After World War I ended, industrial closures and consolidations and declining farm incomes brought hard times to some Perry County residents, and the population fell from 26,263 in 1900 to 21,644 in 1930 as workers left to find employment elsewhere. The Great Depression began nationally in 1929, and by 1933, when unemployment peaked, a Newport relief charity was supporting more than 300 people with food and clothing while tax delinquencies soared and local governments and school districts cut salaries. Nationwide bank failures, Pennsylvania unemployment of 35 percent in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in 1933, and Social Security in 1935 formed part of this broader era. The Clark's Ferry Bridge reduced its toll from 10 cents to 5 cents, and in 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps opened three camps in Perry County where hundreds of young men worked on trails, roads, and reforestation for $1 a day, room, board, and clothing. Almost every town supported new talkie movie houses, the 1931 county fair added automobile racing to horse racing, and Governor Gifford Pinchot's road paving program began improving rural roads and easing some unemployment. As the 1930s continued, conditions improved, though the Perry County Almshouse operated at full capacity and in 1936 the Marysville train yard held 150 locomotives in storage awaiting decommissioning. In 1941 affluent citizens chartered the Perry County Country Club for golf and dining, but in December 1941 war drew the nation in and full employment returned; after the conflict, the club became the Newport American Legion Post. County Historian H.H. Hain wrote at Christmas 1932 that with snow on the ground and little employment, many families lacked food, clothing, bedspreads, shoes, and medicine, urging neighbors to look for those in need. During these years, automobiles helped families gather more easily, and for rural households, gardens and a few farm animals helped many cope.