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The Depression Comes to Poughkeepsie -1930 -1936 Jack Lippman
Union Corners School 93
Union Corners School, District #3 - ca. 1890. Courtesy of the author.
Photo of the completed restoration. Courtesy of. the author.
programs. All in all, the project has been successful and Hyde Park has been able to preserve part of its local heritage.1
Endnotes 1r want to thank the late Miss Beatrice Fredriksen, formerly the Hyde Park Town Historian, and my wife, Joan Smith, for a great deal of information and for the historical research recorded in this article.
Also, further information can be found in an article entitled, "One-Room School ... Set for Historic Hyd~ P~rk'', Dutchess County Historical Society, Yearbook, Vol. 57, 1972, pages 86-87.
Main St. near Market St., Poughkeepsie - 1930. From the Frank Van Kleeck Collection of the Dutchess County Historical Society.
THE DEPRESSION COMES TO POUGHKEEPSIE Jack Lippman
1930-1936
The impact of the Depression on the economy of Poughkeepsie and the response of private and public agencies is analyzed. Initial disbelief about the longer range effects is discussed together with descriptions of the plight of affected families. Jack Lippman is Professor of History at Dutchess Community College.
On Tuesday, September 3, 1929, the Stock Market began to drop, on "Black Thursday", October 24, the stampede to sell reached its heaviest level. Within two weeks after "Black Thursday", the average price of common stocks was off by forty per cent. The slide into the. "Great Depression" had become striking and its shock waves raced across the land over telegraph and telephone lines.1
Ii the City of Poughkeepsie, on Friday night, September 20, 1929, the President of the Board of Charities said that "the board would probably ask the Common Council for an increase in its budget this year. 112 Alfred H. Fish, the President of the Board went on to say that the appropriation of $4,500, for its "outside 'work" was "exhausted early this month." The total budget for the Board of Charities for 1929, was about $39,000.3
While conceding that, "there is no question about the prevalence of unemployment in Poughkeepsie" or the demands upon the Board of Charities, for those out of work, Alderman Charles I. Lavery, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Common Council responded with the statement that, "I am not prepared to state whether I believe the board is entitled to an increase in its budget for this or any other reason. 11 4
There is some irony in the alderman's reluctance to consider enlarg~ng the budget of the Board of Charities on the threshold of great need. By 1932 the welfare needs had catapulted the budget to $212,210! 5 The "Great Depression" had come to Poughkeepsie.
The impact of this debacle can be seen in three aspects. First, on the lives of the citizens; secondly, upon the economy of the City, and thirdly upon the function of local government.
An editorial in the Poughkeepsie Eagle News, on
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Monday, 18 November 1929, reflected the optimism of the community. Almost a month after the stock market crisis, there was little realization of what was yet to come: 6
Welfare work in Dutchess County is still increasing because new needs are constantly being discovered. The time eventually should come, however, when money now being spent to put on end to dependency will begin to bring returns and barring any major increase in persons unable to maintain themselves, the curve should go downward ...
The Sunday Courier, commenting on the business community's plans for the fall and holidays business observed:7
The efforts of business men to hold their fall and holiday business is commendable ...
Poughkeepsie has been able to hold its fair share of trade in the past, but there is always room for improvement. We look for a healthy condition of business this fall and winter. There is no good reason why people of this community will not be fed, housed, clothed and educated this season as in past years. Therefore, it behooves all of us to work diligently for more business.
A month later, The Sunday Courier editorial addressed itself to the danger of "artificial means to legislate a condition of prosperity." The paper perceived of the current problem in simple and optimistic terms:8
As Christmas 1929 approached, the traditional concern with charity took on a somewhat more ominous tone which belied the "whistling-in-the-dark" optimism. "98 New Families added to Relief List of Associated Charities," was a reluctant headline for a story on page five of the Sunday Courier, the Sunday before Christmas. 9 The following Sunday Courier, editorialized on the subject of Christmas street decoTations in tones that further stripped away the bravado of
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earlier comments about the period of "economic adjustment":10
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Now that New Year's resolutions are in order, would it not be a good plan for Poughkeepsie to resolve not to again dip into public funds to the extent of $5,000 for holiday decorations in the city's already well lighted business streets? With the many appeals for funds to bring holiday relief to such a large number and the stories of want caused by unemployment, it would seem that the city is indulging in a bit of extravagance in spending $5,000 to spread colored lights along the business streets. The same amount of money would have brought relief to many families in the community. and the January 11, 1930 edition of the Poughkeepsie Eagle News, published a story of the growing agony occasioned by the depression:11 Cold Weather Bring Record Number of Flops To Police. A record number of stragglers almost 50 in number applied for lodging at police headquarters last night ...
