PELHAM HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA CENTER

The mission of Pelham High School is to educate students so that they may pursue life goals, 
participate fully as active citizens, and become socially responsible community members.

Greg Kanteles

May 17, 2005

Mrs. Bailly-Burton

Through the Decades

Through the Decades (1930’s-1950’s)

Introduction

         My name is Sean Gagnon, and my family lives in New York City.  I have an older brother named Mike, and a younger sister named Colleen.  My parents names are Mary and Robert.  We are an Irish family that moved to America in 1925, the year I was born.  My brother was born two years before me, and my sister was born two years after me.  We came to America looking for a better life, and a new opportunity for freedom.  My father has always said, in America, as long as you are willing to work hard, you can make it.  My mother is a hard working woman who obeys her husband, and she always takes good care of the house.  This is my journal that I’ve kept over the years.

Journal

         My dad has been complaining a lot about money.  He said that we were doing good before, but now we can’t afford to buy the things we used to buy.  He later told me that it was because of speculation.  He said that speculation is when you are allowed to buy stocks for less prices, and then you will eventually have to make up the difference.  My family had bought $10,000 worth of stocks for just $1,000.  Times were good, and we thought that the money would never stop coming in, until the day the stock market crashed.  He told me that ten percent of families in America had money in stocks.  I hope too many people aren’t being affected.

         Mike tells me that as good as the economy was, there was still a tremendous imbalance of wealth.  The top five percent of economic power had thirty percent of the entire income of the country.  My family had an average yearly income of a little bit less than $2,500 a year.  Although it was enough to get by, we still struggled. 

         Christmas was always a good time in our house.  Even though money was tight, our parents still managed to get us toys.  Toys that were very popular in our house were tin toys.  We used to get tin cars, boats, and trains. 

         One way we used to pass the time was going to the theaters.  Howard Hawks was a director from the 1930’s.  He made a lot of great movies, but my favorite was Scarface.  My parents said I was too young to see it, but I snuck out to see it one time and I loved it.  It was a little edgy, and it had gangsters in it, but I loved it.  We also used to listen to jazz music.  Even though it was mostly black music, I still liked it.  My favorite artist was Louis Armstrong.  He was the first great soloist, a pioneer vocalist, and the fledgling music’s first major celebrity.  He also acted in movies, but he always played a servant, or a butler of some sort.  It didn’t seem like a role he should have been playing.

         My dad keeps telling me about the depression.  He says that one major cause of the depression was overproduction.  Like other families, we had bought many high priced items such as televisions or refrigerators, but we needed loans to buy these things.  Most people finally realized that they couldn’t buy so much, so they didn’t.  This caused a drop-off demand, which meant that businesses didn’t need to produce as much.  Because they didn’t need as much produced, this created a shortage of jobs, and many people were laid off.  Since no one had jobs, no one could afford to continue to buy things, so all of the businesses continued to decline.

         Mike continues to tell me about how President Hoover is ruining everything.  He says out in the Midwest there is drought, and the people are being forced off their farms by the banks.  He called them Okies because they were leaving from Oklahoma.  Mike tells me that they’re going west to California to pick fruit, but he says that there isn’t enough work for all the people.  He also tells me that the people aren’t getting any good wages, and they just continue to decline.  Hopefully in the next presidential election we can get someone to change things. 

         Bank speculation was also a main cause of the depression.  This was when the bank lent money to speculators to invest money for them.  Because the stock market crashed, the banks lost all of their money.  This meant that the people who had invested money in the banks lost their money.

         My father keeps telling me that things will get better if Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president.  Although President Hoover has made efforts to end the depression, such as setting up huge public works projects, a change is needed in office.  Roosevelt is just the man to pull us out of this depression.  My father has told me about Roosevelt’s plan to pull us out of the depression.  He says its called the New Deal. 

         Roosevelt won!  He defeated Hoover in the Electoral College 472 votes to 59, and he received slightly less than sixteen million for Hoover in the general election.  Unfortunately, after he was elected, a lot of people started to make bank runs, where people traded in their money for gold.  This was because they feared he would abandon the gold standard and reduce the value of the dollar in order to fight the Depression.  Because of this, by March 1933, over 4,000 banks had collapsed, wiping out nine million savings accounts.  In thirty-eight states, governors declared bank holidays-closing the remaining banks before bank runs could put them out of business.

