The Day's Dumpster Fire
In this podcast, Kara and Ed regale history's greatest mess ups. They do not celebrate humanity's successes but its most fantastic failures! This show is not dedicated to those who have accomplished incredible things, but to those who have accomplished incredible things and how they royally screwed things up in the process.
You might ask why they are doing this podcast: it's because you've botched up the best laid plans and you know what? THAT'S OKAY!
Let this show help you navigate the mishaps that you have come across where there is no clear answer available.
So sit back, relax, and listen about people who messed up way more than what you could of possibly imagine.
The Day's Dumpster Fire
The Great Depression Fire Part 2. - Episode 66
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode, Kara continues her investigation of the Great Depression. In the Great Depression Part 1, Kara dug into the various factors that caused the Great Depression such as:
- Over using or extending credit
- The Dust Bowl of the Midwest (check out The Dustbowl Fire - Episode 48 for more.
- The stock market crashing in 1929
- And so much more!
In this episode, a newly elected Herbert Hoover inherits a thriving economy in 1928 and what was looking like four more years of a thriving nation. However, by 1930, everything had imploded. Hoover had to pull the nation out of this economic and political quagmire. In this episode Kara is going to talk about:
- Hoover's philosophies on what Americans need to do to fix things
- What happens when politically things don't go according plan
- What happens when thousands of WWI vets don't get paid and Hoover uses the military ON those vets
- How Hoover treated WWI vets and influence on his reelection campaign of 1932
- Lastly, who takes Hoover's place and why
Kara is brining her A-game in this episode and there's a lot to it. So sit back, relax, and be grateful that you're not Herbert Hoover!
Be sure to check out thedaysdumpsterfire.com for a massive catalog of history's dumpster fires where we don't celebrate humanity's successes, but its most fantastic failures!
Hey before you go!
If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com. They would love to hear from you!
You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top.
Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires.
Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/
Hello everybody, this is your day's dumpster fire, and as always, I'm Kara. I'm here to chat with you about history and failing and coming back from failure and how to fix it and all that good stuff in with me is Ed. How you doing, Ed?
SPEAKER_07:Good. I can't complain. We had a nice, nice little Christmas vacation break, time off thing.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Holidays.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it it almost feels like it almost feels like like five days ago it was like 2025 and now it's like 2026.
SPEAKER_06:Isn't that weird? Time flies, huh?
SPEAKER_07:I don't know about you, but like New Year's Eve, I think I went to bed like at 10.
SPEAKER_06:Um, my husband was asleep by 11. I was asleep by like 2 a.m.
SPEAKER_07:Two a What were you doing at 2 a.m.?
SPEAKER_06:Playing video games, watching TV movies, actually. Jeez. We uh we finished Stranger Things, the finale was on, so we watched that and then we watched Fallout because the new episode of Fallout was out. Oh yeah. Yeah. All the things, you know, the nerd things.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I mean, it must be nice to be young. I'm old, so I I get I get sleepy at around eight o'clock at night.
SPEAKER_06:To be fair, I I had like a a Yurva Mate tea at like 7 p.m. Which is okay. Yeah. Usually I'm starting to hover around sleepy at like nine.
SPEAKER_07:Well, I mean, if you watch Fallout, you should have got yourself a Nuka Cola.
SPEAKER_06:I wish. That'd be great.
SPEAKER_07:They actually make those.
SPEAKER_06:I believe it.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. We were uh when we were up in uh St. George, uh, there was a soda shop that they all they sell is like custom sodas, and they actually had Nuca Cola there.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I'm not surprised.
SPEAKER_07:If it wasn't like eight bucks, I would have bought one.
SPEAKER_06:Anything to make a book, right?
SPEAKER_07:Or eight. So speaking of making bucks, yeah, I think we need to we need to dive into people losing all their bucks.
SPEAKER_06:Right? And then how do we come back from that? What do we do now?
SPEAKER_07:So yeah, like if if you are just starting this podcast, uh, you might want to go back to episode 65. Um, that's where Kara introduced um the beginnings of the Great Depression, some of the things that kind of led into it, some of the myths that were out there. Like so many people think that, oh, the uh the crash of 29 in the stock market, that sparked it. But I don't know, based off of like reading your notes and everything, I'm beginning to think like the Great Depression was going to happen no matter what, especially when we factor in like the Dust Bowl and the whole Midwest just like turning into a dirt claw.
SPEAKER_06:Like, yeah, the causes of the Great Depression is still argued by scholars and historians to this day. Uh, and I I'm going to say that there's so many different variables and factors that it went into it that to me, I I don't want to point to just one event or cause or issue and say that did it, because I don't think it was that. I think it was a the conglomeration of all of it. And if scholars and historians and people with PhGs are still arguing about it, then who am I to say, well, this did it?
SPEAKER_07:Well, I I think if we did have to pinpoint like one variable that probably led into the Great Depression more than anything, it was human behavior. It was the the the roaring twenties where everybody was living off of credit and people were buying stocks off of credit, and people were putting their homes up for you know uh as like almost like a collateral to be able to buy uh stuff on credit. And I feel like the consumerism and the rampantness of the 1920s, I feel like that was probably the biggest factor that really led into it because then when all that popped, then now what?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but then you could also argue, well, how about World War One and the global economic effects that that had?
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:So you can point to that, you could point to the inflation in stock in the stock market, which does include the credit issue. So it's a lot of intertwining things, I think, for me. But I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_07:We were uh when we were driving up to uh actually when we were coming down from St. George, uh, we were listening to a podcast. Um oh uh I can't remember the name of the host. I'll I'll link to it in the show notes, but basically it's like a 12-part series of like England, and like the first 12-part series was the Edwardian Age, and what was going on in England, everything from the literature to the science to the technology to the uh economics to the politics, like it is very, very thorough. And then when we were driving back, it was a 12-part series on England during the 1920s, and England and America and America were identical in terms of economic success and growth and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_06:Yep, England and the US have a very um interesting relationship.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah, that and and even England was buying a lot of stuff from America in terms of on credit. Like so, like when when the depression hit, the England went down with America.
SPEAKER_06:Yep. So did Germany. France went down, even Japan went down.
SPEAKER_07:Oh yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, especially especially France. I know France and Germany because they were still reeling from the war world war one, like they were still trying to put their countries back together again.
SPEAKER_06:Everybody was.
SPEAKER_07:Whereas like England and America kind of kind of came out of it a little better.
SPEAKER_06:Because there were um England is they have the English channel separating them, so it was a little different than France, and then the US has the entire Atlantic Ocean.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:But yes.
SPEAKER_07:So yes, uh, if it yeah, if you're just joining us to listen to episode 65 first, uh, we would also encourage you to listen to the episode about um The Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl.
SPEAKER_06:I think that's episode 48. Uh, but yeah, the Dust Bowl is happening at the exact same time as everything that we're talking about right now is happening. And that episode is more in-depth into the Dust Bowl. I don't touch on the depths, Dust Bowl very much because of that reason. So if you want the full big picture scale of the 1930s, please make sure you listen to that as well.
SPEAKER_07:Uh yeah, I confirm, yeah, that is definitely episode 48.
SPEAKER_06:Excellent. 48. So check it out.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, definitely, definitely listen to that one in tandem to this because uh yeah, this is this is a very comprehensive um they go hand in hand. Yeah, yeah. The like the like okay, so the stock market crash is one thing, but then the Dust Bowl literally added more trash into the dumpster fire. Like correct.
SPEAKER_06:It's it's a large aspect to the Great Depression, and I was lucky enough to have already done that episode so I didn't have to add it to my Mike Monstrous series here.
SPEAKER_07:So yeah, if if you were if you were a leader, if you were if you were Hoover in like 1930, 1931, the last thing you needed was the Dust Bowl.
