Benjamin Brown

Professor Welsh
History 1700
August 2014
Dueling Document: Two Views of the Forgotten Man
This dueling document takes place toward the middle of the great depression. Document one was
from an Indiana farm woman named Minnie A. Hardin back in 1934. She lives alone on her farm and is
just scraping by trying to makes ends meet like most everyone else was during the depression. She
works hard every day feeding her own stock, chopping her own wood and anything else that needs to be
done on a farm. This reminds me of when I used to live in Big Sky Montana. I worked as a stone mason.
It was grueling work, especially during the winter months. On weekends my friends and I would cut
wood for the stove to heat the house. Montana winters are freezing cold! Ive also worked as a truck
driver, a welder and was in the U.S. Army for eight years. I can really identify with Mini about hard work
to some degree. She has a strong work ethic. When I read her letter to Mrs. F.D. Roosevelt, the first lady
at the time, I agreed with some of her complaints.
Mini lived during the roaring twenties. Toward the end of the decade President Herbert Hoover was
elected. Six months later the stock market crash of 1929 hit and spiraled out of control. People panicked
and began taking their money out of the banks so they wouldnt lose anymore. This only pushed the
depression further out of control. By the winter of 1931-1932 relief organizations were very low on
funds or completely out. This was back when private charities were the backbone of United States relief.
They shrunk from a strong safety net to a meager six percent of all relief funds. Private charity efforts
were failing. About 30 million needy people across the country drained the treasuries. Something had to
be done quickly. President Hoover took various actions to try and help the economy back on its feet but
their just wasnt substantial improvement. About seventy banks a week were failing. Congress pressured
Hoover to something so he allowed the creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Within
three months bank failures were down to about one every two weeks. Even though it helped the banks
the people were still suffering.
In November of 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president. He instituted his plan for relief
called The New Deal. It was born from the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration when he was
governor of New York. Under the new deal, Relief programs were expanded to form public works
programs. One program was called the Civil Works Administration. It employed four million Americans
for about a year but was quickly disbanded after it was discovered to be too costly. In Minnies letter to
the first lady she speaks of government relief workers from these types of programs as being pretty
much worthless. She says, There are several reliefers around here now who have now been kicked of
relief, but they refuse to work unless they can get relief hours and wages, but they are so worthless no
one can afford to hire them. She continues, The women and children around here have had to work at
the fields to help save the crops and several women have fainted while at work and at the same time we
couldnt go up or down the road without stumbling over some of the reliefers, moping around carrying
dirt from one side of the road to the other and back again, or else asleep. Minnie is clearly frustrated.
She and the other farmers need real help, not just workers that do the bare minimum and collect a
paycheck.
In document two Lorena Hickok, a reporter talks of how most people at that time dont want a hand
out, they want to keep their dignity and self-respect. She says, Into every relief office in the country
have come applicants, not for relief, but for jobs. More of them than you would perhaps believe have
shaken their heads and turned away when informed that it was really relief. Contrast that with our
welfare system today. Has it created a class of people that depend to heavily on it like President Hoover
feared? Its possible. But when it comes to charity I think its wise to error on the side of generosity.
When I hear people on talk radio talking about welfare reform and the fleecing of America by those
gaming the welfare system; my mind tends to tune them out and think of the bigger problems we face
as a nation. Problems like not being able to get a bill passed for the genuine good of the people because
its riddled with ear marks or because democrats and republicans refuse to agree for ultimate good of
the people they serve. My concern is that the forgotten man may turn into the forgotten country.