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107-559: The Argyle Liberal first appeared on Tuesday 13 October 1903 and its four-page edition boasted the largest circulation in the district, "throughout the areas of Taralga, Golspie, Irishtown, Laggan, Fullerton, Tuena, Junction Point, Pejar, Bigga, Binda, Wheeo, Narrawa, Gurrundah, Grabben Gullen, Kialla, Woodhouselee and other centres". The paper operated out of a small office next to the Criterion Hotel in Goulburn Street, Crookwell, with

214-418: A blind eye as there were no other accommodation available. For Australians, the decade of the 1930s began with problems of huge unemployment, because the fall of the stock markets on Wall Street reduced confidence throughout the world. Most governments reacted to the crisis with similar policies, aimed at slashing back government spending and paying back loans. The Australian government could do little to change

321-463: A cage to prevent arrest. Overall campaigning was successful in terms of gaining improved welfare and relief as well as in disrupting and preventing housing evictions across Australia. Extraordinary sporting successes did something to alleviate the spirits of Australians during the economic downturn. In a Sheffield Shield cricket match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1930, Don Bradman ,

428-554: A conference in Melbourne where he recommended a traditional deflationary response of balanced budgets to combat Australia's high levels of debt and insisted that interest on loans be met. It entailed the balancing of the budget through expenditure and wage cuts, without additional overseas borrowing, necessitating reductions in social welfare programs, defence spending and other sweeping cutbacks. The Premiers and Prime Minister Scullin agreed to this Melbourne Plan , which would go on to form

535-591: A couple of days later, Black Thursday would mark the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the subsequent global onset of the Great Depression. From the outset the Scullin administration was buffeted by the effects of the global economic crisis. Throughout Scullin's term, commodity prices continued to fall, unemployment rose, and Australia's big cities were depopulated as thousands of unemployed men took to

642-506: A daily rate of 133 in 1931). The 1929 crash brought the Roaring Twenties to a halt. As tentatively expressed by economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger , in 1929, there was no lender of last resort effectively present, which, if it had existed and been properly exercised, would have been key in shortening the business slowdown that normally follows financial crises. The crash instigated widespread and long-lasting consequences for

749-797: A devoted Australian public went into shock. The 1938 British Empire Games were held in Sydney at the Cricket Ground from 5–12 February, timed to coincide with Sydney's sesqui-centenary (150 years since the foundation of British settlement in Australia). Unlike the United States, where Franklin Roosevelt 's inflationary New Deal attempted to stimulate the American economy, New Zealand where Michael Savage 's pioneering welfare state tried to reduce hardship, or

856-701: A fiery left-wing populist , campaigned vigorously against the provisions of the Melbourne Agreement. He was elected in a landslide in the NSW state election of 1930 . Scullin departed for an Imperial economic conference in London, necessitating an absence of five months, during which time he managed to secure reduced interest payments for Australia. With James Fenton as acting Prime Minister and Joseph Lyons as acting treasurer in his absence, Labor continued to negotiate Australia's economic response, with Fenton and Lyons advocating

963-672: A further 23 years, with publication having ceased by October 1930, primarily as a result of the Great Depression in Australia . The first proprietors of the Argyle Liberal were William James Smith and Laurence Patrick Francis Gilmartin. Laurence (also known as Patrick) Gilmartin was a staunch supporter of the labour movement . He was selected as candidate and representative for the NSW Political Labour League in 1907, and in

1070-415: A major influence on the white paper. Between 1947 and 1949 Chifley also attempted to nationalise the banking sector, arguing that public control over the finance industry would assist in preventing further depressions. These plans saw bitter and protracted opposition from the media, conservative parties and the banks themselves. The High Court of Australia ruled that the proposed nationalisation of banks

1177-620: A mass of 250 million bushels of wheat to be "carried over" when 1929 opened. By May there was also a winter wheat crop of 560 million bushels ready for harvest in the Mississippi Valley. The oversupply caused such a drop in wheat prices that the net incomes of farmers from wheat were threatened with extinction. Stock markets are always sensitive to the future state of commodity markets, and the slump in Wall Street that had been predicted for May by Sir George Paish arrived on time. In June 1929,

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1284-518: A more conservative fiscal approach and the unions and caucus calling for repudiation of debts. In 1931 at an economic crisis conference in Canberra , Jack Lang issued his own programme for economic recovery. The Lang Plan advocated the repudiation of interest payments to overseas creditors until domestic conditions improved, the abolition of the Gold Standard to be replaced by a Goods Standard where

1391-423: A practice of suspending trading when prices fell rapidly to limit panic selling . Scholars differ over crash's effect on the Great Depression, with some claiming that the price fluctuations were insufficient on their own to trigger a major collapse of the financial system, with others arguing that the crash, combined with the other economic problems in the U.S. at the end of the 1920s, should be jointly interpreted as

