The News from 1930 is a really cool blog of excerpts from the Wall Street Journal of 1930. Here is a speech given by Herbert Hoover that sounds like any of today's politicians:
Friday, October 3, 1930: Dow 211.04 -3.10 (1.4%)
Major presidential speech:
Pres. Hoover's address to American Bankers' Assoc.:
Past year has been a severe shock to economic system, disorganizing it and slowing consumption to 85%-90% of normal. This has caused “a great human problem ... unemployment, privation, and fear”; however, it's not a new experience but typical of recurrent crises in the past.
Main cause of most of these crises is an inflationary boom leading to destructive results, in this case in our stock markets and in worldwide overproduction of many commodities. Some fatalists believe these crises are inevitable, but the same was once said about typhoid or cholera. Govt., economic and business leaders have already accomplished much in past decade; as a result, “the period of stable prosperity between storms is longer, the period of the storm is shorter, and the relief work far more effective.”
Unprecedented cooperative measures so far by business, bankers, labor, and govt. have been effective at maintaining demand to some extent, but we should also think of prevention. The banking system can play an important role due to its large influence in directing credit, both by restraining unwise expansion and speculation during booms and by instilling confidence and making credit accessible during recovery. Rails and utilities could also act as “balance wheel” through public works and construction.
While depression is worldwide, US doesn't need to wait upon recovery in rest of the world but can lead the way as it did in 1922. Our resources, people, and scientific discovery are unimpaired. Depression is “but a temporary halt in the prosperity of a great people.”
Friday, October 3, 1930: Dow 211.04 -3.10 (1.4%)
Major presidential speech:
Pres. Hoover's address to American Bankers' Assoc.:
Past year has been a severe shock to economic system, disorganizing it and slowing consumption to 85%-90% of normal. This has caused “a great human problem ... unemployment, privation, and fear”; however, it's not a new experience but typical of recurrent crises in the past.
Main cause of most of these crises is an inflationary boom leading to destructive results, in this case in our stock markets and in worldwide overproduction of many commodities. Some fatalists believe these crises are inevitable, but the same was once said about typhoid or cholera. Govt., economic and business leaders have already accomplished much in past decade; as a result, “the period of stable prosperity between storms is longer, the period of the storm is shorter, and the relief work far more effective.”
Unprecedented cooperative measures so far by business, bankers, labor, and govt. have been effective at maintaining demand to some extent, but we should also think of prevention. The banking system can play an important role due to its large influence in directing credit, both by restraining unwise expansion and speculation during booms and by instilling confidence and making credit accessible during recovery. Rails and utilities could also act as “balance wheel” through public works and construction.
While depression is worldwide, US doesn't need to wait upon recovery in rest of the world but can lead the way as it did in 1922. Our resources, people, and scientific discovery are unimpaired. Depression is “but a temporary halt in the prosperity of a great people.”
The photo below is "Roadside stand near Birmingham, Alabama (1936)" and the one above is "Floyd Burroughs, cotton sharecropper. Hale County, Alabama (1935 or 36) both by Walker Evans. Library of Congress, American Memory Project. A collection of these photographs is on display on Flickr
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