Depression-Era Diary - From 1931

[Green_Bear]

Spotted this over at hpc uk, will be interesting to follow this series

Depression-Era Diary
Think times are tough? How one man survived the last Great Depression.
newsweek.com/id/166017

Benjamin Roth was born in New York City in 1894 and moved shortly thereafter to Youngstown, Ohio. He received a law degree and moved back to Youngstown after serving as an Army officer during World War I. When the stock market crashed in 1929, he had been practicing law for approximately 10 years, largely representing local businesses. After nearly two years, he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, and in June 1931, he began writing down his impressions in a diary that he maintained intermittently until he died in 1978. His perceptions and experiences have a chilling similarity to our own era, and The Big Money believes that Roth’s words—though they are 75 years old—have much to teach us today; we’ll be serializing several excerpts.

Here is the first installment:
**
June 5, 1931**. Immediately after the 1929 crash the speculators rushed in to buy “bargains” but were badly mistaken because the market kept going down and down even tho’ industrial leaders kept on assuring the people that everything was fine and the worst was over. At the present time the newspapers are urging people to buy these “bargains” but opinion is much divided as to whether or not the bottom has been reached.

Investments in real estate and mortgages fared almost as badly as stocks. Since 1929 foreclosure by the banks has been the order of the day. Day after day real estate can be bought for the price of the first mortgage and there are no bidders except the bank which holds the first mortgage. In this way the banks are becoming the holders of huge quantities of real estate.

The worst feature about real estate in a depression is that it is illiquid and cannot be sold at any price. If it is free of mortgage the owner may hold on until normal times. But in most cases it is subject to mortgage; he cannot collect his rent from the tenants, cannot pay on his mortgage or taxes and eventually loses his equity by the foreclosure route.

Depression-Era Diary, Part Two
newsweek.com/id/166183

** Aug. 5, 1931**. I went to the fruit market house this evening. It was almost deserted. The farmers cannot sell their produce because men are not working and it has become fashionable for each family to have its own vegetable garden.

Aug. 6, 1931. At a public sale by the sheriff today on foreclosure by the bank the C—— home at 1— Elm Street was offered for the third time but no buyer found. It could be bought for $4400, and is really worth conservatively $7500. In 1929 the owner thought it was worth $11,000.

Aug. 7, 1931. Business is at an absolute standstill and the big stores are deserted even tho’ they are all running sales and almost giving the merchandise away. Since the local savings and loan companies stopped paying out, nobody has any money and everybody seems scared and blue. We seem to have touched bottom in Youngstown and it hardly seems possible that things could get worse.
**
Aug. 8, 1931.** My brother Morris has been out of work now for almost two years and can’t find a thing to do. He is an engineer and a craftsman. [One of his close friends] was laid off by the Truscan Steel Co. two months ago and is not very optimistic. [My brother] Joe is [an accountant and is] still at Truscan but is afraid for his job. He says the air is tense and men are being discharged every day.

[yoganmahew]

Link for first installment:
newsweek.com/id/166017

[Pill]

Interesting, thanks GB.

[Green_Bear]

The New Deal - youtube.com/watch?v=TRw-OQYDe2M

[Green_Bear]

Part III - newsweek.com/id/168045

Aug. 18, 1931. This town is fast becoming panic-stricken. Everybody is talking about the depression and wondering where it will end. The failure of the 4 big Toledo banks and the stoppage of withdrawals by practically all of the savings and loan companies has tied up everything. There is no money in circulation and all business is at a standstill. Dr. W— our family dentist stopped me today and urged me to continue to send my family in for dental work even tho we could not pay promptly. This was a very unusual thing for him to do but people have simply stopped worrying about dental needs. If a tooth aches they have it extracted but neglect all other dental services that might be expensive.

newsweek.com/id/168045

[Green_Bear]

The Depression Diary of Mrs. Clara Ackerman !
1932 - 1933
uni.edu/iowahist/Social_Econ … _diary.htm

People are more anxious for spring to come than any year I can remember, but not because they are enthusiastic about farming, but rather to escape from their gloomy thoughts of depression out into the sunshine and newness of spring. And now that it is almost here, War clouds loom up in the horizen to take our thoughts away from one evil to a greater one. Japan is seeking territory and possessions among the Chinese. Shanghai, the international center, has been taken over by the Japs, with the U.S. soldiers guarding our own private citizens and property at that place. Other countries are doing likewise.

There is talk now of a number of countries boycotting Japan financially if she still refuses to leave China alone. The peace conference is in session at Geneva, Switzerland, at present, trying to thresh out problems pertaining to disarmament, etc. It seems like an inopportune time for a peace conference, where on every hand we hear rumors of war.