The Great Depression – Page 6 – Old Magazine Articles

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 wealthy were targeted for high taxation…

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…Read more

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.

‘Dishonest Banks”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

Read an article about the 1935 dolar … CLICK HERE to read additional primary source articles about the Great Depression…Read

Farmers in Flight
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

A report from the regional directors of the Resettlement Administration (an arm of the FDR’s Department of Agriculture) stated that:

15,000 farmers have moved out of the Dakotas, Western Kansas and Eastern Montana, leaving soil which because a aridity or exhaustion could not yield any crop… [Having moved to the states of the Pacific Northwestern] Some of them are squatting in shacks and makeshift dwellings made of tree branches, stray boards [and] strips of tin.

Social Washington During the Depression
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Washington Society, long shackled, kicked the lid off last week, swung into the most dazzling season it has had since the Depression spawned bread lines, and knocked the wealthy back on their heels.

Money is spinning again; hostesses are plotting major campaigns; diamonds and pearls are coming out for renewed display; caviar and terrapin reign supreme once more…

Click here to read about American high society during the Depression years.

I936 Saw A Wee-Bit of Prosperity
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

This article sums up the income data that was collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce and published in June of 1937. The report stated that

The national income increased in 1936 by a larger amount, absolutely and relatively, than in 1935. Income produced rose to 63.8 billion dollars, an increase of 8.8 billion dollars, an increase over the 1935 total.

A chart has been provided.

Click here to read about the economic disaster that 1937 was

False Hope for 1937
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Perhaps it was the practice of magazine editors during the Great Depression to instruct their reporters to find hope where none existed; that must have been the case for this article. The unnamed journalist who wrote this slender column reported on a few rare cases involving real jobs with real salaries being offered to recent graduates; the reporter wished to believe that this was a sign that the end was nigh – but these few jobs were flukes. The author saw economic growth where there really wasn’t any at all, however he certainly made the case for its existence. The title link posted above leads to a passage from FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression by Jim Powell that explains the true situation that existed in 1937, when unemployment stood at 20 percent by Summer.

Badly Needed Dollars Shipped Overseas…
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

No wonder there isn’t any dough to be found -the Commerce Department revealed that immigrant remittances to their countries of origin reached as high as $173,000,000 in 1931. The Italians were the most eager participants, with the Greeks in the number two position.

Click here to read about the American South during the Great Depression.

Motor City Takes It On The Chin
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

By August of 1932, the Great Depression had finally caught up with the American automobile industry:

For the first time in history auto production has fallen off. Last year’s output was 700,000 cars [fewer than the number produced just two years earlier.]

The research has shown that between the Fall of 1929 and 1932 American automobile manufacturing had decreased by 70%.

The Most Powerful American Men During the Depression
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1930)

In 1930 a seasoned diplomat and respected attorney by the name of James Watson Gerard (1867 – 1951) created quite a dust-up in Depression-era Washington when he took it upon himself to release his list of those Americans who he believed to have the most power on Capitol Hill. The reason his compilation turned as many heads as it did was because there wasn’t the name of a single elected official to be found on the list – not even President Hoover was mentioned (although his treasury secretary was, the millionaire industrialist Andrew Mellon).

Click here if you wish to read more on this subject and see Gerard’s list of the most powerful men in Cold War Washington.