EFFECTS OF DEPRESSION

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1932, Page 3

EFFECTS OF DEPRESSION

CHANGES IN AMERICA A RETURN TO BARTER. ; /• QUAINT CARTS FOR FARMERS. '■ ' ‘ ' 1 ' ''■ • ' '■ •' 'i ■ Some curious effects of* the depression in America were mentioned by Miss 1 Muriel Swain, an official of the NewSouth Wales Department of Labour, in /1 an interview after her arrival by the Mariposa. . ; < Miss Swain, who has spent several months in the United States, said she z travelled twice across the continent—to <,.• New York and back—by road, and had . an opportunity of seeing a little of the conditions in a number of States. In '- / some small Middle West towns she found that money had almost ceased to circu- ,-i, late and the people had reverted to. barter. Shops could be seen bearing the .. sign, “We Swap Anything.” .Farmers brought in their grain and traded it for ■' groceries because they were unable .to .sell it through the ordinary channels. '■/. Evidently the retailers had some means of disposing of it, but she did not learn j'. what it was. In one town she fouild 1 locally-made wooden money in Circulation as an aid to barter. • 1 In parts of California there” was a great surplus of maize this autumn, and : / she saw many crops that looked , as if ' ; \ they would never be harvested; Some farmers had erected signs by the roadside, inviting people to take as much e' - . the grain as they liked. ■ \ LOCKED UP IN BARRACKS. .i j A good deal of barter in the cities was , r v organised and controlled by bodies which the unemployed had set up, or by chari-* , : table associtaions. In San Francisco the . . Council of Social Agencies had set up a / huge “groceteria” at-which married men .'l'/. could obtain four weeks’ groceries in re- \’. r turn for one week’s work. There was; also a great depot in which worn clothing was remade. The corporation had a ; ' bond- issue of 6,500,000 dollars for - tbe issue of necessaries by way of relief this winter. There was no general policy of ’ J relief work, because it was practically impossible to find work for the unem- ,/ s ployed men to do. One odd institution in San. Francisco was a large barracks in which single men ' ; were housed. They were given meal.; .*/ tickets only on condition that they slept there. They had to be in by 7 o’clock : each evening, and the key was turned on them-until the next-morning,' when , <./ they were let out with their meal tickets for a day in the parks. - The depression had produced a new / kind of vehicle in rural districts, a ■ hybrid, known everywhere, jokingly, as , >; the “Hoover cart.” who could no longer afford to be motorists had found that a cheap sulky could be made,/ out of two wheels and part of the chassis of a derelict niotor-car. To this they attached shafts and one of the car seats. ’, Behind a farm horse this queer cart was an economical means of getting about - , the countryside. The users, did not seem. { to mind the imputation that they were hard .up. , The latest betting upon'the Presidential A ■ election had been five to one on Mr. Roosevelt. This was based. upon the “straw vote” taken by the Literary ; Digest. Most people took this vote as a i true indication of . the result, but one ./• factor could not be fully allowed for—< . the large number of new voters. It was said that never in the country’s history . ’ had so many people enrolled for the first time. A very large proportion of - American citizens were so contemptuous and indifferent toward politics that they , never bothered to vote,-but the depression had caused many to enrol.

1 . TRANSCONTINENTAL BUSES. , ‘ I The general belief was that the votes would be mainly .“protest votes,” cast for either Mr. Roosevelt t or the Socialist candidate, Mr. Norman Thomas. It was preMr. - Thomas would poll 2,000,000 votes out of a total of 40,000,000. This was referred to as an “enormous” , ;s : proportion, for Socialist candidates in '■ the past had obtained very little support. . Miss Swain found road vehicles com- ■ - petirg actively with the railroads, even in transcontinental travel. Motor-buses ran in stages day and' night on the two ‘ great national highways from coast to '' ; coast, and did the journey in practically the same time as the trains. She left New York on a Saturday morning and \- freached Los Angeles on the following /C..-'. Thursday, evening. Some of the might ' buses in which she ’travelled had sleep- '■ ing berths , and others were fitted .with ,;vQ reclining chairs.