1498-612: A row. Famous victories included the 1930 Melbourne Cup , following an assassination attempt and carrying 9 stone 12 pounds weight. Phar Lap sailed for the United States in 1931, going on to win North America's richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap in Tijuana , Mexico, in 1932. Soon after, on the cusp of US success, Phar Lap developed suspicious symptoms and died. Theories swirled that the champion race horse had been poisoned and

1605-508: A serious setback to industry when industrial production is for the most part in a healthy and balanced condition?" They argued that there must be some setback, but there was not yet sufficient evidence to prove that it would be long or would necessarily produce a general industrial depression. However, The Economist also cautioned that some bank failures were also to be expected and some banks may not have had any reserves left for financing commercial and industrial enterprises. It concluded that

1712-528: A slow recovery. Unemployment, which peaked at 32% in 1932, was 11% at the start of the Second World War compared to 17.2% in the United States. Following Lyons' death in 1939, Robert Menzies assumed the United Australia Party leadership and the prime ministership, however the 1940 federal election resulted in a hung parliament . A year later, Menzies' minority government was brought down in

1819-445: A stage in the business cycles which affect all capitalist economies. The " Roaring Twenties ", the decade following World War I that led to the crash, was a time of wealth and excess. Building on post-war optimism, rural Americans migrated to the cities in vast numbers throughout the decade with hopes of finding a more prosperous life in the ever-growing expansion of America's industrial sector. Scholars believe that declines in

1926-536: A strategy used during the Panic of 1907 . This encouraged a brief recovery before Black Tuesday. Further action failed to halt the fall, which continued until July 8, 1932; by then, the stock market had lost some 90% of its pre-crash value. The United States Congress responded to the events by passing the Banking Act of 1933 (Glass–Steagall Act), which separated commercial and investment banking . Stock exchanges introduced

2033-500: A young New South Welshman of just 21 years of age wrote his name into the record books by smashing the previous highest batting score in first-class cricket with 452 runs not out in just 415 minutes. The rising star's world-beating cricketing exploits were to provide much needed joy to Australians through the emerging Great Depression and Post World War One recovery. Between 1929 and 1931 the racehorse Phar Lap dominated Australia's racing industry, at one stage winning fourteen races in

2140-708: A ‘no confidence’ and the government fell. At the 1931 federal election , the ALP were left with just 14 seats after losing 32 seats, though an extra 4 seats were won by NSW Lang Labor. The Lyons-led United Australia Party in Coalition with the Country Party commenced its first term of government in January 1932. Before being voted out of office, the Scullin government had covered NSW's debt default. The federal government had paid NSW's bond installments and intended to recoup this money from

2247-577: The 1929 federal election . Scullin was elected Prime Minister in a landslide which saw Stanley Bruce voted out as the Member for Flinders , the only time until the 2007 federal election that a sitting Prime Minister lost his seat. The James Scullin Labor Government had just assumed power with the commencement of the Scullin Ministry on 22 October following the 1929 federal election , however just

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2354-663: The 1946 federal election , before their defeat at the 1949 federal election by the Menzies-led Liberal Party of Australia in Coalition with the Country Party . The comprehensive economic and social reforms and reformist nature of the Chifley Labor government was such that between 1946 and 1949, the Australian Parliament passed 299 Acts , a record until then, well beyond Labor's Andrew Fisher 's 113 Acts from 1910 to 1913. Curtin and Chifley, who often used

2461-553: The City of London at an average of £30 million per annum. In 1910, the federal government introduced a national currency, the Australian pound , which it pegged to the pound sterling . In effect, Australia was on the gold standard through the British peg. In 1914, Britain removed the pound sterling from the gold standard, creating inflation pressures. Britain returned the pound sterling to

2568-575: The House of Representatives when the two independents crossed the floor and switched their support to Labor, bringing John Curtin to power during World War II . At the 1943 federal election , Curtin led Labor to their greatest House of Representatives victory both in terms of proportion of seats and their strongest national two-party vote. Curtin died in 1945 however, and was succeeded as Labor leader and prime minister by Ben Chifley , who would lead Labor to their first successful federal re-election attempt at

2675-555: The Lang Plan in February 1931, which included a temporary cessation of interest repayments on debts to Britain and that interest on all government borrowings be reduced to 3% to free up money for injection into the economy. In 1929, as an emergency measure, Australia took the Australian pound off the gold standard, resulting in a devaluation relative to sterling. Starting in September 1930,

2782-493: The National City Bank , would provide $ 25 million in credit to stop the market's slide. Mitchell's move brought a temporary halt to the financial crisis, and call money declined from 20 to 8 percent. However, the American economy showed ominous signs of trouble. Steel production declined, construction was sluggish, automobile sales went down, and consumers were building up large debts because of easy credit. Despite all