On January 2, 1930, the Poughkeepsie Eagle News reported that local merchants were calling upon the police for better protection, reflecting an increase of crimes against business as desperation among the poor increased.12
Any hiatus in the needs of the distressed poor that summer brought, was quickly dissipating as fall approached and the Associated Charities in the city of Poughkeepsie feeling the growing demands requested $4,000 on September 10, 1930:13 ... to complete this year's service to families in distress ... This work included advice and assistance to 118 families faced with unemployment, sickness, domestic trouble, poor homemaking, old age and widowhood ...
The end of November 1930 saw bitter cold pile additional agony to the plight of the growing number of poor: 14
The cold snap which put an end to Indian summer in Poughkeepsie also precipitated one of the greatest floods of economic distress the
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city has ever known ... Families left destitute by unemployment, their troubles increased by the cold, stormed the Board of Public Welfare, the Associated Charities and the Salvation Army for clothing, food and fuel. AU three organizations were kept busy yesterday answering pleas for aid as the resistance of one family after another broke down under the onslaught of the weather.
Demands on the Salvation Army for assistance reached an unprecedented peak yesterday after a steady stream of calls Wednesday and Thursday .. . The Army headquarters gave out 52 overcoats ... and took in more than a hundred individuals for meals. In addition, underwear and other clothing as well as wood and coal were distributed to 261 families. This was in addition to 1,627 Thanksgiving dinners provided for the poor in 354 baskets sent out Wednesday, 'We 're swamped, ' Ensign Vansyckle said. 'If it keeps up I don't know what we'll do.'
The City Home, an arm of the Public Welfare Board, reported a wave of unprecedented calls upon their serv~ ices at this time. Colonel William L. Burnett, superintendent of the Home, noted that his organization had been kept busy for "the past three days responding to appeals for aid. 1115 Colonel Burnett estimated that the volume of appeals had, "exceeded by 15 per cent anything the department has experienced before. 1116 Stories of distress were echoed in the report from the Associated Charities~ Mrs. Dorothy Phelps Sweet, executive secretary of the Associated Charities reported that many calls were received for coal and wood as well as requests to have stoves repaired so they could be used: 17 When people haven't food in their bodies to keep them warm, they particularly feel the cold ... She went on to recount the story of a family brought to her attention:18 The father was earning $9 to $14 a week on .which to support a family of six. There are three healthy children and we want to keep them healthy so they won't be an added burden. Another case yesterday was that of a little girl found on the street crying because of the cold. Her family was investigated and given aid.
As the specter of hunger loomed large, the private
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charities, the traditional agencies for relief, once again attempted to cope. Starting in November 1930,
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the Salvation Army undertook a luncheon program for school children and reported distribution of 3,685 meals. 1 one ~ month later the The Associated Charities with gifts from churches, school children, Vassar College, the Good Fellowship Club and a local baking company, the Travis Baking Company, provided "Thanksgiving cheer" to 120 families. In reporting the Charities activities for November, Mrs. Sweet noted that the dire conditions were increasing, that there was need for warm clothing, food, milk and fue1.20 There could be little doubt in the minds of those confronting the disaster, that while there was unprecedented suffering throughout the city, worse was yet to come:21 the local press, while reporting "horror stories" about the depression, tended to do so primarily when they were from qutside of Dutchess County. Editorially, the local ~apers purveyed guarded optimism. Yes, the depression is hurting people, but it is not as bad in Poughkeepsie as it is elsewhere; things are about to get better.22 The business community also sought to persuade the people of Dutchess County that prosperity could be bought by spending on the purchase of consumer goods locally vended.23 Now is the best time to buy, the prices are at the best level, and it is patriotic, as well! But despite this attempt at pep and optimism, real pain continued and increased as the depression's onslaught widened.
A significant indicator of suffering is the increase in hospital care paid for by the Board of Public Welfare. In its Financial Report to the Common Council, dated July 1, 1931, the request is made for $80,000 to cover its activities for the remainder of the year. The detailed account of its work for the first six months show that of the $34,000 allowed for hospital care for the entire year, $6,457 remained. The Board's figures indicate an average monthly cost for hospital care of $5,000. On that basis a request for $25,000 for hospital care through the end of December 1931 was made.2~ In the light of earlier reports of the conditions of the poor, the increase in sickness should have surprised no one.
