1933: April-May

The Great Depression as seen through the pages of the Daily Record (Morristown, NJ) 

April-May 1933

 

In Newark, “The Board of Education committed itself to the retirement on July 1 of every assistant superintendent, principal, teacher and janitor who will be 62 years old by that date… All of the teachers who will be retired are members of the State Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund and will receive after July 1 approximately half of their salary.  This payment is already provided for in the retirement fund and will mean no extra cost to the city.  Replacements, it is understood, will be with lower-salaried teachers….Included among those who will be retired are two assistant superintendents, a supervisor of music, assistant supervisor of physical training, director of music, twelve principals,…forty-three teachers and an undetermined number of janitors, probably half a dozen.”  “Director of Public Safety William J. Egan…announced the suspension effective tomorrow of 100 police and 100 firemen.  Notices have been sent to the members in each department who have seen the least service….Two precinct stations will be closed, the apparatus of one engine company will be transferred to another house, the crew of the fireboat  Newarker will be re-assigned to land duty….”  (April 1, 1933, p.1)

“Resolutions which will bring savings…approximately $15,000 were effected by the Madison

Board of Education …a 12 ½  percent salary deduction for all teachers receiving more than $1,000 was voted and changes made in two departments in the high school.  The salary deduction will bring a saving of $8,890 while the consolidation of the physical education departments under one head and the elimination of the art department will bring further savings totaling $4,375….the board is contemplating other actions which will bring the total saving upwards of $15,000 in addition to the $33,000 reduction already made in the budget.” (April 4, 1933, p.1)

“…we are all headed for an era of better times.  But better times will not come to those people who are not full of energy, and who are indifferent in their work….People will have to get along with less sporting life, and they will have to put their minds on their work, try to give the best service they can….”  (editorial, April 3, 1933, p.4)

“The movement aimed at reducing the huge burden placed upon the public in financing payments to veterans never had as one of its purposes denying of just compensation to former soldiers who were crippled or otherwise injured as a direct result of their services in the war…. But huge sums now are going to men who never were wounded or otherwise injured as result of their war service.  The justness of this can not be recognized….There can be no question of the President’s sympathy for the men really deserving of governmental aid….”  (editorial, April 4, 1933, p.4)

Morris County Building & Loan Association placed an ad on April 4, 1933, p.9:  “$270,000 PAID—an acid test for any investment.  Yet who can say that Building & Loan shares have not withstood the test of time—and admirably!...Today, after a period of bank holidays…during a period full of business reverses on a scale heretofore unknown—the Morris County Building & Loan Association is responsible for the distribution of $270,000.00 to its shareholders in a brief period of approximately three months, which is now being paid….your wisdom and thrift eleven years ago made it possible for you to participate in this saving today…The Association is now accepting subscriptions for new shares…or obtain paid-up certificates which bring you an income of 5 ½%.”

MONEY FOR RENT advertises the Industrial Loan Society, Inc. in Morristown on April 5, 1933, p.2   “You rent a house, a store, a taxi…for a short time.  Why not rent money when it is needed?...If you are keeping house and have a steady income you have all the security needed.  The only charge is 2 ½% per month on unpaid balances.  You may have as long as 15 months to repay.  Loans from $50.00 to $300.00.”

“Butler—The American Legion has voted to sell its property on lower Kiel avenue…The present business condition and heavy interest are back of the move, anticipated revenues having fallen far short of what was expected…” (April 5, 1933, p.3)

“The world has grown so small in the last generation that there is no longer any such thing as complete economic independence.  We live too close to our neighbors; sickness in one house is very apt to mean sickness in every other house—especially so since our ideas of economic sanitation are of the sketchiest and no such thing as an adequate quarantine is possible.  And in the long run…we must admit that prosperity has to be pretty much a world-wide affair.”  (editorial, April 5, 1933, p.4)

“Public welfare work…was discussed Tuesday by Mrs. Thomas W. Streeter, vice-president of the Morris County Welfare Board….Mrs. Streeter said that the main burden of relief work in these times must be borne by public agencies because private social agencies could not raise the necessary funds to meet the demand for aid….the welfare board…functioned as an arm of the county government to investigate the great number of cases paid for by the county…relief to people who are dependent because of extreme youth, age, or because of physical or mental disability…required nearly thirty percent of the total expenditures of the county government… at the present time there was absolutely no political interference with the work of the welfare board…those in actual need were given relief without members of the Board of Freeholders knowing or caring about race, religion or political affiliation….her own observation of conditions in other places had proven to her that honest administration of public welfare could continue only as long as it was supported by honest public officials.  The present Board of Freeholders has been very sympathetic to this work, Mrs. Streeter observed, with Director Griffith, in particular, giving it his wholehearted backing….”  (April 5, 1933, p.6)

“Winners of the Unpopularity Contest:  Misrepresentation, High Prices, Huge Profit, Hoarding.”  “ATLANTIC BEEF CO’S QUALITY AND PRICES HELPS MAKE THIS GROUP UNPOPULAR”.  Atlantic Beef Co., 30 Speedwell Ave., Morristown advertisement with prices of meat, cheese, fish, on April 6, 1933, p.4.

“Residents of Denville are being sent cards asking for their support for the free library here…. Owing to the depression the membership in the library has dropped and unless funds are secured the library may have to close.  Everyone is being urged to join the Library Association in order to keep the library open…”  (April 6, 1933, p.5)

“Credit will not return to normal until there has been a complete restoration of public confidence in the banks.  That money is pouring back into the banks is indicated by a decline in postal savings deposits….Business and financial authorities attribute this sudden about-face to the stemming of the flood of bank closings….Uncle Sam…benefits more from normal banking conditions than from abnormal postal savings deposits.”  (editorial, April 6, 1933, p.6)

“American cities, towns and counties, owing some $15,000,000,000 are all vitally interested in proposals…in Congress to permit moratoriums on or the scaling down of local debts.  Nearly a thousand communities have defaulted during the depression on estimated obligations of somewhere around a billion dollars.  Many others, hard pressed by economic conditions and a rising tax delinquency, also seek federal relief measures such as have been proposed for mortgage-ridden farmers and others….”  (Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, April 6, 1933, p.6)

“Because of the great shrinkage in estates, many institutions, including churches, are liable to feel the effects of the depression long after the latter is ended….a former official of the American Bankers’ association, estimated that 75 per cent of public bequests written into wills in the last 25 years either have been taken out of the wills or never will be paid because of the decline in security values and other effects of the depression.” (editorial, April 7, 1933, p.4)

Denville:  “In all probability the unemployed of the township will be given work next week as word has been received here from the Reconstruction Finance Company that $7,000 is available as a part of the plan under which an allowance of $80,000 has been granted the township for completion of the water system….The township plans to give the work of laying the pipes, etc. to the unemployed men of the township…The men will work in shifts of three days per week.   It is planned to put 20 men to work at once and 20 after that 20 had completed their 3 days.”  (April 7, 1933, p.16)

“Further reductions were recommended by the Morris County Board of Agriculture in the salaries of the County Agricultural Agent, Home Demonstration Agent and Boys’ and Girls’ Club Agents….The changes will make the salaries received by those agents comparable to all other employees in the county….The Committee decided…that since the reduction as set up by the State and Federal Government did not equal that stipulated by the county it was only fair that further reductions be made so that the total received by each agent would represent the amount that they would receive if their entire salary were paid by the county.”  (April 8, 1933, p.1)

“It is probable that no American city will ever again rush into debt so blithely as was the custom during the earlier part of the past decade….Some cities, of course, are in good shape financially.  But they are in the minority.  Bonds totaling something like $15,000,000,000 are now outstanding against various American cities, towns and counties, and Congress is now being asked either to let the cities enjoy a two-year moratorium or to set up a plan whereby principal and interest on this stupendous debt could be scaled down….suppose…that prosperity eventually returns…. What then?...Shall we begin anew the free-spending habits that brought on this trouble?  Shall we continue to put up with the inefficient, graft-ridden, politics-perverted type of city government that caused so much of this vast debt load?  If we do, we shall prove that the depression has taught us nothing….”  (editorial, April 8, 1933, p.4)

“One of the most pressing and important health problems of today, in the opinion of Dr. Allen G.

