As editor of Liberty, Bernarr Macfadden (1868 – 1955) made it known to all his readers that he was no admirer of FDR and his New Deal. His monthly columns berated that administration at every turn and the column that appeared on August 8, 1936 was no exception. Macfadden accused the President of knee-caping the U.S. economy. Similar to other FDR critics, he held that America was emerging from the depths of the Great Depression when the New Deal came to power and plunged the country deeper into the muck:
“It is this administration’s wild fanatical wasteful management, marked by the most glaring inefficiency, together with a challenging climax in the form of an attack on business generally, that caused the unparalleled increase in the necessity for work and other relief for which the present administration claims so much credit … It was their attack on business that destroyed the confidence of businessmen generally.”
Click here to read another editorial about FDR’s poor handling of the business climate.
A similar MacFadden editorial from 1938 can be read here.
The editors at New Masses were not impressed with Macfadden, and said as much in this article.
