How many people are familiar with “The Great Depression of 1893?” How many are even aware there was such a thing? Well, there was, and it was arguably one of the worst, if not the worst, in American history. It was a major economic contraction that lasted until 1897, albeit the economy did experience a sizeable spike from mid-1894 through the end of 1895.
Unemployment was above 10 percent nationally and as high as 25 percent in many industrial centers. A quarter of the nation’s railroads went bankrupt, and more than 15,000 companies and 500 banks failed. There was tremendous agricultural distress due to the plummeting prices of export crops, and labor strife was rife.
Keep in mind as well – this was taking place on a national scale in a drastically different time period than today. This was an unarguably difficult period, not without sensationalized newspaper accounts of suffering, class warfare and envy promulgated in no small part by factions similar to those we are familiar with today. There were also the obligatory demands for government intervention by the likes of Jacob Coxey and company.
But the economy began to recover in 1896. And after the election of the pro-gold, high-tariff Republicans and William McKinley – over the pro-silver Democrat William Jennings Bryan – confidence soared, and the economy experienced 33 years of rapid growth.
How many are familiar with the “Sharp Recession of 1920-1921?” This depression was short lived in duration, but no less severe. Unemployment rose to 12 percent, wholesale prices declined to 37 percent, and once again the economy stood on the abyss. But as before, it recovered and experienced rapid unprecedented growth until 1929.
Of course, all are familiar with the accounts of the 1929 crash and the subsequent years – unemployment, foreclosures, bank failings, bread lines, stock market collapse, ad nauseam. The difference between the aforementioned and the earlier depressions is made by Dr. Walter Williams who points out, “In 1929, the collapse of the stock market would have lasted two or three years at the most. But the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations threw their stimulus packages and turned it into an affair that we didn’t get out of until 1946. They turned a short downturn into the “Great Depression.” The point being that America came out of two of the worst economic contractions in our history without the government intrusion of Roosevelt and, now, Obama.
History books, and many so-called educators today laud Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation as the ingenious efforts of a president who brought America out of the worst economic period in history. But that is a selectively myopic and wrong view of history pursuant to depressionary periods. Moreover, it is a baseless and incomplete representation of the same.
Seldom is it taught that Roosevelt hated the industry titans of his day and set the top tax rate at 90 percent on his version of the rich. Seldom is it taught that on May 27, 1935 (his aptly termed Black Monday), the Supreme Court handed down three unanimous opinions that struck down key provisions of the New Deal.
“In Louisville Bank v. Radford, the Court declared unconstitutional an act that provided mortgage relief for farmers. In Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the Court denied the president the power to replace members of independent regulatory agencies, thus thwarting his ability to bring the agencies in line with administration regulatory policies (see Appointment and Removal Power). And in Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States, the Court struck down the National Recovery Act, holding that Congress could not delegate such sweeping powers to an executive body (see Delegation of Powers).” It should also be noted that three liberal justices were included in those unanimous rulings.
Roosevelt, however, denounced the Court and introduced the “court-packing bill” in an attempt to expand Supreme Court membership, by which he planned to nominate justices who would side with him. This resulted in a bitter dispute between the two branches of government, with Roosevelt ultimately prevailing – which resulted in his overstepping the Constitution and ushering in the belief that government is our nanny.
Now President Obama has raised this same specter of government intrusion exponentially. Sadly, neither the president who is hailed as bringing us out of the Great Depression of 1929, nor the president who is being hailed as his modern-day successor, have belief in industry and confidence in people. To them, government is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient – the problem is, that title is already taken.
You’re exactly right Gunny. If I may add to your post, we need a nation that votes rather than sits at home watching some idiot reality show or sleeping late. We have become so slothful that almost half of our nation can’t even drag themselves to the polling place and pull a lever or black in a box. If they can’t do that, do they mean that it’s also too much trouble to vote early via the post office? Yet somehow they manage to yell, scream and gather in the streets protesting when things don’t go their way. Many in this nation are so accustomed to the government taking care of everything that if they delivered pizza, they’d want have it fed to them too and complain that the pepperoni wasn’t fresh.
I hope that those that did not vote for Obama and those that didn’t vote at all will see what road we have been put on and they come out to vote for Romney, even though he’s not the greatest candidate to have, he’s all we realistically have. He may or may not be on board with many of Obama’s plans, but we know where Obama wants to go. I’ll take the chance that Romney will have just a smidgen of patriotism and do what is right to perpetuate this nation. I’m sure Obama doesn’t. And voting for a third party candidate is certainly anyone’s right, but you may as well throw your ballot in the trash can if you do. The job is to remove Obama, not stand on principle.
To Obama, we are like Israel is to Hamas. And we’d better see it quick. I’ll not quit warning those in my email address book no matter how much it irritates some of them and especially those that think that Obama is the second coming. They’re the most fun to stir up because they cannot come up with a single truthful fact about his administration doing what’s best for this country.
