In 1930, the country was already hurting. But when President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, everything got worse.
Farmers like Walter Jensen, who once shipped eggs to Canada, lost everything almost overnight. In Detroit, Harold Morgan watched the auto industry collapse and his family fall apart. What began as a promise to protect American jobs turned into a global trade war that deepened the Great Depression and devastated millions of families.
Decades later, President Ronald Reagan—another Republican—would learn from that mistake and reverse course, laying the groundwork for modern free trade.
📜 Walter and Harold’s stories are fictional, but their struggle was real. And their pain still echoes today.