Ireland, Director of Physical and Health Education of the New Jersey State Department of Public Instruction, is that of child nutrition.  He reports that children are being seriously affected by improper feeding in many areas.  Surveys by Red Cross and other authorities have disclosed important increases in the number of cases of malnutrition among school children.  Reports have come …that children arrive at school in the morning with nothing more substantial for breakfast than a cup of black coffee; are being served with lunches at home that consist of bread and coffee or other inadequate foods, and often receive no hot foods until evening, if then….”  (April 10, 1933, p.9)

“James D. Tew, president of the B.F. Goodrich Rubber Company, one of the largest users of cotton in the United States, stated…that his company will support wholeheartedly the efforts of President Roosevelt.  If the new farm bill accomplishes the purpose for which it is designed, it will increase the price of cotton as well as other farm products and so will add many problems to the management of the rubber company.  On the other hand, Mr. Tew said that he felt strongly that this is the time when everyone should earnestly cooperate with the administration in its efforts to overcome the extraordinarily trying conditions which have so long prevailed.  “We must all forget our selfish interests and inconveniences in the interest of prosperity for the country at large,” Mr. Tew continued.  “President Roosevelt is now in command of our ship of state.  It is our common duty to back his leadership.  We, of the B.F. Goodrich company, propose to do so in spite of the fact that our production and distribution problems may become much more difficult….We feel very strongly…that in the interest of the farmers and the welfare of the country as a whole, it is our duty to forget selfish interests and back up wholeheartedly the efforts of our President in restoring stability to the economic life of the nation.”  (April 11, 1933, p.13)

 “The Black bill, which has as its indirect purpose, establishment of the six-hour day and the five-day week in American industry, represents a proposal of highly doubtful value in dealing with present unemployment….That the move represents a dangerous trend is evident.  Industry is so hampered and hamstrung now by government regulation and supervision that it hardly knows what it can and can not do….Shorter work periods already are in operation voluntarily throughout a large part of industry, this policy being adopted in an attempt to provide jobs for additional workers….Emergencies have been seized upon in the past as justification of encroachment upon the rights of private business.  When the emergency passed the encroachment remained…. American industry in the past has proved responsive to conditions permitting shorter hours in industry…This is a question, though, which industry itself should decide instead of being decided by the government.”  (editorial, April 12, 1933, p.4)

Farm loan rules and regulations were published on April 13, 1933, p.1.  “The loans this years are not only limited to $300, but the regulations require that borrowers reduce the acreage of their cash crops 30 per cent under that grown in 1932, except growers who farm very limited acreages ….The regulations make it unlawful for any person to dispose of or assist in disposing of any crops given as security for any crop loan….Each borrower must agree to plant a garden for his home use and to plant sufficient acreage to furnish feed for his livestock.”

“Salary reductions of 15 per cent for the coming year were voted last night by the Netcong Board of Education.  The reductions will affect teachers, school physician, truant officer, clerk and custodian.  No reduction was made in the $800 salary of the school nurse, who will be employed on a full time basis….The teachers’ committee, in recommending the salary cuts, urged that teachers who will come under tenure next year not be rehired….” (April 13, 1933, p. 1)

“The Morris County Welfare Board…report for the month of March, 1933:    General Cases— investigations as to the need of relief, Out-door Support, admission to the Welfare House or Morris County Children’s Home, crippled children, bastard cases, evictions, burials, establishing legal residence, non-support and miscellaneous inquiries for advice and assistance.  Total one hundred twenty-eight (128)….The regular staff made 645 visits and the mileage was 3,282 miles for the month….”  (April 13, 1933, p.2)

“Why should not Morristown stage a campaign similar to those being conducted in many other American cities to spur property owners to the making of repairs and improvements?...The idea is to emphasize, for the benefit of property owners, the advantage it will be to their own interests to make whatever repairs or improvements their property may be in need of while prices of materials and of labor are low….Unemployment is reduced, the more work of this kind is begun and business is stimulated….”  (editorial, April 13, 1933, p.4)

from the Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, April 13, 1933, p. 4:  “The Senate’s 30hour-week bill recalls the recent attempt to establish the five-day week in the government service.  The attempt flopped….Nearly all government employes objected to the system because, although it gave them Saturdays and Sundays off, they would have had to go through the year without any vacations.  Under the present law they are limited to a 15-day leave and appear to have lost forever their old privilege of 30 days off with pay…………..The Hoover furlough system, which was used as the method of inflicting an 8 1/3 per cent pay cut by abolishing annual leave in the economy act and making employes take a month off without pay has also gone for good.  It was superseded by the flat 15 per cent salary cut.  But when the new salary cut replaced the furloughs it was found that Uncle Sam owed many of his workers refunds of from around $10 to as high as $50 in cases where they had taken a full year’s cut on the furlough basis.  The refund was made on the day beer went on sale here.  Many clerks called it “our beer money” and used it accordingly.”

“It is reported that Colonel Henry Lindsley, the American Legion’s first national commander, had drawn up resolutions calling for a reversal of the legions’ stand on payment of the cash bonus, asking the organization to pledge its support to the president in his economy program, requesting revision of the pension policy with emphasis on the disabled, dependents of the war dead and the injured and placing a curb on the legion’s lobby in Washington…..The legion …has undergone a marked softening of attitude with respect to governmental benefits for its members ….The legion has an important duty in assisting in looking after the welfare of its disabled members.  To mix politics with this duty, though, and try to dictate to the government in making unwise and unjustifiable demands is not a proper function.”  (editorial, April 14, 1933, p.6)

Denville:  Charles T. Lange, 64 years old, committed suicide by shooting himself through the heart in the garage in back of his home on Diamond Spring road yesterday.  Losses in the stock market and depreciation of securities brought about depression that led Lange to take his life, according to Coroner Charles A. Righter of Boonton….”  (April 13, 1933, p.1)

“A resolution appealing to the State Emergency Relief Committee for an appropriation of $1650, to which the borough will add $250, for the care of 122 families, comprising 422 needy persons, was passed last night by the Wharton Borough Council.”  (April 18, 1933, p.1)

The Denville Township Board of Education last night adopted its salary schedule and announced a saving of $4,330 over last year, over $1,000 of saving was made through consolidation methods and $3,020 of that amount was saved through cuts which have been made in the salaries of the supervising principal, teachers and janitor.  The consolidation consists of the combining of classes….the regular staff of teachers will have to take care of all pupils.”  (April 18, 1933, p.1) “The Ladies of Bethel Circle, an organization in the Bethel Chapel, are making special arrangements for a coordinated benefit turkey supper to be held on Wednesday evening, May 3rd in Bethel Chapel parlors.  The affair is to be for the benefit of the unemployed in East Hanover Township and the Bethel Circle Society….It is expected that the Girl Scouts of Hanover Neck will act as waitresses.”  (April 18, 1933, p.12)

“Stating his belief that strong men with strong hearts and minds are needed to lead the world out of the “slum”, as he characterized it, Reverend Cornelius Clifford, professor of philosophy at Columbia University and rector of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Whippany, today addressed the members of the local Rotary Club at their weekly luncheon in Day’s Restaurant ….Father Clifford…had praise for the staunchness of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  “He is a strong man, capable of leading this nation out of the darkness…”  (April 19, 1933, p.1)

“Morris County’s quota for the national reforestation army is 145 and registration of recruits will probably begin late this week….Each municipality will take applications and make selection from its own unemployment registry lists….only unmarried men from eighteen to twenty-five years of age, whose families are at present on relief, are eligible to join the reforestation army.  Those who…are eligible will be required to sign an agreement assigning from $20 to $25 a month of their $30 wages to help support their families.”   (April 19, 1933, p.1)

Herblock’s editorial cartoon on April 19, 1933, p.6 is titled “Remember How Exclusive That Place Used to Be?”  A hefty guard with his arms firmly crossed, saying Scram! to Uncle Sam, stands in front of a columned portico labeled Business, the door tightly shut, a sign to the right saying “GOVERNMENT KEEP OUT!”    Right below is the same portal, door wide open, businessmen eagerly peering out.  The sign to the right says WELCOME, with an arrow pointing to the door; the guard has a big smile on his face and has grabbed Uncle Sam by the arm to pull him in, as he says, “Yessir: Step Right In !’

