These two men both lived in America during the time of the Great Depression and while both were affected by the economic crash, their experiences were vastly different. Arthur A. Robertson was an incredibly successful businessman before the stock market crash. He was making seven figures by the age of twenty-four and was living large with friends of equally successful and powerful positions. He was suspicious of the market's booming success and decided to withdraw all of his money from the bank just a couple of weeks before the crash which enabled him to take care of his family through the crisis. Through the nationwide crisis, he tried to help others and act selflessly with his money and while I believe he could have done a great deal more to help suffering Americans, I think what he did was still wonderful. While he had been a multi-millionaire before the economy crashed, he still had hundreds of thousands of dollars afterwards. This was far more money than he and his loved ones needed to get by, but he tried to hold on to the majority of it for their security. Nonetheless, he tried to help those around him by spending a portion of his own money on them or giving out lends. Every day, Robertson would take a line of seventy-five hungry Americans to lunch and pay for their meals. This was a very kind act that helped suffering citizens survive at such a desperate time. He loaned thousands of dollars to other Wall Street business men that he knew he could trust. He even gave small loans to department stores he was familiar with to help their businesses survive. It is true that with as much money as Robertson possessed, he could have done a great deal more to help the millions of people suffering after the stock market crash, but what he did was still incredibly kind and benefitted many otherwise helpless citizens.
Oscar Heline was on the other side of the spectrum during this horrible point in American history. He was a farmer at the time and agriculture suffered immensely from the economic crash. Nobody was buying vegetables or livestock or crops. It was more profitable to burn corn than to attempt to sell it to others. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have to resort to literally burning my family's source of income because that was more profitable than trying to make any more money off of it anymore. This was a tragic time in the lives of many Americans. Heline, along with most other farmers in the country, felt hopeless and powerless in the face of such terrible economic losses. Farmers were destroying their dairy, fresh vegetables, and even murdering their pigs and chickens on the side of the road. Their hope was that by making crops or meat more scarce, the prices that they could sell these crops or animals for would increase. Unfortunately, this plan was useless and farmers ended up destroying their goods without receiving any economic benefits for doing so. Like Robertson, Heline made an effort to help himself and other suffering Americans. A number of farmers joined together to write a farm-legislation and create new laws for gaining support and aid from the American government. The sad truth of the matter is that even with all of the effort these farmers put into this legislation and the immense suffering that was spreading trough the country, their efforts were wasted and they received very little help from the government. I cannot even imagine enduring the kind of hardships that citizens were suffering through. People had to resort to making clothes out of seat covers in automobiles and sleeping on homemade mattresses made from cotton. For Heline and millions of others in the country, it was a struggle to survive. The Great Depression was a terrible point in American history and everyone suffered. Some endured far worse troubles than others, but everyone was faced with the horrifying devastation that filled the country and people, both rich and poor, did everything they could to survive.
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