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Just an Article I came across from 1929 Australian Paper

Started by wellery, July 21, 2014, 01:51:09 AM

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wellery


imoore

What a great article and find. Its nice to read about our australian sales etc. what paper did ypu find it in?

Ian
1928 Q tourer (Holden bodied)
Several vintage stationary engine

chetbrz


This article was showing great prosperity.  With the US stock market crash in October of 1929 how affected was the Australian economy.  For the most part the effects of this event lasted through WW2 here in the states.  Walter P. did some aggressive empire building during the depression buying Dodge Brother's dealerships to have a point of sale for his new Plymouth line and expanding manufacturing capability.   By 1931 Chrysler Corp became the third largest manufacture of American cars thanks to the Plymouth line which was a big money maker after the Great Depression.

Thanks for the post.  Very interesting.
http://www.1948Plymouth.info           Web Master - Forum Administrator - AACA member

wellery

Chet

The Great Depression (1929–32) was a time of extreme hardship for people in Australia. For many people this period began before the market crash in prices and lasted until the Second World War (1939-1945).

Even before the devastating stock market crash on Wall Street (the centre of stock market trading in New York, United States of America), unemployment in Australia was already at ten per cent. The Wall Street crash in October 1929 signalled the beginning of a severe depression for the whole industrialised world.

After the crash unemployment in Australia more than doubled to twenty-one per cent in mid-1930, and reached its peak in mid-1932 when almost thirty-two per cent of Australians were out of work.

The Great Depression's impact on Australian society was devastating. Without work and a steady income many people lost their homes and were forced to live in makeshift dwellings with poor heating and sanitation.

A Great Depression survivor recalls the hardship:

    People were forced into all sorts of tricks and expediencies to survive, all sorts of shabby and humiliating compromises. In thousands and thousands of homes fathers deserted the family and went on the track (became itinerant workers), or perhaps took to drink. Grown sons sat in the kitchen day after day, playing cards, studying the horses [betting on horse racing] and trying to scrounge enough for a threepenny bet, or engaged in petty crime, mothers cohabited with male boarders who were in work and who might support the family, daughters attempted some amateur prostitution and children were in trouble with the police.
    Lowenstein, Wendy. Weevils in the Flour: an oral record of the 1930s depression in Australia , 20th anniversary edition, Scribe, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, p.2, 1998.


Old Man

I think it depended on what your family did for a living. I'm told the Depression had little effect on my family. My great grandfather had started a fire wood and building supplies company in the small town of Aurora about 50 kms. north of Toronto in the last half of the 1800s. He died in 1903 and my grandfather took over and changed it to coal. My father,born in 1905, joined along with his brother and the town of 2500 only had the one company suppling heating coal and building supplies through out the 'teens ,20s 30s and later. I remember in the 50s watching my father and some other worker putting coal in the public school bunker while I watched during recess. My father told me I should get into either shoes or food as people will always need both and continuously. I didn't though, he told me I was going to be the 1st of the clan to go to college. Which I did and became,eventually, an electronics engineer. But my Dad had the money to send me because by then the business had changed once again to home fuel oil. I now know by bank and business records left after my father died that he was a millionaire during the 60s and the time I went to college. So I expect my grandfather was at least near there in the 20s and 30s. This is not a boast just a story that not everybody felt the Depression. As Dad said, the cobbler and grocer must of done alright regardless. (As I expect school teachers,doctors,dentists,farmers and other essential people did. We didn't have the "Dust Bowl" in Canada that the U.S. midwest did.)           

chetbrz

Interesting perspectives. 

Wellery,

Many thanks for the info on the effects of "The Great Depression" in Australia.

Old Man,

Yes not everyone was hit as hard by the Depression especially if your livelihood wasn't linked to the fast money of the Wall Street crowd or your job depended on a business owner who was margined to the tee.  (Unfortunately most US Banks were overextended.)  It's always the working class that absorbs the most misery from economic corrections through downsizing, rightsizing, or just plain bad management.  But somehow everything corrects itself eventually and hopefully we learn from our mistakes.  i.e Feb  2009.   Personally I am still waiting for the credit card bubble to pop but maybe Americans have had enough of 28% interest rates and .7% interest return on their savings.  I guess you might get the impression that I hate banks.  But there is always that Building and Loan so hopefully they can continue to keep the Potters of this world at bay.

Great thread, Chet... 
http://www.1948Plymouth.info           Web Master - Forum Administrator - AACA member

wellery

Old Man

There is a old statement about the shoe industry, and how you perceive market opportunities  ,  It is about the 2 salesmen that went to Africa in the early dim dark years, One telegraphed back home saying, no opportunity here, they don't wear shoes, the other telegraphed home saying great opportunity here they don't wear shoes, please send all the stock you have in large sizes only!!!!!  Lots of Laughs


Noz