SPEAKER_06:And it happened.
SPEAKER_07:It's uh it's like Murphy's Law to said, hold my beer and watch this.
SPEAKER_06:Pretty much, pretty much. It's true. All right. Well, are we ready to get started?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, let's do this.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, part two. I named it Hooverville. First, recap. The 1920s were marked by rapid population growth, mass pop production, consumer culture, and a belief that the prosperity was permanent. Americans bought cars, radios, and appliances on credit, poured money into the stock market, usually on margin, and were encouraged by newspapers, economists, and political leaders who assured them that the boom would last. At the same time, the global economy rested on shaky foundations left by World War I. European nations relied heavily on U.S. loans, Germany buckled under the forced war reparations, and the gold standard limited government's ability to respond to economic stress. Beneath the optimism, wages stagnated, factories overproduced, and debt piled up. The speculation drove the stock market to record highs instead of corporate prosperity. When the market finally crashed in October 1929, panic spread faster than ticker tape could report it on Wall Street. Black Thursday and Black Tuesday wiped out billions in wealth-collapsing banks, businesses, and confidence almost overnight. What followed was an incredible domino effect. Bank failures, frozen credit, mass unemployment, and global economic strain felt around the world. By the early 1930s, Americans faced foreclosures, suited kitchen lines, and moved to shanty towns. Many resorted to selling apples on street corners, while others took to riding the rails in search of work. The crash didn't cause the Great Depression, but it did expose a fragile system built on credit inequality and misplaced faith in endless growth. There you go. Everything we just talked about.
SPEAKER_07:There's a PhD dissertation in there for you if it was interested.
SPEAKER_06:It's all there.
SPEAKER_07:Um he had um, he's the guy who wrote the crucible. Um he married some woman, oh, what was her name? Um, some unknown figure. Um some Marilyn Monroe or something like that. I don't know. Some lady nobody recognizable. Um, but like he he had like a lap of luxury in as a kid, and then when the 29 crash hit, his father actually made women's underwear. That was his that he had a factory that made women's underwear, and it was doing pretty good until nobody could afford women's underwear, and then like they lost everything. Like they they literally had to move. I think it was like a neighborhood like Deathsville or something like that. It was some really bleak neighborhood, but but like I I knew people that remember that day, and like just the degree of uncertainty that that's what was that's what was really terrifying. It's like it's one thing to lose all your money, but then it's another thing, like, what are we gonna do tomorrow?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. To me, it's like you you talk to people who remember 2008.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:The the mortgage crash. Um, this is just on a a bigger scale. So for those of you who are old enough to remember 2008, it would be like that, but probably worse.
SPEAKER_07:And I well, I was affected by that.
SPEAKER_06:I I was I was too young.
SPEAKER_07:I was still in high school, but yeah, no, I I I I had just had my first daughter. Uh we had a massive amount of medical expenses because my health insurance sucked. Uh, within a year of my daughter being born, I get a phone call saying, Hey, we're doing away with your position. You have 10 minutes to find another job in the company. Yeah. And it's just like uh at least I had that option. And I and I had the relationships that the the and and for you listeners out there, for the love of God, don't ever burn a bridge with your job.
SPEAKER_06:Even if you hate it.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, even if you hate it, never burn a bridge because you never know when you're gonna need it.
SPEAKER_06:And quit on good terms as best you can.
SPEAKER_07:Yes, yes. And so like I was lucky I was able to find another position. I had to take a massive pay cut, but like these people in in the early 30s, like, there was no work. There was nothing to fall back on.
SPEAKER_06:And the work that was available, it was you and a hundred other people trying to get one position.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, and it and it could be like a like a street sweeper.
SPEAKER_06:Like anything.
SPEAKER_07:Like you come from being a business executive to a street sweeper.
SPEAKER_06:Like we're gonna talk a lot about work and labor in future.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, because that's what Hoover was all about.
SPEAKER_06:Well, not today. We're not gonna touch on that much today. It's actually a lot of that happens under Roosevelt.
SPEAKER_08:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:So, but yes, today we're gonna talk about Hoover, Herbert Hoover, and how he responded to the Great Depression and how he felt he could be able or he could try to pull the US out of it. So, chapter four, the struggle. We're going to start with a little newsreel for everyone to listen to.
SPEAKER_07:Okay. Let me see if I can get this to work. Here we go. The century.
SPEAKER_04:On March 4th, 1929, Herbert Hoover left his man who did not choose to run, performed his last official duty. He joins the inaugural parade, escorting Herbert Hoover to the steps of the Supreme Court for the inauguration. The first ladies were happily setting the fashion of the day. It was a dull gray day as the two Republican leaders, smiling happily, began the last of their journey. Newsmen recorded the event of the man who had promised prosperity for everyone. Troops of cavalry in full dress headed the parade, adding pomp and ceremony to the occasion. Thousands lined the avenue to view the man they had selected by popular vote. This was a Horatio Alger story. The story of an orphan from a small town who had worked his way to the presidency. Now on the steps of the Supreme Court, Herbert Hoover waited for Chief Justice William Howard Tapp to administer the oath of office. Spectators strained to hear the words, for only 30 times in 150 years of American history have they ever been spoken. Herbert Hoover, now President of the United States, stood before the people. His platform had been Prosperity for Everyone. There is no guarantee against poverty equal to a job for everyone, he said. One of the oldest of human aspirations has been the abolition of poverty. America is near to that triumph. With the election of Herbert Hoover, the country had a new slogan: Four more years of prosperity. Victory march to the White House was joined by thousands from all over the country. Those who could not witness the ceremony waited patiently along Pennsylvania Avenue. Cavalry and military bands triumphantly escorted Herbert Hoover as he greeted the waiting people for the first time as president. Even the rain failed to bar the occasion as gaily colored umbrellas marched up the avenue to the strains of marching music. As the new commander-in-chief, the president reviewed the strength of America. Herbert Hoover, a man who traveled the road of glory from an orphanage to the White House, had achieved his milestone of the century.
SPEAKER_06:Woo!
SPEAKER_07:I love how they're like the president is just driving around in an open top car.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah, that that was very common until 1964.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, 64. Yeah, 63, 64. Until they realized that having an open top car was more of a splitting headache than it's worth.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's not a good idea. All right. So that was uh some news footage from the inauguration of Herbert Huber. One of my favorite things about that video is um former years of prosperity without poverty. Yeah. Um and I know I touched on that last episode, but I I I really kind of wanted to nail it in like, no, like that that's a they really believed that.
SPEAKER_07:I mean, I I mean, think about it. They had all of they had the past 10 years of just monumental growth. Yeah. And so, like, I I don't I can't say I blame people for thinking, hey, it's gonna be another four years of of awesome.
SPEAKER_06:Awesomeness, yeah. It's gonna be great. So Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928 under the Republican ticket, one year before the crash. And if we consider his resume on paper, he does seem like a solid candidate to handle an emergency like a depression. During World War I, Hoover was in Europe providing humanitarian aid to Americans or Europeans fleeing the war. In Belgium, he had set up the Commission of Relief in Belgium. I don't know why I said it twice, to help feed people stuck in the war zone there. Should have read that like three times. In 1917, Hoover returned to the US and was appointed as head of the U.S. Food Administration by Wilson, where he successfully influenced market prices to ensure the U.S. would avoid rationing during wartime, like Britain had to do. In 1918, Hoover went back to Europe as the director of the American Relief Association to help distribute food and supplies to people in Europe. And then in 1920, Hoover accepted the Secretary of Commerce position under President Warren Harding. He served in this position throughout the Harding and Coolidge administrations, and during his time there, Hoover manufactured good standards, campaigned against industrial waste and inefficiency, and he also encouraged growth of new innovations in industries. In 1927, seven years after that, Hoover led the relief efforts to those impacted by flooding along the Mississippi River, where he gained a reputation for being, quote, the master of emergencies, unquote.
