Source Collection: Economy in the Interwar Period
Document 1
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Author |
Multiple photographers |
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Date and location |
China, United States, India, Great Britain, Germany, 1930–1938 |
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Source type |
Primary source – photographs |
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Description |
The Great Depression impacted multiple economies around the world for a variety of reasons, including crop failure, problems in the financial market, and the aftereffects of war. These photographs provide a glimpse of how this economic hardship looked in many places across North America, Europe, and Asia. |
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Citation |
See citations with individual images below |
China
“A mother and child, refugees from Shantung during the famine in China.” (Photo by Topical Press Agency/ Stringer/Getty Images)
India
4/12/1930-India- A long line of workshop strikers in this city lying prone, in front of the gate of their shop, preventing strike-breakers from entering and resuming work. These are supporters of Mahatma Gandhi, the rebel who seeks independence for his country from British rule. Gandhi adherents throughout the land have rioted and clashed with British authorities, causing the death of one and the injury of others.” (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)
United States
1935: An African-American family near Southern Pines, North Carolina.” (Photo by MPI/Stringer/Getty Images).
United States
7/16/1934-Hooverville, a section of Seattle.” (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images).
United States
Tents to accommodate unemployed workers from Chicago and Milwaukee, who will be trained in forestry work as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, at the Fort Sheridan United States Army Post, Illinois, circa 1935.” (Photo by FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
United States
1935: “Unemployed, single women protest the job placement of married women before themselves at headquarters of the Emergency Relief Administration [E.R.A., not to be confused with the Equal Rights Amendment, which came later and is also called the E.R.A.] in Boston, Massachusetts.” (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images).
United States
c. 1935: “A scene depicting unionized strikers fighting with a group of ‘scabs’ or nonunion replacement employees as they try to cross the picket line at a factory. One of the strikers’ signs reads ‘We fight fascism.’ Several men lay unconscious on the ground.” (Photo by American Stock Archive/Getty Images)
Great Britain
“1933: Hunger marchers on their way to a rally in Hyde park” London (Photo by Keystone/ Stringer/Getty Images).
Germany
“Children of wealthy parents march in Berlin to highlight the extent of poverty among the city’s children, circa 1930. Their placards read ‘Kinder In Not’ (Children In Need!).” (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Stringer/Getty Images)
Germany
“Germany, 19th November, 1931, German soldiers serving out food for the unemployed and destitute in their soup kitchen” (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images/Getty Images).
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Glossary Famine: a severe shortage of food that leads to widespread hunger |
“(Original Caption) WPA Work Program: Curb stones removed and street widened by making sidewalks narrower.
Photograph, ca. 1935.” (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)
“A poster for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) promoting libraries, circa 1940. The slogan reads ‘For greater knowledge on more subjects use your library often!’.”
(Photo by Epics/Getty Images)
Poster advertising a WPA-funded exhibition of children’s art in New York City from December 1937 to January 1938. (Photo by Found Image Holdings Inc/Getty Images)
US Federal Art Project WPA Illinois. 1939 “Poster showing youths playing basketball, baseball, and volleyball.” (Photo by Photo12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
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Glossary Curb stones: the raised edges of concrete or stone separating the sidewalk from the street. |
Document 3
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Author |
Unknown |
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Date and location |
1935, United States |
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Source type |
Primary source – government poster |
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Description |
Social Security is an American program that was signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. It is designed to provide financial support during retirement for American workers who pay into the system over their lifetimes. Social Security works by taking a percentage of income and putting it into a reserve. From this reserve, a government agency pays out benefits to those who are eligible for them. |
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Citation |
“’A Monthly check to you’ vintage poster introducing the Social Security program for the elderly, 1935.” GraphicaArtis/ Getty Images. |
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Glossary Eligible: for a person, to be qualified for something, such as receiving a government benefit |
Document 4
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Author |
Edgar F. “Steve” Schilder (1888–1963) |
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Date and location |
1937, United States |
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Source type |
Primary source – political cartoon |
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Description |
This cartoon was published in the Syracuse Post-Standard in 1937 and made a comment about the New Deal. |
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Citation |
“1937: A man struggling under the burden of taxes which financed the New Deal policies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s government.” MPI/Stringer/Getty Images |
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Glossary Taxes: money that people or businesses must pay to the government, used to fund public services like schools, roads, and military |
Document 5
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Author |
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1878–1953) |
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Date and location |
1928, USSR |
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Source type |
Primary source – political speech |
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Description |
Stalin was the political leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. This source is an excerpt from a speech he gave in response to a question from a student regarding problems with the grain supply. It was during a talk at the Institute of Red Professors, the Communist Academy, and the Sverdlov University on May 28, 1928. Here, Stalin reveals his thinking in how he formulated the five-year plan, sharing his ideas about industrialization and collective farming. The first five-year plan began shortly after this talk in October 1928. One part of the plan was called “collectivization”, which forced private farms to be combined into collective state farms. In response, many farm owners (kulaks) destroyed their crops and livestock, leading to some food shortages. These shortages worsened as available food was not distributed well. |
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Citation |
Stalin, Joseph and Fry Collection of Italian History and Culture. Problems of Leninism. International Publishers, 1934. |
The underlying cause of our grain difficulties is that the increase in the production of grain for the market is not keeping pace with the increase in the demand for grain. Industry is growing... creating a demand for grain. All this leads to a rapid increase in our requirements as regards grain... But the production of grain for the market is increasing at a disastrously slow rate...
