This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
What Rick E. Jones did not address in his letter regarding Herbert Hoover is the impending Great American Dust Bowl was just around the corner in 1929. From 1901 until 1930, people plowed up 100 million acres of good thick grass, which had previously fed bison and other animals, and planted wheat. At first, people made money — a bushel of wheat sold for $2.40 — but by 1929, the price was down to 19 cents a bushel.
Banks failed, because the managers of the banks bought stocks with the money people had put in savings. So people had no money, no crops to sell to bring in money. Their savings were not insured, like ours are now.
Then the stock market crashed. Then the dust started to blow. On April 14, 1935, more than 300,000 tons of Great Plains topsoil was airborne. I don't know if a proper figure was ever obtained concerning how many people died, because there were many people who moved in one year and gave up the next. But people did develop "dust pneumonia." The land was broken.
Hoover did the best he could with such a difficult situation; government supplied people with food and clothing. If someone had realized the consequence of plowing up so much grass in order to grow wheat, the situation would have been much different. It takes all of us working to make a better America. Any president can only do so much to avert disaster and keep America strong.
Vicki Nelson
West Valley City