SPEAKER_07:So oh boy. How did the I mean that is quite a resume?
SPEAKER_06:It's pretty good. I mean, it's pretty good.
SPEAKER_07:He's checking a lot of boxes of somebody that would be a worthwhile person to have in place when the economy goes to crap.
SPEAKER_06:Right. Like on paper, it looks really good. Like communism.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. That's my line.
SPEAKER_06:Welcome. So, how did the master of emergencies respond when the stock market crashed in 1925? And did his efforts work? Also, I did want to note something as we go through this. While Hoover was president, he did also have to work with Congress and the courts to find the solutions to his problems. He had to work with the government. It is not a one-man show. That's why there are three branches of government. So from here on out, just remember that. Hoover, FDR, all of the presidents, it is also working with Congress to get this done. It's not just the president passing these things. Just want to note that.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I think we lose sight of that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I think sometimes it gets lost.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, like we we see a president and we we think like basically, oh, he can do everything.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:No, the way that's supposed to work is that the three branches can hamstring each other if necessary.
SPEAKER_06:Right. And they work together to get things done. Uh, or they limit each other and put guardrails up for each other. That's how it's supposed to work. And Hoover had to go through it. More so FDR had to go through it. Um, and we'll talk about Roosevelt's work in government next episode. But but yeah, just wanted to make sure that we made that clear. All right, here we go. Herbert Hoover believed that the key to climbing out of the depression was hard work from the people who remained employed and the strength of private companies to ensure people stayed employed with little government interference whenever possible. He believed government assistance should be limited and that private enterprise and individual effort were more valuable. His actions in response to the crash reflected these ideas. For example, one of the first things Hoover did was urge industrial and private businesses across the US to wage way, it's hard to say, raise wages and get creative in creating more work for people, which would often result in construction progress projects of some kind. These projects would end up costing the businesses about$1.8 billion in spending to keep people working. The next thing Hoover did was order existing federal departments to accelerate current projects and create new ones. Many of these included building new dams, bridges, roads, and other forms of public infrastructure. The most famous of these would be the Hoover Dam project that broke ground in 1931. In order to make this happen, the Hoover administration asked Congress to allocate$160 million as project costs skyrocketed. Acting fast, Hoover acted on both of these efforts in 1929, just before the new year 1930. So he did he did do a lot, but it also does reflect the fact that he felt that it was the responsibility of the, not responsibility, I shouldn't say that. He felt that the private entities and corporations had more power to help people out of the depression than the federal government did. So he believed that.
SPEAKER_07:A lot of it is that given how slow Congress can be at times, he probably figured, hey, these private companies they can move a lot faster than the federal government can. That's true. And and also, too, we are coming off of the gilded age of American history where, hey, like the 1890s and the going into 1910s, like we have our Carnegies, we have our Rockefellers, we have our Morgans, we have Henry Ford was the blog at this time. Yeah, like we have these massive, massive plutocratic families out there. And you know, like JP Morgan in the crash of 1893, he literally went to the White House and he wrote a check and balanced the budget. And JP Morgan thought that was his that was his civic duty. It's like I'm one of the wealthiest guys in the world. The government needs my help. I'm gonna jump in and fix it. And so I think that's where Hoover is kind of like coming off the coattails of is that way of thinking, not fully realizing, I don't think he fully understood the scope of what was happening. Like this this wasn't just like a war-torn region. This isn't a flooded part of the Mississippi River. Uh, this is affecting the entire country and soon the entire world.
SPEAKER_06:And and to be fair too, it's always worked in the past, that approach. There have been other recessions before. There was a crash in 1907, I think, that they pulled out of in this doing this same thing. So it's worked before. You know, he believes that it's going to work again. We just have to work hard at it. And everybody, the general public and the private companies and entities all have to work together to make it happen. So that's kind of how he's looking at things right now. By early 1930, the economy began to show some signs of improvement. However, not long into the year, the drought in the Great Plains began to take hold of the country's breadbasket as the Dust Bowl rolled in. Once it did, the agricultural industry fell into the depression along with the industrial sections of the economy, basically overtaking the entire country. So remember, before it was mostly just the industrial complexes that were hit pretty hard. Now, with the Dust Bowl, we've got agriculture being hit pretty hard, which is always a good deal. Remember, episode 48. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Well, and that's one of the things that America always had a reputation of, even in the 1800s. Like America always had that sunbelt where I mean, I I I read a a uh a study um from a book about how like the world's gonna feed itself. And there was this guy who did a study. Um, the American Midwest can produce enough food to feed the world's population eight times over. That's the that's the potential of like how much that Midwest can grow. So like when that dries up, oh boy.
SPEAKER_05:It's a bad deal.
SPEAKER_07:Like that's that's one thing. Like, uh hey, if if you're a farmer, that was honorable work, you you had a good standing in society, and because you you contributed so much to everything, and now it's like if you're a farmer, well, you were a farmer, and now you're gonna run the risk of losing all your land and all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. So along with the dust bowl rolling in, we also had the industrial complex complexes, the banking infrastructure, all of that stuff is essentially just being choked out, right? We have the global economy really struggling now. And the global economy is usually something that is a flowing entity where all of the countries are working together to make sure it's running smoothly, right? To combat complete economic failure in an already horrendous economic landscape, Congress passed the Smoot Hawley Act in June of 1930. This act placed tariffs on foreign imports with the intention of protecting domestic manufacturing. They were very popular during the Industrial Revolution in the 1890s, and then they kind of kept them going, and then the Smoot Hawley Act upped them, essentially. But what it actually did was make manufactured goods more expensive for people who are already struggling, while straining foreign relationships with countries still reeling from World War I, now dealing with an economic depression on top of it. So all they really did was make it more expensive for people to buy things because imports from other places are cheaper. And then on top of that, we're also straining foreign relationships with other countries that are usually reliant on us for uh, you know, trade and business and stuff like that. So what the tariffs did in the 1930s was make it more expensive, yeah, strain relationships. That's all it did.
SPEAKER_07:And then you factor in the the American dollar was plummeting in value.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, yeah, and then on the same time, everybody's on the gold standard. So they're trying to keep up with the gold standard and they have to raise interest and taxes and all of that stuff, which makes things even more expensive. Yeah, that didn't work.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it's almost like tariffs historically. Uh tariffs aren't the best way to go about climbing out of uh recessions.
SPEAKER_06:Let's just say it's really good to know your history. In the fall of 1930, people were in people who were employed were struggling to keep up. Their drought was in full swing, and unemployment was on the rise. And unemployment was the big uh thing under Hoover. Hoover Hoover's first target was hitting unemployment. That's what he really focused on. That's why he started all those new projects, that's why he made the the Hoover Dam project go. That's why he did what he could do with the private corporations because he wanted to make sure unemployment didn't tank. It it did, but by the time we get to 1932, a quarter of the United States population will be unemployed.
SPEAKER_07:That is devastating.
SPEAKER_06:It's really bad.
SPEAKER_07:I think like in 2008, 2009, I think the highest it ever got was like 10% unemployment. Like that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, no, we hit almost 25% in 1932.
SPEAKER_07:Jeez.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's a good time. So in November of 1930, the midterm elections occurred. And Hoover's Secretary of Labor at the time was elected to the Senate, so he had to find a new Secretary of Labor, right? Hoover appointed William Doak to replace him, and he took office in December. Early in his position, Doak was extremely vocal about the issue of unemployment, claiming it could be solved by deporting the immigrants who had been working in the United States to replace them with citizens.
SPEAKER_07:It's almost like history is repeating itself.
