Text C  Iowa in the 1920s and the 1930s

1. The First World War ended in 1918. Iowans cheered home the soldiers who had fought in Europe to defeat Germany. Most people hoped that there would be a time with few problems, but that did not happen. The war brought changes that lasted even after the fighting had ended.

 2. Farmers were some of the first to have trouble. During the war, they had worked hard to produce more corn and livestock. The extra  food helped to feed the American armies and our allies in Great Britain and France. When the war ended, farms in Europe began to produce food again. There was not as much need for American food.

 3. Soon there was more corn, cattle and hogs（猪） than people wanted to buy. The prices for farm produce fell and farmers received less money. Many farmers had borrowed money from banks to buy new tractors and farm equipment. Some had bought more land.

 4. When prices fell, many farmers could not repay their loans to the banks. Without those repayments, the banks could not continue. In the early 1920s, many banks in small Iowa towns had to close. People who had savings accounts in those banks lost the money they had invested.

 5. In 1928，the United States elected Herbert Hoover to be president. Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa, the only Iowan to be elected president. When Hoover was still a boy, his parents died and he moved away to live with his relatives. After World War I, many people in Europe were starving because they had no food. Hoover worked hard to get food to these people, and he was highly respected in Europe. By 1930 and throughout the next few years, farm prices dropped even lower. In some places, farmers burned corn in their stoves rather than coal because corn was so cheap. Factories closed when people could not buy the products they produced. The people who worked at the factories lost their jobs. A depression is when many people are out of work and have little money. Things were so bad in the 1920s and 1930s that it is called The Great Depression.

 6. The government in Washington stepped in to try to help things. The government hired people to work on projects like building highways, schools, and bridges. It gave money to farmers who promised to produce smaller crops. While things got better for some people, many people in the 1930s had a hard time making a living.

 7.    There were some good things for farmers, however. An Iowan named Henry Wallace began experimenting with corn. He discovered how to grow a better kind of corn seed. It is called “hybrid" corn. When farmers planted it, they got more corn out of each field. In the 1920s and 1930s, farmers began using more hybrid corn. Henry Wallace became Vice President of the United States in 1940.

 8.    Some other good things happened during this time. Many more families bought automobiles. They took vacations to near and distant places. More Iowa children attended high school than ever before. Iowa built many miles of highways to make travel easier. 

 9. By the end of the 1930s, some brave Iowans were even making trips in airplanes. Trucks were hauling goods from farms to towns and from towns to cities. Sports became popular. Radios and newspapers carried reports of football and basketball games. In 1939, Nile  Kinnick, a football player at the University of Iowa, won the Heisman Trophy, the nation's highest award in college football. The twenty years after WWI were years of tremendous change. On Iowa farms and in Iowa towns and cities, people adjusted to the new ways as best they could.

 

Questions for Discussion or Reflection

(1) What were the good things that happened in the 1920s and 1930s in the eyes of Iowans?

(2) What do you know about President Herbert Hoover?