“Roosevelt yesterday ordered an embargo on all exports of gold except that earmarked for foreign countries, thus withdrawing support of the dollar in foreign exchanges and taking the United States definitely off the gold standard.  Prices on the commodity and security markets responded to Roosevelt’s order with a spurt in prices….”  (April 20, 1933, p.1)

“Deluged with buying orders, commodity and stock markets rose with sensational activity today as the nation sought to adjust itself to the prospect of “controlled inflation” after more than three punishing years of decline.  Billions were added to the quoted values of stocks and staples…. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was the wildest since the balmy days of 1929 and the…tickers geared to handle 6,000,000 shares a day dropped nearly half an hour behind actual business on the floor.”  (April 20, 1933, p.1)

“….the ordinary citizen stands a very good chance of getting hopelessly confused when he tries to reconcile the apparent conflict between the efforts which are being made to balance the budget and the plans which are being laid for fighting the depression….This conflict…is more apparent than real.  The cuts that have been made come out of regular, day-by-day expenditures…. Counterbalancing these cuts come the bond issues.  The forest conservation work will take around $200,000,000; direct relief to the states will take $500,000,000 more….The federal government until recently was somewhat like a man who, with an income of $100 a week, had living expenses of $110 a week.  Such a man, obviously, is heading straight for insolvency…. Suppose, however, that he cuts his living expenses to $80 a week.  He can now, if he wishes, buy a house and shoulder a $2000 mortgage.  The fact that he is far more deeply in debt than before cuts no ice.    He has balanced his budget by cutting his day-by-day expenses….”  (editorial, April 20, 1933, p.4)

From Rodney Dutcher’s Daily Washington Letter, April 21, 1933, p.4:  “The sudden surge of support for a minimum wage law to go along with a law limiting hours of work is the most radical manifestation to appear since the Roosevelt administration came in.  Until a few days ago the proposal for a federal minimum wage law was merely a plank in the platform of the Socialist party.  States which had attempted any regulation of wages always confined their legislation to women and minors.  Now the proposal has the sympathy of President Roosevelt, the support of the secretary of labor, substantial backing in Congress, and even approval from a section of industry itself.  Some sort of minimum wage legislation in the Congress has suddenly become likely.  The fact that such drastic regulation is now under consideration demonstrates the change of attitude here as to what may reasonably be expected from the supreme court.  The court in the past 10 years has declared unconstitutional even minimum laws passed by states for women and children.  While there is thus no assurance that it would uphold a mandatory federal law covering both sexes in all industries, there is a growing belief that it might….”  

from the editorial “Work That Appeals”, The New Brunswick Daily Home News, April 21, 1933 (p. 4 in The Daily Record):  “The work of recruiting the unemployed for the civilian conservation corps is under way….It takes in reforestation, prevention of soil erosion and flood control.  It will not only give the idle an opportunity to earn some needed money, taking them away from bread lines….but it will build them up physically and morally….they will live in wholesome environments….”

“Accomplishment of real economy to an extent never before known in the national government is the aim of President Roosevelt….The axe already is being wielded with sweeping strokes ….Whole bureaus are falling beneath its blows and others are being trimmed and pruned until they represent little resemblance to their former selves…..Pay reductions totaling $100,000,000 have been ordered and, including these, economies in four departments alone aggregate more than $300,000,000.  These departments are post office, agriculture, commerce and interior….The president…apparently is proceeding on the belief that as long as no essential service is wiped out or seriously crippled, general elimination or restriction is justified, by the urgent demands of economy…”  (editorial, April 21, 1933, p.4)

“President Roosevelt can not give too close study to the selection of a governor of the federal reserve board….The banking and financial situation makes it absolutely necessary…that a man, unquestionably qualified by training experience for dealing with perplexing questions and one who possesses the courage to follow his convictions be selected….The retiring governor of the board was subjected to severe attacks during his incumbency….The depression and its attendant problems made his task exceptionally difficult, but he brought to bear upon his duties a soundness of viewpoint that saved him from serious mistakes….”  (editorial, April 22, 1933, p.4)

“One serious defect in American agriculture has been one-crop farming…. One result of this unwise policy has been that they had to buy a great variety of articles they could have produced themselves….farmers this summer will raise a much larger portion of their own foodstuffs than they formerly have done….They are raising their own meat, canning more vegetables and grinding their own wheat and corn….The development is an encouraging one….But the habit of calling upon the government for help, in both good and bad times, is one hard to break.  The new trend, therefore, probably will disappear as the government responds to political pressure to extend a helping hand.”  (editorial, April 22, 1933, p.4)

“Economic Situation Today in Brief” (April 24, 1933, p.1).  Point #2:  “Republicans ready to oppose vigorously the Roosevelt-controlled inflation plan in the Senate today. Democrats confident it will  pass.”

“C. L. Bardo, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers’ Association, who recently warned legislative leaders that if they did not afford tax relief an “aroused public” would take “matters in its own hands”, today laid eight demands before Governor A. Harry Moore and the Legislature.  Renewing his charges that the legislature is “in the hands of spoilsmen” and controlled by those seeking to build political machines, Bardo asserted its attitude was “the taxpayers and the public be damned”.  The demands included enactment of fiscal and highway reform measures, reduction of educational costs by 25 per cent, legislation to enable municipalities to consolidate, and biennial legislative sessions.  “During the present session of our legislature,” Bardo said, “the confidence of the people has been betrayed by a so-called ‘bi-partisan’ combination of certain leaders in the legislature with the political manipulators of the two major parties, by the lowest and most contemptible form of political skullduggery.  Trades and deals of every description, including trading even in judiciary appointments, in the interest of the perpetuation of their political machines and of their personal political fortunes have continued to demoralize our entire legislative program…”  (April 24, 1933, p.1)

“A meeting of 25 women and men socially prominent was held Friday afternoon at the home of Mrs. Frederick R. Kellogg for the purpose of discussing plans for a most unusual method of relieving unemployment.  The plan that was developed…was to hold an Unemployed Hobby Crafts Exhibit sometime during the month of June.  The purpose of this exhibit will be to bring before the public in Morristown and vicinity the various types of creative work which can be done by many of the unemployed, in order that those who have particular talents  along certain lines may be capitalized on to the extent that it may be possible to make many of them selfsupporting.  According to Miss Haven, who for several months has been a volunteer worker with the Emergency Relief Administration, “our investigators have discovered that many of the unemployed make the most unusual and useful types of articles that anyone can imagine.  Unfortunately, most of these people have very little, if any, business ability, as far as marketing these commodities, many of which have real commercial value.  The purpose of this exhibit is to bring together the various commodities that can be made by our local unemployed for the purpose of getting consumers, storekeepers, and organizers of sales organizations interested in the possibility of marketing these many and varied products.  There is another point in our plans which will include the possibility of developing a line of historical souvenirs  peculiar to Morristown and which could be sold with the double purpose of profitable work for our unemployed and at the same time publicizing our newly created Morristown National Historical Park.” “  (April 24, 1933, p.6)

“Many things have been done in Washington recently, but even more remains to be done.  Unemployment, low commodity prices, frozen bank assets—these things are still to be remedied and the job of setting them right is going to be one of almost incalculable difficulty.  Nevertheless, a start has been made, and there is a hopeful expectancy in the air….America once more is picking up its old faith in the future….That faith is our most valuable possession; if we ever really lose it so that we cannot get it back, we shall have lost everything….”  (editorial, April 25, 1933, p.4)

“New Jersey moved last night to set up minimum wage standards for women and minors in any industry wages are found to be “oppressive.”…The bill asserted employment of women and minors in the state at wages “unreasonably low” is a matter of “grave and vital public concern.”  The Senate adopted amendments by Albright of Gloucester which would exempt hotels, domestic servants and farm labor from the provision of the bill. In supporting the amendments, Senate President Emerson L. Richards said Atlantic City hotelmen had lodged and fed women employees throughout the winter rather than discharge them.  The purpose of the bill, he said, was to strike at sweat shops employing women for 75 cents and children for 50 cents a week….”   (April 26, 1933, p.1)