SPEAKER_06:In a public statement, Doak had announced that an estimated 400,000 immigrants were living in the United States and 100,000 were eligible for deportation. His statements were unfounded without evidence to support his estimations, even to this day.
SPEAKER_07:Meanwhile, it's almost like history is repeating itself with unfounded evidence.
SPEAKER_06:Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, California, a committee called President Hoover's Emergency Committee for Employment, P-H-E-C-E.
SPEAKER_07:Oh boy, that just rolls off the tongue.
SPEAKER_06:Anyway, it was created to be the group in charge of mitigating unemployment in the city. The head of this committee was a man named Charles Bysel. Beisell had gotten wind wind of Doak's public statement and sent a telegram requesting more resources to be sent to Los Angeles so he can begin targeting and deporting the Mexican immigrants who lived in the city. And uh I have a direct quote here of that telegram. It says We note press notices this morning. Figure 400,000 deportable aliens United States, estimate 5% in this district. We can pick them all up through police and sheriff channels. Local United States Department of Immigration personnel not sufficient to handle you advice, please as to method of getting rid. We need their jobs for needy citizens. Unquote. That's basically the telegram that was sent. Beginning in Los Angeles in 1930, city and state officials began to target and deport Mexican immigrants. This practice soon spread to other states until it was a count countywide, a countrywide practice throughout the 1930s. Federal and state government sponsored trains to transport people to Mexico to fulfill the deportations that were being conducted. People of Mexican descent became increasingly concerned. Communities that were usually lively became quiet as people were afraid to leave their homes. Officials waited outside hospitals, churches, and schools looking for people to deport. Many who left voluntarily were usually coerced into leaving with violence or fear, especially if officials were not legally able to deport them on their own terms. One of the most notorious raids took place at La Plaza de Los Angeles, the historic heart of the city's Mexican and Mexican American community. La Plaza was a social center where people gathered, workers, met friends, vendors sold food, people attended church nearby. In February of 1931, immigration officials assisted by local law enforcement carried out a coordinated raid at La Plaza. Officers surrounded the area and began stopping people at random, demanding proof of citizenship. Those who could not immediately produce documentation were detained. Many were arrested on the spot, loaded into vehicles, and taken to detention centers nearby before being put on a train or a bus back to Mexico. I don't think they had buses back then, but you know what I mean. The raid was conducted without warrants, often without translators, and with little explanation given to those detained. Panic spread quickly. People attempted to flee the square while others froze in place, unsure of what to do. Families were separated in the confusion. Some parents were detained while children were left behind in the plaza or at nearby schools. After the raid was over, officials defended their actions by claiming they were detaining undocumented immigrants despite arresting both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. The only cause they needed for detainment was the lack of paperwork. And honestly, in 1931, who's going to be carrying a birth certificate with them where they're going? You're taught not to do that.
SPEAKER_07:Well, and I also know, too, that even if you did have documentation on you, they weren't going to accept it.
SPEAKER_06:No, well, no, they just used that as an excuse if you didn't have the documentation. That was their excuse.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, but I I I do know, like, from studying like Caesar Chavez and stuff like that. Obviously, he's he's way later.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's like, yeah, 30 years later.
SPEAKER_07:But like, but it it was it wasn't an uncommon practice. Uh it was like this with um Irish. They would come over and then they would have their paperwork on them, but then the authorities are like, sorry, we're not accepting that. You need you need a valid form.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:And or they would just tear it up. Yeah. So like it was a very, very corrupt act back then.
SPEAKER_06:Like it's Yeah, this is um this is an event in history, especially during the Great Depression, that I don't think is taught enough. People don't know about it.
SPEAKER_07:No, it's not.
SPEAKER_06:Um, so I thought it was important to include it. So in the year 1930 alone, about 44,000 people were prosecuted under immigration law. Many of the people who were brought in were brought in under raids conducted by city or state officials that were usually informal, lacking any type of due process. And yes, immigrants who are not yet citizens do get the right to due process, even if they're not citizens. Um and if if you want, I can read it as to why, but it has to do with court cases and such. In 1903, the court case of uh Yamataya versus Yamataya versus Fisher was settled with the ruling that upheld the legality of a non-citizen's right to make a case and staying in the country while getting citizenship through legal means. Then in 1927, the Supreme Court case of the United States, uh ex-rel I can't pronounce this man's name. I'm so sorry. Vodge Tower, Vodge Tower versus Commissioner of Immigration, was settled after the Supreme Court ruled that when a person enters a country illegally, they still have the right to due process before being deported because they are recognized as persons under the Fourth and Fifth Amendment, essentially extending the right to due process to all people regarding regardless of citizenship. So that's why that it is still in place today. So that hasn't gone anywhere. But yeah, these raids were given the name repatriation raids. Many were just as described above, informal, no due process, and likely unconstitutional, according to scholars and historians who have researched these events. At the same time, while all this is going on, William Doak worked for worked to pass laws on the local level. So on the state level, he's he's a federal employee uh with his fingers on the state level that made it, and he and he made he lobbied for laws that made it difficult or near impossible for Mexican Americans to hold jobs in the cities they were passed. Some laws banned federal employment. Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_07:That is yeah, it's a bad deal.
SPEAKER_06:It's awful. Some laws banned federal employment while other private companies, such as Ford and the Southern Pacific Railroad, agreed to lay off Mexican American workers before they laid off the white American workers. Men, women, and children were loaded into government-sponsored cars, trains, and by or other means of transportation en route to Mexico. Between 1929 and 1939, an estimated 300,000 to 2 million people left for Mexico. The wide range is that exists because many removals were informal and documented or mislabeled as as voluntary. Scholars now estimate that 60% of the people who left for Mexico were actually U.S. citizens.
SPEAKER_07:And that's gotta be a huge strain on Mexico because it's not I mean, not like like they're probably going through their own depression, and then now here's two million more people.
SPEAKER_06:It was. Um, you can find newspaper articles and stuff from the period, and there are a lot of articles that I found on Mexico asking the United States to stop sending people to Mexico because they're getting overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it was pretty rough. So at this point, frustrating. Everyone's wondering, did it did it work? Okay, this is 1930. We know what happens after that, right? Did this work? Did all this effort in deportation under questionable or shaky legal grounds help unemployment numbers? Historians say nay. In fact, some argue that it actually made it worse. Mexican people who were affected by the Mexican repatriation rates were mostly farmers and laborers. With the huge loss in the workforce, the demand for managerial sales and administrative jobs actually went down on top of that. There were not enough people left over to replace those who left. So it just made it worse.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it's one of those things where it's like you're putting a band-aid on a chopped-off arm.
SPEAKER_06:Not even a band-aid, you put like salt in it.
SPEAKER_07:A salty band-aid. Like it's one of those things where it's like, okay, on paper, this looks like a it would be a good idea. And I and I kind of see, I disagree with it, but I kind of see the perspective like, hey, we need to take care of Americans first. But the way that they went about this did more harm than good. And I don't know. It to me, it just seems like it was really shady. It was more blatant racism. And like, and we'll see the same thing happen in Germany in the 1930s. Like, you okay, we're in economic dire straits, we've got to point the finger at somebody, Jews. And in America, it was especially in the West Coast, it was okay, we gotta point the finger at somebody, Mexicans. So, like, yeah, the 1930s seems like it was just on repeat, like events all all over the world.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's it's pretty interesting to compare what was happening here to Europe. Um, and I will spend some time on that later on. But yeah, the Mexican repatriation movement was something that Hoover supported.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And he he felt that it was a good idea and he threw money at it, and he was totally fine with all of the officials going for it. And they went on until about World War II is when they stopped or slowed down.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, because then all of a sudden, like, oh wait, we need bodies.