In December·of 1930, the Associated Charities visited homes in an attempt to assess needs for the Christmas season. Their findings provide an explanation for the surge of hospital cases:25
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... children are found without warm clothing, huddled about the stoves, babies pinched faces show lack of nourishment, and aged persons, not yet eligible for Old Age Allowances, are discovered trying to eke out an existence. Those in need, tell of having cashed in insurance policies, of exhausting scanty savings accounts ... The unrelenting cold continued to punish the area adding to the stress of the poor:26 A cold blast struck Poughkeepsie and this vicinity yesterday, bringing the temperature down to within 2.0 degrees of zero at midnight. Indications were that the cold might increase until near-zero temperatures were established ... Today will be cloudy and continued cold ...
Efforts by the community to deal with the misery of the depression reveal the concern for the cost to human life and dignity that the economic dislocation occasioned. Formal organizations such as the Salvation Army already in existences and experienced, assumed greater and expanded responsibilities in this effort; ad hoc charity groups were.organized to-aid in the struggle. Individuals, moved by compassion, offered what they could:27 Barber Shop Gives Help For Jobless Thomas and Victor Petronelli of United Will Furnish Free Hair Cuts Just because a man is out of work is no reason why he should look shoddy around the holidays, the owner of United Barber Shop on New Market Street believe ... This generous offer was accepted by more than a hundred persons, including jobless men and their families, and occasioned a plea for -police aid in maintaining order at the barber shop. The brothers Petronelli also requested that charity 6rganizations sending applicants for this free service, supply them with a "written slip so that the needy may be distinguished from the greedy. 1128 •
Community efforts to aid were also directed towards finding employment for the city unemployed. With a fund of $6,000 an effort was made to place on part-time
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jobs "about 150 men a week." It was hoped that these men could earn about $12 to $15 a week, 11in time for Christmas." • Some men had already been employed by the local power company, Central Hudson. "50 cents an hour will be paid as long as the committee's funds hold out. 1129 "The expenditure of $2,400 from Poughkeepsie's unemployment fund to give work to men ... authorized by the job committee ... " The Salvation Army in announcing this expenditure noted that $2,000 of this money was to be spent for the hire of day laborers to grade "the former Beck dock site for a new boat house under the supervision of the Board of Public works. 1130 $400 was to be used to employ men to cut wood for the Salvation Army woodpile.31 Street repairs by the City was also used as a means to employ the jobless, but the best that could be done was to attempt to provide three days em loyment for some of the city's employed on a rotating basis.32 The City reported that for the month of Octo er through mid-November 300 men were employed on work or the City. Mayor Caven's report noted that 220 had been employed full-time and 80 were employed parttime. 230 were employed by the City directly or indirectly and 70 by contractors in the city. The Mayor pointed to the fact that of these 300 jobs, none were paid for by private philanthropy.33
The Sunday Courier urged the city to break the depression by undertaking civic projects that would advance the city's facilities as well as employ its citizens and it insisted in editorials that reliance upon the market economy would restore prosperity.34 ... It is much better to awaken dormant infiuences such as business which is already sound than to attempt to iegislate conditions of prosperity ...
The Eagle News noted in October of 1930, while commenting editorially on the announced drive by the Kiwanis Club, to encourage the development of jobs, that the city of Poughkeepsie was suffering less than the rest of the nation and that the cure was in finding jobs for the jobless:35 • ... It wouid be ·a mistake at this time to take too pessimistic a view of the situation and to create a psychoiogicai depression which wouid intensify the iii effects of economic conditions. On the other hand, the facts as they exist
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mu.st be faced. Unless the community meets the problem of providing as mu.ch work as possible for its wage earners, there can be no question that the winter will witness mu.ch real suffering and that many may lack for ordinary necessities ...
Further evidence of the reluctance to view the situation in its stark and frightening reality can be ·found in the brave editorial printed in the Eagle News editorial commenting on the weekly luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club:36 A Reasoned Faith In the Future If there are those in Poughkeepsie who are apprehensive about the country's future prosperity, or doubt its capacity for progress, it's a pity that they might not have attended this week's luncheon of the Rotary Club and heard the talk of Charles M. Ripley of the General Electric Company. Mr. Ripley characterized the present economic situation as merely a dip in the upward surge of prosperity, a slight and temporary recession in the curve on the chart of progress ...