“Denville-–A meeting of the unemployed of the township was held last night…to perfect the organization which will attend to the connection of the new municipal well in Union with the existing system….The men were told by Joseph P. Hughes, chairman of the water committee, that it is expected that the money from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation…will soon be available and it is probable that the work will be begun next Monday.  Mr. Hughes has worked very hard in this matter both in obtaining the money from the R.F.C. and in attending the sessions of the men in their endeavors to form a voluntary contracting company….Nine gangs were formed….The township will pay 55 cents a foot for the excavating and covering of the pipes, the men being allowed thirty hours work weekly.”   (April 26, 1933, p.2)

“The federal budget had to be cut and cut heavily.  Out of the payments to ex-soldiers came $450,000,000.  The service veterans, naturally enough, fought against it; but once the law went through they took it, on the whole, like men….But the ex-service men are entitled to wonder… when some of the other groups that have been enjoying special privileges are going to get similar treatment.  So far these groups have shown no inclination to get out of the way of the administration’s recovery program.  Some industries which have enjoyed high tariff protection are not falling in line on the plan to give the president blanket power to discuss a lowering of trade barriers ….The United States Chamber of Commerce and the public utility groups are fighting to block the administration’s Muscle Shoals scheme.  Certain bankers have slowed down those reform measures which are designed to protect the small depositor and the small investor…..Real estate interests are reported antagonistic to the government’s plan to include cheap housing in its vast public works program….”  (editorial, April 27, 1933, p.4)

“Rockaway—The Unemployment Relief program in the borough is becoming less burdensome with the oncoming spring, and local plants working full and part time.  The number of families on the books in January was near ninety, now the records show a drop to sixty-three.  The routine of the relief work is very simple.  The families are given food orders at the end of every week for which an adult member works at odd jobs the borough supervisors find for them to do.  Four volunteer workers, who are not compensated, comprise the Municipal director’s committee.  Chief of Police Alfred Rarich, also Overseer of the Poor, has proven very efficient in investigating cases asking for help.  He has charge of the food orders, which are made out to any individually owned groceryman the family desires …. Owners of wooded land surrounding the town have given any amount of wood to be used for relief fuel, if the men would cut it and cart it away themselves….Medical attention is taken care of by the town doctors and Mr. Gerard [the mayor].  There has been a great deal of care needed in this line this past winter.”  (April 27, 1933, p.13)

“Put more neighborliness in relief giving, State Relief Director John Colt urged Morris municipal relief directors and representatives of local governing bodies last night at Morristown….”It seem to me that we have a far broader and more vital task than the mere feeding, clothing and housing of the people under our care,” Colt declared.  We are dealing with individuals with the same feelings, ambitions, aspirations and longings as we have ….”  Colt asserted that the brunt of the moral effort must fall on other shoulders than the overburdened ones of Emergency Relief Administration workers…”in doing our work we shall align with ourselves every agency at hand—the churches in your communities, the fraternal organizations, the civic clubs, the women’s clubs and the veterans’ organizations…We must be courteous and gracious, even where it is difficult.  We must also remember the ever increasing emotional strain under which people carry on today.  We furnish food, clothing, shelter.  That is what we are organized for.  There is something more that we are called upon to give—something of ourselves, of patience, understanding, sympathy, human kindness and friendliness…”   (April 28, 1933, p.15)

“A frank admission that the unemployment situation in Morristown is acute was made last night by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen…when they voted to transfer the administration of emergency relief to the state.  “Inability to raise funds” to provide for the poor in town was given as the reason for the application…”practically all laborers of the town are without work.”....At present the town is spending between $3000 to $5000 a month providing food, clothes and medicants for the ever-increasing out-of-work residents….Town Clerk Nelson Butera revealed there were 516 families registered with the relief committee in Morristown….A total of 939 persons comprise the active list of persons receiving aid from the committee.  The number is increasing two persons per week…and the situation is daily becoming more acute….”  (April 29, 1933, p.1)

“It is nearly two years since Gerard Swope told an industrial audience of a far-reaching plan he had devised by which industry might try to stabilize employment and production and remove the fear of destitution from the workers’ horizon.  When he made that speech, Mr. Swope was introduced by Owen D. Young; and Mr. Young warned his hearers that unless business found a way to solve the problems arising from over-production and unemployment, it could expect to see the federal government tackling the job….today Mr. Young’s prophecy is coming true, while Mr. Swope’s notion that unrestrained competition blights a highly developed society has been abundantly justified.  The parallels between Mr. Swope’s plan and the program now being devised by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins are striking.  Mr. Swope demanded the stabilization of production and of employment, the co-ordination of production and consumption on a broad basis, the establishment of a series of trade associations to make such steps possible and a widespread system of unemployment and old-age insurance.  Miss Perkins calls for very much the same thing, except that her plan lays more emphasis on hours of labor and rates of pay and—so far, at least—pays little attention to the insurance feature….The chief differences between the two arise from the fact that Mr. Swope’s program was to be initiated voluntarily by industry, while Miss Perkins’ is to be forced on industry by the government.  And to those industrialists who are objecting to Miss Perkins’ plan, it need only be said that they let Mr. Swope’s plan collect dust for a year and a half without making the slightest effort to give it a trial.  They were warned at the time that something of that kind was inevitable, but, the warning went unheeded.  They refused to take Mr. Swope as a leader; now they can take Miss Perkins— and like her.”  (editorial, April 29, 1933, p.4)

“The most pressing question at Washington these days has to do with currency inflation…. The  

…group—which seems to include the administration…prefers…banking on vast bond issues for public works and other projects, on the price-raising provisions of the farm bill, on minimumwage and short-week regulations….Those voices which, a few months ago, were loud in opposition to inflation of any kind are stilled now…. Economists have pointed out that the only alternative to inflation is a continuing deflation of industrial wages and retail prices….This would mean dollar-a-day wages for the mass of wage earners.  It would mean retail prices such as our fathers and grandfathers knew.  It would mean such sharp reductions in city, state and federal budgets that unemployment and hunger relief projects could get no more public funds.  It would, in short, mean a terrific intensification of the nation’s present difficulties.”  Not even the most hard-boiled deflationist wants that.  We have turned our faces in the other direction….”  (editorial, May 2, 1933, p.4)

“Herbert T. Hartley, chairman of the Dover Unit, Red Cross, announces that another carload of flour has arrived and will be distributed in the regular way through Judge William Gardner at Police Headquarters.  This is the seventh carload distributed in this section to the needy.  Mr. Hartley is also making an appeal for discarded furniture which is needed badly for several families…”   (May 2, 1933, p.5)

“Judge Beaten By Iowa Mob” headlines a photograph on May 2, 1933, p.12.  The caption reads, “Judge Charles C. Bradley, above, dragged from his bench and nearly hanged by a mob of Iowa farmers, has refused to name any of the men who mistreated him.  The mob’s action brought martial law to end acts of violence by farmers fighting foreclosure sales.”

