Quotes and references
John Hirst
John Hirst on the threat of communism: Communism was judged to be “cunning and unscrupulous”; subsequently as small close-knit organisation they were a legitimate threat as they infiltrated some of the most powerful organisations in Australia, notably the Labor party and the union movement. As Hirst puts it, “the hopes of communists and the fears of anti-communists were perfectly matched.”
State governments and later the federal government introduced relief work schemes for the unemployed so that they could obtain food coupons and some kind of small wage. Work was given out based on marital status and the number of dependents. Under the state system the work was casual yet the federal government introduced a full-time relief work scheme that was successful but still didn’t provide enough work to the majority of the unemployed fluctuating between 25 to 50 percent (Hirst).
Manning Clark
In an interview Manning Clark notes that bank staff was reduced between 10 to 15 percent and big business firms reduced their staff from 10 to 20 percent. Interestingly he has also mentioned how teachers were steadily employed during the Depression. People in stable employment and fixed incomes did quite well as the price of consumables went down as well as rents. Notably Clark’s father was a clergyman whose wage did not change so they were “far more prosperous during the Depression”.
Clark details how people were very inventive and resourceful in surviving during the Depression. He knew of one man who did quite well from stealing native birds and selling them to zoos in the United States.
Clark also discusses in detail the political maneuvering that took place between Scullin, Theodore, Lang and Lyons. In relation to Lyons Clark provides insight into how he came to the decision to break from the Labor Party, the role of business leaders in Melbourne and the media mogul Keith Murdoch.
Janet McCalman
McCalman's book Struggletown is an academic and personal study into life in Richmond during the first half of the twentieth century. Her work on the Great Depression is an invaluable source of scholarly work and oral history. She questions the veracity of pure oral history without evaluating its merits, socio-economic context and adverse personal influence. According to McCalman people "rewrite history" in order to suit their "current values and preoccupations". For instance many women may talk in glowing terms the sense of community and the ability to enjoy a good life despite economic hardship but will knowingly exclude acknowledging that many housewives (and in many cases themselves) were driven to prostitution in order to earn some kind of income.
According McCalman that the Depression was a "mass of contradictions" where people talked of prostitution, cheating on rent, social delinquency while others would romanticize the period with talk of heroic "struggle" and "resilience" of the unemployed disenfranchised whilst ignoring the alcoholism, family violence, the suicides, vandalism, "ruthless competition for jobs", and the "fiddling of relief funds and handouts".
She also writes of how many people would downplay their hardship as they always thought that someone had it worse than themselves. McCalman writes, "women claim it was harder for men; men claim it was harder for women" however from these contrasting accounts there is also a sense of the social devastation, "we can sense the pain and the fear, and comprehend the impact of this most frightful failure of the capitalist system".
Some of McCalman's best interview subjects were:
Joe Grant: a typical working-class battler who took delight in discussing how middle-class "snobs" were humbled by their conditions of poverty, who passionately advocated for the Labor Party yet never blamed the government for the problems of the Depression and who discussed in detail young mothers who turned to prostitution or how people turned to petty crime or just "on the look-out for any kind of racket" just to make ends-meet. Grant also saw footy as the "most important thing in social life".
Ruby Kane: a woman who talked fondly of the bond of the Richmond community including in the workplaces that she described as "real old home factories".
Muriel Thompson: who in her late seventies remembers the Depression as a time when "everybody helped each other out" and there was much "love and kindness about" including the wealthy where she notes that people from Toorak would come and take them on "little trips". McCalman counters this with an actual letter written by Thompson that states,"I find it hard to get anything at all...I have never received any help other than the sustenance...".