2889-479: The National City Bank of New York . They chose Richard Whitney , vice president of the Exchange, to act on their behalf. With the bankers' financial resources behind him, Whitney placed a bid to purchase 25,000 shares of U.S. Steel at $ 205 per share, a price well above the current market. As traders watched, Whitney then placed similar bids on other " blue chip " stocks. The tactic was similar to one that had ended

2996-477: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and ending in mid-November. The crash, which began a rapid erosion of confidence in the U.S. banking system and marked the beginning of the worldwide Great Depression , which lasted until 1939, is considered the most devastating in the country's history. It is most associated with October 24, 1929, known as "Black Thursday", when about 12.9 million shares were traded on

3103-502: The Panic of 1907 and succeeded in halting the slide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered, closing down only 6.38 points (2.09%) for the day. On October 28, " Black Monday ", more investors facing margin calls decided to get out of the market, and the slide continued with a record loss in the Dow for the day of 38.33 points, or 12.82%. On October 29, 1929, " Black Tuesday " hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on

3210-520: The Pecora Commission was established by the U.S. Senate to study the causes of the crash. The following year, the U.S. Congress passed the Glass–Steagall Act mandating a separation between commercial banks , which take deposits and extend loans , and investment banks , which underwrite , issue, and distribute stocks , bonds , and other securities . Afterwards, stock markets around

3317-560: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia had years of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation , plunging incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. The Australian economy and foreign policy largely rested upon its place as a primary producer within the British Empire , and Australia's important export industries, particularly primary products such as wool and wheat , suffered significantly from

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3424-477: The conciliation and arbitration system of judicially supervised collective bargaining which had been the cornerstone of Australia's industrial relations system since the 1900s, which would allow employers alone to increase or decrease employee wages in response to economic and market conditions. The opposition Australian Labor Party , led by James Scullin , successfully depicted Stanley Bruce as wanting to destroy Australia's high wages and working conditions in

3531-468: The ticker tape in brokerage offices around the nation was hours late, and so investors had no idea what most stocks were trading for. Several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor. The meeting included Thomas W. Lamont , acting head of Morgan Bank ; Albert Wiggin , head of the Chase National Bank ; and Charles E. Mitchell, president of

3638-486: The uptick rule , which allowed short selling only when the last tick in a stock's price was positive, was implemented after the 1929 market crash to prevent short sellers from driving the price of a stock down in a bear raid . The stock market crash of October 1929 led directly to the Great Depression in Europe. When stocks plummeted on the New York Stock Exchange , the world noticed immediately. Although financial leaders in

3745-734: The 1920s, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney's underground railway system in addition to the Commonwealth government beginning to fund major highways. New dams and grain elevators were built, and the rural railway network was expanded in nearly every state. Large sums of government money were made available to provide returned First World War servicemen with farmland and agricultural equipment under soldier settlement schemes. All these publicly funded projects were paid for by loans raised by both state and federal governments. Most of these loans were raised on capital markets in

3852-586: The Australian Federal and State governments to cut spending by 20%, including cuts to wages and pensions and was to be accompanied by tax increases, reductions in interest on bank deposits and a 22.5% reduction in the interest the government paid on internal loans. The policy contrasted with the approach put forward by the British economist John Maynard Keynes and which was pursued by the United States, which held that governments needed to spend their way out of

3959-707: The Australian banks began to slowly devalue the Australian pound, and a year later it had been devalued 30% against the Pound Sterling. This had the economic effect of increasing the cost of imported goods and increasing the cost of servicing government overseas debts, which were denominated in the overseas currency, typically in sterling. Jack Lang , the Labor Party Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales and

4066-557: The Depression had attracted the support of prominent Australian conservatives, known as "the Group", whose number included future prime minister Robert Menzies . In parliament on 13 March 1931, though still a member of the ALP, Lyons supported a no confidence motion against the Scullin Labor government. The United Australia Party was then formed from a coalition of citizens’ groups and with

4173-654: The Depression. The plan was signed by New South Wales Labor Premier Jack Lang , but he was a notable critic of its underlying philosophy and went on to pursue his own policy of defaulting on debt repayments, which led to confrontation with the Federal Scullin and Lyons governments and resulted in the Lang Dismissal Crisis of 1932. The Labor Party soon split into three separate factions. Jack Lang and his supporters, mainly in New South Wales, were expelled from

4280-427: The Dow closing at 198.60. The market then recovered for several months, starting on November 14, with the Dow gaining 18.59 points to close at 217.28, and reaching a secondary closing peak ( bear market rally ) of 294.07 on April 17, 1930. The Dow then embarked on another, much longer, steady slide from April 1930 to July 8, 1932, when it closed at 41.22, its lowest level of the 20th century, concluding an 89.2% loss for

