American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA : When FDR Put the Nation to Work (57 page)

NOTES

Part I
In Extremis

1. T
HE
E
ND OF
J
OBS

Unemployment figures vary among New Deal histories. Here I rely primarily on Brown, 134, 145. Fifteen million unemployed is used by Manchester, 28.

Rise in suicide rate: Galbraith, 133–34. People felt fear…'dark, uncertain future: These views are not unique and are expressed at greater length in any number of New Deal histories, but I rely heavily on Barber.

Hoover to Fourth Pan American Commercial Conference, Oct. 8, 1931, from the American Presidency Project Web site, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=22840. Coolidge to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Jan. 17, 1925, from Bartlett’s
Familiar Quotations,
16th ed., 614.

Babe Ruth’s salary and quote: Arthur Daley in
New York Times
(henceforth
NYT
), Aug. 19, 1948, 29.

Bank failures and unemployment figures: Watkins,
Hungry Years,
41. New York City unemployment: Caro, 369.

3.2 percent unemployment rate: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census,
Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970,
126. Hoover acceptance quote:
NYT,
Aug. 12, 1928, 2.

The composite picture of frustrated job seekers is approximated from accounts in many depression histories, as are the composites of the further effects of joblessness below.

Children in foster homes and orphanages:
NYT,
June 5, 1932, 17.

By 1932, the situation of city dwellers: Watkins,
Hungry Years,
342–47.

And no matter where they lived: ibid., 60–62; 68–70.

Americans slow to turn to charity: ibid., 73. Hoover quotes:
NYT,
Oct. 23, 1928, 2.

Schoolteacher quote: Bauman and Coode, 78.

Elizabethan poor laws: Brown, 3, 13. Chamber of Commerce poll results: ibid., 109. Quote:
NYT,
Dec. 18, 1931, 5.

Shrinkage of state and local tax revenues and charitable contributions covered generally in Brown, chap. 5, “The Battle for Federal Relief Begins,” 103–23.

Winslow Township, N.J.:
NYT,
Jan. 3, 1932, 20.

2. T
HE
P
EOPLE ON
T
HEIR
O
WN

Exchange between Thomas Bell and Judge Alfred Coxe:
NYT,
Jan. 7, 1932, 25.

Los Angeles “slave market”:
NYT,
July 8, 1932, 9. Statewide unemployment rate: Go, Charmaine, U.C. Berkeley,
Unemployment Relief Distribution in the Bay Area During the Depression.
Online at eh.net/Clio/publications/unemployment.htm.

Letters suggesting decorating and clothes from
NYT,
Apr. 25, 1932, 14, and Feb. 13, 1932, 12. Hoover auto construction quote from
NYT,
Apr. 2, 1932,1.

New Ford price from
NYT,
Apr. 3, 1932, Special Features Section, XX6. Per capita income figures from U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Accounts, Table SA1-3, http://www.bea.gov/regional/spi/drill.cfm.

Apple sellers and shippers described in Watkins,
Hungry Years,
76. Hoover quote from Hoover, 195.

Shoeshiners described in Watkins,
Hungry Years,
76–77. Fuller Brush success from Manchester, 33–34.

Larchmont woodcutting from
NYT,
Feb. 22, 1932, 16.

White Plains unemployed golf caddies from
NYT,
Apr. 24, sec. II, 1; Apr. 26, 1932, 14; May 18, 1932, 44. St. Louis golfing clothes donations from
NYT,
Oct. 9, 1932, 28.

Arizona gold prospecting from
NYT,
May 22, 1932, sec. III, 6; July 3, 1932, sec. II, 6. California gold mining from
NYT,
July 3, 1932, sec. IV, 18. Unemployed making jobs by setting fires from Andrist et al., 179.

Weed pullers from
NYT,
Aug. 10, 1932, 6; Aug. 12, 1932, 17; Oct. 9, 1932, sec. II, 6. Pittsburgh Plate Glass actions from
NYT,
June 26, 1932, sec. II, 7. Miami auto tax from
NYT,
June 8, 1932, 28.

Garden plots from
NYT,
May 9, 1932, 17. International Harvester farms from
NYT,
Apr. 20, 1932, 42. Needy family adoptions from
NYT,
Mar. 7, 1932, 7; Mar. 10, 1932, 23. Savannah fish donations:
NYT,
Aug. 14, 1932, sec. II, 6. Train station food baskets:
NYT,
Apr. 14, 1932, 18. Al Capone soup kitchen: pictured in Charles, following 122. Watch finder rewarded from
NYT,
Feb. 7, 1932, 22. Eighty-two New York City breadlines from Manchester, 35. Times Square soup kitchens: Watkins,
Hungry Years,
59.