- The way out lies, firstly, in the transition from the small, backward, and scattered peasant farms to amalgamated, large-scale common farms, equipped with machinery, armed with scientific knowledge and capable of producing a maximum of grain for the market. The solution lies in the transition from individual peasant farming to collective, to common farming...
- The way out lies, secondly, in expanding and strengthening the old state farms, and in organizing and developing new, large state farms...
- Finally, the way out lies in systematically increasing the yield of the small and middle individual peasant farms... [W]e can and should lend support to the individual small and middle-peasant farms, helping them to increase their crop yield and drawing them into the channel of cooperative organization.
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Glossary Amalgamated: combined or united into one |
Document 6
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Author |
Harry Byers (1896–1975) |
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Date and location |
1930–1931, USSR |
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Source type |
Primary source – diary |
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Description |
Harry Byers was an American man who worked for the State Grain Trust of the USSR (now Russia and 11 other countries). He traveled to the USSR to teach Soviet workers how to operate large industrial machinery as part of the First Five-Year Plan. Harry Byers arrived in the USSR shortly after the plan began, and in this source he describes his observations of life in the USSR under this plan. He lived in multiple cities including Moscow, Grozny, and Ussuriysk, which was close to the Chinese border. |
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Citation |
“Harry Byers.” Digital Collection, University of Waterloo, Special Collections & Archives. https://uwaterloo.ca/library/special-collections-archives/exhibits/harry-byers |
March 30, 1930
every time we go out, the poor [beggars] are after Some money.
July 30, 1930
Market Prices [outrageous]. 60 ¢ for 1 tomato, 40.00 [poods of flour], 3.60 10 eggs, the Chinese run it. Cucumbers, 30 ¢
September 1, 1930
People are killing their children. because they have nothing, for them to eat. and no clothes.
September 16, 1930
[...] Chinese Market closing up. Looks bad, where will we eat? Oh I Wish We Were Home.
October 8, 1930
[…] got 1/4 lb of cheese. $1.85. We are Slowly Starving our stomachs got $30 worth of Cookies Last Spring. all gone.
November 14, 1930
How much Longer we can hold out no one knows. am ordered to go to another Village. I know we will Starve. Market Sells Sour Milk.
December 19, 1930
Old Man comes to house every day to tell us there is no food. collective farm here all men beat it across to China. all instructors Planning on escape.
June 3, 1931
train Killed Horse + spread him all over. People came. with Knives from Village.
June 13, 1931
any one who has a cow. must give up 1/2 Milk to … [gets] no money … or he [loses] cow. Must deliver milk.
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Glossary Five-Year Plan: In the Soviet Union, this was one of several government plans to set economic and production goals for a five-year period. |
“Two Billion Reichsmark banknote issued 5th November 1923. by Germany’s Central Bank. during the Hyper-inflation period.” (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
“Devaluation of the Mark. Children playing with banknotes which have no more value, because of the inflation. Weimar Republic (Germany), circa 1919.” (Photo by Albert Harlingue/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)
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Glossary Hyperinflation: an extremely fast and out-of-control rise in prices, resulting in money losing value quickly |