“Trenton—Senator David Young, of Morris County, had his bill to require county authorities under the welfare act to pay indigents’ burial expenses, passed in the Senate last night….”   (May 3, 1933, p.1)

“Mayor Clyde Potts received a telegram last evening…that the government had decided to establish a reforestation camp under Federal Emergency legislation at Morristown.  It is proposed to establish a two hundred man camp in the Jockey Hollow area to work in the new Morristown National Historical Park.  The men will be used to clear land, build roads, open drainage ditches, plant new trees and otherwise develop the new National Park System including Fort Nonsense and the Washington Headquarters…. The Morris County quota is 145 with every municipality having at least one man while the highest is thirteen for Morristown and Dover….”  (May 5, 1933, p.1)

“New York—It is possible, from all accounts, here in this advanced year of 1933, to sell a “stock minded” New Yorker…blue sky over his head….Data compiled by the state attorney general’s office show that the gullible “wise men of Gotham” and…upstate, are investing upwards of $48,000,000 of good United States money annually in just such worthless securities….The antediluvian vintage of some of the schemes they fall for and the wide publicity given the racket apparently makes no difference whatever in their equations….It is possible nowadays to sell the average New Yorker a few shares in almost any old thing that comes to mind, providing he has enough left from the slump to meet the first payment….Widows with new inheritances are favorite baits with the rounders, and the “sucker lists” are filled with the names of well-to-do, bereaved ladies who have no husbands to say them “nay.” “  (May 8, 1933, p.4)

“Iowa Farmers Force Sheriffs to Kiss Flag” headlines a photograph on May 3, 1933, p.11.  The caption reads “Rioting Iowa farmers, fighting foreclosures, are pictured here in one of the acts of violence that resulted in martial law for two counties.  After halting a foreclosure sale at Primghar, the farmers forced sheriff’s deputies and an attorney to kiss the American flag on the lawn of the courthouse.”

“….a few thousand unpaid Chicago school teachers marched into Chicago’s financial district and asked General Dawes [mayor of Chicago] to explain why they couldn’t collect any of the $29,000,000 the city owes them in back salaries….somehow General Dawes’ denunciation of trouble makers doesn’t seem like the best of all possible comebacks.  For one of the perverse things about human nature is this; when a lot of intelligent and devoted people work hard on their jobs and find that the incompetence and chicanery of their rulers has deprived them of their incomes, they are very apt to become trouble makers.  That is, they are apt to become abusive and indignant, and impolite to prominent bankers….The real trouble makers in Chicago, of course, aren’t the unpaid school teachers; they are the politicians and financiers who got Chicago into such a mess that the school teachers can’t get paid….”  (editorial, May 4, 1933, p.4)

From an editorial in The Paterson Morning Call, reprinted in the Daily Record on May 4, 1933, p.4:  “Members of the legislature, in their search for means to raise additional funds to balance the state budget and meet the demands that are constantly being made on the state treasury for relief purposes and for the operation of the schools are considering two plans, one of which, the imposition of toll fees for the use of the elevated section of state highway route 25, the viaduct between Jersey City and Newark, seems certain of adoption….The other plan which is being discussed is the imposition of a sales tax which it is estimated would bring in revenues to the amount of $35,000,000…New York state has adopted a retail sales tax which went into effect yesterday….a part of the receipts from such a tax would be apportioned among the various municipalities of the state, thus enabling the latter to relieve payers of a real estate tax of a part of their burden.”

The subject of Rodney Dutcher’s Daily Washington Letter on May 4, 1933, p.4, is “Why do people go broke?...Twenty-eight per cent of the bankrupts were found to have been extravagant.  Thus a man earning $2500 a year was found owing $3400 for clothes, food and rent purchased within a year; a $100-a-month man was supporting a family of four and buying a piano, furniture, refrigerator, an automobile and clothes for all on the installment plan, and a man who earned $3000 in one year spent over $10,000, of which $7000 was on credit.  More than 15 per cent of bankrupts were those evading judgment debts—the second largest group.  Nearly 90 per cent of the group were persons who had put their names on notes for other persons and most of the others had been assessed for personal injury or property damages caused by automobile accidents.  The next largest cause was the avoidance of liabilities on foreclosed homes—13.5 per cent.  Domestic misfortunes—divorce and alimony payments, illness, medical and funeral expenses—were responsible for 12 per cent of the bankruptcies.  And debts incurred during various ventures into business for about 5 per cent more.  Stock and real estate speculation accounted for 7 per cent.  “Too many merchants have followed the policy of selling the merchandise and getting the name of the name of the purchaser on their books, how or when he is to pay for it being a secondary matter…With the whole machinery of modern business set to stimulate sales, the tendency to overload the consumer with credit is almost irresistible.”  “

“ A special meeting of the Executive Committee of the Retail Merchants Association of New Jersey was held yesterday afternoon….The meeting was called for the purpose of making plans to defeat the pending Sales Tax Bill….The Bill is called the Business Privilege Tax Act and places a tax on all sales as follows:  All Retail Stores, 2%, Mining of gravel, stone, zinc, and other minerals 2%, Manufacturing ice 1%...Manufacturing soft drinks 5%...Automobile Dealers or agents 1%, Contractors 3%...In an interview this morning with B.F. Greenberger he stated…it would raise the cost of living for the buying public 5% or more…”the slogan of less taxes and more economy should be adopted by the legislature.”  “  (May 6, 1933, p.1)

“As the culmination of a “strike” in the Camp Dix mess hall, 45 Newark youths who were in the civilian conservation corps were back at their homes ….Summarily discharged yesterday….The particular cause of the outbreak, camp officials said, was that the baked potatoes were not done.  The mess officer, it was said, told the men the potatoes could be exchanged for hot baked beans.  Besides that, the menu consisted of filet of sole, turnips, pickles, bread and butter, pumpkin pie and coffee….”  (May 6, 1933, p.1)

“The fight at Washington over the recovery program is getting a pretty loud accompaniment back home these days.  This accompaniment, which was almost too soft to be heard a while ago, is rumbling louder now….You see farmers’ representatives preparing to convene to plan for a nation-wide strike in which, to quote one of their officials, farmers will “buy nothing, sell nothing and pay nothing.”  You see thousands of school teachers parading the streets of Chicago with such angry vehemence that police have to club them back into line—teachers who have been paid irregularly for five years and not at all for seven months.  You see 4000 ex-service men arriving in Washington as the advance guard of what they say will be a group of half a million men to demand a cash bonus to relieve their distress.  And lastly, you find witnesses and members of Congress openly discussing before a Congressional committee the possibility of revolution in the United States…..Something must be done, it must be done very soon, and it must be something drastic, farreaching, bold and determined.  If we are not to have inflation, minimum wage laws, vast public works programs and so on we have got to have something else, and the men who oppose those things have got to offer some pretty concrete suggestions.  Furthermore, they have got to offer them quickly.”  (editorial, May 8, 1933, p.4)

“Depression and unemployment have brought an increase in counterfeiting and led to greater vigilance on the part of the United States secret service ….”In all my experience I have never known a time when counterfeiting was so prevalent,” said Chief W.H. Moran recently.  The experience he referred to covers the last half century…..”  (May 9, 1933, p.5)

The photograph on May 9, 1933, p.7 shows a group of women walking.  Caption:  “Aroused by charges of sweatshop conditions in Northampton and Allentown, Pa., textile plants, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, wife of Pennsylvania’s governor invaded the district to lead child-strikers’ demonstrations.  Here is the Keystone state’s first lady leading the singing strikers around a shirt factory at Northampton.  Girls and boys told a commission they received as little as 57 cents a week wages.”

“Mapping a broad program of municipal tax relief, designed to reduce assessments against real property $33,000,000, the State Senate returns to Trenton today….Governor A. Harry Moore has consistently opposed new taxes asserting they would merely add to the tax burden without appreciable relief.  To meet such objection, the senate leaders framed a bill to require municipalities to make reduction of local rates proportionate to the amount of revenue transferred to the new levies.    A 40-point cut in tax rates was expected to result.  The program would shift from real property the support of the $18,000,000 state school tax; the $900,000 soldiers’ bonus tax; county welfare expenditures for pensions, state wards and old age relief aggregating $5,250,000, and $850,000 for expenses of county court, prosecutors and elections….”  (May 10, 1933, p.1)

“The American farmer has been able to live better, to have more and to spend more than any other farmer on earth….Wholesale foreclosures and tax sales…point to only one thing—the beginning of an American peasantry…. That is what the farm relief bill is designed to prevent.  The riots may be deplorably mistaken, the farm relief bill may be a great blunder; but both are sincere protests against a development which would be nothing less than a major catastrophe to the entire American plan of life.”  (editorial, May 11, 1933, p.4)