         My father has told me about many of President Roosevelt’s organizations in the New Deal.  The first was the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).  Under this program, the government will pay farmers not to raise certain livestock, such as hogs, and not to grow certain crops, such as cotton, corn, wheat, and tobacco.  Another organization is the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA).  The NIRA suspended the antitrust laws and allowed business, labor, and government to cooperate in setting up voluntary rules for each industry.  He has also told me about the National Recover Administration (NRA).  This controlled industrial production and prices with industry-created codes of fair competition.  Businesses get blue eagle seals to show that they are part of this administration.  The is also the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which employed single men, ages 18-25, for natural resource conservation.  Those are just a few of the organizations that I can remember.

         They are starting to teach us about dictators in school.  They say that there are a lot more in the world today.  We’ve heard about Mussolini in Italy.  He’s a strong believer in fascism, or a kind of aggressive nationalism.  It is also strongly anticommunist.  They believe that the nation is more important than the individual, and that a strong dictator was needed to impose order on society.  Joseph Stalin has also taken over the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).  He is a strong believer in communism, which is where everyone has an assigned job, and everyone makes just enough to get by and survive.  The communists took control over the territories by instituting one-party rule, suppressing individual liberties, and punished opponents.  When Stalin tried to industrialize his country, there was much opposition.  This caused the deaths of eight to ten million peasants who resisted the Communist policies.

           We learned about Hitler the other day.  He sounds like one of the worst men alive.  He is the leader of the Nazi Party.  It is also called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.  They are very nationalistic and anticommunist.  He believes that German are a master race, called Aryans.  In his book, he says that Germany needs to expand for more living room.  He has also said that the Slavic people of Eastern Europe belong to an inferior race, which Germans should enslave.  Hitler saves his strongest prejudice for the Jews.  He believes that Jews were responsible for many of the world’s problems, especially for Germany’s defeat in World War I.  By 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag.  In 1933, Hitler became chancellor of Germany.  I think Hitler is an evil man.

           War has broken out in Europe.  The Axis, Italy, Japan, and Germany, started major expansion.  First, Italy invaded Ethiopia.  Then Germany occupied the Rhineland.  After that, Hitler declared Anschluss, or their union with Austria.  Then, they annexed the Sudetenland.  Next, Germany invaded Poland.  France fell shortly after that to Germany.  The Battle of Britain took place late in 1940, but Britain held off the Germans.  Finally, Germany invaded the USSR.  I hope that America can remain neutral in these affairs. 

           I can’t believe what the Japanese have done.  Yesterday, on December 7, 1941, they attacked our naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  I hate those people.  We need to get involved in this war.  I know that I am only 16, but I don’t care, I am going to fight for my country.  I am going to go to war with my brother Mike, and we will defend our freedom.  I can’t believe they would crash their planes into our naval base.  President Roosevelt needs to do something about this immediately. 

           Germany has also declared war on us now.  They are frustrated that we’ve been sinking their submarines.  Hitler is greatly underestimating our strength.  He hopes for us to be taken out of the war quickly so he can get help with the Soviets.  Italy has also decided to declare war on us. 

           Mike and I have signed up for the army.  We are leaving to fight in Germany soon.  We are going to help take down Hitler.  It is terrible what he is doing to the Jewish people.  He is sending them to camps to die, just because of his prejudices of them.  I also want redemption against the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. 

           The war is beginning to pull the country out of the depression.  War production is creating more work, and more work means more jobs.  My father has gotten his first steady job in a few years working at an automobile factory.  He isn’t making cars though, he is making tanks for the war.  The nation is finally beginning to do better economically.

           The allies have defeated the Germans at a battle called Stalingrad.  The city controlled the Volga River and was a major railroad junction.  The Germans were forbidden from surrendering, and this caused them to lose many more troops than they needed to.  Hopefully this will be a turning point in the war. 

           My parents have been telling me that there have been a lot more women and minorities in the workplace since the war began.  These people are needed to work because the young men are here, fighting the war.  People are rationing and making victory gardens, but no one is complaining.  Everyone is happy to be playing their part in the war. 

           On June 6, 1944, we moved on the Germans in France.  We attacked the coastal city of Normandy.  This day came to be known as D-Day.  I lost my brother Mike on D-Day, but I know that we have the Germans on the run.  Hopefully I will be going home to my family soon. 