Less than a month before, the Poughkeepsie Eagle News reported the continued efforts of the apple selling campaign, for at least one more Saturday!37 Telephone shareholders were also advised of the need to raise prices for telephone rental, "due to the volume of business closing"!38 .
As Christmas, 1930 approached, the widening stain of want became more poignant. The struggle to provide for basic needs had to assume priority over the traditional gifts to children of playthings, but the community still sought to provide for a "Christmas (that) will be merry for the children."3 9 The Associated Charities had raised $253 for its Christmas fund for "fq_9~cl and fuel, milk and clothing ... necessities ... the New Year can only be made happier for the grownups by the restoration of the health of sick mothers and the securing of work by unemployed fathers."40 The degree of need was documented by the Associated Charities, in its appeals for contributions, but never more cogently than when it described:41 One mother, overburdened by a job outside her home undertaken when her crippled husband's
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earnings fell below th~ needs of the family, has had a nervous breakdown. Absolute rest and plenty of good food, the doctor says, will restore her health. In the meantime there are two healthy boys, both with growing children's appetites to be fed three times a day. The food and milk so much needed for the mother's recovery and to keep the hungry boys satisfied ...
Despite the brave and noble intent, private contributions for charitable activities proved to be an unreliable source of aid to stem the tide of desperation. In response to a fund ·raising appeal by Jewish Organizations for aid to the jobless one man responded:42 I am sorry that I cannot give $1 for the coal fund of the unemployed for my daughters are out of work and I was unemployed for two months before I got this job. A woman responded to the committee:43 Am very sorry not to comply with your request for funds, but my husband has been out of work for over five weeks and I have been ill. If anyone has work to do my husband would be glad to get it. Another letter said: 44 Very sorry that I cannot include $2 as I am on the verge of charity myself. One man wrote:45 Sorry I can't help, but I am unemployed and may have to appeal for coal if things don't improve.
Desperation resulted in desperate attempts by individuals to provide for the needs of loved ones. The Saturday morning, January 24, 1931, issue of the Poughkeepsie Eagle News reported on the front page the following story:46 Tale of Poverty Releases Woman A tale of poverty and squalor yesterday won the release of Anna Passante of Highland (a community across the Hudson from Poughkeepsie). 33 year old mother of eight children on a charge of petit larceny soon after her arrest by Detective Powers which cleared up a series of shop-
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lifting episodes in the city.
The charge against her was dismissed by City Judge Harcourt after E. J. Oesteriche~ manager of Kinney's Shoe Store~ declined to press the complaint when he heard the tale of misery and woe unfold by Mrs. Passante.
She promised~ however~ to return to police headquarters tomorrow to show police the other places where she visited and obtained merchandise.
Mrs. Passante appeared in the Kinney Shoe Store yesterday morning and asked for a pair of boots. The clerk went to the cellar and while he was gone~ she appropriated to her own use two pairs of shoes~ a number of pairs of stockings and a fountain pen. When the clerk returned she said the boots were not what she wanted and she left. The loss of the merchandise was noticed almost immediately and police headquarters was notified ...
She said her husband was out of employment. She declared that her family was at one time a wealthy Highland fruit faI'117.er but that his (sic) home burned down and the family went to live in a chicken coop ...
She said she had worked at various jobs to support the family and had taken to shoplifting to try to swell the family income. She said her children range in age from 1 to 13 years.