Jean Fowler: a woman who still feels angry and alienated at the conditions of the Depression. She got involved in various protest marches where she was beaten by police, "they just batoned you down...they were shockingly cruel". McCalman describes her as having a "load of bitterness" which keeps her connected to her "blackest emotions". However she does not remember feeling much fear as the Depression only made her poorer than what she already was. She remembers the delight in getting a "a beautiful wrap-on skirt" from charity but also the public humiliation of getting the susso, "it was really horrible". She was in and out of work. During the time that she was working she would come home to her brother and father waiting for their tobacco money and for her to cook dinner. When she lost her job in a rubber factory her brothers gave their family some relief by leaving and making a go of gold mining. She also went for joy-rides with her brothers in car that had tires full of straw through Monbulk, Jean saved most of the money needed to buy her first home with her husband. Jean also noticed how neurotic women became with cleaning their homes, "you'd be frightened to go in sometimes...[one woman] had about seven kids and she wouldn't allow them inside - they were sleeping outside...".
Wendy Lowenstein
Lowenstein's book Weevils in the Flour is a massive undertaking that provides a comprehensive oral history of the Great Depression. From these stories we hear of the hardship that many people endured in every aspect of their lives yet spoken with a plain humility that does not exaggerate nor dramatise their circumstances. Lowenstein notes, "one cannot question the hardships...real tragedies of mind and body...living on a tiny pittance, and on their wits."
Lowenstein also argues that for many people life was already hard and economically insecure in the 1920s and that the Depression only accentuated their already vulnerable position in society.
Anne Jeffrey featured in Lowenstein’s Weevils in the Flour went through a number of experiences common for those affected by unemployment during the Depression.
Eviction: “It was very traumatic…You come home to your house where you’ve lived for years and find your household goods, all your little treasures, going into a furniture van.”
Boarding houses: “…they were appalling and shocking. It seemed that there was a dirty old man lurking on every corner of the stairs when a little girl went to the bathroom…there was any vice that wasn’t to be found in those boarding houses in Lennox Street.”
Fear: “Fear was very, very strong at that time…[discussing her grandfather after he fell and broke his neck] there was no Hospital Benefits in those days, and I’ll never forget the fear that ran through the family, waves of fear.”
Family: “My parents broke up because of the depression…My mother was always going crook about him not working.”
Pride: Discussing her father, “he would never dream of taking the dole”.
Patrick, also featured in Lowenstein’s oral history of the Great Depression, provides important insights in regards to life in camps. The government moved them around a fair bit but he did notice some consistencies.
“We were scorned by the local populace”
“The farmers and sawmillers thought of us as being little better than gypsies and they treated us with great suspicion”.
“If any little thing went amiss in the town, the wallopers appeared with their truncheons at the ready, at the camp.”
“Brutality was common…everybody, regardless, was a prisoner. They were a prisoner of the depression.”
By 1930, “father had finally had all that he could take at that time and he disappeared.”
Barbara Wawn, another participant in Lowenstein oral history project on the Depression, discussed her unique circumstances with her petty criminal father.
“We’d be behind in our rent or my father would get into trouble for taking food or other things…”
“We weren’t ever evicted because we’d get word beforehand…”
“We never had warm blankets, though and we used to put newspapers in between our blankets for warmth.”
“If there’s anything lying around, I don’t turn a blind-eye to it. I think: well, it’s something for nothing.”
Grimshaw et al
Grimshaw et al's research found that hardships in the Depression were gendered. Men felt "emasculated" and "humiliated" by their unemployment while women were forced to work harder than ever as many became bread-winners while still maintaining their responsibilities in the home. Furthermore women were constantly worried over the prospect of getting pregnant and employed a number of different strategies to stop pregnancy from abstinence to contraception to backyard abortions. According to Grimshaw et al Australia emerged out of the Depression years with two separate and gendered visions for the future, "men's dreaming rose from a sense of loss [and]...the restorative power of full employment" while women looked to a "possibility of life beyond motherhood".