           President Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945.  On this day, Harry Truman became president.  Roosevelt had served in office for 13 years, and he was in his fourth term as president.  He survived and excelled through polio, and he helped to end the depression.  He was a great man, and now President Truman needs to come in and end the war.

           V-E Day!  The war is over in Europe.  While the British and the Americans were invading France, the Soviets were taking care of the Germans in Russia.  On May 7, 1945, German finally surrendered unconditionally.  The next day-May 8, 1945-was proclaimed V-E Day, for “Victory in Europe.”

           Now that the Germans have been defeated, the troops in the Pacific just need to finish off the Japanese.  The Japanese are putting up a tough fight because they use kamikaze attacks to cause massive casualties to our troops.  President Truman finally decided to drop the bomb on Hiroshima.  The bomb destroyed 76,000 buildings-about sixty-three percent of the city.  Somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 people died instantly, and thousands more died later from burns and radiation sickness.  Three days later, on August 9, the Soviets joined the war against Japan.  On this same day, we dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing between 35,000 and 74,000 people.  With such massive destruction from the bombs and the Soviets joining the war, the Japanese finally decided to surrender.  August 15, 1945 is known as V-J Day.  All Americans are happy that the war is finally over.  They are happy to have their redemption for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

           The Soviets don’t like us Americans anymore.  Our nations are too different.  They believe strongly in Communism, and we are a Democratic country.  The decision on what to do with Germany was made to divide it into four zones, and the Soviets, the United States, Britain, and France would each control one zone.  This left one Communist zone, and the rest was Democratic.  America does not want Communism to spread throughout the world, we want it to be contained in the nations that are already Communist. 

           The dispute over Germany was resolved when the Soviets built a wall dividing Berlin down the middle.  The Soviets side was Communist, and the allies’ side is Democratic.  The wall was guarded very closely, and people were shot trying to escape from the Communist side of the wall to the Democratic side. 

           There are many new Communist nations in the world today.  Some of these include North Korea and China.  This isn’t good because we need to try to contain Communism.  We are getting into conflicts with other nations that are trying to spread their Communism to other Democratic nations. 

           Americans are living in fear of nuclear war with the Soviets.  At any point, they could drop a bomb on us and destroy the world.  We could also do the same to them.  People are beginning to build bomb shelters in case of nuclear fallout.  Some people are living in constant fear. 

           After the war, many Americans worried that after military production halted and soldiers came back for work, unemployment and recession might set in.  Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act which outlawed the closed shop, or the practice of business owners to hire only union members.  The president is also looking to pass a civil rights bill that would protect blacks’ right to vote, abolish poll taxes, and make lynching a federal crime.  He also issued an order that barred discrimination in federal employment, and he ended segregation in the armed forces. 

           Everyone thought that Dewey would win the election, but Truman pulled it out in a narrow race.  He won with support from laborers, blacks, and farmers.  Legislators also increased minimum wage to seventy-five cents an hour, increased Social Security benefits by seventy-seven percent, and he extended them to ten million additional people. 

           In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower decided to run as the Republican nominee for president with Richard Nixon as his running mate.  I think it will be good to have a hero from the war running for president.  I support Eisenhower for president.  His cabinet appointments included several business leaders who guided him to end government price and rent control.

           The country is beginning to look prosperous again.  The average income of American families has nearly tripled since 1940.  We are also beginning to see a lot of franchises, in which a person owns and runs one or several stores of a chain operation.  There has also been a baby boom of sorts.  There have been more babies born recently.  This is causing women to stay home and not to seek employment. 

           There is a lot of new technology in the world today.  They came up with the transistor, making it possible to miniaturize radios and calculators.  There are also computers being developed.  Perhaps most importantly though, is they finally have a vaccine for polio.  This is good because I have lost many people I was close with to polio.  Another technological breakthrough is just four months after the Soviets launched Sputnik, the United States launched its own satellite from Cape Canaveral. 

           Television is one of the greatest inventions of all time.  It is like having the movies at home.  You can also see televised athletic events on it.  I love watching the variety shows, as well as the game shows.  It is a good way to keep people entertained while they’re at home.  I don’t know how we used to live without them.

Conclusion

           From depression to prosperity, it’s been a wild three decades.  There have been a great number of wars, we’ve had one president for thirteen years, and we now have television.  It’s been a turbulent time in history, but I’m glad to have been able to live it in the United States of America.

Elizabeth Strauss, Media Generalist
Pelham High School Library Media Center
bstrauss@pelhamsd.org