The Great Depression hit Nebraska hard, as grain and livestock prices fell in half, and unemployment was widespread in the cities. The collapse of the stock market in October 1929 did not result in great personal fortunes being lost. The greatest effect the crash had on Nebraska was the fall of farm prices because the state's economy was greatly dependent on their crop. Crop prices began to drop in the final quarter of the year and continued until December 1932 where they reached their lowest in state history. Governor Charles W. Bryan, a Democrat, was at first unwilling to request aid from the national government, but when the Federal Emergency Relief Act became law in 1933 Nebraska took part. Rowland Haynes, the state's emergency relief director, was the major force in implementing such national New Deal relief programs as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Civil Works Administration. Robert L. Cochran, a Democrat who became governor in 1935, sought federal assistance and placed Nebraska among the first American states to adopt a social security law. The enduring impact of FERA and social security in Nebraska was to shift responsibility for social welfare from counties to the state, which henceforth accepted federal funding and guidelines. The change in state and national relations may have been the most important legacy of these New Deal programs in Nebraska.