SPEAKER_06:Yep, wait, we need people to fight. Yeah, so then bring it back over. Wait, wait, wait, stop. Come on over. Hold on. Um, and FDR never supported it, he never threw money at it, but he also didn't stop it.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Um, and as much as I like Roosevelt and what he did and what he stood for, he was he's not a perfect man.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And I feel like uh the this Mexican repatriation was um a a place of improvement for him. But again, there was a lot going on.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, like it it's one of those things like we look back at it, and you and I would be like, okay, yeah, we would handle this drastically differently, but hindsight's always 2020. Yeah. So if we were born and raised in those circumstances at those times, I oh boy, I don't know.
SPEAKER_06:It's well, the repatriation was not very popular amongst the general public in large cities or other places. People found it really barbaric. Uh they they found it to be um a disgusting show of force.
SPEAKER_07:Well, yeah, because it you also got symbols like the Statue of Liberty.
SPEAKER_06:Right, exactly. Right. You have this and it's a dichotomy in the United States that has always existed before the United States was the United States.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:It's just something that this country has struggled with since the Europeans set foot on the continent.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. So as soon as you create a melting pot type of society, you're you're gonna run into these issues.
SPEAKER_06:Yep. All right.
SPEAKER_07:Still, it's barbarous.
SPEAKER_06:It is, it's awful.
SPEAKER_07:It's it's definitely a stain on American history and these leaders at that time.
SPEAKER_06:Like, yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_07:I'm sure they did some good stuff, but they also did some bad stuff.
SPEAKER_06:And it's important to understand both.
SPEAKER_07:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:Now, let's rewind back to the late night, late 1930. All right, we we fast forward a little bit, but we're gonna rewind. So far, Hoover and his middle administration have tried with some success to create public infrastructure jobs, encourage private companies to do the same, implement tariffs, and tackle unemployment via deportations. That's where we're at. In November, there was a bank panic that had occurred across the country in response to the unemployment conditions, high prices, and the news of drought coming from the plains. People withdrew their funds, making multiple banks collapse in a short span of time. Hoover began to turn to state governments and private businesses to help boost the economy again as he had done in 1929. It wasn't super successful, but it did ease the banking panic a little bit. Throughout 1931, Hoover continued to lean on states and companies. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was founded to help sort banks and industries, but proved to be limited in practice. He had also successfully persuaded Congress to establish the federal home loan banks to protect people from losing their homes in the temperamental climate in which the banking systems kept collapsing. So foreclosing, we don't want to do that. Let's try to do, you know. Despite these efforts, people continued to struggle and people continue to blame. By early 1932, people were frustrated, angry, and ready to take matters into their own hands. As you can imagine. I don't blame them. The shantytowns that were sprouting in larger cities during this period were dubbed Hoovervilles. As a comment on Hoover's handling of the depression, that the tensions continued to boil at varying degrees. And then on top of that, I learned this after I read this, but they also called newspapers that people were using as blankets, Hoover blankets. You're muted.
SPEAKER_07:Wow. Okay. Yeah, that's uh I I never knew that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that was a new one for me too.
SPEAKER_07:I was like, oh yeah, I I I I I don't see Hoover getting re-elected here.
SPEAKER_06:It's so if you think his chances are bad now, wait till we get to the summer of 1932, friends.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it's gonna get so much worse.
SPEAKER_06:It's gonna get so much worse. One notable group of people decided to take matters into their own hands and send a message to the president. They were the people who had already given so much of their lives for the country during the first world war. Veterans. So let's listen to a um a veteran make a speech during a protest in 1932, real quick. You can hear it. His anger and frustration.
SPEAKER_00:Makes me so damn mad a whole lot of people speak of your tramp. My God, they didn't speak of your tramps in 1917 and 18. Let me tell you, let me tell you something. I've been all over the world. I've seen you fellas on the streets in Washington. This is the most well-behaved group of citizens in the world to sit right in this camp. Take it from me. This is the greatest demonstration of Americanism we've ever had. Human Americanism. Willing to take this beating as you've taken it. Stand right steady. You keep every law. And why in the hell shouldn't you? Who in the hell has done all the bleeding for this country and for this law and this constitution anyhow, but you fellas?
SPEAKER_06:That was General Smedley Butler making a speech to fell fellow World War I veterans protesting for their army bonus in 1932. Butler was a longtime war veteran with a very spotty reputation. He was an anti-war activist after the first world war involved in controversies involving the government and the military, but we can say that for another day. He's also a very good speaker, as you can tell.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, this is um whenever you start getting pissed off veterans, you've got a real problem on your hands. Because this happened in the 1780s. When when like everybody who fought in the Continental Army, they weren't getting their pay from the Revolutionary War. Like, hey, it's been like five years. Where's when are we gonna get paid? And so yeah, they they they have no problems getting together and making a statement. And that's a bad deal when you start getting veterans because they they know how to fight. And it and it doesn't it probably wouldn't take much for them to uh gather weapons and really cause a problem.
SPEAKER_06:So that speech he was making, he was talking about how oh, this is the uh most American demonstration. Demonstration that you know we've ever seen, you boys have ever seen. What was the demonstration? Uh, that was the bonus army march of 1932.
SPEAKER_08:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:So after World War I, war veterans in the US were promised a bonus from the government of$1.25 a day for every day that they served. The bonus was set to be released to them in 1945. But once the depression hit, the war veterans believed that they could really use that bonus sooner rather than later.
SPEAKER_07:Fair. Oh wow. Interesting.
SPEAKER_06:In the spring of 1932, a small group of war vets out of Portland, Oregon, led by Walter M. Waters, decided to request, ask, or demand the bonus owed to them in person while at the same time sending a message to the government. They would do so by marching all the way to Washington, DC. On May 17th, Waters and a Well, it's a walk. But they did it. They did do it. On May 17th. Honestly, it's kind of impressive. On May 17th, Waters and a group of 400 veterans left Portland for Washington. A freight company loaned a train for them to travel the east free of charge. It took them as far as Iowa, and then from there, the men traveled by foot or hitchhiked the rest of the way. As they moved from city to city, town to town, the news of the bonus army began to spread. Veterans across the country joined the army on their trek to Washington as they marched. By the time they reached Washington, DC, on June 1st, the bonus army grew to about 1,500 veterans all gathered at the Capitol. Throughout the summer, that number would swell to an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 people. Yep. And for the long haul, the men, along with some family members, including women and children, camped out in shanty towns that they built shortly after arriving in Washington. The three largest were located on 12th Street and B Street, now Constitution Avenue, 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and a 30-acre lot called Anacostia Flats, just across the river from Capitol Hill. Anacostio Flats has been known, has been owned at this time by former Assistant Postmaster General and New Hampshire Governor John H. Bartlett. Sympathetic to the veterans' cause, Bartlett allowed them into camp there for the duration of their stay. And as a thank you, they named the makeshift town Camp Bartlett. Very kind.
SPEAKER_07:Thanks. You named a shanty town after me. That's uh that's that's great.