4387-509: The Great Depression. True or not, the consequences were dire for almost everybody. Most academic experts agree on one aspect of the crash: It wiped out billions of dollars of wealth in one day, and this immediately depressed consumer buying. The failure set off a worldwide run on US gold deposits (i.e., the dollar) and forced the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates into the slump. Some 4,000 banks and other lenders ultimately failed. Also,

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4494-467: The London Stock Exchange. In the days leading up to the crash, the market was severely unstable. Periods of selling and high volumes were interspersed with brief periods of rising prices and recovery. Selling intensified in mid-October. On October 24, " Black Thursday ", the market lost 11% of its value at the opening bell on very heavy trading. The huge volume meant that the report of prices on

4601-538: The Lyons period gave Australia "stability and eventual growth" between the drama of the Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War. A lowering of wages was enforced and industry tariff protections maintained, which together with cheaper raw materials during the 1930s saw a shift from agriculture to manufacturing as the chief employer of the Australian economy - a shift which was consolidated by increased investment by

4708-553: The NSW Government. A dramatic episode in Australian history followed Lyons first electoral victory. When NSW Premier Jack Lang refused to pay interest on overseas State debts, the Lyons government stepped in and paid the debts and then passed the Financial Agreement Enforcement Act to recover the money it had paid. In an effort to frustrate this move, Lang ordered State departments to pay all receipts directly to

4815-549: The NYSE in a single day (as compared to an average of 4 million), and October 29, 1929, "Black Tuesday", when some 16.4 million shares were traded. The " Roaring Twenties " of the previous decade had been a time of industrial expansion in the U.S., and much of the profit had been invested in speculation , including in stocks. Many members of the public, disappointed by the low interest rates offered on their bank deposits, committed their relatively small sums to stockbrokers . By 1929,

4922-603: The New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Around $ 14 billion of stock value was lost, wiping out thousands of investors. The panic selling reached its peak with some stocks having no buyers at any price. The Dow lost an additional 30.57 points, or 11.73%, for a total drop of 68.90 points, or 23.05% in two days. On October 29, William C. Durant joined with members of the Rockefeller family and other financial giants to buy large quantities of stocks to demonstrate to

5029-581: The Treasury instead of into Government bank accounts. The New South Wales Governor , Sir Philip Game , intervened on the basis that Lang had acted illegally in breach of the state Audit Act and sacked the Lang Government , who then suffered a landslide loss at the subsequent 1932 state election . Australia would recover relatively quickly from the global financial downturn, with recovery beginning around 1932. Lyons pursued an orthodox fiscal policy, favouring

5136-417: The U.S. economy was showing signs of trouble; the agricultural sector was depressed due to overproduction and falling prices, forcing many farmers into debt, and consumer goods manufacturers also had unsellable output due to low wages and thus low purchasing power . Factory owners cut production and fired staff, reducing demand even further. Despite these trends, investors continued to buy shares in areas of

5243-520: The UK, protests often focused on the so-called means test , which the government had instituted in 1931 to limit the amount of unemployment payments made to individuals and families. For working people, the means test seemed an intrusive and insensitive way to deal with the chronic and relentless deprivation caused by the economic crisis. The strikes were met forcefully, with police breaking up protests, arresting demonstrators, and charging them with crimes related to

5350-579: The United Kingdom where rearmament (from 1936) increased deficit spending, there was no significant mechanism for inflationary Keynesian economic policy responses in Australia. Australia's recovery during the 1930s was led by the manufacturing sector. Federation in 1901 had granted only limited power to the federal government. For example, income taxes were collected by the State governments. Some argued that Australia's protectionist high tariffs worked to hurt

5457-461: The United Kingdom's terms of trade . A sluggish economy in Britain naturally reduced British demand for imports from Australia throughout the 1920s and this had affected Australia's balance of payments. Throughout the 1920s the Australian unemployment rate floated between 6% and 11%. The Great War had also caused many necessary infrastructure projects to be delayed or abandoned, many of which began in

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5564-590: The United Kingdom, as in the United States, vastly underestimated the extent of the crisis that ensued, it soon became clear that the world's economies were more interconnected than ever. The effects of the disruption to the global system of financing, trade, and production and the subsequent meltdown of the American economy were soon felt throughout Europe. In 1930 and 1931, in particular, unemployed workers went on strike, demonstrated in public, and otherwise took direct action to call public attention to their plight. Within

5671-465: The United States, did not embark on a significant Keynesian program of spending to recover from the Depression. Nevertheless, the Australian recovery began around 1932. Australians took consolation from sporting achievements through the Depression, with cricketer Don Bradman and race horse Phar Lap achieving long-lasting fame. The Great War ( World War I ) had depleted Britain's savings and foreign investments, and wartime inflation had deeply upset