Drew Cottle
Cottle's investigation 'The Sydney Rich' provides great insight into how many people from the upper-classes were largely unaffected by the Depression. Some of his interview subjects include Mrs Eustace Molroyde taking two of her daughters to France so the girls can "perfect their French" for at least three years while another wealthy family's "predicament" involved relying on their substantial "capital resources" to maintain their lifestyle. As Cottle argues these wealthy Australians now had savings that had "appreciated in real terms"; subsequently their money was of greater value and if they could maintain secured employment their economic standings would actually improve dramatically. At a very low cost they now could afford a variety of consumables and even make extensions upon their homes, most notably in the increase of garages being built in Woollahra.
W.F. Mandle
W.F. Mandle argues that the visit of Sir Otto Niemeyer was a “catalyst” for economic debate in relation to governments’ response to the Depression. The acceptance and adoption of Niemeyer’s recommendations triggered alternative responses especially from NSW’s Labor.
It was Niemeyer's visit and "orthodox" economic agenda that all political figures either advocated, followed or vehemently attacked. Lang effectively used Niemeyer's visit as a campaign strategy to demonstrate to the NSW public that "outsiders" were leading cause of the unemployed's misery. As Niemeyer was visiting upon the request of then premier Bavin it was quite easy to associate the Nationalist government with being a lackey for outsider pariah English banks.
Quotes from People and Newspapers
Katharine Prichard in her 1936 novel Working Bullocks writes of watching the contradiction of people on the “brink of despair” in this “rich and lovely country of ours”.
NSW’s premier Jack Lang identified that capitalists and stock brokers who cased the Great Depression as “financial anarchists”. In responding to the Depression Lang argued that “modern methods” must be used and to “think in terms of service and welfare for the entire social order”.
Sir Otto Niemeyer argued that "costs must come down".
According to the Labor Daily in 1930 previously honest men have been “driven to desperation” to become petty criminals.
According to the Labor Call in late 1930 unemployed men have become the “pariahs of civilisation – poor, wretched individuals, with lost hopes eeking from their miserable, drenched apparel.”
A camp was set up in Broadmeadows for single unemployed men and would be run along “military lines”. According to the Argus the camp would be substitute to the city shelters as they were to be closed while the camp was in operation. The government “never expected the necessity for them would remain for so long” (Argus, 1930). By June 1931 180 men walked out of the Broadmeadows Army Camp and set up their own communal living entitled the Single Men's Group.
In Melbourne an unemployed march took place where over 2000 men participated with demonstrators coming from as far as Geelong and Ringwood. The marchers demanded a “100% increase in sustenance allowance to provide for new boots, blankets, and clothing for the unemployed and their families” (Argus, 1931)
Members of a “militant organisation” destroyed a house after the occupants (a single mother with children) were evicted for non-payment of rent (Argus, 1931).
"Living on a farm probably isolated us from the worst affects of the Depression, for we always had meat, eggs, milk, butter and fruit." (Tate, Life in the 1930s)
"As I had always been able to get a job...I had no sympathy for those individuals who stood in the 'susso' Queue" (Tate)
"Several people were necessary to control 500 men and boys...in response to an advertisement calling for six youths." (The Sydney Sun, 1930)
"200 girls stormed the offices of Mr Knight...many were well educated and carried references from leading city firms." (Sydney Morning Herald, 1930)
The Workers' Weekly argued that what stopped workers from enjoying a life of plenty was the "parasitic capitalist class and their agents of the calibre of Scullin, Beasley, Martin, Lang, Garden".
The Australian Women's Weekly was a vocal supporter of equal pay for women and they reported on the Women's Voter Conference where a resolution was passed that stated that "equal pay for the sexes should be established."
In Muriel Heagney's "Are Women Taking Men's Jobs" (1935) she notes that "sex antagonisms...obscure the real issue and divide[s] the workers" and concludes that "occupational rates [should] be based on the nature of the work" no matter which gender performs the tasks.
According to Paul Kelly the Depression was "a time when Australians lost their way, failed to pull together and were betrayed by their leaders."
According to Geoffrey Spencely, "that the unemployed survived so well is a tribute to their fortitude, ingenuity and endurance, and to the improvements that occurred in unemployment relief after 1932."
