WWI and the Great Depression

How did WWI affect Ann Arbor?

• Mass rallies were held, about 5000 people attended (Rosentrater).
• Ann Arbor sent their military unit, Company I of the Thirty First Michigan Volunteer Infantry into war with the US Army on August 5, 1917 (Ann).
• Women of Ann Arbor were urged to help the Red Cross and Washtenaw County Women’s Committee. They also observed “meatless”, “wheatless”, and “sweetless days” to save food (Ann).

• "1800 students joined the ROTC in the fall of 2017” (Ann).
• “Students volunteered for the armed forces as well; enrollment declined by about 1,500 from that of the previous spring and some 400 men left school during the fall term . . . In April 1918 the University acceded to a War Department request to train non-college draftees as gunsmiths, machinists, blacksmiths, carpenters, and mechanics. By November, over 2,000 men had had two months of training in Ann Arbor. Early the same year the Students Army Training Corps was initiated by the War Department. At one point that year, 3,750 men on campus were involved in military programs, placing intense strain on housing facilities. The unfinished Michigan Union was used as a barracks for 400 men and a mess hall for 4,000. A temporary mess hall for 1,900 was set up next to the Union” (Ann).
  • Student enrollment in German classes dropped significantly (Ann).
• The Spanish Influenza struck Ann Arbor in the Fall of 1918. The University suffered the most because they were overcrowded. On October 16, the city’s public health officer announced that all places of public assembly were closed down until further notice. Public schools were closed the next day and everyone was ordered to wear face masks. “The Daily Times News reported on October 18 that ‘The campus looks like a Turkish harem this morning with all the students and faculty members wearing their gauze masks, with President Hutchins leading the procession with a mask that looks like an Oriental rug.’" November saw the disease dissipating and on November 9th, the public assembly ban was lifted. In October alone, there were 115 deaths (Ann).
• U of M professors William H. Hobbs and Claude H. Van Tyne “led a local chapter of the National Security League which advocated courses on patriotism and supported anything that promoted the Allies or disparaged the Germans.” The League’s main focus was ridding the university of any employees who failed to pass their "'real American’ litmus test.” Some of the first people they got rid of were members of U of M’s German department. Tyne also advocated for another league called “Patriotism through Education” which would strive to stir patriotism while “crushing” the Germans. He imagined revised lectures and gained the governor’s support to start as low as grade 7 (Rosentrater 252).
• When the war ended on November 11th, the mayor received the news early that morning and ordered a fire truck and the Judge rang the bell at the courthouse. There was a bonfire blazing by 4am at the corner of Main and Huron. Later in the day, the city watched their quickly organized parade ride through the streets and end at Hill Auditorium (Ann).

What was life like in Ann Arbor during the Great Depression?

• In December of 1929, the Mayor assured the city that their economy would not suffer this temporary crisis (Ann).
• The University did not suffer immediately, they were using a budget they appropriated that would run out in 1931. In 1931, a ten percent pay decrease went into place and enrollment decreased ten percent (Ann).
• “Companies which supplied parts for the automotive industry, such as American Broach, King Seeley, and Hoover Ball & Bearing, accounted for a large per cent of the industrial work force and were immediately forced to reduce production and to lay off factory and office workers. Several firms went into receivership and withdrew from Ann Arbor. Others merged with out-of-state companies hoping that additional resources would allow them to survive, even if the patterns of employment shifted away from Ann Arbor. Retail establishments, which accounted for a majority of the city's income, suffered a fifty per cent drop in sales. Although few businesses declared bankruptcy, most were plagued by unpaid bills and increasing debts. The building boom of the previous decade which had created new University buildings, factories, stores, and homes stopped short as Ann Arbor prepared to wait out the financial slump. Home-building permits declined from 260 in 1929 to an average of fewer than 50 during each of the next six years. Not only did contractors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and suppliers suffer, but unemployed factory workers were denied the temporary construction work which had previously allowed them to survive periodic unemployment” (Ann).
• Washtenaw County suffered less than other counties that only survive on one crop (Washtenaw was in connection with grain, vegetable, dairy and poultry products). The amount of farm foreclosures increased and farm auctions became more frequent (Ann).
• Unemployment in 1931 was at 10 percent (Ann).

Sense of Community

• “The Community Fund supported eleven private welfare agencies and the city's Poor and Cemetery Committee provided emergency aid to indigents and transients. But as unemployment soared, the usual means of support proved totally inadequate. With the help of the Boy Scouts, the Community Fund redoubled its annual campaign appeals. Allocating most of its resources to the Family Welfare Bureau, the Community Fund focused on immediate relief problems by sponsoring clothing drives and soup kitchens. Civic groups directed their charitable activities to the relief problem and the League of St. Andrew Thrift Shop expanded its operations. Spontaneous events like a community dance and the post-season Michigan Chicago football game in 1930, as well as regular events like the Police and Firemen's Ball, added funds to the community welfare effort” (Ann).
• Most of the Relief Work Fell on the City
  • Provided community jobs - building fences, pulling weeds, planting trees, etc. - for 30 cents an hour (Ann).
  • Set up relief funds for food, clothing and housing (Ann).
  • “But the city could not provide relief and jobs indefinitely. The number of families on relief jumped from 162 in 1931 to 405 in 1933. Monthly welfare costs skyrocketed from $2,000 to $14,000 per month. Increased expenditures were juxtaposed against the city's rapidly shrinking revenues. Despite several municipal bond issues for the city's public works projects and continued borrowing from the annual contingency fund, the welfare fund was always low. Traditional financial revenues had decreased by almost sixty per cent, due to the rising rate of tax delinquency and declining valuations of local property. Even special emergency relief bonds amounting to $150,000 passed in November 1932 were exhausted within six months . . . On May 10, 1933, the Daily News headlined "City Welfare Fund Emptied," and only cases of "dire necessity" would receive aid. Fortunately, in the following week implementation of state and federal welfare programs rescued Ann Arbor's welfare fund with Reconstruction Finance Corporation loans of over $10,000 and established the pattern of state and federal cooperation in local relief efforts. Longer than many other cities, Ann Arbor had shouldered the burden of relief and had reason to be proud of its community spirit and welfare accomplishments. The confidence of city leaders had been justified” (Ann).

• Recreation Provided Relief
  • Athletic teams provided a distraction for some of the city (Ann).
  • City parks became a spot for recreation and leisure (Ann).
    • People participated in skating, tobogganing, swimming, fishing, canoeing, and went to summer concerts in local parks (Ann).
  • Cultural/Entertainment Activities
    • Movie houses and Wheaties program drew people into cartoons, theater, and musicals. Radios brought daily news into homes (Ann).
• Recovery Begins
  • The census in 1937 revealed that unemployment had decreased immensely from 20% during the depression’s worst years (Ann).
  • “A slow but steady recovery was indicated in the expansion of existing industries and by the entrance of new companies. King-Seeley, Ann Arbor's largest industrial employer, built three additions to its factory after 1935, and quadrupled its employment from 200 in 1930 to 800 in 1936. The American Broach and Machine Company, expanding its plant in 1935 and again in 1936, employed 140 men who produced metal parts destined for Europe and Russia” (Ann).
  • The retail business started booming again with new stores being established and employment increasing: “According to a 1936 survey the amount of retail sales per capita in Washtenaw County was $599.00--the highest in the State of Michigan” (Ann).
  • Construction at the University resumed (Hutchins Hall, Rackham building, Burton Memorial Tower) (Ann).
  • New schools were established due to overcrowding in current schools (Ann).