5778-427: The United States. Historians still debate whether the 1929 crash sparked the Great Depression or if it merely coincided with bursting a loose credit-inspired economic bubble. Only 16% of American households were invested in the stock market within the United States during the period leading up to this depression, suggesting that the crash carried somewhat less weight in causing it. However, the psychological effects of

5885-489: The amount of money in circulation was linked to the amount of goods produced, and the immediate injection of £18 million of new money into the economy in the form of Commonwealth Bank of Australia credit. The Prime Minister and all other state Premiers refused. With the rejection of the Theodore and Lang inflationary plans, the governments of Australia met to negotiate a compromise in 1931. The resulting Premiers' Plan required

5992-453: The basis of the Premiers' Plan . Ted Theodore , Treasurer in Scullin's Government, supported an inflationary policy of increased government spending in times of a recession, a view espoused in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes . The Senate and Commonwealth Bank (then also acting as the country's central bank) rejected Theodore's spending plans. The Labor Premier of New South Wales meanwhile announced

6099-590: The budget through a temporary cessation of interest repayments on debts to Britain and that interest on all government borrowings be reduced by 3% to free up money for injection into the economy. Labor defector Joseph Lyons helped to form the United Australia Party through the ending of the Nationalist Party of Australia and succeeded Scullin as Prime Minister of Australia from the 1931 federal election until his death in 1939. Thus Australia, unlike

6206-407: The business registered as The Argyle Liberal printing works. The Liberal' s stated editorial policy indicated it was to be a "free and independent journal in the interests of producers ... touching pastoral, agricultural, mining and social matters". By 1907, between 400 and 500 copies of each issue were being published: a significant circulation for a country newspaper of the time. It continued for

6313-435: The collapse in international demand. Unemployment reached a record high of around 30% in 1932, and gross domestic product declined by 10% between 1929 and 1931. There were also incidents of civil unrest , particularly in Australia's largest city, Sydney . Though Australian Communist and far right movements were active in the Depression, they remained largely on the periphery of Australian politics, failing to achieve

6420-607: The commonwealth government into defence and armaments manufacture. Lyons saw restoration of Australia's exports as the key to economic recovery. A devalued Australian currency assisted in restoring a favourable balance of trade. During the Great Depression, different parts of Australian society experienced different hardships, challenges and opportunities. There was increased movement of many people to and from country areas in search of work. City and urban people planted gardens to produce fruit and vegetables. In some urban areas co-operatives were formed based on barter systems to share what

6527-528: The countryside in search of menial agricultural work. The stagnant economy had reduced economic activity and therefore tax revenues. However, the debt commitments of both state and federal governments remained the same. Australia became severely at risk of defaulting on its foreign debt which had been accumulated during the relative prosperity and infrastructure-building frenzy of the 1920s. The Great Depression in Australia saw huge levels of unemployment and economic suffering amid plummeting export income. Although

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6634-543: The crash reverberated across the nation as businesses became aware of the difficulties in securing capital market investments for new projects and expansions. Business uncertainty naturally affects job security for employees, and as the American worker (the consumer) faced uncertainty with regard to income, naturally the propensity to consume declined. The decline in stock prices caused bankruptcies and severe macroeconomic difficulties, including contraction of credit, business closures, firing of workers, bank failures, decline of

6741-409: The crash, economist Irving Fisher famously proclaimed "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau". The optimism and the financial gains of the great bull market were shaken after a well-publicized September 8 prediction from financial expert Roger Babson that "a crash is coming, and it may be terrific". The initial September decline was thus called the "Babson Break" in

6848-426: The deflationary economic measures of the Premiers' Plan , and refused to accept NSW Premier Jack Lang's proposals to default on overseas debt repayments. Australia entered the Depression with a debt crisis and a credit crisis. According to author Anne Henderson of the conservative Sydney Institute [1] , Lyons held a steadfast belief in "the need to balance budgets, lower costs to business and restore confidence" and

6955-605: The economic downturn was a product of international events, Australian governments grappled with how to respond. Conventional economists said governments should pursue deflationary policies. Radicals proposed inflationary responses and increased government spending. Division emerged within the Labor Party over how to respond. In August 1930, Scullin invited Sir Otto Niemeyer of the Bank of England to come to Australia to advise on economic policy. Niemeyer met with Federal and State leaders at

7062-632: The economic warning signs and the market breaks in March and May 1929, stocks resumed their advance in June, and the gains continued almost unabated until early September 1929 (the Dow Jones average gained more than 20% between June and September). The market had been on a nine-year run that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average increase in value tenfold, peaking at 381.17 on September 3, 1929. Shortly before

7169-404: The economy and that influential interest groups sought no change in this aspect of policy. Additionally, there was no significant banking reform or nationalisation of private businesses. The devaluation of the Australian pound, abandonment of the Gold Standard, recovery of major trading partners like the United Kingdom and public works projects instituted by State and local governments led to

