What I'm Reading

I just finished "The Great Depression: A Diary" by Benjamin Roth. Roth was a young lawyer with a family in Youngstown Ohio. In 1931 he realized that he was living through historic times and started keeping a diary containing observations about what was going on locally, as well as in the broader world. Originally intended to chronical the economic calamity of the 1930s, he ended up continuing for the rest of his life. This book only covers the period up to America's entry into the World War. Roth's entries are not daily, but sporadic depending on what was going on and what his thoughts were. The book presents a very powerful picture from someone who fell between the very poor and those few who were sufficiently well off that they could ride out the depression with little impact on their lives. The professional men  suffered because clients, or patients for doctors who could actually pay for services were rare. Often business was conducted on a barter basis. Roth's son, who arranged for the publication of the book posthumously noted that at one point things were so desperate his father had to borrow money against his life insurance policy in order to keep food on the table and a roof over his family. Much of the book contains Roth's thoughts as he attempts to make sense of the disaster and what could be done to prevent or mitigate future similar events. 

A rock ribbed Republican, Roth supported Herbert Hoover's insistence on avoiding debt and defending the gold standard. Once FDR abandons gold he can't understand why the country isn't wiped out by hyperinflation. Periodically Roth recorded current stock prices with astonishment as blue chip securities slid to levels that were unimaginable just a few years before. He complained that he wished he had money to take advantage of what he believed to be fire sale bargains as the markets rally, only to watch them crash again to even lower levels. 

Perhaps the most powerful elements of his diary were his descriptions of local conditions. The book contains many personal stories of friends and acquaintances who eschewed conservative investments like government bonds during the good years in favor of stocks and real estate, both of which became almost worthless during the dark days of the depression.  Youngstown was an industrial city that was hit incredibly hard. He writes of businesses shuttering, and people being evicted from their homes because they can't pay the mortgage or rent. And then the houses sit empty as nobody can afford them even at rock bottom prices. A good deal of attention is focused on the collapse of the banks, this being before deposits were insured. 

In one entry from the winter of 1931, Roth records that hours before dawn there were several thousand men lined up outside city hall hoping for a day's work. The entry ends with; "There is great suffering."