(Himmelberg, 9).
American's economic condition had become desperate, and it only worsened during the next year. When the depression bottomed, a staggering number of workers, one out of four, had no employment at all, and many of those still with jobs had only part-time work. (Himmelberg, 9) Many Americans, unable to make mortgage payments, lost their homes, and even more lost their savings as the banks came under increasing pressure. The rate of bank failures mounted rapidly during 1930 but rose to epidemic proportions in 1931, in that year conditions forced 2,294 banks, holding deposits worth $1.7 billion, to close, with depositors losing much of their money. (Himmelberg, 9).
Statistics tell the same story everywhere we look. Farm prices dropped by 55 percent between 1929 and 1932, drastically lowering farm income and worsening the burden of fixed debt most farmers were carrying. (Himmelberg, 9) As a result, farmers were forced to foreclose with frightening frequency, and a very high proportion of farmers lost their land. In manufacturing, the rate of unemployment rose even higher than the national average as output dropped by half between 1929 and 1932, and in some industries, such as automobiles, by nearly three-quarters. (Himmelberg, 9) In many of the great industrial cities such as Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland, half or more of the blue-collar workers were unemployed by 1932. (Himmelberg, 10) Hundreds of thousands of farm families, many from the "Dust Bowl" states, lost their land and became migratory farm workers. A great number of families from Oklahoma and Arkansas were forced into this condition. Signs of grave dislocation were everywhere. The number of hoboes, men (and some women too) who wandered the country stowing away on trains and living by begging or through intermittent labor, numbered in the millions. (Himmelberg, 10) It was common for people in cities and towns along the railways to find ragged men knocking at their back doors asking for food.