I haven't heard the 3 Stripped Gears recording, but Tony Russell's Country Music 1920-1942 indicates it's an instrumental. Anyway, the text of the song shows quite clearly that it was composed some time after the events in the title. The Gears were a mandolin/guitars trio and probably didn't use the modal melody of Ed Sturgill's song.

1931 Depression Blues
(Ed Sturgill, as sung by New Lost City Ramblers)
(from the NLCR cover; Ed Sturgill's original has been reissued on that set of coal mining songs produced by a small community org in southwestern VA but I don't have a copy of it)

Now come on boys and listen while I tell
Oh, the old depression that we all remember well
Oh, the year it happened, is when it begun
The year that it happened Nineteen hundred and thirty one.

When we go to the mine with half enough to eat
With old rags on our backs and no shoes on our feet
And we go to the office with scrip on our minds
And the scrip writer says, "You're one dollar behind."

When we used to load coal we loaded it for fun
Oh, we loaded by the acre and it wasn't by the ton
Then we'd go to the scale house to look at our weight
And the scale boss says that we dumped it over slate.

(banjo solo)

Oh, depression is gone, I am glad it is gone
Oh, the year that it happened, Nineteen hundred and thirty-one
When the NRA it was made over night
And the big supreme judge he said it wasn't right.

Then Roosevelt stepped in, he was doing his best
When he closed all the banks and he gave them a rest
Then he opened them up and he put them on their feet
Says, "Boys, use your pockets now, your money can't be beat."

(banjo solo)

Oh, depression is gone, I am glad it is gone
Oh, the year that it happened, Nineteen hundred and thirty-one,
And the public said, "John L, it can never be done,"
But somehow he got the miners' battle won.

Now, come on, boys, you can give me your hand
You can join the UMW if you want to be a man
Oh, you may be eating now, have a place to sleep,
It won't be so long you'll be kicked out in the street.

For it's 16 tons and what did I get?
Just one day older, little more in debt
Depression is gone, I am glad it is gone,
The year it began, Nineteen hundred and thirty one.

As for chords, there aren't any, but you can get by with Dm and C if you're doing this on guitar. The song should be played on banjo, in f#CGAD ("Dock Boggs" tuning). Ed Sturgill, who composed and recorded it, was a neighbor and admirer of Dock Boggs and replicates his style very well, as does Mike Seeger in the NLCR cover. When I met him in 1968 Dock spoke of Ed Sturgill and played a verse or two of the song for me on his banjo.