Pennsylvania jobless from
NYT,
Sept. 27, 1932, 38. St. Louis relief figures from
NYT,
Dec. 24, 1932, 5. New York City unemployed from
NYT,
Oct. 31, 1932, 1. One in seven in city on relief from
NYT,
June 10, 1932, 21. Lillian Wald entreaty from
NYT,
July 8, 1932, 19. Labor forecast from
NYT,
July 18, 1932, 2.

U.S. Steel production figure from Manchester, 34. Spread-the-work movement from
NYT,
Sept. 2, 1932, 1.

Thirty-four million with no income from Manchester, 36.

3. P
LEAS ON
D
EAF
E
ARS

Pinchot to Hoover, Aug. 18, 1931, from National Archives and Records Administration, Hoover Presidential Library online, www.ecommcode.com/hoover/hooveronline/text.109.htm.

Cox bio material from University of Pittsburgh Library System, Archives Service Center online, www.library.pitt.edu/guides/archives/findingaids/ais695.htm.

Cox motorcade from
NYT,
Jan. 8, 1932, 3.

Gorky from Manchester, 23. Hoover flood relief role: Barry, 275–89. Hoover quoted in
NYT,
Jan. 8, 1932, 3.

Chamber of Commerce quote from
NYT,
May 2, 1930, 1. “…sixty days too late” quoted in Manchester, 26. “The real victory”:
NYT,
Jan. 8, 1932,3.

Cox’s army did not leave:
NYT,
Jan. 8, 1932, 3. Hearst support for Garner: Black, 219.

Home again in Pittsburgh: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Web site on the Strip District and Father Cox: www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/strip/strip_n10.htm.

4. T
HE
P
HILOSOPHY OF
“R
UGGED
I
NDIVIDUALISM”

“Rugged individualism”: Hoover campaign speech, New York City, Oct. 22, 1928; text from
NYT,
Oct. 23, 1928, 2.

Hoover bio material: Barry, 275–89.

Umpiring rather than playing: text of Hoover speech,
NYT,
Oct. 23, 1928,2.

“World lives by phrases”: Barry, 289. Also see Manchester, 26, for view of Hoover’s belief that depression was a public relations problem.

Col. Arthur Woods and Emergency Committee for Employment: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 169–70.

Eight million out of work, doubling previous year: ibid., 171. POUR announcement, Gifford background:
NYT,
Aug. 20, 1031, 1. Hoover radio address, quote:
NYT,
Oct. 19, 1931, 1, 4.

The next morning’s report:
NYT,
Oct. 19, 1931, 1.

Thrill of a great spiritual experience: Brown, 99; also Schlesinger, vol. 1, 173. Will Rogers’s joke: H. Hopkins, 62–63.

POUR, Gifford haplessness from Schlesinger, vol. 1, 173–74.

Business leaders’ outlooks from
NYT,
Jan. 1, 1931, 35.

Hoover quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 242.

Mellon joke quoted in ibid., 245; Manchester, 24.

Hoover to Rudy Vallee from Schlesinger, vol. 1, 242; Manchester, 27.

Vallee and Crosby versions at number one: Malcolm Macfarlane’s Bing Crosby Diary 1930–1939, online, http://community.mcckc.edu/crosby/brother.htm.

5. H
OOVERVILLES AND
H
UNGER

John Glenn recollection: Glenn, 23.

Eviction figures: Watkins,
Hungry Years,
57, 60.

Eviction joke: ibid., 57.

Rent strikes:
NYT,
Feb. 9, 1932, 18. Farmers’ revolt against foreclosures from Leuchtenberg,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
(henceforth
FDR
), 23–24.

References to Hoovervilles, etc., appear throughout depression-era histories, including Schlesinger, vol. 1, 245.

Seattle Hooverville: Online Encyclopedia of Seattle/King County History (www.historylink.org/output.cfm?file_id=741). St. Louis Hooverville:
NYT,
Jan. 17, 1932, sec. III, 6. Youngstown Hooverville from Watkins,
Hungry Years,
58; Connie Eisler anecdote from family interview; Pittsburgh shantytown from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Web site, www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/strip/strip_n10.htm.

Hard luck on the river:
NYT,
Aug. 3, 1932, 17; Nov. 25, 1932, 3. “Civilization creaking”: Kessner, 170. Unemployed carpenter Hollinan and baby buggy home in Central Park: ibid. Hoover Valley:
NYT,
Sept. 22, 1932, 3.

