The Great Depression In Iowa

The Great Depression was the longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world. In the United States, the Great Depression wiped out millions of investors and American spending which resulted in high rates of unemployment and crime. Most historians consider the stock market crash of 1929 to be the start of the Great Depression; however, in the state of Iowa, the Great Depression started years before the stock market crash. The depression effected Iowan families with high unemployment rates and low income, but through the rough times, families were able to overcome the depression with great sacrifices and compromises.
The start of the Great Depression for Iowa started soon after the First World War. During
Because the demand for food was high, farmers worked hard expanding farms and buying supplies. Farmers produced food at extreme levels that surplus appeared. As a result, crop prices dropped dramatically because there was no demand for food. Farmers who had borrowed money from local banks could not pay off their loans. Most had to sell their farm, but the money they received in return was still less than what they owed. In an attempt to save families’ farms, in 1933, the Iowa State Legislature passed a foreclose moratorium law that kept banks from foreclosing farms unable to cover their mortgages. Local businesses in Iowa experienced the wrath of the depression also. Businesses began selling less than what they had been producing. The only solution businesses had was to cut back production, which led to laying off workers. The businesses who survived the depression were the ones able to adjust to the new living conditions. Bill Nusser, resident in Iowa City, Iowa, is the current owner of Hands Jewelers; Hands Jewelers is one the few businesses that survived during the Great Depression. He believes that his grandfather’s generosity allowed the store to survive during the depression. Nusser said that his grandfather used to accept chickens as a substitute for money because it was all people had to offer. Nusser also says that, “Everyone was willing to give whatever they had to keep everyone alive. Other Iowan cities were adjusting to the effects of the depression also. In Dubuque, Iowa 2,200 workers lost their job in a six-year span and only 13 new businesses opened. In 1931, Dubuque’s railroads employed 600 workers; only 25 employees remained three short years later. In an attempt to help the unemployed, the Dubuque City Council authorized public work improvement projects to provide labor. On a national level, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration created the Civil Works