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Franklin D. Roosevelt
76th Congress
Alben Barkley
Carl Hatch
William B. Bankhead
Works Progress Administration
Hatch Act
Neutrality Act of 1939
Democratic Party History
Republican Party History
Economic Recovery in the Great Depression
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President: Roosevelt (D); Senate: Barkley (D-KY); House: Bankhead (D-AL).
Meanwhile, after the Republican surge of 1938 it was time for payback, and Congress passed the Hatch Act which forbade federal employees from engaging in political activities. The bill was sponsored by Senator Carl Hatch (D-NM) after disclosures about employees of the Works Progress Administration using their positions to win Democratic votes.
With isolationism a political factor Congress passed a Neutrality Act requiring all belligerents in the World War to pay cash for munitions (i.e., "cash and carry"). In practice this policy favored Britain and France since they had control of the oceans.
1929-1939: “A Decade that will live — in stupidity.”
Why Stuck on Stupid?
Seventy years ago the leaders of both US political parties turned away from the policies that had created an economic powerhouse we call the Roaring Twenties. For ten long years Americans suffered through wrenching economic dislocations: deflation, inflation, a four-year economic contraction, endless unemployment, mindless political experiments, and ruthless attacks on businessmen for political gain as their leaders stayed Stuck on Stupid.
Today, after a twenty-five year economic boom, Americans are once more faced with a political elite that wants to monkey with success. It wants to raise tax rates. It wants to restrict trade. It wants to increase government power.
It’s time to look back and remind ourselves how it came to be, starting in 1929, that America got itself Stuck on Stupid. Otherwise it could happen again.
— Christopher Chantrill
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