Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 15/John Campbell

Overview
John Campbell was born in North Chattanooga, Tennessee and worked as a stock boy at an overall company until he moved to Florida with his mother to work for his uncle. A significant portion of his life occurred during the Great Depression, so he was interviewed by James Aswell as a part of the Federal Writers' Project.

Early Life
John Campbell was born into a family of six, with two older brothers and a younger sister in North Chattanooga, Tennessee. Campbell’s father did not have the opportunity to go to high school, and so without a proper education, his choice in finding a job was very limited. He ended up working for an overall company, Travis and Son, as a pattern maker. During Herbert Hoover's Presidency, Campbell’s father made a decent amount of money, considering his education status; however, as the economy continued to spiral down, in 1933, Travis and Son closed down due to the Great Depression. Campbell's family faced great financial instability along with hardships in debt because of his father's unemployment. Winter of 1934, his father started to work again at the same company but was not making as much as before. With reduced wages the company experienced cut-throat competition. The fast workers made up to sixteen and eighteen dollars a week while slow workers made as little as fifty cents a week. After the National Recovery Administration (NRA) was created, however, there were an increase in unions, which helped promote for better working conditions at Travis and Son.

Later Life
The summer after Campbell graduated high school, the NRA ceased their operations. Consequently, company owners like Old Blane MacGonnigal—owner of Travis and Son--resulted back to their cut-throat competition between workers, which ultimately led to the overworked death of Campbell's father. Campbell who was planning to go to college did not have enough money to pay for tuition, so he decided to work, but could not find any other place to work besides at Travis and Son, so he worked there as a stock boy (stocked shelves). Campbell personally experienced poor working conditions while working. Although he was hired as a stock boy, he was forced to do the work of others as well. Another stock boy was fired, and Old Blane placed all his work on Campbell without a proper raise in his salary. As a result, Campbell never had the time and energy to prepare for college. He later quit and moved to Florida with his mother to work for his uncle.

Hoover's Contribution to Unemployment during the Great Depression
The Industrial Labor Program that Herbert Hoover developed accounted for a significant portion of the Great Depression. The program raised the wages of workers in return of protection from unions; however, while the hourly earrings had been increased, manufacturing hours declined, which depressed the economy furthermore. From a research, “By September 1931, manufacturing hours worked had declined more than 40 percent, and the average workweek in manufacturing had declined by about 20 percent.” The Great Depression left many Americans with no jobs or savings and many lost their homes. Another research found that the unemployment in comparison to 1929 was increased from 3.2% to 25% by 1933.

White Male's Education Affected by the Great Depression
The Great Depression produced various adverse economic and social effects. One important economic hardship that was the Depression prompted was low levels of educational attainment. From a research point of view, the data found that the average educational loss compared from 10.29 years to approximately 22.3 days for the white male cohort born between 1911 and 1915. These male cohorts would've been in high school during the time where unemployment rates increased by over 20% 1929-1933. As the unemployment rates increased, many families simply could not afford education. This caused "high school students [to] drop out [or] not seek further education" and look for a job to support their families.

Competition during the Great Depression
Franklin D. Roosevelt's program, the New Deal aimed to promote economic recovery, relief for the unemployed and poor, and reform of financial systems through acts such as increase in industrial unionism and a decrease in wages. It was found however that "The industries, in other words, exposed to the unrestricted forces of competition show low wage rates; whereas the sheltered industries, which for one reason or another have been able to maintain higher levels of output, and industries in which labor has controlled the rate of wages show relatively high wage rates." With lower salaries, the workers experienced a greater pressure to compete against each other because there were no minimum wage set in place. The workers who worked the fastest got paid the most while the workers who worked the slowest got paid the least. In order to decrease cut-throat competition, Roosevelt placed a minimum wage law through the NRA.

National Recovery Administration (NRA)
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency. The goal of this government agency was for economic and business recovery from the Great Depression through fair-practice codes. "Workers would have, for the first time, the right to join unions. Armed with that slogan, activists set out to rebuild old unions and create new ones." This was part of the National Industrial Recovery Act which instituted industrial-wide codes to reduce unemployment and unfair practices, establish minimum wages and maximum hours, and guarantee the right of labour to bargain collectively. Ultimately, the NRA established 557 basic codes and 208 supplementary codes before they were deemed unconstitutional in 1935.