7276-505: The economy where output was declining and unemployment was increasing, so the purchase price of stocks greatly exceeded their real value. By September 1929, more experienced shareholders realized that prices could not continue to rise and began to get rid of their holdings, which caused share values to stall and then fall, encouraging more to sell. As investors panicked, the selling became frenzied. After Black Thursday, leading bankers joined forces to purchase stock at prices above market value,

7383-466: The effects of the depression strongly. Because of the severe economic contraction, the reduction of purchasing goods, employers couldn’t afford to keep excessive workers. A five-year unemployment average for 1930-34 was 23.4%, with a peak of approximately 30% of the nation being unemployed in 1932. This was one of the most severe unemployment rates in the industrialised world, exceeded only by Germany. Many hundreds of thousands of Australians suddenly faced

7490-416: The effects of the slump and the tough economic times ahead. This affected the country in many ways. Because of economic downturn, people’s lives changed drastically. Australia had supplied huge amounts of wool for uniforms during World War 1, and many exports helped Australia achieve a high standard of living in the 1920s. The majority of the people of Australia lived very well prior to the fall, so they felt

7597-507: The end of September, the market had dropped 10% from the peak (the "Babson Break"). Selling intensified in early and mid-October, with sharp down days punctuated by a few up days. Panic selling of massive proportion started the week of October 21 and intensified and culminated on October 24, October 28, and especially October 29 ("Black Tuesday"). The president of the Chase National Bank, Albert H. Wiggin , said at

7704-431: The face value of the stocks that they were buying. Over $ 8.5 billion was out on loan, more than the entire amount of currency circulating in the United States at the time. The rising share prices encouraged more people to invest on the hope that share prices would rise further. Speculation thus fueled further rises and created an economic bubble . Because of margin buying , investors stood to lose large sums of money if

7811-411: The first six months of 1929, of 36.6% over 1928, itself a record half-year. Iron and steel led the way with doubled gains. Such figures set up a crescendo of stock-exchange speculation that led hundreds of thousands of Americans to invest heavily in the stock market. Many people were borrowing money to buy more stocks. By August 1929, brokers were routinely lending small investors more than two-thirds of

7918-411: The gold standard in 1925 at pre-1913 parity, effectively revaluing both currencies significantly and unleashing crushing deflationary pressures and falling export demand. This had the immediate effect of making British and Australian exports far less competitive in non-British markets, and affected Australia's terms of trade. In 1931, as an emergency measure during the Great Depression, Australia left

8025-484: The gold standard, resulting in a devaluation relative to sterling. A variety of pegs to sterling applied until December 1931, when the government set a rate of £1 Australian = 16 shillings sterling. This was intended to ease entry of Australian goods into the British and other linked markets. Falling export demand and commodity prices placed massive downward pressures on wages, particularly in industries such as coal mining. Due to falling prices, bosses were unable to pay

8132-572: The government continue the use of Keynesian methods in economic policy as well as further expansion of the Curtin and Chifley economic and social legacies . Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash or Crash of '29 , was a major stock market crash in the United States in late 1929, beginning in late October with a sharp decline in prices on

8239-452: The government, joining the opposition Nationalist Party to form the United Australia Party . The Australian Labor Party would remain in government through the parliamentary term however, with Scullin as Prime Minister, and except for a brief stint by Scullin, Theodore as Treasurer. The stance of Joseph Lyons and James Fenton against the far more radical proposals of the Labor movement to deal with

8346-443: The humiliation of poverty and unemployment. This was still the era of traditional social family structure, where the man was expected to be the sole bread winner. Soup kitchens and charity groups made brave attempts to feed the many starving and destitute. The male suicide rate spiked in 1930 and it became clear that Australia had limits to the resources for dealing with the crisis. The depression's sudden and widespread unemployment hit

8453-481: The index in less than three years. Beginning on March 15, 1933, and continuing through the rest of the 1930s, the Dow began to slowly regain the ground it had lost. The largest percentage increases of the Dow Jones occurred during the early and mid-1930s. In late 1937, there was a sharp dip in the stock market, but prices held well above the 1932 lows. The Dow Jones did not return to its peak close of September 3, 1929, for 25 years, until November 23, 1954. In 1932,

8560-496: The largest financial crisis of the 20th century. The panic of October 1929 has come to serve as a symbol of the economic contraction that gripped the world during the next decade. The falls in share prices on October 24 and 29, 1929 were practically instantaneous in all financial markets, except Japan. The Wall Street Crash had a major impact on the U.S. and world economy, and it has been the source of intense academic historical, economic, and political debate from its aftermath until

