Page 6 - BuildingJob inIowa

The Great Depression by the Numbers Some farmers decided to band togeth-
er, hoping that, like the labor unions,
The effects of the unstable economy during the 1930s were wide-spread they could force higher prices for their
and devastating. The statistics tell the story not only of the vast num- products if they stood together and
bers of individuals and families affected but of the speed with which the withheld their products from the mar-
economy crashed. Everyone was affected. A whole generation of working ket. One of the first such united actions
and middle class families struggled just to put food on the table (Kennedy was the Sioux City “Milk Strike” orga-
and Johnson 2005:8). nized by the Sioux City Milk Produc-
ers Association. Dairy farmers set up
• The unemployment rate jumped from 3.2% in 1929 to picket lines on major roads into town
24.9% in 1933 (McElvaine 1984:75). blocking delivery of milk and other
products and sometimes dumping and
• Between 1930 and 1931 3,646 banks failed taking over destroying deliveries.4
2.6 billion dollars in private deposits with them.
On May 3, 1932, a group of farmers
• 54,640 businesses failed. met at the fairgrounds in Des Moines
to form the “Farmers Holiday Asso-
• By 1932 nearly 12 million people were out of work. ciation.” The name referred to the so-
called “Bank Holiday” that Roosevelt
• Value of farm property declined from $78.3 billion in 1920 declared shortly after taking office to
to $51.8 billion in 1931 (Kennedy and Johnson 2005:8). forestall a run on the banks. The farm-
ers noted that if bankers could take a
In Iowa the depression had started 10 years before the stock market holiday to reorder their business, they
should be allowed to do the same.5
crash.
Similar protest movements spread
• In 1920 167 banks closed. That number rose to 505 in to other Midwestern and Great Plains
1921 and remained high for several more years (Morain states and continued through most of
2005–2014a). 1933. Some turned violent. Although
these uncoordinated attempts were
• Farms were foreclosed on at record rates. largely unsuccessful, they starkly dra-
matized the economic crisis in the farm
• In Iowa the number of farm foreclosures in 1927 had belt in the early 1930s.6
reached 2,300 and farmland was valued at $132/acre,
barely half of its 1920 peak of $227/acre.

• In 1932 the number of farm foreclosures peaked at 6,400
while land values had dropped to $89/acre. Land values
were at their lowest in 1933, at just $65/acre (Bauer
1989:24).

• By 1939 nearly 30% of farmland in Decatur and Wayne
counties was held by banks and other lending agencies
(Yoder 1991:53).

Desperate Iowa Farmers “If we cannot obtain justice
Kidnap a Judge by legislation, the time

As farm foreclosures increased, farmers in Iowa became increasingly des- will have arrived when no
perate. Violence occurred or was threatened at a number of foreclosure other course remains than
sales across the state. In Le Mars, Iowa, a mob of angry farmers burst organized refusal to deliver
into a court room and dragged the judge from the bench. They carried the products of the farm at
him out of the court room and drove him out into the countryside. He was less than production costs.”
beaten, threatened and cajoled, as they tried to make him promise that he
would not take any more cases that would cost a family their farm. When [1927 resolution of the Corn Belt
he refused, they threatened to hang him. Fortunately, calmer heads pre- Association, revived in 1932 as
vailed. Rather than hanging, the judge was dumped and left alone in the
countryside to ponder his position. The governor of Iowa called out the justification for the direct action tactics of
National Guard who rounded up some of the leaders of the mob and put the Farmers Holiday Association (Bender
them in jail (Morain 2005–2014b).
1932)]

4 University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist