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Decade of Despair Photo Essay
4
Canada In The Great Depression
Documenting Life Before, During, and After
Angelina
Drought
A devastating sight of my family’s farm land brought due to the drought down here, in Cadillac Saskatchewan.
(“The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan | Details”)
It is a common sight amongst all those in the Prairies. The whole land is now drifted soil. The past year was a pretty dry one anyway, with not much snow, not much rain and high temperatures. This was expected but not this bad. I now lived in a desert, impossible to grow anything.
Dust Storms
Dust Storms
A dust storm blew across Prarie farmlands in 1935.
(“Michael Dawe: Start of the great Dust Bowl”)
The ground dry from drought allowed the wind to blow across the openly deserted prairie lands creating this huge dust storm. My home is covered in sand and I can barely open my eyes. The winds changed the entire landscape here and filled the air with dust. This is no longer a place to live. No more farmland meant no more crops, the economy was going to go down. Many of us are beginning to fall sick due to the dust, including my father. I don’t know how to make a living.
Unemployment and Farm Relief Act
The Unemployment and Farm Relief Act, of 1931, provided direct relief for farmers putting taxpayers and business me at risk.
Unemployment and Farm Relief Act
(“Farm Relief political cartoon”)
Due to the drought and duststorms, Canadians living in the Prairies couldn’t continue farming but needed a source of income. The choice to work for municipal public work projects was available by the Unemployment Relief Camp Act Bennett passed in 1930. That act was now augmented by Bennett and provides infrastructure construction and direct relief for us farmers. Farm relief and aid allow us to rebuild our farmland. But, our demands increased threatened to overheat the economy.
Wall Street Stock Market Crash
Image of a newspaper cover headlined “Black Tuesday” highlighting the stock market crash in Canada.
(“Black Tuesday”)
Today, October 29th, 1929 is the most disastrous day of all. Values of stocks went straight down as many tried selling their stocks at once in hopes of receiving the money to solve problems of their own. My family as well as many others living in the Prairies invested in thriving stocks. But now, with the stock crash, we lost everything. Many of my relatives were in debt. Everyone was in misery.
Worker Layoffs
After the stock market crash, the Single Men's Unemployed Association paraded the streets.
(Library and Archives Canada)
Due to the stock market crash, companies, businesses and employers could no longer afford to have employeEs. As a result, many were laid off. Many unemployed men were now loitering the streets demanding action to be taken on the situation. They wanted a future and so did I. Everyone was struggling, everyone lost something. Parades and protests are how citizens decided to gain the attention of the government.
Unemployment Relief Camps
Relief camps are where thousands of young men went for a living.
(The Commonwealth, Vancouver, 21 June, 1935)
Bennetts's solution to the thousands of loitering young men in the streets was to create unemployment relief camps. The camps offered housing, food and wages for manual labour. Conditions were bad and wages were low but it was a desperate time. Work opportunities elsewhere were almost impossible to find. My brother just graduating from school is looking to go to a relief camp.
Grasshopper Plague
Trillions of grasshoppers swarm the skies of the Prairies.
(Reimann)
The warm and dry climate here in the Prairies caused the drought but also attracted these grasshoppers. They invade and spoil everything. I can’t even go outside in this situation, there are too many!
Farming Disruption
Grasshoppers came to destroy. They eat the remaining crops, beat against the houses and spoil the food.
(Lyons)
The grasshoppers took every chance they got to make our lives in the Prairies harder. The drought itself was making farming impossible but the grasshoppers that came along, not long after the drought, completely wiped everything out. Eggs were spoiled and clothes were ripped. Going outside meant getting swarmed by thousands at once. It was an impossible life. To make it even worse, we were behind on paying mortgage interest but we had no income.
Farmers’ Creditors Arrangement Act
The newspaper highlights the purpose of the Farmers’ Creditors Arrangement Act of 1934.
(Hamilton)
The drought and grasshopper plague caused a huge downfall for farmers in the Prairies. As a result, Bennett’s government brought this Act to make farm loans easier to acquire. This simple and inexpensive legal procedure benefitted us greatly. The need for this Act in the Prairies was great especially as many were in debt, including us.
Drop In Wheat Price
Drop In Wheat Price
Harvesting wheat near Stonewall, 1915.
(Archives of Manitoba)
Canada is a big wheat exporter, because of the farming happening here in the Prairies. But now, we have competition. The drought and grasshopper plague now here makes the situation worse. Prices are plummeting. A price of a bushel decreased by almost $1 in just 3 years. It isn’t looking good for Canada, or the farmers.
Economic Downfall
Farm abandoned after successive years of drought.
(“Farm abandoned after years of drought”)
The drought put a big stop to the growing of crops. My family got no income and neither did the other farmers in the Prairies. We aren’t able to make a living here because we can’t afford to stay here. Mortgages, machinery, food, clothes, the list goes on. I’ve seen so many people abandon their farmlands already. We relied on sales and exports of wheat but are unable to do that now. Our economy is destroyed.
Canadian Wheat Board
The Canadian Wheat Board re-established in 1935 under a voluntary government marketing system.
(Kheraj)