John Hirst
John Hirst on the threat of communism: Communism was judged to be “cunning and unscrupulous”; subsequently as small close-knit organisation they were a legitimate threat as they infiltrated some of the most powerful organisations in Australia, notably the Labor party and the union movement. As Hirst puts it, “the hopes of communists and the fears of anti-communists were perfectly matched.”
State governments and later the federal government introduced relief work schemes for the unemployed so that they could obtain food coupons and some kind of small wage. Work was given out based on marital status and the number of dependents. Under the state system the work was casual yet the federal government introduced a full-time relief work scheme that was successful but still didn’t provide enough work to the majority of the unemployed fluctuating between 25 to 50 percent (Hirst).
Manning Clark
In an interview Manning Clark notes that bank staff was reduced between 10 to 15 percent and big business firms reduced their staff from 10 to 20 percent. Interestingly he has also mentioned how teachers were steadily employed during the Depression. People in stable employment and fixed incomes did quite well as the price of consumables went down as well as rents. Notably Clark’s father was a clergyman whose wage did not change so they were “far more prosperous during the Depression”.
Clark details how people were very inventive and resourceful in surviving during the Depression. He knew of one man who did quite well from stealing native birds and selling them to zoos in the United States.
Clark also discusses in detail the political maneuvering that took place between Scullin, Theodore, Lang and Lyons. In relation to Lyons Clark provides insight into how he came to the decision to break from the Labor Party, the role of business leaders in Melbourne and the media mogul Keith Murdoch.
Janet McCalman
McCalman's book Struggletown is an academic and personal study into life in Richmond during the first half of the twentieth century. Her work on the Great Depression is an invaluable source of scholarly work and oral history. She questions the veracity of pure oral history without evaluating its merits, socio-economic context and adverse personal influence. According to McCalman people "rewrite history" in order to suit their "current values and preoccupations". For instance many women may talk in glowing terms the sense of community and the ability to enjoy a good life despite economic hardship but will knowingly exclude acknowledging that many housewives (and in many cases themselves) were driven to prostitution in order to earn some kind of income.
According McCalman that the Depression was a "mass of contradictions" where people talked of prostitution, cheating on rent, social delinquency while others would romanticize the period with talk of heroic "struggle" and "resilience" of the unemployed disenfranchised whilst ignoring the alcoholism, family violence, the suicides, vandalism, "ruthless competition for jobs", and the "fiddling of relief funds and handouts".
She also writes of how many people would downplay their hardship as they always thought that someone had it worse than themselves. McCalman writes, "women claim it was harder for men; men claim it was harder for women" however from these contrasting accounts there is also a sense of the social devastation, "we can sense the pain and the fear, and comprehend the impact of this most frightful failure of the capitalist system".
Some of McCalman's best interview subjects were:
Joe Grant: a typical working-class battler who took delight in discussing how middle-class "snobs" were humbled by their conditions of poverty, who passionately advocated for the Labor Party yet never blamed the government for the problems of the Depression and who discussed in detail young mothers who turned to prostitution or how people turned to petty crime or just "on the look-out for any kind of racket" just to make ends-meet. Grant also saw footy as the "most important thing in social life".
Ruby Kane: a woman who talked fondly of the bond of the Richmond community including in the workplaces that she described as "real old home factories".
Muriel Thompson: who in her late seventies remembers the Depression as a time when "everybody helped each other out" and there was much "love and kindness about" including the wealthy where she notes that people from Toorak would come and take them on "little trips". McCalman counters this with an actual letter written by Thompson that states,"I find it hard to get anything at all...I have never received any help other than the sustenance...".