Connecticut ocean liner housing petition:
NYT,
Sept. 29, 1932, 3. Los Angeles streetcar housing:
NYT,
July 6, 1932, 2. Houseboats for the homeless on Lake Pontchartrain:
NYT,
July 24, 1932, sec. II, 6. Detroit tent city:
NYT,
Aug. 7, 1932, 8. New York City homeless housing proposals:
NYT,
Oct. 3, 1932, 9.

British heir:
NYT,
Oct. 7, 1932, 2.

Hoover quoted on starving, hoboes: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 242; also Manchester, 41. Seven-course meals in black tie: ibid., 23.

Starvation figures are notoriously difficult to confirm, since death often is attributed to other causes. The report of twenty deaths in 1931 comes from the University of Houston’s digital history Web site, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/children_depression/depression_ children_menu.cfm. The report of 105 deaths in 1932 comes from www.bookrags.com/research/great-depression-timeline-gdnd-01/.
NYT,
June 1, 1934 (25), reports 31 deaths by hunger and 104 by malnutrition in 1932. Mother and daughter starving:
NYT,
Sept. 7, 1932, 13. Starving nurse:
NYT,
Sept. 9, 1932, 42.

People no longer overeating:
NYT,
Jan. 2, 1932, p. 12.

Farm prices: Manchester, 36–37. Consumer: Morris County, N.J. historic price survey www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/1932.htm; 1932–1933 price list, Mooresville, Ind. (www.todaysteacher.com/TheGreatDepressionWebQuest/1932pricelist.htm).

TERA fishing licenses:
NYT,
Aug. 22, 1932, 17; Aug. 26, 1932, 19.

Health figures: Watkins,
Hungry Years,
64.

6. T
HE
P
ROBLEM WITH
L
AISSEZ
-F
AIRE

Wealth ownership from Manchester, 44; poverty from ibid., 32.

Oregon hours: usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/30.htm. Massachusetts minimum wage: Clifford F. Thies, “The First Minimum Wage Laws,”
The Cato Journal
10, 3 (Winter 1991): 716. Online at www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj10n3-7.pdf. Child labor: www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos/. Edgerton quote from “An Industrial Leader Who Leads: A Brief Story of How John E. Edgerton, Through a Natural Sequence of Life and Action, Was Called to Lead the Nation’s Organized Industry,” E5, National Association of Manufacturers archives.

Wages and Edgerton quote from Manchester, 38.

Speed-up: Watkins,
Hungry Years,
126–27. Ford quote: ibid., 126.

Stretch-out: ibid., 192–93.

Liberty of contract and background: University of Missouri at Kansas City law school Web site, http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/libertyofk.htm. Child laborers: Kessner, 169.

“Liquidate labor”: ibid.

Young quote from Andrist et al., 159. McGrady quote: Schlesinger, vol. 1, 176. Illinois Relief Commission and Cermak: ibid., 176, 250.

7. R
UMBLES ON THE
L
EFT

The origins of socialism and Communism in the United States have been written about widely. Contributions to my discussion include all three volumes of Schlesinger, principally
Crisis of the Old Order,
210–23, and Watkins,
Hungry Years,
111–22.

Debs arrest, draft cards:
NYT,
June 17, 1918, 6. Conviction upheld:
NYT,
Apr. 1, 1919, 4.

Hardwick and mail bomb plot:
NYT,
May 1, 1919, 1. Palmer and Roosevelt windows, leaflets:
NYT,
June 3, 1919, 1. Eight cities:
NYT,
June 4, 1919, 3.

New laws:
NYT,
May 3, 1919, 1. Palmer raids: Andrist et al., 30; Watkins,
Hungry Years,
114. Wall St. bombing and initial death toll:
NYT,
Sept. 17, 1920, 1.

Election results: 2003
New York Times Almanac,
108.

8,000 members from Schlesinger, vol. 3, 197; Young quoted in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 176.

Tactics of Unemployed Councils from ibid., 219.

National Hunger March of Unemployed Councils in December 1931 is mentioned in Schlesinger, vol. 1, 219–20, but the account here comes primarily from newspaper sources, especially
NYT,
Nov. 3, 1931, 3; Dec. 6, 1931, 3; Dec. 7, 1931, 1; Dec. 8, 1931, 1; Dec. 9, 1931, 2; Dec. 10, 1931, 7.

St. Louis protests:
NYT,
July 12, 1932, 2. Toledo grocery raid:
NYT,
Sept. 13, 1932, 2. Mob at Associated Charities:
NYT,
Sept. 9, 1932, 42. Crowd at Cleveland mayor’s office:
NYT,
Nov. 22, 1932, 9. New York Home Relief Bureau protests:
NYT,
Dec. 6, 1932, 46; Dec. 7, 1932, 2.