SPEAKER_06:Right. Thanks a lot. So now we enter Pelham D. Glassford. Okay. Glassford was a fellow veteran who had served as a commander of the 103rd Field Artillery in the American Expeditionary Force in France during the First World War. He retired from active duty in 1931 and was given the job as police chief in Washington, D.C., shortly after his retirement. When the bonus army arrived on or around June 1st, Glassford had gone to Congress asking that they appropriate$75,000 in aid to feed the men who were camped out throughout the city. His request was denied by Congress. However, Glassford had proved himself to be an ally of the bonus army in their fight for an early release of their bonus pay. Okay, he'll come back. The 17 to 20,000 veterans held their positions for about two weeks while Congress debated over their demands. During the debates, Hoover declared that even if Congress agreed to appropriate the money to the veterans, he would veto the move. Ultimately, the payout proposition passed in the House, but it failed in the Senate. After the vote, some of the bonus army went home dejected, while most, if not many more, remained in DC, refusing to give up the fight following the failed vote. Over the next three weeks, tension began to rise. Veterans were growing impatient, as you could hear from our veteran friend in his speech. And their protests were getting louder, they were more frequent. And you know, it's it's a protest, right? They all made signs, they're marching on the streets, so they weren't just like camping out in their shanting towns. They were they were trying to make a statement. Despite their frustrations, they kept their cool for the most part, however. Hoover and his administration were worried about potential violent outbursts among the large number of people who were camped out protesting, which I kind of understand. It's a huge group of um veterans out there yelling at you. So I hear it, but I think they went overboard here the way they responded. On July 28th, Hoover in the District of Columbia Commissioner's Office ordered the police to evict the bonus army from where they were camped and end the protesting by force. Reluctantly, Glasford followed the orders given to him and sent officers in various bonus camps around the DC area. The large camp, located off of 12th and Pennsylvania Avenue, held about 50 protesters, and by the time police arrived and to remove them, a riot broke out. The riot was between protesters and police, and the protesters armed themselves with metal pipes, bricks, and stones. And you know, they were throwing things and turned into a fight. It was a whole deal. Police shot and killed two rioters in the scuffle. Immediately after the incident on Twelton, Pennsylvania, Hoover decided to send the army out to evacuate the protesters, despite Glassford's pleas to refrain from setting the military out against army veterans. This is where everybody can face palm, rub their temples.
SPEAKER_07:Yep, because we're gonna see some pretty familiar names here.
SPEAKER_06:Yep. A total of 800 troops were sent out with about 2,700 more in reserve. They were led by General Douglas MacArthur with the help of Major Dwight D. Eisenhower and Major George S. Patton. All three men involved would go to become super famous in military history, some for better, some for worse, depending on who you talk to. Uh you can do your own research on them, one of them being a president. But yes, they were involved. All right. The military forces sent in were much more aggressive than the police units sent in before them. Their orders were to drive the protesters back across the Anacoscia River and out of the downtown area near Capitol Hill. They did so with bayonets, tear gas, and five tanks. It would be the first time in American history that a tank would roll through an American city with the target of American people.
SPEAKER_07:Yep, that was patent.
SPEAKER_06:Shanty towns were set on fire, and countless civilians were caught in the middle of the chaos, running in the streets trying to escape fires and clouds of tear gas. One man reportedly said out loud, the American flag means nothing to me after this. His comment was overheard by General MacArthur, and he threatened to have him arrested after that comment in response to the manager.
SPEAKER_07:MacArthur is uh he's um he's a little out there.
SPEAKER_06:I think just anyway. That's a can of worms.
SPEAKER_07:We can probably do an episode on MacArthur. Yes.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's a can of worms like Pat and MacArthur, those two guys. Yeah, anyway. Hoover had told MacArthur on two separate occasions that the troops will not and should not cross the bridge into Anacostia Flats, where Bartlett Camp was located. MacArthur ignored this order. It's amazing that he still had a job after this, and his troops and tanks went into the camp of 10,000 people with tear gas and fire. By the time the camps fell and protesters surrendered, DC hospitals were overrun with injured people. One fatality was recorded that day, amazingly just one. A man named William Hoshka, a veteran from Chicago, and he was caught in police gunfire. While the military considered it mission accomplished, the public and the media viewed the event as a disaster.
SPEAKER_07:For example, I mean the optics of this is just like so bad.
SPEAKER_06:It's horrendous. For example.
SPEAKER_07:Nobody went to Hoover and been like, hey, this is not gonna look good.
SPEAKER_06:Glassford did. Glassford was like, this is stupid.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, that's a good point, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Points for Glassford. Um man, it's awful though. Uh the Washington Daily newspaper said the events of July 28th were a quote, pitiful sight to see the mightiest government in the world chasing unarmed men, women, and children with army tanks. If the army must be called out to make war on unarmed citizens, this is no longer America, unquote. Well, we can't speak for every veteran who was there, and there were a lot. It's safe to say that many were likely very angry or upset about the whole thing. I found a letter from a veteran to President Hoover written the day after the accident. I'm gonna read some of it. I cut some of it out. Uh, you can find the whole thing online, but I'm gonna read some of it to you, just so you can kind of get a sense of what they're feeling here. President Hoover Herbert Hoover, White House, Washington, D.C. Mr. Hoover, the day of all days in the history of the United States finally arrived yesterday when the president of the United States ordered our soldiers to attack the flag of our country, the symbol of our freedom, the freedom our forefathers gave up their lives to give us. The flag we love and will ever follow in the hands of the veterans and most loyal soldiers of the United States has been attacked at the orders of Andy Millen's president. Had this cowardly attack occurred in any other country in the world, our government would have justly risen up in protest, and Mr. Hoover, I am not so sure that the people of this fair land of ours will not raise their voices in protest when they understand the truth of yesterday's events. It is true the president has the power to misdirect our soldiers, the power to have paid, have a paid red throw the first missile, red being communist. The power to have these soldiers and police murder, beat and gas innocent men, women, and children, the power to have these soldiers and police burn not only the meager huts and hovels that these patriotic men had construction constructed for themselves and their families, and also the power to have hundreds of American flags that were lowered and half-massed in honor of the murdered buddy burned like so many pieces of rags. Most of these people lost their homes through the greed and lust of the few in power. Now these same few drive them out of their crude huts and hovels they have erected for shelter. They were cowardly acts, unpardonable sins, Mr. Hoover. Don't forget that, for I am sure the people of this country will be with you in remembering these depredations. Since I am a disabled war veteran of the World War and a loyal, patriotic citizen of the United States, I stand unafraid of our president and his tactics. His powers and cheap politicians that humble themselves to him, but will loyally support each and every true American who opposes him and the conditions that have been forced upon the people of our great country during his administration. I am asking the press to check the delivery and receipt of this letter. Just so you know, and you will not mistake me for a red or an escaped convict, I am Philo D. Burke, liaison officer, BEF, co C 350th Infantry, 88th Division, AEF numbers, like Soldier, Army, Soldier Numbers, Official Pilot's License Number, Whitewater, California. Very uh impactful, strong statement from a veteran to uh Mr. Herbert Hoover, just to give you an idea of how these guys probably felt after that little event there. But the bonus army is really fascinating. And I I highly encourage anybody to look up the uh there's film footage, there's pictures that you can look up. Um and all these guys are doing was they were peacefully protesting something that they felt that they deserved, and uh they they got a response that was uh tear gas and tanks. As you can imagine, I'm sure that went over well with them.
SPEAKER_07:And on a little side note here, I love the uh um official pilot's license number.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:6,947. Not a lot of pilots.
SPEAKER_06:Not at this point. Then that number gets really, really big after the second world war, but uh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Like now they're now they're like eight, nine digits long.
SPEAKER_06:All right, so that happened in July of 1932. We have an election coming up due in July, August, September, October, four months later. So uh as you can imagine, this is probably not a very good political move for Herbert Hoover, who's up for re-election in November. Like, it's a bad deal.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it's just yeah, the optics of all this, and and don't forget too, like, so like if this took place in the 1800s, it I I don't think it would have gone over as badly because the only thing you had was newspaper, and it could take a long time for news to get across the country. Here, more and more people had radio.
SPEAKER_06:Radio, yes, it's true. And and the movies would show the newsreels before the movie would start.
SPEAKER_07:Uh-huh. So, like the these events would have spread through the country like within a day.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, yeah. It would have gone all over. Yeah. Viral, exactly. Viral 1930 stuff.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:So yeah, this was bad. This is not good. It's not a good time. Oh boy. Yeah. All right. Election season. Let's get into it. This is a lot of this is kind of a downer of an episode. So I'm hoping that election season will put us on a little bit more of a hopeful note. Hopefully.