8667-594: The market turned down or even if it failed to advance quickly enough. The average price to earnings ratio of S&P Composite stocks was 32.6 in September 1929, clearly above historical norms. According to the economist John Kenneth Galbraith , the exuberance also resulted in a large number of people placing their savings and money in leverage investment products like Goldman Sachs 's "Blue Ridge trust" and "Shenandoah Trust", which crashed in 1929 as well, resulting in losses to banks of $ 475 billion in 2010 dollars ($ 663.68 billion in 2023). Good harvests had built up

8774-549: The money supply caused by Federal Reserve decisions had a severely contractionary effect on output. Despite the inherent risk of speculation , it was widely believed that the stock market would continue to rise forever. On March 25, 1929, after the Federal Reserve warned of excessive speculation, a small crash occurred as investors started to sell stocks at a rapid pace, exposing the market's shaky foundation. Two days later, banker Charles E. Mitchell announced that his company,

8881-406: The money supply, and other economically depressing events. The resultant rise of mass unemployment is seen as a result of the crash, although the crash is by no means the sole event that contributed to the depression. The Wall Street Crash is usually seen as having the greatest impact on the events that followed and therefore is widely regarded as signaling the downward economic slide that initiated

8988-577: The party and formed a left-wing splinter party officially known as the New South Wales Labor Party , commonly known as Lang Labor . The Minister for Public Works and Railways, Joseph Lyons , led a conservative faction, which believed in the deflationary approach of balanced budgets and cuts in spending and opposed defaulting on debt repayments. When the more radical Ted Theodore was reinstated as Treasurer by Scullin on 29 January, Joseph Lyons and James Fenton along with three others resigned from

9095-465: The plan for a white paper on full employment. This white paper served a variety of roles; to establish the priority of full employment; to ensure the depression would not recur; and to propose ways to make these objectives possible. Dr H C 'Nugget' Coombs as director-general of the Reconstruction Ministry had major input into this policy. The economic theories proposed by J M Keynes in 1936 were

9202-695: The position was saved by a severe drought in the Dakotas and the Canadian West, as well as unfavorable seed times in Argentina and eastern Australia. The oversupply was now wanted to fill the gaps in the 1929 world wheat production. From 97¢ per bushel in May, the price of wheat rose to $ 1.49 in July. When it was seen that figure would make American farmers get more for their crop that year than in 1928, stocks went up again. In August,

9309-421: The power shifts obtained in Europe, and the democratic political system of the young Australian Federation survived the strain of the period. The James Scullin Labor Government had just assumed power with the commencement of the Scullin Ministry on 22 October following the 1929 federal election , however just a couple of days later, "Black Thursday" would mark the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and

9416-529: The present day. Some people believed that abuses by utility holding companies contributed to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. Many people blamed the crash on commercial banks that were too eager to put deposits at risk on the stock market. In 1930, 1,352 banks held more than $ 853 million in deposits; in 1931, one year later, 2,294 banks failed with nearly $ 1.7 billion in deposits. Many businesses failed (28,285 failures and

9523-588: The press. That was the start of the Great Crash, but until the severe phase of the crash in October, many investors regarded the September "Babson Break" as a "healthy correction" and buying opportunity. On September 20, 1929, top British investor Clarence Hatry and many of his associates were jailed for fraud and forgery, leading to the suspension of his companies. This may have weakened the confidence of Americans in their own companies, although it had minimal impact on

9630-453: The price had fallen to $ 1.31 per bushel. Other important economic barometers were also slowing or even falling by mid-1929, including car sales, house sales, and steel production. The falling commodity and industrial production may have dented even American self-confidence, and the stock market peaked on September 3 at 381.17 just after Labor Day, and it started to falter after Roger Babson issued his prescient "market crash" forecast. By

9737-407: The public their confidence in the market, but their efforts failed to stop the large decline in prices. The massive volume of stocks traded that day made the ticker continue to run until about 7:45 p.m. After a one-day recovery on October 30, when the Dow regained 28.40 points, or 12.34%, to close at 258.47, the market continued to fall, arriving at an interim bottom on November 13, 1929, with

9844-653: The race to arrive first at the place of employment (the first person to turn up was usually hired.) This is depicted in the Australian film Caddie . Many Australians campaigned at a community level through organisations such as the Unemployed Workers Movement to demand improved welfare and relief. Authorities often attempted to repress protest through the use of repressive laws including bans on street marches and free speech. These in turn were resisted by campaigns of civil resistance, with Melbourne social realist artist Noel Counihan famously speaking from inside

9951-612: The same year took over from partner WJ Smith as sole operator of the Liberal . He went on to contest the Wollondilly seat at the NSW State elections in 1909. On 18 October 1909, Gilmartin fell victim to a violent assault near his home in Crookwell, and subsequently died of complications from the injuries he received. Originally charged with Gilmartin's murder, his assailant, Christopher Stephenson,

