Blog #2 Arthur A. Robertson / Oscar Heline

Arthur A. Robertson-

In Arthur A. Robertson’s story it showed us how rich men fell apart from the Stock Market crash. The people who worked with him would count millions and the average person would be struggling to count their quarters. Robertson talked about his friend John Hertz. Hertz, “at one time owned ninety percent of the Yellow Cab stock…..he was reputed to be worth $400 to $500 million. He asked me one day to join him on a yacht” (Turkel 102). This just shows how little the upper-class cared about those who were struggling during a time when money was scarce. All these business men cared about was making as much money as they could. They didn’t care about anyone but themselves, selfish. When the stock-market crashed though, they went down hill. “On wall street, the people walked around like zombies” (Turkel 101). This shows how difficult it must have been for people to accept their once high class life and be faced with such a bad future and having to have to learn to deal with it. Many people thought it would be easier to commit suicide to make their problems go away, like Jesse Livermore. He had lots of money, and then he was shattered. He could not handle what was given to him, so he killed himself. It was a time when people were struggling and learning to cope with different emotions than what they were used too.

Oscar Heline-

The struggles that farmers faced in this story were unbelievable. Farmers were not treated with any sort of respect. So many farmers were in debt and it caused a lot of stress and struggle for the farmers. “The farmers became desperate. It got so a neighbor wouldn’t buy form a neighbor, because the farmer didn’t get any of it” (Turkel 121). That just shows how sad of a time it was. I could not even imagine what it would be like to walk a day in farmer’s shoes. The government would take your farm, livestock, and farm machinery. Farmers were left with nothing. It is so sad, because everyone needs crops and everyone needs those kinds of food, yet the farmers were treated so badly. Some farmers gathered one day and decided to talk to the court about how they were being treated badly and they said, “We’re not concerned whose court this is. We came here to get redress from your actions. The things you’re doing, we can’t stand to have done to us anymore” (Turkel 126). This shows how much people wanted to stand up for them selves, but it only ended these people behind bars. I do give these farmers credit though, and I think the courts should listen to them and that this is a great example of courage. With out courage to stand up to those who are superior to you, you’ll never get a chance to have change. That’s all the farmers wanted, change.

What was the lasting legacy of the New Deal?

The New Deal has been a major contributing factor in building structures across America and building bridges, tunnels, roads, hospitals, museums and schools. The New Deal was almost as if it was a new beginning for the United States. There were all of these different structures being built to help American citizens with their everyday life. These buildings, and roads and schools that were built were all made for the benefit of the citizens and their wellbeing. During this time the Great Depression was going on. After the stock market crashed thousands of lives were affected. Steel industries were coming to a close, farmers had difficulty selling their crops and thousands of citizens were out of work. This New Deal project was put into effect to help America get out of the depression they were in. At that time more people were leaving America than coming to America because there was not a lot that was going. During a film about the depression there was a story that stood out to me. There was this young girl who was eleven years old and she was the only one in her family that had money in her piggy bank. Her father was out of work and her family needed money in order to survive. The girl had come home from school one day and went to shake her piggy bank, but found there was nothing in it. Her dad had taken the money from her so that he could ride down to try and get a job. From this story we can see that times were rough. Her father didn’t want to take her money, but she was the only person who had money available. Her dad said that he would pay her back, but never did. During this time of despair lots of young people wrote to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. When they wrote to her children were asking for asked for clothing, money, and other forms of assistance. At the peak of the Depression 25% of the nation’s workers was unemployed. Because so many people were unemployed, about 250,000 young people were homeless because families could not support them any longer. When the children wrote to her, they never got any replies from Eleanor Roosevelt. Instead, she supported them differently; she worked to establish government programs for young people, the NYA. The depression was filled with sorrow, begging, and a look of pain and misery in their eyes and faces. The New Deal did leave a lasting impression because at the time it was a time of sorrow and sadness and this was an uplifting thing that was going on.

Blog # 1 C.P Ellis / Andy Johnson

C.P Ellis-

The story of C.P Ellis is interesting. When I first started reading this story I thought that Ellis had all of his morals wrong. He had a bad outlook on life. When a person has a bad outlook on life they tend to have this negative outlook on things. He grew up poor, and he knew he was by the clothes that he wore, and I think that that was what started him out on his negativity. When he grew up he got married and had a family, but it was difficult for him to make enough money. Ellis said, “you gotta have somthin’ to look at to hate. The natural person for me to hate would be black people, because my father before me was a member of the Klan” (Turkel 65). It seems to me that he didn’t know any better. If your parent raised you in a house hold where they didn’t like a certain type of person, then the likely hood of you growing up to do that too, is very high. Kids look up to their parents for guidance and security. Ellis joined the KKK and became very involved. So, when later on in the story I find out that he was going to have to work with a black woman, Anne Atwater, I was stunned. My first reaction was that he was going to say no and that he was not going to work with her because it would go against everything that the KKK believed in and what he was supposed to believe in. Instead, to my surprise he accepted the offer. He thought, “Ain’t no way I can work with that gal. Finally I agreed to accept it, ‘cause at this point, I was tired of fighting, either for survival or against black people or against Jews or against Catholics” (Turkel 70). Because he accepted this, the first thought that came to mind were, what would happen to his family? How would they be treated? I found out that his kids would come home from school crying because they would be made fun of. That’s very harsh and I felt bad for them. However, this was a major turning point on Ellis life because now he accepted the blacks and was willing to work with him. This relates to the time period of when people never accepted blacks; and now Ellis, wants to work with them. That just shows how people can work together and that there does not need to be hatred. Because of this decision good things came of it. His life changed and he became even more determined. He never got past an 8^th grade education, but he got that and went to high school where he did graduate with a diploma. My opinion on Ellis started off not so well, but I grew to like him because he started to have the same outlook on the situations with racism, that they be treated equally. I really enjoyed this story.

Andy Johnson-

Andy Johnson was the story of a young boy who was born in Finland and came to the United States in 1906. A quote that really stuck out to me was at the very beginning, "The poorest, the most miserable came here because they had no future over there. To them, the streets of America were paved in gold" (Turkel 38). This stuck out to me because when I think about how America looked then, it is nothing compared to how it is now. People in America who looked at how it was structured would want to do a lot of different things to make it look nicer and better, yet here are all these immigrants coming over and thinking it is luxury. It really makes you appreciate what you have in your life and how much people take things for granted. When Andy was talking about his trip over to the United States and the process that he went though, it almost seemed as if he didn’t think it was that big of a deal. He said, “There was a doctor at Ellis Island, and he took a spoon and shoved it in my eye, along with the others, to see if we had any illness. Those that had were returned” (Turkel 39). To me, if I were to be writing about my experience I would talk about the importance of being able to come over to a new place, and how passing the doctor exam meant having a future of not. Andy did not seem to have a lot of emotion behind it. It’s amazing how sheltered people are from the world and how little they know if they are an outsider. When Andy encountered his first black person, he was confused and that he didn’t wash his face. I like that he felt compassion for the blacks and sympathy because when he looked at pictures he said he didn’t like the looks of people in the picture. Andy can, “see a wonderful future for humanity, or the end of it” (Turkel 42). He was made fun of the way he talked and criticized. Andy realized that he had independence and should use it, so that’s what he did. He was saying that even if we can’t do a big thing to change something, which does not mean that it’s not making a difference. I enjoyed this short story about Andy Johnson.