“When Harold Ickes (1874 – 1952) took charge [as the Administrator of Public Works Three Billion Dollar Fund] the emphasis was all on speed in spending. He was under direct orders to shovel out three billion, three hundred million dollars as rapidly as possible. It would give work to the workless, get money into circulation and encourage business. The truth is that he did not succeed in this. I don’t know how much of the original fund remains in his hands, but it is certain that a very considerable sum must remain unexpended… He was vigorously criticized for his slowness. He was charged with holding back recovery. He was called unreasonable and arbitrary because he refused his assent to projects which had been sentimental pets in many localities for many a generation, but in which no businessman would have invested a dime.”
When W.W. II came along, Harold Ickes proved to be much better at running the Japanese-American internment camps – and you can read about that HERE…
Yet, regardless of the degradation of the Great Depression, the United States was still an enormously wealthy nation…
Here are various articles about FDR’s New Dealers:
Read about Harry Hopkins here…
Read about Bernard Baruch here…
Read about Vice President John Nance Garner here…
Read about Francis Perkins here…
Read about Harry Truman here…
Read about the first one hundred days of the New Deal here…
FDR’s critics had a thing or two to say about the first year of “The New Deal”…
Click here to read about the end of the Great Depression…
There were a number of journalists throughout the Thirties who insisted that the New Deal had a good deal in common with European Fascism – The Atlantic Monthly didn’t agree, and you can read their article HERE…