10058-441: The soldiers who had just returned from war the hardest as they were in their mid-thirties and still suffering the trauma of their wartime experiences. At night many slept covered in newspapers at Sydney’s Domain or at Salvation Army refugees. The limited jobs that did arise were viciously fought for. The job vacancies were advertised in the daily newspaper, which formed massive queues to search for any job available. This then caused

10165-437: The spectre of another depression in their campaign rhetoric, utilised emergency wartime powers to introduce a command economy in Australia based on Keynesian principles. Unemployment was virtually eliminated in this period, being reduced to a record low of 1.1%. In 1942, income tax became federally controlled with the states conceding that the war effort needed a centrally controlled financial basis. In 1944, Curtin announced

10272-450: The subsequent global onset of the Great Depression. From the outset the government was buffeted by the effects of the global economic crisis. With the government unable to implement the deflationary Premiers' Plan , Labor had split by 1931 over how to deal with the crisis, with Treasurer Ted Theodore failing to implement his Keynesian inflationary plans, and New South Wales Premier Jack Lang losing office over his plans to boost

10379-478: The support of the Nationalist Party of Australia . Lyons quit the ALP to become parliamentary leader of the newly established United Australia Party, with John Latham, Nationalist Leader of the Opposition, becoming the new party's deputy leader. In November 1931, Lang Labor dissidents chose to challenge the Scullin Labor government and align with the United Australia Party Opposition to pass

10486-401: The time: We are reaping the natural fruit of the orgy of speculation in which millions of people have indulged. It was inevitable, because of the tremendous increase in the number of stockholders in recent years, that the number of sellers would be greater than ever when the boom ended and selling took the place of buying. Together, the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression formed

10593-415: The violation of public order. There is a debate among economists and historians as to what role the crash played in subsequent economic, social, and political events. The Economist argued in a 1998 article that the Depression did not start with the stock market crash, nor was it clear at the time of the crash that a depression was starting. They asked, "Can a very serious Stock Exchange collapse produce

10700-463: The wages that workers wanted. The result was a series of strikes in many sectors of the economy in the late 1920s. Coal miners' strikes in the winter of 1929 brought much of the economy to its knees. A riot at a picket line in the Hunter Region mining town of Rothbury saw police shoot one teenage coal miner dead. The conservative Prime Minister of Australia , Stanley Bruce , wished to dismantle

10807-415: The wheat price fell when France and Italy were bragging about a magnificent harvest, and the situation in Australia improved. That sent a shiver through Wall Street and stock prices quickly dropped, but word of cheap stocks brought a fresh rush of "stags" (amateur speculators) and investors. Congress voted for a $ 100 million relief package for the farmers on the hope of stabilizing wheat prices, but by October,

10914-506: The world instituted measures to suspend trading in the event of rapid declines, claiming that the measures would prevent such panic sales. However, the one-day crash of Black Monday , October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6%, as well as Black Monday of March 16, 2020 (−12.9%), were worse in percentage terms than any single day of the 1929 crash (although the combined 25% decline of October 28–29, 1929,

11021-487: Was available. Single unemployed men had to make do in illegal camps or makeshift hostels in disused buildings, such as the old Redfern Fish Market . Shacks were built on the outskirts of large cities to house some who lost their homes, for example near the beach at Garie in the Royal National Park south of Sydney. There has been anecdotal evidence of families resorting to living in caves with authorities turning

11128-638: Was being produced for Morton by AJ Lucas, however publication ceased entirely sometime between March and October of that year. The paper has been digitised as part of the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program project hosted by the National Library of Australia . Great Depression in Australia Australia was affected badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with

11235-592: Was convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter Gilmartin was buried in Crookwell's Roman Catholic Cemetery after a funeral which drew a cortege of "over a mile of vehicles following the body to the graveside" and during which "all the business houses closed from 11 to 12 o'clock". Following Gilmartin's death, his mother, Mary Ann, took over operation of The Argyle Liberal . She remained as editor and proprietor for 18 years, until January 1927, when she relinquished control to Mr WJ Morton due to ill health. Mary Ann died on 3 October 1927, aged 72. In early 1930, The Liberal

11342-463: Was larger than that of October 19, 1987, and remains the worst two-day decline as of October 7, 2024 ). The crash followed a speculative boom that had taken hold in the late 1920s. During the latter half of the 1920s, steel production, building construction, retail turnover, automobiles registered, and even railway receipts advanced from record to record. The combined net profits of 536 manufacturing and trading companies showed an increase, in

11449-543: Was unconstitutional. The government unsuccessfully appealed the decision in the Privy Council . In 1949, the combined perceived threats of international and domestic communism and industrial unrest along with the public's waning support for extended rationing and intervention following the close of the War saw the return of Menzies to the prime ministership. Though Menzies was a conservative, his sixteen subsequent years in power saw

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