The problems facing the institutions of charity had begun to appear even before that fateful October in 1929. On Friday night, September 20, 1929, the president of the Board of Charities in an address to the Common Council asserted that the growing problem of unemployment, "particularly of men more than· 45 years old", was placing an increased burden on the Board and that they would most probably ask the Common Council "for an increase in its budget this year. 11 47 He. pointed out that allotted funds had been exhausted "early this month and money will have to be raised some way to carry on the work for the rest of the year. 11 48 The president of the Board could not estimate just how much more money would be requested to add to the Board's budget of $39,000. In reporting thismeeting, the newspaper did not hold out much hope for this increase, since the city was in the hands of a Demo-
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cratic administration, then, "bidding for re-election" and it had, "already announced the policy of sharp slashing on the budget this Fall ... 1149
January 1930 began with efforts to find work for the growing number of needy with an appeal for money to be used to pay for work for those unemployed; tasks needing to be done, civic work, for which the city had no funds. As reported in The Eagle News on January 3, 1930, "912 days of work given to date", but with a balance of only $3,000, only a thousand days of work could be provided, and it was estimated that the funds would be exhausted by the end of the month or, at best, sometime in the next month. This figure is less impressive when one converts it into its substance, namely, enough funds to provide a hundred men with ten days work eachJ50 A year later, this project could only promise three days of work, and the redoubtable Colonel Burnett, who headed this venture too, was quoted as placing the project with its "back to the wall. 11 51
Every effort that could provide employment in Poughkeepsie was lauded and publicized. When Vassar College announced a building and maintenance program in January, 1930, the local press made much of the proposal which would expend $620,000 and which was motivated by a desire to aid in the battle against unemployment. The report of this activity could not give any particulars as to when the money would be "forthcoming. 11 52
The annual appeal for funds for Christmas made in 1930, was couched in different terms than those in the 1920s, reflecting the dramatically different nature of the needs of the time:53 The Associated Charities is making its annual holiday appeal~ not merely for its X'mas work with the families in its charge but for money for the far more pressing demands which will be made upon it in the course of the winter ... This winter all our social service agencies will bear a heavier burden than usual ... Demands upon the winters ... acting as an agent for the corrrmunity ... to ... produce a maximum of return in the alleviation of suffering.
In supporting this drive, the Poughkeepsie Eagle
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News pointed out in an editorial that funds contributed would be used with care and economy and that each case would be carefully investigated. The editorial stressed also that relief would be in the form of:54 ... providing work for the jobless and not direct relief in the form of grants of money for food and clothing and coal.
A fundamental approach to the problem revolved around the idea that the only way out of the doldrums was the generation of purchasing power, and this could only be accomplished by jobs, hence the stress placed upon making jobs, rather than outright dole. The support for this notion is reflected in the many editorials on this approach published in the Poughkeepsie Eagle News and in the Sunday Courier. One such editorial in the Poughkeepsie Eagle News was headed, "Real Aid For The Jobless 11 :55 ... to provide work for the jobless which will enable them to earn money toward the support of their families ...
A few days before the year's end an editorial quoted a statement made by Dr. Julius Klein, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, to one of the nation's largest advertising agencies, to the effect that the depression was being maintained by a depression psychology. Dr. Klein argued that:56 The firm which eliminates or radically curtails its advertising at this time in the interest of economy is pursuing a shortsighted policy.
Work relief was an acceptable policy, and the City sought to make it work. Street repairs were undertaken as were other municipal construction and repairs. The hard winters which did so much to increase the misery of the poor, ironically als6 provided some aid in temporary employment clearing away the heavy snowfalls.57 Every effort to find work through voluntary means were pursued but the results were disappointing.
After repeated appeals for funds, the Citizens' Committee on the Relief of Unemployment, reported bitterly that "not a single donation" had been received. The Committee reported that it had funds left for only two days. The front page story reporting this condition was headed, "Appeal Falls On Deaf Ears."58
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... Faced with a steady stream of applicants for jobs and with only enough money to provide work for the rest of the week~ the Citizens' Corronittee For the Relief of Unerrrployment must have $3~000 to carry the city's jobless through another month and out of the winter. An urgent appeal for more contributions was made ...
While men are being turned away~ the funds to pay those now at work are fast di.Jindling ...
It was revealed ... that only 125 persons out of a population of more than 40~000 have contributed. Merchants have failed to support the fund ...
Above the paper's masthead was emblazoned "Local Unemployment Committee 'Broke' and Needs $3,000 11 .59 In response 'some additional funds were forthcoming, but it is clear that the well was rapidly being drained dry. In light of the deepening crisis there was concern about the possibility that non-Poughkeepsians might be recipients of jobs so desperately needed by residents.
James B. Way, newly appointed Superintendent of Streets, announced that he would not approve of any nonresidents as employees in his department:60 ... I believe that since the people of Poughkeepsie are paying for the upkeep of this department they shou!d be exclusively errrp loyed in it.
The problem with outsiders was to appear in the future in other forms, but in all cases to tax further, the recourses of the struggling city, but the main problem of coping with the dire effects of the economic crisis continued to plague Poughkeepsie. The case load for the Department of Public Welfare grew with the deepening depression, with concomitant increases in cost.