Jean Fowler: a woman who still feels angry and alienated at the conditions of the Depression. She got involved in various protest marches where she was beaten by police, "they just batoned you down...they were shockingly cruel". McCalman describes her as having a "load of bitterness" which keeps her connected to her "blackest emotions". However she does not remember feeling much fear as the Depression only made her poorer than what she already was. She remembers the delight in getting a "a beautiful wrap-on skirt" from charity but also the public humiliation of getting the susso, "it was really horrible". She was in and out of work. During the time that she was working she would come home to her brother and father waiting for their tobacco money and for her to cook dinner. When she lost her job in a rubber factory her brothers gave their family some relief by leaving and making a go of gold mining. She also went for joy-rides with her brothers in car that had tires full of straw through Monbulk, Jean saved most of the money needed to buy her first home with her husband. Jean also noticed how neurotic women became with cleaning their homes, "you'd be frightened to go in sometimes...[one woman] had about seven kids and she wouldn't allow them inside - they were sleeping outside...".
Wendy Lowenstein
Lowenstein's book Weevils in the Flour is a massive undertaking that provides a comprehensive oral history of the Great Depression. From these stories we hear of the hardship that many people endured in every aspect of their lives yet spoken with a plain humility that does not exaggerate nor dramatise their circumstances. Lowenstein notes, "one cannot question the hardships...real tragedies of mind and body...living on a tiny pittance, and on their wits."
Lowenstein also argues that for many people life was already hard and economically insecure in the 1920s and that the Depression only accentuated their already vulnerable position in society.
Anne Jeffrey featured in Lowenstein’s Weevils in the Flour went through a number of experiences common for those affected by unemployment during the Depression.
Eviction: “It was very traumatic…You come home to your house where you’ve lived for years and find your household goods, all your little treasures, going into a furniture van.”
Boarding houses: “…they were appalling and shocking. It seemed that there was a dirty old man lurking on every corner of the stairs when a little girl went to the bathroom…there was any vice that wasn’t to be found in those boarding houses in Lennox Street.”
Fear: “Fear was very, very strong at that time…[discussing her grandfather after he fell and broke his neck] there was no Hospital Benefits in those days, and I’ll never forget the fear that ran through the family, waves of fear.”
Family: “My parents broke up because of the depression…My mother was always going crook about him not working.”
Pride: Discussing her father, “he would never dream of taking the dole”.
Patrick, also featured in Lowenstein’s oral history of the Great Depression, provides important insights in regards to life in camps. The government moved them around a fair bit but he did notice some consistencies.
“We were scorned by the local populace”
“The farmers and sawmillers thought of us as being little better than gypsies and they treated us with great suspicion”.
“If any little thing went amiss in the town, the wallopers appeared with their truncheons at the ready, at the camp.”
“Brutality was common…everybody, regardless, was a prisoner. They were a prisoner of the depression.”
By 1930, “father had finally had all that he could take at that time and he disappeared.”
Barbara Wawn, another participant in Lowenstein oral history project on the Depression, discussed her unique circumstances with her petty criminal father.
“We’d be behind in our rent or my father would get into trouble for taking food or other things…”
“We weren’t ever evicted because we’d get word beforehand…”
“We never had warm blankets, though and we used to put newspapers in between our blankets for warmth.”
“If there’s anything lying around, I don’t turn a blind-eye to it. I think: well, it’s something for nothing.”
Grimshaw et al
Grimshaw et al's research found that hardships in the Depression were gendered. Men felt "emasculated" and "humiliated" by their unemployment while women were forced to work harder than ever as many became bread-winners while still maintaining their responsibilities in the home. Furthermore women were constantly worried over the prospect of getting pregnant and employed a number of different strategies to stop pregnancy from abstinence to contraception to backyard abortions. According to Grimshaw et al Australia emerged out of the Depression years with two separate and gendered visions for the future, "men's dreaming rose from a sense of loss [and]...the restorative power of full employment" while women looked to a "possibility of life beyond motherhood".
