214 a short history of the united states
Tariff and the President signed it on June 17 , 1930. It was the highest
tariff ever passed by Congress and raised import duties on agricultural
items to forty-five percent, with special protection awarded to sugar,
cotton, and citrus fruits. These increases were so excessive that
twenty-six foreign countries retaliated by raising their rates, and Amer-
ican exports took a nosedive. To aid the farmers even further, Congress
passed the Agricultural Market Act in June 1929, which established the
Federal Farm Board of eight members plus the secretary of agriculture
and created a revolving fund of $ 500 million for low-interest loans to
cooperatives to build ware houses and sell surplus crops.
But these efforts came too late. On October 23 , 1929 , the stock mar-
ket crashed, and thus began the worst economic depression in the na-
tion’s history.