The Great Depression – Page 7 – Old Magazine Articles

The End of the NRA
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

During the Spring of 1935 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously proclaimed FDR’s National Recovery Administration and void – and the names of some 5,300 of its Washington, D.C. functionaries were immediately entered onto the unemployment list. All except one: Diana Rogovin; she was the sole survivor of the bureaucracy. To her fell the task of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s as the great ship went down. She completed her last duty in February of 1937.

The Problem With Codes
(New Outlook, 1934)

KEY WORDS: allen raymond the cost of the codes New Outlook magazine september 1934,magazine article by journalist allen raymond 1934,

The NRA Shows Its Teeth
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1933)

The National Recovery Administration (1933 – 1935) was just one of the many alphabet agencies that the FDR administration created; his critics at the time, like the historians today, all believed that it was one of the well-meaning Federal efforts that simply prolonged the the Great Depression.

This is 1933 editorial addressed the various violation codes (there were 500 of them) and punishments that the Federal Government was prepared to dish out to all businesses wishing to defy any of the assorted labor laws and price-fixing measures that the NRA was designed to enforce.

From Amazon: Nine Honest Men

The NRA Shows Its Teeth
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1933)

From Amazon: Nine Honest Men

FDR Takes On the Great Depression
(The Literary Digest, 1933)

All the editorial writers quoted in this 1933 article agreed that FDR was the first U.S. President to ever have faced a genuine economic calamity as that which was created by the Great Depression:

Look at the picture flung into the face of Franklin Roosevelt:

Ships are tied up in harbors and their hulls are rotting; freight trains are idle; passenger trains are empty; 11,000,000 people are without work; business is at a standstill; the treasury building is bursting with gold, yet Congress wrestles with a deficit mounting into the billions, the result of wild and extravagant spending; granaries are overflowing with wheat and corn; cotton is a drag on the market, food crops are gigantic and unsalable, yet millions beg for food; mines are shut down; oil industries are engaged in cutthroat competition; farmers are desperate, taking the law into their own hands to prevent foreclosures; factories are idle; industry is paralyzed…

Tyranny At Home
(New Outlook Magazine, 1935)

In the Spring of 1935, as the world slipped deeper and deeper into the muck of the Great Depression, journalist Cedric Fowler noticed that both governments state and Federal were introducing legislation that was designed to muzzle free-speech and make the deportation of foreign radicals far easier. At first he thought it was a result of the spread of Fascism across the globe – and it had finally reached our shores. He also considered the possibility that the elected classes, realizing that they were unable to reduce the destruction of the Depression, felt emasculated and invigorated by picking on the radical minority. Either way, he feared for the nations future.

Unemployment Data for 1930
(Pathfinder Magazine,1930)

In a statement for the month of December, President Green of the Federation of Labor placed the number of unemployed at about 5,000,000; estimated that incomes of wage earners had declined over $6,000,000,000 in the past year and said about 50 percent of trade union members had had to lower their standard of living because of lowered incomes.

The Benevolent Government…
(New Outlook Magazine, 1935)

Sadly, this is a story that has been duplicated numerous times throughout the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Red China, Vietnam, Canada and every other nation where the people have entrusted their health care to a faceless bureaucracy. It was a pathetic anecdote that was adored by FDR’s critics.

More about New Deal spending can be read here…

The Governor Who Threatened Martial Law
(Literary Digest, 1933)

An article about Governor Floyd B. Olson (1891 – 1936) of Minnesota who allowed his emotions to get the better of him one day in the early Spring of 1933 when he threatened to impose martial law throughout the state in order to confiscate private wealth should his proposed relief legislation fail to pass the Minnesota Senate:

Was former Democratic vice-President Henry Wallace a dirty Red?

‘Nobody Starves”
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

This article attempted to explain to that portion of the reading public fortunate enough to have jobs, just how the county relief programs worked and what was provided to the subscribers. The journalist did not weigh-in as to whether she approved or disapproved of the program but sought to explain that in places like the Mid-West, where houses outnumbered apartment buildings, allowances for such possessions were made. In the congested cities of the East it might be expected that the family car be sold prior to receiving relief funds, but in the states where distances were greater subscribers were permitted to hold on to their cars.