Drew Cottle
Cottle's investigation 'The Sydney Rich' provides great insight into how many people from the upper-classes were largely unaffected by the Depression. Some of his interview subjects include Mrs Eustace Molroyde taking two of her daughters to France so the girls can "perfect their French" for at least three years while another wealthy family's "predicament" involved relying on their substantial "capital resources" to maintain their lifestyle. As Cottle argues these wealthy Australians now had savings that had "appreciated in real terms"; subsequently their money was of greater value and if they could maintain secured employment their economic standings would actually improve dramatically. At a very low cost they now could afford a variety of consumables and even make extensions upon their homes, most notably in the increase of garages being built in Woollahra.
W.F. Mandle
W.F. Mandle argues that the visit of Sir Otto Niemeyer was a “catalyst” for economic debate in relation to governments’ response to the Depression. The acceptance and adoption of Niemeyer’s recommendations triggered alternative responses especially from NSW’s Labor.
It was Niemeyer's visit and "orthodox" economic agenda that all political figures either advocated, followed or vehemently attacked. Lang effectively used Niemeyer's visit as a campaign strategy to demonstrate to the NSW public that "outsiders" were leading cause of the unemployed's misery. As Niemeyer was visiting upon the request of then premier Bavin it was quite easy to associate the Nationalist government with being a lackey for outsider pariah English banks.
Quotes from People and Newspapers
Katharine Prichard in her 1936 novel Working Bullocks writes of watching the contradiction of people on the “brink of despair” in this “rich and lovely country of ours”.
NSW’s premier Jack Lang identified that capitalists and stock brokers who cased the Great Depression as “financial anarchists”. In responding to the Depression Lang argued that “modern methods” must be used and to “think in terms of service and welfare for the entire social order”.
Sir Otto Niemeyer argued that "costs must come down".
According to the Labor Daily in 1930 previously honest men have been “driven to desperation” to become petty criminals.
According to the Labor Call in late 1930 unemployed men have become the “pariahs of civilisation – poor, wretched individuals, with lost hopes eeking from their miserable, drenched apparel.”
A camp was set up in Broadmeadows for single unemployed men and would be run along “military lines”. According to the Argus the camp would be substitute to the city shelters as they were to be closed while the camp was in operation. The government “never expected the necessity for them would remain for so long” (Argus, 1930). By June 1931 180 men walked out of the Broadmeadows Army Camp and set up their own communal living entitled the Single Men's Group.
In Melbourne an unemployed march took place where over 2000 men participated with demonstrators coming from as far as Geelong and Ringwood. The marchers demanded a “100% increase in sustenance allowance to provide for new boots, blankets, and clothing for the unemployed and their families” (Argus, 1931)
Members of a “militant organisation” destroyed a house after the occupants (a single mother with children) were evicted for non-payment of rent (Argus, 1931).
"Living on a farm probably isolated us from the worst affects of the Depression, for we always had meat, eggs, milk, butter and fruit." (Tate, Life in the 1930s)
"As I had always been able to get a job...I had no sympathy for those individuals who stood in the 'susso' Queue" (Tate)
"Several people were necessary to control 500 men and boys...in response to an advertisement calling for six youths." (The Sydney Sun, 1930)
"200 girls stormed the offices of Mr Knight...many were well educated and carried references from leading city firms." (Sydney Morning Herald, 1930)
The Workers' Weekly argued that what stopped workers from enjoying a life of plenty was the "parasitic capitalist class and their agents of the calibre of Scullin, Beasley, Martin, Lang, Garden".
The Australian Women's Weekly was a vocal supporter of equal pay for women and they reported on the Women's Voter Conference where a resolution was passed that stated that "equal pay for the sexes should be established."
In Muriel Heagney's "Are Women Taking Men's Jobs" (1935) she notes that "sex antagonisms...obscure the real issue and divide[s] the workers" and concludes that "occupational rates [should] be based on the nature of the work" no matter which gender performs the tasks.
According to Paul Kelly the Depression was "a time when Australians lost their way, failed to pull together and were betrayed by their leaders."
According to Geoffrey Spencely, "that the unemployed survived so well is a tribute to their fortitude, ingenuity and endurance, and to the improvements that occurred in unemployment relief after 1932."