SPEAKER_07:You got another video here?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I got another video here. This is Herbert Hoover's campaign speech. It's a famous one that he made at Madison Square Garden in October of 1932. So we're just gonna listen to it and then I'll uh read you, read to you his like campaign beliefs and stuff like that. So let's let's give it a listen.
SPEAKER_01:This campaign is more than a contest between two men. It is more than a contest between two parties, it is a contest between two philosophies of government. We are told by the opposition that we must have a change, that we must have a new deal. It is not the change that comes from the normal development of national life to which I object or you object, but the proposal to alter the whole foundations of our national life, which have been builded through generations of testing and struggle, and of principle upon which we have made this nature. Now, my conception of America is a land where men and women may walk in ordered liberty, where they may enjoy the advantages of wealth, not concentrated in the hands of a few, but diffused through opportunity to all, where they may build and safeguard their homes, give to their children the full opportunities of American life, where every man shall be respected in the faith that his conscience and his heart direct him to follow, and wherever where people secure in their liberty shall have leisure and impulse to seek a fuller life.
SPEAKER_06:Alright, so the political climate in 1932 is drastically different than that of 1928, as you can imagine. In 1928, people were hopeful for the future, the economy was still favorable for people, and job availability was no issue. However, in 1932, it seemed that everything was the exact opposite. A bright future seemed like a thing of the past, the economy had turned against people, and unemployment was nearly a quarter of the U.S. population. Most people blamed Herbert Hoover for the depression, despite numerous factors that were out of his control. To be fair to him, he did try to mitigate and fix the economy. However, his efforts were not as effective as he and many others had hoped. Hoover's philosophy of private companies and workers pulling themselves up out of the depression without sweeping federal assistance was just not working. During the campaign, Hoover defended his choices and doubled down on the systems that he believed were keeping the country together. Hoover continued to defend tariff policies, corporate involvement, and the agricultural credit system that he put into place. Throughout the campaign, his speeches were often defined by a defensive stance, so that he had already done of what he had already done while doubling down on doing more of the same if elected. Maybe not the best approach if he could read the room, but that's what he did. And you could hear it in his campaign speech a little bit. You know, he was like, this other guy is a bad dude, and his new and aggressive progressive policies are going to ruin us, and we have to stick to our guns and that whole type of deal. So who are we talking about? Who is his challenger? What are we talking about?
SPEAKER_07:On the other case. Some little known guy.
SPEAKER_06:Some little known guy who was elected three times. We have his Democratic challenger, the governor of New York, and he had a very different approach. In his campaign run, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to use the federal government to provide aid to those who needed it most. While he was vague in some details, he did say that he would hire a team of experts, scholars, economists, scientists, scientists, etc., that would eventually be known as his brain trust, aid farmers who are struggling due to the Dust Bowl, begin public projects to bring electricity to rural areas, and most importantly, to many of the people voting in 1932, balance the budget while using the government to mitigate irresponsible, illegal use of economic power by private companies. He called his plan a New Deal for the American people. The New Deal name stuck and would become the name of the policies he promised if elected president. So FDR's approach was very much the opposite of Roosevelt's approach. A lot of what he did is not something that, yeah, Hoover's approach was not something that had ever been seen before. A lot of what he did, people were like, whoa, whoa, some people were freaking out and some people were super excited about it. In response to FDR's progressive approach, Hoover claimed that they would be the downfall of the United States and it would ruin over a hundred years of foundation that the government was built on. And you heard that a little bit in that speech that we played. The campaign became a debate over philosophical approaches to government and the response to the crisis. Hoover, in the corner of the status quo tradition in small government, Roosevelt and the campus sweeping change in the system using the government as a tool for reform across various aspects of how the country was being run. Publicly, the two candidates were embodiments of what they were talking about. Roosevelt was charming and charismatic. He was a hopeful speaker. His speeches were centered around finding a solution and working for a better future, while Hoover was defensive, serious, and more focused on the problems rather than the solutions. Now, come election day, voters were tired, many were struggling due to the depression and craving something new. At the end of the day, Franklin Roosevelt won the election in a landslide. Hoover received 16 million votes of the popular vote. Roosevelt, 23 million. Electorally, Roosevelt won 472 to 59. People were ready for a change, I think. Additionally, the Democratic Party won a majority in both the House and the Senate. It was the first time since the 1850s that the government was democratically aligned, not Republican. So politically speaking, Hoover done done messed up.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, he like torched his entire party. Yeah. Yeah. I I feel like if he would have just gotten approval for like, okay, we can pay out, you know, say 50% of the bonuses now, and then the other 50% in 1945. I feel like that would have that would have gone a long way.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I could agree with that.
SPEAKER_07:It's just like you gotta do something. You can't just stick to the at something like that and expect it to work out well for you.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Well, I did promise that we were going to end on a more uplifting note. So I'm going to do that, I swear. I just wanna I want I wanna have you take a minute and put yourself in the place of the crowd of people who found themselves in Washington on March 4th, 1933. Okay. So just pretend we're gonna take a time machine, we're gonna go back. Roosevelt's inaugural address was held the morning of March 4th, 1933. It was a cloudy, breezy morning in the low 40s. Somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people had arrived early that morning, bundled up in whatever winter clothes they had, if any. Some traveled across the country to hear the inaugural address, some just walked sort wayways, eager for something hopeful after the events of the bonus army incidents, the economic hardships experienced by their communities, and increasingly worrisome news making headlines from Europe. The crowd was subdued and quiet. There's no triumphant music or fanfare coming from the stage or from the onlookers. People were exhausted. A member of Roosevelt's Braintre wrote about the atmosphere on March 4th. He said, quote, the crowd was large, but it was not a cheering crowd. It was tense. A New York Times article described the general attitudes of the people present, quote, there was little of the usual inauguration enthusiasm. The people came not to rejoice, but to hear, to listen to what Roosevelt had to say. An unsmiling, serious Herbert Hoover sat next to Roosevelt as the newly elected president prepared to stand with the aid of his hidden leg braces for his oath and address to the tired, sullen American people.
SPEAKER_02:You, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, you solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the best of your ability, preserve and protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
SPEAKER_03:So help you God. I frankly Delano Roosevelt, who solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability. Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God. My friend. This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day, my fellow Americans, expect that on my induction into the presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision, which the present situation of our people impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed effort to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves, which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. In such a spirit on my part and on yours, we face our common difficulties. Values have trunced to fantastic levels, taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen. Government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income. The means of exchange are frozen in the current of trade. The withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side. Farmers find no market for their produce, and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone. More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. And yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid. We have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty, and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek within my constitutional authority to bring to speedy adoption. But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis: broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. I can do no less. We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity, with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral value. With the clean satisfaction that comes from the firm performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded, a permanent national life. We do not disrupt the future of a central democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need, they have registered a mandate that they want direct vigorous act. They have had discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes in the spirit of the game. I think we humbly add the planet of God. May he guide me in the days of God.
SPEAKER_07:It's interesting how young and healthy he looks at video compared to like 1940s.
SPEAKER_06:All right, there you have it. Roosevelt's fault. Yeah, Roosevelt's famous inaugural speech in 1930. I'm gonna leave you with that next time, next episode, we're gonna talk about Roosevelt and how he handled the economic depression and the New Deal. So I'm gonna end it there.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, because it's a a vastly different approach.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, very different. If you if you didn't catch what he was talking about in his speech, very different.
