Transcript The Coming of the Great Depression

8-6.3
Explain the reasons for
depressed conditions in the
textile mills and on farms in
South Carolina and other regions
of the United States in the 1920s
and the impact of these condition
on the coming of the Great
Depression
During the war years
0 During the war years, the US exported
food to feed the troops and war-torn
Europe
0 Produced a brief period of prosperity
in SC because the state’s farmers
supplied food and cotton for uniforms
to meet wartime demand
The Aftermath of WWI on SC
Farms
0 Once the war ended, the troops came home and Europeans
were able to resume farming to feed their own populations
0 SC farmers begin to suffer as demand for their crops plunged
and therefore so did prices
0 Agricultural economy hurt further when the boll weevil, an
insect pest, attacked the cotton crop
0 In some years, the boll weevil destroyed one half of the crop
0 Due to such a little supply, prices improved slightly in 1922, but
never again reached prewar levels
0 By the end of the 1920s, cotton, like rice before it, was no
longer a viable crop in the Lowcountry
0 Farmers turned to other crops such as peaches and livestock
0 Drought, erosion and soil depletion further worsened the
already terrible conditions in the farming sector
Depression in SC
0 During the boom of the war years, farmers borrowed
from their local banks to expand
0 They bought land, equipment and later, in a
desperate attempt to salvage their crops,
pesticides to kill the boll weevil
0 Prices began to plunge for their increasingly lower
crop yields, and farmers were unable to make
payments on these loans
0 Banks foreclosed on delinquent mortgages or
farms were taken by the state because of the
farmers could not pay their taxes
Depression in SC
0 Because they could not make money on their loans or
sell the devalued land that they foreclosed on, banks
were failing in SC even before the stock market crash
of 1929 marked the beginning of the Great
Depression across the US
0 Dispossessed farmers became sharecroppers or
tenant farmers or left the state to seek
opportunities in the North
0 White farmers and sharecroppers moved to mill
towns to find work in the textile mills
Textile Industry in SC During
the 1920s
0 The textile industry also experienced changes during
the 1920s
0 High demand during the war years was followed by
declining demand in the 1920s
0 Synthetic fibers such as nylon replaced cotton in
the fashions of the era (short skirts used less
material)
0 International competition increased as tariffs that
had protected domestic textile industry were
reduced
Textile Industry in SC During
the 1920s
0 Despite these challenges, the textile industry grew
in SC throughout the 1920s
0 New England textile mills closed in response to
the poor economic conditions and moved south
0 Northern industrialists were attracted to SC
because of the ready supply of cheap labor
0 Mill owners improved living conditions in the
mill villages by adding electricity and running
water
Textile Industry in SC During
the 1920s
0 Mill owners also tried to combat continued economic
competition and increase their profit by using methods such as
“speed-up,” and “stretch-out”
0 “speed-up” – where machines were set to run faster
0 “stretch-out” – where fewer workers were used to tend a larger
number of machines
0 Workers’ wages remained low which affected their purchasing
power
0 As mills produced more cloth than was demanded by a weakening
economy, reductions were made in the work week or workers
were laid off, compounding the effect on the economy of SC
0 By the end of the 1920s, the SC textile industry, like agriculture
and industry throughout the US, suffered from declining
demand and overproduction