David Potts' Revisionism
David Potts is an Australian historian who did his PhD research under the supervision of John Hirst. Potts disputes the widely documented cases of hardship and suffering instead arguing the dire economic conditions of the Depression were over-reported and that for many the Depression was a time of resilience and even happiness. Potts employs a diverse range of evidence from economic statistics to an exhaustive list of personal stories from the time. Some of Potts arguments and evidence include:
- Economic conditions were bad in some areas but improved in others:
Ø The value of primary goods decreased but farmers (in greater debt) increased output in some areas (bushels of wheat increased by 57 percent, greasy wool by 45 percent and butter by 42 percent)
Ø Qld sugar industry prospered as it was protected from overseas competition
Ø “rice exports boomed”
Ø Farmers offered plenty of work yet at much lower wages.
Ø Sells of soap and candles, grain milling, and woollen and tweed cloth increased
Ø Car repair businesses expanded rapidly (Repco is a good example)
Ø In relation to the stock market after 1931 all ordinaries continually rose until 1938
Ø Bankruptcies rose in 1931 but dropped dramatically in the following years.
Ø He disputes unemployment figures; the commonly quoted 29 percent came from union secretaries and they did not take into account groups with lower unemployment rates like women and children while over-representing industries with high unemployment like construction (compared to more stable workers like teachers and nurses). Furthermore they were not consistent in recording part-time work. Census data, according to Potts, was more accurate and found unemployment to be around 26 percent yet both studies were unable to take into account the high rates of “undeclared casual work”.
- Stories of starvation and malnutrition were sensationalised and misreported by the media like the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and the Age.
- In relation to illness death from poverty-related diseases like bronchitis, whooping cough and tuberculosis all “broadly declined as the Depression deepened”.
- He argues that the poverty of the Depression encouraged people to live healthier and simpler lives. Many grew their own vegetables or bought fresh vegetables from local markets instead of tinned food.
- According to Potts the poor preferred a philosophy of “a-materialism” which denied the importance of wealth and property.
David Potts is an Australian historian who did his PhD research under the supervision of John Hirst. Potts disputes the widely documented cases of hardship and suffering instead arguing the dire economic conditions of the Depression were over-reported and that for many the Depression was a time of resilience and even happiness. Potts employs a diverse range of evidence from economic statistics to an exhaustive list of personal stories from the time. Some of Potts arguments and evidence include:
- Economic conditions were bad in some areas but improved in others:
Ø The value of primary goods decreased but farmers (in greater debt) increased output in some areas (bushels of wheat increased by 57 percent, greasy wool by 45 percent and butter by 42 percent)
Ø Qld sugar industry prospered as it was protected from overseas competition
Ø “rice exports boomed”
Ø Farmers offered plenty of work yet at much lower wages.
Ø Sells of soap and candles, grain milling, and woollen and tweed cloth increased
Ø Car repair businesses expanded rapidly (Repco is a good example)
Ø In relation to the stock market after 1931 all ordinaries continually rose until 1938
Ø Bankruptcies rose in 1931 but dropped dramatically in the following years.
Ø He disputes unemployment figures; the commonly quoted 29 percent came from union secretaries and they did not take into account groups with lower unemployment rates like women and children while over-representing industries with high unemployment like construction (compared to more stable workers like teachers and nurses). Furthermore they were not consistent in recording part-time work. Census data, according to Potts, was more accurate and found unemployment to be around 26 percent yet both studies were unable to take into account the high rates of “undeclared casual work”.
- Stories of starvation and malnutrition were sensationalised and misreported by the media like the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and the Age.
- In relation to illness death from poverty-related diseases like bronchitis, whooping cough and tuberculosis all “broadly declined as the Depression deepened”.
- He argues that the poverty of the Depression encouraged people to live healthier and simpler lives. Many grew their own vegetables or bought fresh vegetables from local markets instead of tinned food.
- According to Potts the poor preferred a philosophy of “a-materialism” which denied the importance of wealth and property.
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