Life+During+the+Great+Depression

Before we start listen to this radio broadcast on the conditions faced by people in Saskatchewan during 1930's

Life on Farms
While some people made it through the Depression without a major change in their lifestyle, most people suffered terribly. The letter below was written to R.B. Bennett by a woman living on a farm in Saskatchewan during the Depression. It is one of hundreds the prime minister received in the 1930s from desperate Canadians living in both rural and urban areas. You can tell from the letter that the woman writing it had nowhere else to turn.

Like the Hodginses, many farm families barely scraped by during the Depression. Falling demand for farm produce, lower prices, and crop failures made life next to impossible for many farmers.

Perdue, Sask. Sept. 28, 1933 Prime Minister R.B. Bennette Ottawa, Ont.

Dear Sir

It is with a very humble heart I take the opportunity of writing this letter to you to ask you if you will please send for the underware in the Eaton order (made out and enclosed in this letter). My husband will be 64 in Dec. and has nuritis very bad at times in his arms and shoulders. We have had very little crop for the last three years: not enough at all to pay taxes and live and this year crops around here (West of Saskatoon) are a complete failure. My husband is drawing wood on the waggon for 34 miles, and had to draw hay too, for feed for horses this winter. He has to take two days for a trip, and sleep out under the waggon some times. He is away for wood today and it is cold and windy. So I am writing this in the hope that you will send for this underware, as we really have not the money ourselves. I have patched & darned his old underware for the last two years but they are completely done now, if you cant do this, I really don't know what to do. We have never asked for anything of anybody before. ... Thanking you in advance I remain yours truly

Mrs Thomas Hodgins Perdue, Sask National Archives of Canada, C-085866, C-043771, C-043772. © Unknown.

Fact: Bennett bought the Hodginses the underwear. He often responded to letters like this by sending the writer two dollars of his own money.

Questions 1
1. Imagine you were forced to write a letter like one of these, how would you feel? <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. When people are in their mid-60's today, what typically do they do (meaning, do they work, what do they work at, how do they spend their time etc.). Contrast the experiences of seniors today with what Mr. Hodgins and people like him experienced.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Fact: In 1928, Canadian farmers bought 17 143 tractors. Five years later, they bought only 777. Do you remember what city in Canada produced the most farm machinery? That's right, Brantford! How do you think the depression would have effected this city?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Why did demand for farm produce fall? In the 1920s, much of Canadian farm produce was exported to Britain, Europe, and the United States. When the Depression hit, governments everywhere tried to protect their own producers by limiting imports from other countries. International trade fell, and with it went much of the demand for Canadian farm goods.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">When the export market dried up, farmers had to sell their products at home. But when more of any product is available than people are willing to buy, prices fall. As a result, total farm income fell by more than 60 percent between 1928 and 1933.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Exports of Selected Agricultural Goods, Canada, 1920-1935.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1920 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Live cattle: 315 179 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Pork (tonnes): 49 608 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Butter (tonnes): 6 196 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Eggs (tonnes): 6 000 000

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1925 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Live cattle: 267 292 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Pork (tonnes): 67 953 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Butter (tonnes): 11 114 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Eggs (tonnes): 2 691 000

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1933 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Live cattle: 60 134 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Pork (tonnes): 35 972 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Butter (tonnes): 2 012 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Eggs (tonnes): 1 987 000

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Year: 1938 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Live cattle: 179 224 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Pork (tonnes): 80 965 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Butter (tonnes): 1 766 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Eggs (tonnes): 1 842 000

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Source: M.C. Urquhart and K.A.H. Buckley, Historical Statistics of Canada (Toronto: Macmillan, 1965), pp. 377-378.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Questions 2 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. Explain what happened to exports of Canadian farm produce during the 1930s. (Use two figures to support your answer.) <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. Imagine you are R.B. Bennett. You receive letters all the time from desperate people asking for your help. You know you can't send money to everyone. How will you decide who to help?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">This is a video on what sort of things people ate during the Depression (when they had food!). It's presented by a 91 year-old great-grandmother who lived through the Depression. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">media type="youtube" key="3OPQqH3YlHA" height="390" width="480"

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Questions 3
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. Why did Clara have to quit high school? <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. What do you think the diet was like for people like Clara during the depression? Think about how it was different from much of what we eat today. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">3. Look up one of Clara's other videos and watch if you have time during class. What was it that she made in the video you watched? Give one piece of information that interested you.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The Dust Bowl
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">All these terrible conditions were made worse by a series of unusually dry summers. The lack of rain led to drought, a condition in which the land is too dry to grow crops. Eventually, the topsoil dries up and is blown away by the wind in huge dust storms. The whole phenomenon was known as the Dust Bowl. It was particularly severe on the Prairies, where plagues of grasshoppers ate any crops that did manage to push their way through the dirt. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Dustbowl Clip <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">media type="youtube" key="KEYb9xjAhHI" height="390" width="480"

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Interested in learning more? Check out this fantastic video about the dust bowl in the US, which had such a similar experience to Canada's own prairies.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Entertainment
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> The 1930's certainly didn't sound as exciting as the 1920's in terms of fun, but people did what they could. Movies could now "talk" of course, so they were quite popular. Most forms of entertainment were still around from the 1920's but without the flair of that time period. Of course, with some people fighting just to keep from starving, not everyone could partake in forms of entertainment.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Life was hard in the Great Depression, but people still went to the movies if they could. Part of that experience was watching "Our Gang", a series of short comedies featuring child actors. The "talkie" version of this series went from 1929 to 1938 and reflected the difficult times, but in a way that helped people forget their troubles, if only for a short time. These short films eventually made it on to television and they were a regular part of Saturday mornings for generations of kids, all the way up to the 1980's. You bet Mr. M watched them every Saturday morning! Watch a few clips below....(clip 1 is of all of the kids, who are orphans, at breakfast, clip 2, Norman has handed his teacher a candy that has "How about a kiss?" printed on it).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Clip 1 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Clip 2 <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">media type="youtube" key="L8lAYkLubE0" height="390" width="480" <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">media type="youtube" key="-SMJj8tz_w0" height="390" width="480"

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> Questions 4
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1. The children depicted in the series were poor orphans. Why do you think this show would have been so popular at this time? <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2. In hard times, there are some things that remain popular. Movies and shows are one thing, Coca-Cola is another. Why do you think that is?