Forgotten Man, The (32 page)

“W
HAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS QUEUE?”
asked the poetess Florence Converse. Children waiting for milk ration in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hunger marchers converge on Washington in the winter of 1932 (
below
). The nation’s despair put the spotlight on reformers, including the left progressives. [AP I
MAGES
]

T
HE
M
ONEY
D
ROUGHT
. In the 1930s Americans learned the meaning of deflation when money literally ran out. Scrip money produced in New Jersey to substitute for the missing cash (
above, right
) [B
ETTMANN
/CORBIS];
Irving Fisher
, the Yale professor who advised succeeding presidents to inflate (
above, left
) [T
HE
G
RANGER
C
OLLECTION
, N
EW
Y
ORK
];
Hoover
and
Roosevelt
(
below
) at Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1933, a point when neither man fully understood the deflation problem [B
ETTMANN
/CORBIS].

“A
S WE WOULD TREAT THE EMERGENCY OF WAR
…” The New Deal emphasized the value of experimentation. Its centerpiece was the National Recovery Administration.
Above
:
Frances Perkins
, now labor secretary, sewing the first dress produced under NRA codes [AP I
MAGES
].
Below
: Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald
of Britain, President
Roosevelt
,
Ray Moley
(
second row, second from right
), and others on April 24, 1933, setting the course of America’s monetary future [B
ETTMANN
/CORBIS].

“T
ENNESSEE’S GONE WILD
… ” The Tennessee Valley Authority gave unprecedented political and economic power to public officials such as
David Lilienthal
(
above, right
) [AP I
MAGES
]. New laws pitted public utilities and their private counterparts against one another.
Wendell Willkie
(
above, left
) of Commonwealth and Southern, a holding company, soon realized his firm must fight to survive [AP [
OSCAR WHITE
/CORBIS]. Public projects such as the TVA enjoyed enormous support.
Below
:
Roosevelt
, his secretary of the interior,
Harold Ickes
, and
Rexford Tugwell
(
seated right
) celebrating the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Camp Fechner in Virginia in the summer of 1933 [AP I
MAGES
].

In 1934, with the economy still floundering, the Roosevelt administration sought to distract the nation through flamboyant prosecutions. The prosecutors targeted emblems of 1920s success, such as
Insull
of Chicago, or
Mellon
, the former treasury secretary.
Above
: Documents marshaled by the Justice Department and others in the case against
Insull
[B
ETTMANN
/CORBIS].
Below
:
Insull
behind bars in Turkey in the spring of 1934 [AP I
MAGES
].
Below, right
:
Mellon
consulting with his chief counsel,
Frank Hogan
, in 1935 [AP I
MAGES
].