Farms and factories that were prosperous during the war now faced difficulties to sell their products. The value of farmland also dropped. The 20s were a sad decade of failures for farmers. And, in the slowing economy, returning soldiers had a hard time finding jobs. During the 1920s, Americans were exposed to a variety of new inventions and products.
Labor Union strikes were the most prominent form of worker insurrection against employers. During the period of 1875-1900, many labor unions participated in strikes, however many of them failed to achieve their goals. The biggest reason that farmers and workers went on strike was clearly stated by a machinist before the Senate Committee on Labor and Capital. Because machines were taking jobs away, workers would lose their livelihood, and most likely their only source of income. In the year of 1877, employees working for the four largest railroads went on strike due to the fact that their employers cut their wages by 10 percent; this was known as the Great Rail Road Strike.
Over a number of years in the eighties, Amish people from towns in Indiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Plain City, Ohio, and Georgia, were interviewed and data was collected. It was found that slowly but surly social change amongst the Amish communities was occurring. Amish are being pressured towards modernization by american capitalist values such as maximum efficiency, quality control by standardization, and most of all competion. It difficult for small Amish farmers to compete with factory farms and large agri-businesses, when their beliefs and values do not allow them access to the necessary resources, and strongly discourage competition for it leads to pride. But in order to survive the Amish are cautiously making minor changes, such as allowing the use of tractors, as long as the wheels are steel not rubber to limit mobility.
It seems from a broader point of view that the North has gone through so much just for the Southern states of America to exist. It only makes sense that Northern leaders would feel angry and betrayed by hearing that those states that they have worked so hard to establish now want their own sense of independence. At the same time however, the South had more of a need for slaves than the north did. The agricultural part of the South employed slaves to tend the large plantations and perform other duties. Slavery was a natural part of the Southern economy even though very few of the population actually owned slaves.
In 1929, experts started to sell their shares heavily before the values fell even further. Eventually, everyone wanted to sell their shares but nobody was buying. This led to complete collapse of prices and thousands of investors lost millions of dollars. Tariffs – Due to America putting Fordney McCumber Tariffs on European goods, Europe responded by also putting tariffs on American goods so US business men found it hard to sell goods to European
In the early 1890’s farmers, ranchers and other country folk started having huge issues. They were growing more crop supply than what was demanded by population. These farmers and ranchers would try to sell their food and they would not make enough because there were only so many people, and a whole lot more farms. The farmers and ranchers would end up needing to borrow. The only other option was to find specialized loans so they could
The freight trains were in fact a problem for the farmers. Raising the rates threw the farmers off and with the depression of their business they didn’t have the money to spend to get their produce to markets anyhow. There was practically no competition with the railroad so prices could fluctuate almost however the man in charge wanted them to. When this happened, the little guy would reach an impasse. “That ruins me, do you understand?
The population was estimated to have dropped 50-60%, so the prices of goods rapidly dropped, since there were so few people still alive to buy it. The lower levels of the social chain, like the peasants, serfs, farmers, and factory workers were struck the hardest. (Pollama) Since their living and work conditions were not very sanitary, and their living spaces were often cramped and dirty, they were the easiest targets for the plague. All of the jobs that these people had were now open, and available for people to take. Since the serf population had gotten ridiculously low, plantation owners were forced to start paying workers to tend the farms.
The Populist movements formation The rise of populism perpetuated from two issues that were dramatically affecting the lives of western farmers. Firstly, was debt that had engulfed most farmers who were adjusting to a new form of farming under dry conditions along the legal form of sharecropping, secondly was the social isolation due increasing farm size. Out of depression farmers formed social groups where talk of hardship took main stage. The late 19th century was seeing its largest formation of industrialization in the history of the nation and subsequently farmers were caught in trammels between the increase in costs and shrinking prices of goods. As a result, currency became a main focus along with increasing railroad rates and tariffs.
He is affected by racial pressure, gender bias, and the great depression itself. Atticus is a good father; however it is tough to provide for his children as a lawyer in a rural town during the great depression. “Cotton prices plunged from eighteen to six cents a pound… Hundreds of thousands of sharecroppers left the land for the cities, leaving behind abandoned fields and homes”