“The first of Princeton University’s recommendations for governmental reform—budgetry control of the $30,000,000 yearly expenditures of the state highway commission—was halfway through the legislature today….One provision of the bill would increase from $4,000,000 to $6,000,000 the annual return to counties for construction and maintenance of roads and for payment of principal or interest on highway indebtedness.  Senator Dryden Kuser of Somerset, sponsor of the bill, asserted the $2,000,000 increase would enable counties to lower substantially its appropriations for road work, thus giving “direct relief to the property taxpayer.”  Contemplating similar relief to municipalities, the Senate made ready for third reading a House bill to increase from $5,000,000 to $6,500,000 their share of the gasoline taxes.”  (May 11, 1933, p.29)

Regarding teachers’ contracts in Morristown, “It had been decided in a caucus of the Board to put through another pay cut of just double the one now in effect but after long discussion and a very able talk by Marcus Smith, representing the school teachers, the Board was in favor of acceding to the request of the teachers not to take definite action until October 1, when the salary changes if any will be retroactive from the start of the new school year on July 1.  However, the discussion over the form of the motion dragged out and out and never got acted upon as there were differences as to just how this should be worked.”  “When finally the hands of the clock had pushed around toward the fashionable dinner hour, the motion to adjourn broke up the debate, with noting definite having been accomplished.  The adjournment motion met with unanimous consent…”  (May 13, 1933, p.1)

“American labor today presents one of the oddest jumbles the American people ever had to tackle….this burden of unemployment is in some ways the least menacing of the three evils.  Everybody recognizes it as an evil, and the strongest forces of government, private industry and organized labor are uniting to meet it….At one end there is the sweatshop evil—a thing which has its roots in human greed….At the other end is an evil equally disturbing; the racketeer…. Two potent remedies for the sweatshop evil lie at hand; the minimum wage law and child labor amendment….Against the racketeer the procedure is not so clear….Attorney General Cummings is investigating to find out if the federal government might not pass new laws to make possible a determined federal drive against racketeers on all fronts…” (editorial, May 13, 1933, p.4)

“Mendham—The Emergency Relief Administration in Mendham has taken care of some 24 families in the year May 15, 1932 to May 15, 1933.  Of these 4 were families in which there was no wage earner available….The direct relief which has been given away begins with food; next milk, thereafter clothing, fuel, medicine and sometimes rent…..At no time has rent been paid for more than 8 persons….No rent has been paid without first a 20 per cent reduction, followed later by a 50 percent reduction.  On May 1 all rents were discontinued.  Since November 14, 1932 every family receiving relief has been asked to work in return for such relief.  All have responded except those which did not have a male member old enough to do the work proposed.  The work has been provided by the Municipal authorities in the form of the construction of a storage reservoir for the Mendham waterworks.  This work began November 14, 1932 and is now practically completed.  The men working have been given $3.00 per day in the form of credit which is used to pay for the direct relief given to them…This money has not come out of taxes but from the surplus in the water account and from generous donations made by private citizens ….It has also been necessary in addition to borrow money to pay the cost of direct relief and eventually the taxpayer must bear the larger part of all expense.  The average cost for direct relief since January 1 has been $500.00 per month.  Since November 1932 the State has partially reimbursed the Borough month by month and in this way a total of $731.41 has been paid by the State.  The administration of the Emergency Relief law and the giving of various kinds of help has been made possible only by the fine and unselfish cooperation of many persons who have freely given time and strength to help the director….”  (May 15, 1933, p.5)

“A long list of New Jersey projects, including the proposed tunnel under the Hudson river at Weehawken, may come up for definite consideration under President Roosevelt’s public works program now awaiting congressional approval.  The tunnel project is the largest single public works construction sought by New Jersey and New York interests.    The Port of New York Authority has applied to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for a $90,000,000 to commence construction.  The Hudson River Bridge Company, on the other hand, has sought approval of a competitive plan—construction of a super-structure over the Hudson at about the same locality at a cost of $80,000,000.  Still another proposal…is that of a high speed transit system across the Camden-Philadelphia bridge….Senator Barbour…has proposed that Federal public works funds be spent to put men to work on New Jersey’s beaches…to prevent further erosion by construction of jetties and groins….”  (May 18, 1933, p.1)

“Trenton…The Senate’s broad program of tax relief for municipalities and real estate owners has been…side-tracked to await financial aid New Jersey might expect from federal sources….the program, which included levies on retail sales and incomes, was approved by the Senate….The Governor and Senator Richards planned to obtain a grant of $21,000,000 for emergency relief under new legislation providing $1 of Federal aid for $3 contributed by the state.  A loan of $50,000,000 was sought from the Federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation to establish a quasi-public corporation as a source of credit to municipalities.”  (May 18, 1933, p.1)

“Three years ago when unemployment was increasing and wages dropping at an alarming rate Herbert Hoover, then president, called upon all employers to hold wages up and distribute the available work among the largest possible number of workers.  The greatest industrial leaders solemnly promised to carry out the wishes of their president and then proceeded to slash wages and salaries.  The other day President Roosevelt called upon industry and business to grant substantial wage increases to meet advancing commodity prices.  No promises were made but the response was immediate and tremendous.  Employers from coast to coast announced wage boosts ranging from 5 to 20 per cent and affecting thousands of men and women.  Those employers three years ago didn’t cut wages to spite Mr. Hoover, nor are the present increases made just to please Mr. Roosevelt.  The difference is that one president asked industry to do something it was impossible for them to do, whereas his successor made it possible and then asked that it be done.  Inflation will work some hardship upon idle and the inadequately paid by jacking up commodity prices, but this is an evil the public must put up with if it wants more jobs and higher wages.  Wages follow commodity prices both up and down, and not even Mr. Hoover was able to hitch the cart before the horse.  There was no firmer believer in the Hoover policies than Henry Ford although he lost millions under them.  Today he says there is no firmer believer than he in the Roosevelt policies and that the others were a mistake.”  (editorial, May 18, 1933, p.6)

“Congressmen voting through a big appropriation bill glibly refer to them as “the permanents and indefinites.”  They don’t appear in the regular tabulations of appropriations for the coming year as reported by the house and senate appropriations committee, says the Chicago Tribune.  Yet they are going to cost the taxpayers this year the sum of $1,285,191,023 and in the next fiscal year of 1934, the bill will be $113,345,555 larger, or $1,398,536,58a.  They are indeed the “permanents and indefinites,” for they are the appropriations which go on year after year on the strength of some past legislation and without the necessity of any annual affirmative action such as is required to authorize payment of the regular current appropriations.  The biggest permanent and indefinite items by far in these years of a public debt of more than $20,000,000,000 are the $725,000,000 to be required in 1934 to pay interest on the debt and the $534,000,000 to be written on the books as the annual contribution to the sinking fund established under the Liberty loan acts….In addition to these forms of permanent and indefinite appropriations, there are appropriations that go on and on just because their backers were once upon a time legislatively clever enough to get them put in this privileged class of government expenditures.  There they hide, year after year beyond the reach of economy drives….Only a repeal of the original authorizing act can touch them.  A special house committee in the last congress was delegated to search out these hidden appropriations and drag them into the light.  As Chairman Anthony J. Griffin of New York explained in his report at the close of the session he and his committee had been too busy passing annual appropriations to do anything much in the way of cutting the permanent ones….There is, for example, the permanent appropriation—in the sum of $6,636,460 for 1934—to be paid out in state subsidies for vocation education.  Part of it goes to pay teachers of agricultural subjects, part to teachers of industrial subjects and home economies, and part to that happy body of bureaucrats, the federal board for vocational education….”  (May 18, 1933, p.7)

“Today more time and thought are devoted to buying than ever before…. Progressive manufacturers, with reputations for quality and uniformity, are today ousting the makers of cheap and unsatisfactory merchandise, whose sole selling point was in price appeal….This trend, in the field of household commodities is exemplified by Ivory soap, which today is selling at the lowest price in seventeen years….Products of known quality are available today at the lowest prices in years due, largely, to public insistence on high quality and a fair price….”  (May 18, 1933, p.7)

