‘Don’t Blame Me”
(Collier’s Magazine, 1952)
In this 1952 article, Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States (1929 – 1933) painstakingly explained why he was not responsible for the Great Depression.
The Great Depression
Find archive articles on the Great Depression from the 1930’s. Our site has great information from old magazine and newspaper articles on the Great Depression.
Are College Degrees Needed In Such A Bad Economy?
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)
There is sharply divided sentiment on [the subject of education]. One faction holds that a costly ‘overproduction of brains’ has contributed to our [economic] plight, while the opposition reasons that any curtailment in educational expenditure would be ‘false economy’ and that only from the best minds will come our economic salvation.
The Growth of the Deficit
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)
This short column refers to the growth of the U.S. deficit that was bloated during the Hoover Administration (1929 – 1933) – which up to that time was the largest ever incurred during peace time. When FDR assumed the mantel of the Presidency, it would grow considerably larger.
Click here to read an article about 1930s government spending.
Yet, despite the growing deficits, the United States was still an enormously wealthy nation…
The Formerly Rich
(New Outlook Magazine, 1933)
The last report of the Bureau of Internal Revenue furnishes conclusive evidence that many of the families who were maintaining our social front during the delirious decade ending in 1930 have been reduced to incomes that are negligible… Well-worn suits, cobbled shoes and re-enforced linen is what the quondam well-dressed man of 1929 is now wearing, even when he appears at such country clubs as have managed to survive by waiving dues rather than close their doors.
The Temper of the Times
(New Outlook Magazine, 1933)
Columnist George Sokolosky (1893 – 1962), writing from the road, reported that a general uneasiness had fallen across the land as a result of the economic stagnation:
Wherever I go, I am told of how many families live on the city and country. In Williamsport, Pa., a delightfully intelligent young woman explained to me how this year was different from last in that many of those who contributed to charities are now, rather quietly, taking charity.
President Hoover’s Farewell Address
(Literary Digest, 1933)
With FDR waiting in the wings, eagerly anticipating the start of his administration, the outgoing president, Herbert Hoover (1874 – 1964), made his farewell address to the cash-strapped nation:
Warning against the ‘rapid degeneration into economic war which threatens to engulf the world’ the President said that ‘the imperative call to the world today is to prevent that war.’ The gold standard, he said ‘is the need of the world,’ for only by the early reëstablishment of that standard can the barriers to trade be reduced.’
Read about the Great Depression and the U.S. auto industry during the last year of the Hoover presidency…
Private Charity During The Great Depression
(New Outlook Magazine, 1932)
The obligation for giving this year does not fall on the shoulders of the rich and powerful business concerns alone! It is an obligation which rests upon all who are gainfully employed…They should give, not because it is good policy, but because they have at heart the preservation of the human interests of the country.
– so wrote Newton D. Baker in this editorial from 1932 in which he promoted the effectiveness of the private charity that he was chairing: the Committee for Welfare Relief Mobilization. When President Hoover stepped-up and advocated for public donations to private charity organizations America answered the call in various forms.
FDR on Wage Reduction
(Literary Digest, 1938)
I am opposed to wage reductions – a statement made by President Roosevelt at a February press conference in 1938, compelled both economists and industrialists to ejaculate numerous multisyllabic words on the matter. In light of the fact that magazine editors are wage earners, the majority of selected quotes side with FDR.
Click here to read about the end of the Great Depression…
Bankrolling Economic Stagnation
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)
Read an article about the 1935 dolar … Click here to read about the end of the Great Depression…
Women on the Relief Rolls
(New Outlook Magazine, 1935)
It is illuminating to realize that more persons are receiving relief in the United States than there are individuals in such well-known countries as Romania (18,000,000), Mexico (16,500,000), Czechoslovakia (14,800,000) and Yugoslavia (14,000,000); over twice as many as Belgium (8,000,000) and Holland (7,920,000); about three times as many as in Sweden (6,140,000) and to cut theses comparisons short – almost seven times as many in all of Norway (2,800,000)… Clearly, it is not in the least inaccurate to speak of the relief population of the United States as a great nation within a nation… Women and children comprise as much as two thirds of the relief population.