While the rural population continued to grow in the late 1800s, the urban population was growing much more rapidly. Still, a majority of Americans lived in rural areas in 1900. Many of those Americans had settled on the plains in the 1880s.
I believe the answer is: The government had little involvement with monitoring the health of banks.
The banks at that time were notorious for giving the credit without actually having enough capital to back the credit up, and a lot of reckless speculation were made by investment analyst who work for the banks Without government involvement, they have every freedom to do so. Over time, this create massive bubble that lead to the Great Depression.
Nope. He never personally travelled to Africa.