Table 1: Case Loads & Costs of Public Welfare 1931-1934
1931
Case load 3,756 Cost $56,433.22 1932
8,344 $181,069.00 1933
12,423 $317,258.49 1934
13,923 $328,961.56
Source: Department of Public Welfare City of Poughkeepsie. Report on Costs of Home Relief For the Years 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1934. (Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1935).
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Table 2: Family Welfare Association Report: The Nature of the Cases Handled in 1931
Problem Number of cases
Physical illness Mental illness Unemployment Widows and dependent children Indebtedness Underemployment Maternity Mental defectiveness suspected Chronic illness Acute illness Disability due to old age Behavior problems Insufficient earnings (work full-time) Need of optical care Need of dental care Nomadic families
115 58 212 44 30 33 19 18 16 15 14
9 8 7 6 6 Source: Family Welfare Association of the City of Poughkeepsie. A Report To You Of The Results From Your Gift To The Family Welfare Association. (Formerly Associated Charities) (Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1931).
The Family Welfare Association's reports for 1933 and 1934 show declines in the number of cases handled by that agency,61 but the health problem had not been solved, it had found other agencies to turn to for help, namely, public ones.
The Board of Public Welfare's annual report to the Common Council for 1934 reflects this change in direction to those needing help. In the section headed, "REPORT OF MEDICAL ATTENDANCE", the opening paragraph reveals some indication of the state of health among the poor:6 2
On Janua:t'y 1st~ 1934 we were carrying what was probably the heaviest case load of relief clients in the history of the Department~ and this situation was reflected in the large increase of applicants for hospital care~ with a corresponding heavy financial outlay to meet these costs. •
In reporting the progress of its annual Christmas Seal sale for 1931, the Dutchess County Health Associa-
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tion noted the urgency for the purchase of the Seals because of "the alarming prevalence of tuberculosis in adolescents in many sections of this county ... 11 63
Hunger, a contributor to ill health, was a constant presence in the City, moved the Sunday Courier to editorialize:64
Feed The Children ... children in the City ... go to school every morning without sufficient breakfast--some of them without any. In a City of the size and prosperity of Poughkeepsie this conditfon should not exist. The Parent-Teacher Associations of the various schools are doing excellent work in helping clothe needy children~ but because of lack of funds they have not been able to do as much as they would like in the way of providing food ... The editorial then called upon the public for contributions to remedy this tragic condition. A few weeks later the Sunday Courier moved this appeal from its editorial page to the front page, reflecting the urgency of this situation:65 LET'S HELP FEED THE CHILDREN Many Youngsters Go To School Without Breakfast Teachers Report--You Can Help Provide Them With Food The New Year is here. Real winter has arrived. The public schools reopen tomorrow. Are you going to let any school boy or girl go hungry this winter? ... Again, the newspaper called upon the citizens of Poughkeepsie in the battle against hunger which had invaded the City's schools. The efforts of the community to deal with this problem through such voluntary organizations as the Salvation Army were laudable, but taxed resources by the demands made upon them. The City had to help defray the costs. The Salvati6n Army claimed recompense for 1,500 meals distributed in November, 1931. The charge to the City was at the rate of ten cents a meal amounting to $150. On one day, Saturday, December 5, 1931, the police department gave out 27 meal tickets for breakfast, redeemable at the Salvation Army's coffee house, a facility set up to provide breakfast for the hungry. Also given out were 19 meal tickets for supper.66
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As 1931 drew to a close the growing financial burden caused by the depression had not· only reduced the capacity of voluntary agencie~ to meet the demands piling up, but had had similar effects upon the Welfare Board.
Through most of the year, the Board of Welfare fund had been operating at a deficit, and at the December meeting of the Common Council Mayor Alexander Caven urged a formal resolution, which was adopted, to protest to the State, against further public welfare legislation mandating expenditures by the City in this field. The Common Council was told of the $23,200 deficit in the Welfare Board's fund. John B. Van De Water, the Corporation Counsel for the City of Poughkeepsie, advised the Council that the City had reached its borrowing capacity under the charter, and could not raise any more money until January 1, 1932. The City of Poughkeepsie had reached the bottom of the barrel, with ten days left in the yearJ67
The editorial entitled "Another Welfare Deficit" commenting on the state of affairs and of the Common Council's resolution said:68 Poughkeepsie's case is no worse than tha,t of other cities~ and probably considerable better than most. But despite the most careful and conscientious administration of charity funds it has ha,d constantly recurring deficits to contend with. At present it has reached a stage revealed at last night's Council meeting~ at which it simply ha,s to let its old age pension claims go until the first of the year ... The prospects are tha,t it will fall farther and farther behind as time goes on ...
