people turned from sneaking bootleg beer into jazz halls to devising ways to survive the worst economic depression in the nation’s history. Wisconsin suffered severely as factories closed, wages dropped, and unemployment swelled. Although farmers were somewhat more secure than factory workers in terms of food and shelter, they still suffered a dramatic decline in income and property values.

Stories of the Depression’s effect on Wisconsin residents survive in numerous letters, diaries, and recollections. The recollections of one woman, Edna Veale of Kenosha, exemplified a common experience. Three months after her marriage in 1929, Veale’s husband lost his job. Fortunately, Veale had a job at the grocery store that earned her $16 a week, but even so, they were forced to move in with her father, four brothers, and a sister for several years to make ends meet.

Milwaukee was hit especially hard by the Depression, despite the city’s diversified industries. Between 1929 and 1933, the number of people who had jobs in the city fell by 75 percent, and Milwaukee County provided some form of direct relief to 20 percent of the population. Milwaukee’s mayor, Daniel Hoan, organized a national conference of mayors in 1933 to pressure the federal government for help. Adding insult to injury, a severe drought settled onto the Midwest in the early 1930s, crippling Wisconsin agriculture.

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