Initial Responses to the 1929 Stock Market Crash
By Zach Busch
The “Taken for a Ride” cartoon refers to the state of the stock market and illustrates the shift from a bull market to a bear. In the 1920s many people were interested in ways to “get rich quick.” Americans used the stock market as a means to riches, without understanding the risks. The widespread use of stock buying on credit and investing in poor real estate ventures, particularly in Florida, created a “booming” economy really built on an unstable foundation. Cartoonist John McCutcheon illustrates the market shift from a bull market, a time of high investments, to a bear market, low investments. Many American investors initially held onto their investments with the hope that the market would recover, however, the decision would come back to bite them—literally. His cartoon shows that the American people were trapped in their past way of thinking and were unable to face the harsh realization that they had lost money in a failing market.
“A Man Looking for Work” illustrates how quickly the fall of the stock market impacted the job market. Following the catastrophic crash of the stock market, many people were out of work for long periods of time and quickly losing confidence in the American economy. John McCutcheon shows a man walking from business to business searching for any job at all but coming up unsuccessful. He also demonstrates the American peoples’ dissatisfaction with the Hoover Administration for the lack of realistic help. While initially hopeful that President Hoover—the Great Humanitarian—would be able to help the American people, they lost faith in him as his efforts to resolve the crisis proved inadequate.