“With New Jersey encountering legal obstacles in Washington to municipal financial aid, the joint legislative committee on taxation seeks relief through compulsory economies in local governments….the committee endorsed a proposed bill to require a 35-percent reduction of local governmental costs below last year in a five year period.  A 15 percent cut would be required next year….Plans of the taxation committee for a broadening of the state taxing base beyond real estate…have been deferred awaiting the Governor’s success in Washington.  The Governor and [Senate President] Richards have strenuously opposed new taxes as merely adding to the burden on the taxpayers….Seeking further to enforce municipal governmental economies, the committee approved a suggestion of the Governor for creation of a commission to study consolidation of local governments.  Unnecessary duplication of municipal services and functions in adjoining municipalities was cited by the governor in his annual message to the legislature….”  (May 19, 1933, p.1)

“The subject of school teacher contracts for the coming year is proving a difficult one for most

Boards of Education to combat with.  One thing is certain and that is that no salary increases can or will be made but with most boards it is a problem to be sure that there will be sufficient funds available to guarantee the teachers their pay for the coming year at the same rate and to make sure that the schools can stay open….Throughout Morris County it is certain that the schools will remain open for the rest of this school year although there are about three municipalities now where the teachers have not been paid for the past month….”  (May 19, 1933, p.1)

“Not all of the unemployment problem is due to the depression.  If we should have, overnight, a resumption of 1929 activity we would still have many men who could not get jobs.  A lot of the men who were paid off back in the boom days were paid off permanently.  Their jobs are gone for good.  An example of this is to be found in the coal industry.  The American Mining Congress the other day got a report from Clarence E. Pickett, executive secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, showing that at least 200,000 coal miners are never again going to make a living at their old trade.  The plight of these men is not due to the depression.  Their industry has simply moved out from under them.  Sooner or later they have got to be absorbed into other industries, and before a way of doing this is figured out a lot of people are going to have gray hairs and furrowed brows…..Wages in the coal fields cannot rise to decent levels as long as their reservoir of unemployed miners exists.  What is true in the coal mining industry is true in a great many others.  This “technological unemployment,” about which we used to hear so much before the ordinary, depression-bred kind of unemployment became so common, has laid its hand on almost every trade in America.  It is a problem that will grow greater, and not smaller, in the future.   And that is why government and industry, moving to combat unemployment, cannot simply base their campaign on a plan to restore prosperity.  The problem is too complex for that….”  (editorial, May 19, 1933, p.6)

From The Woman Citizen, the column by Mrs. Channing W. Gilson, May 20, 1933, p.3:  “Mrs. Isabelle M. Summers and others interested in a living minimum  wage for women are “making hay” before any court declares unconstitutional the new minimum wage law….Cut throat employers have been flooding the market with sweat shop products in this state and I am afraid that too many of us have been buying “bargains” made by women on starvation wages…. Employees’ strikes are common, but this week both employees and employers joined in a shut down of all plants in the dying, cleaning, and retail end of an industry where sweat shop conditions have just about ruined an industry highly unionized and normally paying good wages….It is not going to help in the recovery of business for women to patronize the cut-rate cleaners, tempting as the low prices are….New Jersey is faced with the need of more sources of revenue.  Our lawmakers can think of only two, an income tax and a sales tax.  There is tremendous opposition to both.  What I can’t understand is why we cannot have a tax on all securities, including government bonds.  The government, federal, state and municipal has billions of dollars out in the shape of bonds.  Who bought all these securities?  And why should they enjoy exemption from taxation?...It is the rich who have bought heavily of government bonds who really own this country….”If citizens handed out checks with no money to pay they would be in jail, but you don’t put a city in jail if it hands out scrip with no funds back of it.  The government formerly operated on a check and balance system.  It now operates on a check and no balance system.” …Did you ever hear of a tax-free city?  There are eighty-four of them in the United States, according to Louis Bartlett in The Nation….How do they do it?  They use the profits from the sale of municipal water, gas and electricity.  South River is a well-known example of a New Jersey town where municipal taxes are nil owing to a municipally-owned power plant.  Boonton, N.J. is considering the economy of such a plant….Madison, N.J. makes a big profit from the distribution of electricity, thus helping to keep taxes down and giving a low rate to consumers…I have heard public utility men warn against municipally owned power plants by the implication that the rates did not tell the whole story….But they never give facts to prove anything….”

“The price may be pretty high, but the depression is at least leading the federal government to tackle a lot of jobs that reformers have been urging, fruitlessly, for years.  These jobs are being attempted in the hope that they will put men back to work, smooth out the rough places on the road to recovery and allay social unrest.  Some people have been advocating them for a long time—and, for their pains, have been denounced as radicals, visionaries and impractical theorists.  Now there is every indication that most of these jobs will be done, not because the country is wholly sold on them in theory, but because any club is good enough to hit the depression with….Now it is evident that hundreds of millions are to be spent on slum clearance plans….Then there is the much talked-of plan by which industry and the government would join forces to check over-production, spread work, install shorter hours, eliminate sweat shops and adopt minimum wage scales….There is, also, Muscle Shoals….a laboratory in which some profoundly important theories about industry, agriculture and public utility management could be tested....Reforestation on a huge scale is being attempted….Government economy has become a fact….We are approaching a common sense attitude on tariffs….We are getting a new slant on the need for intelligent international cooperation….”  (editorial, May 20, 1933, p.4)

“The American people favor legislation that will prevent bank failures, but they can’t agree as to just how it should be done.  While they are disputing and arguing, business lags….There is a tendency in the banking business, as in all forms of activity, for people to go to extremes.  At times when there is a need and reason for liberal extension of credit, people may have become so cautious that they won’t extend the credit that is really needed and justified by business conditions.  And then there are times when people have been stepping high, when they should be more conservative and cut down their speed.  But at that time people may be so confident that loans can be had without adequate security.  The report comes from many sections that in the boom days it was very easy for people to borrow large amounts without careful scrutiny of the proposition they were offering.  The American people have been inflated with get-rich-quick spirits.  Their minds have been on big interest rates, big profits….That kind of thing is a losing game.”  (editorial, May 22, 1933, p.4)

“Reports that big names would figure in the testimony drew another capacity crowd today for J.P. Morgan’s second appearance in the Senate investigation of his powerful financial house.  The thrill-seeking crowd gathered early… half the spectators women…..”  (May 24, 1933, p.1)

“ ‘A garden is good for anybody, and I save a lot of money working here, said Frank Diassi, or 46 Harrison street, pausing…from work on his plot of ground at the Community Gardens to answer the questions of a Record reporter….Z.T. Williams, of 98 Roseville Lane was busy planting potatoes.  Mr. Williams, the father of six children, said: “I’m out of a job…and what I can grow here will help keep my family together during the summer”.  Diassi and Williams are two out of fifty-six local residents who have taken plots at the Community Gardens about half a mile from town on James street….Recently, however, the Kiwanis Club of Morristown, sponsors of the project…has run short of funds to continue maintenance of the plots….the gardeners will be forced to leave their plots unguarded from theft after sundown, and they are in need of a night watchman.  There will also be a shortage of tools and insectisides….Mrs. Robert Foote of James street donated the use of thirty acres of her land for the community project, and the Kiwanis have furnished the necessary ploughing, seeds, plants and fertilizer.”  (May 24, 1933, p.1) “INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS COMMUNITY GARDENS” (May 27, 1933, p.1)  “Fifty-six plots have been ploughed and are being worked by local residents….These plots vary from fifty by fifty feet to fifty by one hundred feet.  There is room yet for about thirty more plots….The entire project covers about thirty acres.  Masons, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, laborers,  and men of leisure are busy raising the various crops….One gentleman is specializing in raising peanuts, while the remainder of the more conventional crops include corn, cabbage, tomatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, lettuce, potatoes, radishes, onions, peas and beans…..the value of the vegetables raised this year will run to two or three thousand dollars at current market prices.  This amount of money will be saved in the town in relief work….the gardens supervisor is raising cabbages, beets, carrots, turnips and onions on four large plots specially designated by  the marker “Town”.  These vegetables will be distributed to the poor of Morristown through  the American Legion, and their value alone will exceed a thousand dollars….”