SPEAKER_07:Well, and I've I've always felt like Roosevelt knew something. Like he knew what what the next 10 years was gonna look like, especially in Europe. Because when you when you listen to his speeches, it's declaring war on poverty, declaring like treating this this depression as though like we have been invaded by some foreign invader. Like he's very militant in terms of how he describes this depression. And it's like, and he's not blaming the worker, he's not blaming the people. He did throw a little jab at at Hoover. It's like a blind optimist would take the approach that has been going on now for the past four years. And you know, a lot of these big characters that come about in World War II, I feel like they knew something. Like something was coming.
SPEAKER_06:I feel the opposite. I feel the opposite.
SPEAKER_07:Really?
SPEAKER_06:I'll tell you why in a second. I'll let you go, but I'll let you keep on.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I I I I just I just get a sense because like, and obviously you'll probably go way more details, but like one of the first things Roosevelt does is he shut he shuts down the banks. And at you know, and when we start getting around like 1933, 34, you know, there is this Nazi Party coming about. And I um I almost get a sense like Roosevelt knew that there was a beeline to a conflict with that because there was such uh like the way that the the Nazi party viewed things was so vastly different than the American value. And he's I I feel like he he had to have known that there was a war coming. Maybe he didn't know exactly when or how it was gonna get started, but I feel like he could read the writing on the wall. And Roosevelt was always the kind of person that could walk into a room and instantly read it. He knew exactly what people were thinking in in a room. Like he just had that that ability. Oh, and then he would start talking, and then he could change everybody's thoughts on on things, like with the fireside chats. Like, yeah, he there's just something about Roosevelt that made him born, raised, almost molded for that particular time in American history. Same thing with like uh with Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln would have failed at every other time in American history, except for the time of the Civil War. Uh, you can make the argument for George Washington. George Washington was a lousy general, goddess he suck. But he was born and raised and groomed to become the first president, and he did a stellar job at it. So I don't know. That's just me. Uh I I obviously I haven't dove into it as much as you have, but I don't know, man. I I just feel like when we look at these characters that are coming out in the 30s and the 40s, they're they're they're they're just a different breed of human being. And they knew something was coming. They couldn't maybe figure out exactly what it was, but they knew something was gonna happen. So that that's just my take on Roosevelt.
SPEAKER_06:For me, I agree with almost everything you said, except for the fact that and then when you were elaborated, I was like, Oh, okay, that makes sense. Except for the fact that he knew something was coming. I think he was very much in tune uh with the public, the general public. He was always on the ground, he's always talking to people, people of different backgrounds, talking to everybody. So he knew what the American people wanted, and he knew what the American people needed for the most part.
SPEAKER_08:Yep.
SPEAKER_06:And I think that's why in his inauguration speech he was so militant, was because people were angry and he knew that. And he wanted to make sure people knew that he knew that they were angry about it. They wanted to attack the problem like a military and he was probably really addressing those veterans. Yep. Because that just happened four months earlier.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah. He was speaking in a language that they could resonate with.
SPEAKER_06:Exactly. And he knew he knew people, uh all kinds of people. I'm not saying know them like shake your hand, I'm saying he understands people.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:He understood how people think, and and I think that was one of his greatest gifts. So I believe he did see some sort of conflict coming, but I think his innate talent and ability to understand people and human nature is what made him such a good politician in that moment in time.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. So yeah, and uh and Roosevelt, I feel like he's he's a bit of an enigma to me. He's one of those few leaders that like we could pluck him out of 1935 and plop them down in 2026, and he would figure this stuff out.
SPEAKER_05:I think so. I think so.
SPEAKER_07:He he could like I feel like he would immediately embrace social media. Oh yeah, and he did the same thing with radio. Yeah, yeah, like he he would he would study every like he would study this nation and how divided it is and figure out a way to unify rather than than to separate.
SPEAKER_06:Yep, I 100% agree. And we're going to talk a lot about FDR in the next like one, maybe two episodes. We'll see how far I want to go into it. Um, but this is this today's episode was one that I felt was very, very important to understand the story of the recovering out of the depression. And it's it's a dark piece of that story, but I think we're starting to go into a more hopeful, or at the very least, solution-oriented piece of the 1930s and the story of the depression before we hit a very, very dark chapter in world history in World War II. Yeah. Um so that's the approach I want to take with it. We are going to talk a lot about Roosevelt and what he did and his views on things and how he worked with his Congress and government to get things moving, along with labor rights and issues and unionization, communism pops up here and there. Um culture, arts, theater, everything. I have everything for the mid to late 1930s. So please stick around, have patience with me. I know these deep dives can last a long time, but I do my best to make it engaging.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I feel like the the the next episode is gonna be very involved because Roosevelt, he he was always the his attitude was try something. If it doesn't work, then try something else.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, we are gonna talk about a lot of the try something.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, and and he he fostered, and it wasn't just like construction, like a lot of the infrastructure that we have today stems from the New Deal. Yes, which is like a lot of the criticisms of our infrastructure today is like, dude, our infrastructure is like 70, 80 years old. Yeah, because it stems all the way back. And FDR, I have some arguments there, but I'm gonna keep them to myself. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, uh look at our highway system. I mean, but we'll we'll get there. We'll I'm I'm sure we'll we'll we'll we'll get there. It's uh Roosevelt, I think I I honestly it and it is my personal opinion, we would have never gotten to the moon if it wasn't for all the things that Roosevelt and Congress put in place. Because don't forget, the people that got us to the moon are being born at this time. Yep. And they're walk and they're gonna be raised in an education system that rivals like nothing else in the world could come close to it.
SPEAKER_06:Like our friends in the 1960s, they're gonna start uh being born dead. Yeah, and uh our friends that we talked about on our Vietnam episode.
SPEAKER_07:Yep.
SPEAKER_06:They'll be coming up. So yep, stay tuned for all of that and everything. I do want to leave you with a little piece of advice before we go into housekeeping. If you're ever having a really bad day, um either like financially, or maybe you lost your job or got in a fight with a spouse or whatever, go listen to a fireside chat. Um, since I started this research, I've been listening to a lot of FDR, and I've noticed that when I have a bad day, I'll go and listen to a fireside chat that's somewhat relevant to what I'm going through. And it makes you feel better a little bit at least. So go listen to a fireside chat. Sometimes they're old and a little crinkly, but you can still hear these words, or you can read them if that's easier for you. But that's my advice to you today.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah, I know. Uh and he did a ton of them.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, yeah, there's like there's a million of them out there. Just find one that you think is relevant to your problem and have at it.
SPEAKER_07:Right. Uh uh Winston Churchill kind of did a similar thing. Um, the difference is that Churchill would go on for like four and a half hours.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:He's very British.
SPEAKER_06:It's true. Roosevelt was more of the one hour, yeah, here's what you need to know. Let's put it this way. If if you ever want to pick me up and you want it to last a long time, go talk to Ed. If you ever want to pick me up and you just want bullet points, come to me. So we'll make Ed the Winston Churchill and I'll be the FDR of the situation.
SPEAKER_07:If I shave the beard off, I do look like Winston Churchill.
SPEAKER_06:Anyway, that's it for today's episode. Uh, if you want to hear more, go find the Dustbowl episode or any of that stuff. You can find all of our other episodes wherever you get your podcast. Uh, you can also go to our website, thedaysdumpsterfire.com. I did, in fact, update the Instagram yesterday, so amazing. I know that's weird. But that is there. The website is all updated as well. If you want to email us, shoot us an email at thedaysdumpsterfire at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_07:We got a new logo.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, yeah. Put up a new logo. I like it. I think it's cool.
SPEAKER_07:It's it's uh it's it's a cutesy.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Nice little logo.
SPEAKER_06:Easier to read. So yeah. But yeah, we hope to see you for part three, the new deal, and we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_07:All righty. Keep it a hot match, guys.
SPEAKER_06:Bye.