And naturally you can lay down hard cash that my Senators and Representative hear from me regularly. I don’t argue with them, I simply state my position and plea that they wake up. They’re going to be cannon fodder too if they don’t.
sumitch: sometimes I think our founding fathers should have made minimal intelligence standards prerequisite to vote…
If we need patriotic Americans in D.C., it is ours to see to, all we have to do is select them and elect them. Of course, we have to be wise in history, studied in economics, and generally well educated if we are to make our own decisions, as “sovereign citizens”, and we have the duty of educating ourselves, not the option. We have the duty to determine who his honest, and we can trust in our district, and see that person elected.
The past presidential election is a perfect illustration of the entirety of our problems. Most of those who voted obama in, did so because he is Black, he was far better a speaker than the man put up to contend, and almost no one paid any attention to the facts that were well public at the time, and the fact he literally has never held a real job.
It is entirely our ignorance, and our acting without taking it into account, which put someone who literally does not know the first thing about governing, in office, and it is entirely the infiltration of our government for closing on two centuries of communists, controlling the central government, which have prevented any effort and all efforts to remove a proven criminal from office.
If we don’t choose to take back our Nation, the coming election means nothing, it matters little who gets elected, the nation will cease to be “America” within a year or two, as it retains barely the least remnants of its original form right now.
We can only rule our Nation if we are capable of ruling ourselves, and in this, we are utterly remiss. We can change our ways, and choose the ways of our ancestors, and return to being a moral and religious people, a Christian Nation, and restore the rule of law, or we can continue on our current path and fall.
Semper Fidelis,
John McClain
GySgt, USMC, ret.
john mcclain: you echo my sentiments…
My bad. Madamn Pelosi is in the House of Representatives, not the Senate. Please believe me. I knew that. I was just carried away.
sumitch: she belongs in a sanatarium for the evil insane…
I was about eighteen years old when I finally realized why my dad thought FDR was a communist. If good old dad were here today what would he say about Obama? After Mychal’s run-down on FDR era, we know that answer. Thanks, Mychal.
marilyn: your dad was spot on…
Bill. You’ve put together a nice sampling of what Obama has said and directed. Yet the Democrats stand around pointing their fingers at the Republicans and declare that we can’t move forward because they won’t cooperate with us. They blame their every failure on Bush, who is looking smarter and smarter every day with their failures. He may not have been a Rhodes Scholar, but he was an honest American.
What they mean is that those against their plans and policies (and it’s not just Republicans) and won’t agree to everything they want are the cause of the problems. They truly believe that everything Obama has done would have saved us instead of digging us deeper into the hole we’re in. They ignore the failures of his plans and actions and move right ahead with their baseless accusations while bringing the country closer and closer to destruction (which I believe is Obama’s goal).
We need a House of Representatives that will vote Boehner out and select someone with true leadership qualities and not a coward whose only goal is to stay in power, regardless of the damage to the country. We need a Senate without Reid and Pelosi and everyone that went along with them. We need governors that won’t accept bribes for votes and refuse to go along to get along as Nebraska has. We need a government that won’t look down their noses and proclaim everyone that disagrees with them to be stupid because we don’t recognize their magnificence.
Corny as it sounds, we need patriotic Americans in Washington DC rather than the self serving bunch of dolts we have. But just watch, these same people will be re-elected and sent back to continue their destruction of this country. There’s only one way this is going to end. Either with a new government via legal elections or a Harlem on steroids. Unless we are not willing to lay down and let them roll over us, we will be.
sumitch: OORAH…problem is that many of the repubs are no better than the dems…as boehner illustrates…
Least we forget, review…. a few past phrases from the Pharoh.
“A Republican majority in Congress would mean “hand-to-hand combat” on Capitol Hill for the next two years, threatening policies Democrats have enacted to stabilize the economy,” Obama, October 6, 2010
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama in July 2008
“I want you to argue with them and get in their face!” Barack Obama, September 2008
“We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.” Obama to Latinos, October 2010
“I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!” Obama on ACORN Mobs, March 2010
“We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.“ Obama on the private sector, June 2010
bill sr: thk you for reminding all of his treachery…
The way Holder & BHO continue to circumvent the oversight of the Legislative and Judicial branches leads me to believe they BOTH are super egomaniacs……again, like FDR
jr: like fdr yes…but you left out they are both involved…
This just makes me angry – angry that facts and the truth are hidden from people and false information or half truths are shown (and even worse, taught to our children in school). Thank you for bringing these to light.
dlb: permit me to point out what should be obvious…if Walter Williams and me can share these truths why do teachers/professors and politicians refuse to do same…the answer should also be obvious…
Mychal, I love your posts. They’re always great. Today was a very special treat though, with the information AND the last sentence. That is the best ever! I hope everyone particularly pays attention to that last sentence. :)
tricia: hahaha…thk you very much…
Mychal, if more people were exposed to true historic fact, instead of the constantly revised histories that many are taught in school, particularly at the college level, we’d be a lot better off…. THANKS for consistently being the voice of fact (and opinion, of course, always like to hear yours!)
deb: you are very welcome…