Page 5 on May 24, 1933 features a panorama of photographs of J.P. Morgan at the Senate investigation of “his world-wide banking operations.”  “I really don’t know a thing about the income tax matter . . . I don’t know anything about income taxes at all, “ Morgan told the committee, admitting he had paid no income taxes since 1929, and disclosing that his firm’s assets are more than a quarter of a billion dollars.”

“A statement was made by the Butler Board of Education yesterday that it had sufficient funds to meet all current obligations.  The teachers salaries for May will be paid and all current bills and bonds and interest due on June 1 will be made.  This has been made possible by the board receiving funds from the borough council and a tuition check of $2,200 from one of the largest districts sending in pupils.  Many of the districts sending pupils to Butler High School have had their funds tied up in the Pompton Lakes bank, which is closed, but it is expected that conditions will be greatly remedied if the bank should reopen soon.”  (May 25, 1933, p.1)

“A further quota of four for service in the reforestation camps has been allowed Denville Township and candidates are being sought by Mrs. Adrienne Coneybeare, investigator for the Township Welfare Department.  Samuel Morris Jr., Walter Hansen, Clarence Peer, Lynn Reilly and Oliver Smith have qualified for the first quota….”  (May 25, 1933, p.1)

“Jockey Hollow, practically deserted for the past century and a half, became a reforestation camp and a center of interesting activity this morning when twenty-five laborers, several army officers, and federal surveyors and landscape architects arrived there to begin work on the creation of the new National Park.  The laborers arriving this morning were of the 241st Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps, working out of Camp Dix…They are the advance guard of a total of 212 members of the company….The present detachment is making its camping place about two hundred yards from the Revolutionary Burying Ground….These men are part of President Roosevelt’s 250,000 reforestation campers who work for their board and $1 a day….drawn completely from the army of the unemployed, and largely from the cities…anticipating their first hearty meal in the open….The camp will consist of seventeen field hospital tents, each large enough for sixteen men.  Four regular army non-commissioned officers, and three commissioned officers will be in charge during the entire period of encampment….Anxiously awaiting the “call to duty”, sixteen Morristown youths counted the hours until they would bid good-bye to the folks at home and depart to their as yet unknown destination.  The group is Morristown’s quota of the reforestation corps, part of which is now encamped in Jockey Hollow Park….the group will probably be sent to Camp Dix and later to Virginia….”  (May 25, 1933, p.1)

“OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM BREAKS DOWN” (editorial, May 25, 1933, p.6)

“The National Education Association has figures to show that on April 1—the most recent date for which statistics are available—nearly 300,000 American school children had been given holidays not called for in the schedules.  More than 1200 schools have been closed entirely.  In nearly every city and town the school teachers’ salaries have been cut, the cuts ranging from 10 to 40 per cent.  In many other places the teachers haven’t been able to collect what is owed them.  And in innumerable places school schedules have been shortened, certain classes have been discontinued, teaching staffs have been reduced and special features have been dropped….It is needless to point out that our whole social and political setup rests on a sound, adequately supported public school system.  The fact speaks for itself.  Trying to run a democracy in a large, heavily industrialized nation without giving every child as much of an education as his mental powers permit him to assimilate is…simply impossible….The depression has not only cut down the revenues of our school boards.  It has revealed profound faults in the whole system by which the schools are supported…. Inefficiency, corruption and the spoils system in city and state government are exacting a terrible price…”

“NEW SOCIAL ORDER EMERGING” (editorial, May 26, 1933, p.6)  “Slowly but steadily the pieces of that gigantic jigsaw puzzle at Washington are falling into place….Those words, “new society,” do not go beyond the facts.  Almost without realizing it, we have swung off from our old course…Whether we like it or not…We are switching from an unrestricted capitalism to a controlled economy…. It means that American soil will no longer nurture the picturesque and reckless autocrats of the past….Such industrial wars as the ones Andrew Carnegie waged, such financial battles as the Hill-Harriman struggle early in this century, are out of the picture henceforth.  A closely integrated and infinitely complex society like ours simply cannot stand them.  Such things are inevitable in a society resting on a capitalism in which the profit motive is the only thing that lights the fires under the boilers.  Unrestricted capitalism cannot operate in any other way.  If we are now demanding that the welfare of the nation as a whole be taken into account from top to bottom of the business and financial structure—which is precisely what the developing program at Washington amounts to—we are not going radical; we are merely trying to adapt capitalism to the requirements of modern society….This country…now has the chance to prove that the escape from the evils of capitalism  need not lie in a revolutionary repudiation of capitalism or in a revolutionary repudiation of democracy.”

“OUR REVOLUTION HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE”  (editorial, May 27, 1933, p.4)  “Those timorous souls who have been jigging about on one foot lately wondering when the revolution was going to begin might just as well calm down now.  The revolution has already taken place, and there have been no casualties—except, possibly, for a die-hard Tory or two who suddenly realized what had happened and died of apoplexy….simply because what has taken place hap-pened in an orderly, constitutional manner, without bloodshed or mob scenes, we needn’t think that everything is going to go on just as it did in the old days.  The Roosevelt administration’s industrial control bill…crumples up all of our old theories about the proper relationship between government and private industry and tosses them in the wastebasket.  It goes so far along the new path that it takes reform which used to look like the very limit in radicalism—such things as minimum wage laws, short work week regulations and the like—and makes mere incidentals out of them….If it is socialism, no socialist would recognize it; if it is fascism, Mussolini wouldn’t know it.  It may have borrowed an idea or two from Moscow, yet one of its main ideas seems to be to promote private profit.  It draws simultaneous endorsement from such ultra-progressive labor leaders as Donald Richberg and such solid business men as President Henry I. Harriman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce….now we seem about to find out whether a modern democracy can readapt a complex industrialism in such a way that the essential features of both democracy and industrialism come through unimpaired ….Revolutionary?  To be sure; but isn’t our whole tradition based on revolution?”

“Morris County foreclosures for 1933 show an upward trend as compared with a downward trend elsewhere in the country,  according to a survey just completed by the Federal Home Loan Bank board.  The Morris County total for the first four months in the year was 120, while for the same period of last year this total was 72….”  (May 29, 1933, p.1)

“An American who has spent the last five or six years in Europe returned to his own country on a vacation recently….he told his hosts:  “You people have no idea how lucky you are to be living in America….Even in the depression your workingman and small-salaried office worker have so much more than similar people in Europe have that there’s just no comparison…”  we have let the depression undermine our confidence so much that we have sometimes talked as if we were the unluckiest of all people, instead of the luckiest….That doesn’t mean that we should close our minds to the fact that we have upwards of 10,000,000 men out of work, that we should forget that hunger and discouragement and want are abroad in the land as seldom before, that we should become Pollyannas and shut our eyes to all unpleasant sights…” (editorial., May 29, 1933, p.4)

The editorial cartoon on May 31, 1933, p.4 depicts sad and discouraged-looking Uncle Sam holding a dish labeled Income Tax Law.  In the dish stands a small figure of a man labeled Small Salary Man.  The cartoon is headed “And The Big Ones Get Away”.

From Rodney Dutcher’s Daily Washington Letter, May 31, 1933, p.4:  “The administration’s securities bill may be regarded as an effort to lock the barn door in the wake of a stolen horse— but it certainly was a large horse.  The people have been “mulcted” of 50 billion dollars by the investment “profession” in the last 10 years, according to Chairman Fletcher of the Senate banking and currency committee.  Other estimates place the total for that period at a mere 25 billions, with the assertion that investment losses in this country were averaging some $1,7000,000,000 a year even before the depression.  The determination of the administration and Congress to give the investor a “new deal” is comparable to the willingness to accept a system of insuring bank deposits.  By making it possible for investors to know the facts about securities and preventing fraud and misrepresentation, it is hoped to assure those who have money that they can invest with relative safety.  Innumerable potential investors, naturally enough, are now somewhat timid.  Forty-seven states have blue-sky laws, but the investors lost their money just the same.  Billions of dollars went for virtually worthless securities which were presented with incomplete, careless or false claims.  Now the idea is to have the claims subject to federal scrutiny and require that the investor be advised as to all pertinent facts regarding his purchase.”