The Citizen's Committee on the Relief of Unemployment reported that it needed $40,000 to meet its responsibilities, but at year's end they had raised only slightly more than half.69
December 30, 1931, the editors of the Poughkeepsie Eagle News in an editorial commenting on welfare workers' testimony before the La Follette sub-committee in Washington, D.C. in which those who spoke appealed for federal funds to stem the tide, argued that while no one could deny the existence of need, or the accuracy of the testimony, the state was the logical level
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of government for this problem, not the Federal Government.70
By any standard 1931 was a bleak year, one filled with a great deal of misery and hopelessness, and if the editorial writer believed that there was greater ills in turning toward Washington for aid than in suffering, he merely reflected the Hoover view.
President Herbert C. Hoover had delivered a statement in February of 1931 in which he said:71 Where people divest themselves of local government responsibilities they at once lay ,the foundation for the destruction of their liberties ...
In an editorial commenting upon this speech, delivered on Lincoln's birthday, the Poughkeepsie Eagle News warned:72
... The states must stop bartering their traditional prerogatives either for the ease which comes from the side-stepping of authority or for the material benefits that comes from the federal treasury ...
Several months earlier the level of morale was so low that a local theater was moved to abruptly cancel further showings of that classic "tear jerker" East Lynne which had been booked and advertised for a week's fun. This classic of the stage a quarter of a century before was deemed too depressing. The newspaper, in reporting the cancellation, quoted the management of the theater under the caption:73 'East Lynne' Too sad for 1931 Modern Age Turns Thumbs Down on State Favorite of 25 Years Ago Showing Here ... Theater patrons today want the story which looks at the bright side of life ... It was replaced by a musical!
The Sunday Courier could not quite replace the grim reality of the depression with a musical, so it suggested that the nation was succumbing to "Depression Hysteria". An editorial with that caption was printed September 20, 1931:74
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The so-called business depression and the resultant unemployment will simply be aggravated and made worse by forms of hysteria and exaggeration that go with a crisis or catastrophe.
Worry kills more men that (sic) work ... Hysteria prolongs more depressions ...
The majority of us remember the wild stories of the World War. We believed them then. We do not believe them now ...
But now America finds herself in a similar, but not much less damaging situation of depre~sion hysteria ...
In the first place, we are believing nearly every assertion broadcast, purporting to the fact, regarding the number of unemployed ... only one figure is correct. Which is it? Are there 6,000,000 or 2,000,000 unemployed in the United States of America? Somebody possibly is off about four million one way or another. Quite a difference.
Hysteria or no, every indicator of the economic conditions in the City reflected real cause for worry. The monthly accounts from the City Treasurer presented to the Common Council in its October meeting in 1931 showed that the total receipts for income had dropped from the previous year more·than fifty per cent! It was reported as $35,062.63; it had been $72,061 in 1930, and $78,209.41 in 1929.75
The General Funds.account of the City had, since 1927, begun to show overdrafts on a monthly basis, as the call on City funds had grown. It was possible to do this by using funds paid by property owners through the expedient of depositing money collected from them for their share of public improvement warrants in advance of the dates when the public improvements were due in the General Fund account. By 1931, this overdraft practice showed the City in the red in _this fund, the year ending with an overdraft balance of $84,257.64.76
Suggestions from the Taxpayers Association also indicate the growing pressure on the City's resources. A letter from the Association entered into the minutes of CoITu~on Council's November 1931 meeting, contained two suggestions, one as an economy measure, and the other an appeal for help for the struggling City:77 ... In view of the present financial condition of this city and the general demand for
The Depression Comes to Poughkeepsie
113
economy ... which might be chargeable to and payable out of city funds be omitted this year ... The Taxpayer's Association stands ready to assist the Mayor or the Common Council either here or at Albany by delegation, committee, or in writing with petition attached in an effort to secure for our city a portion of the Gas Ta.x moneys collected by the State. This money would revert to our Board of Public Works to help defray paying ex-penses. The cities of the state pay about 60% of the total Gas Ta.xes collected.
At the December meeting, the Taxpayer's Association submitted another appeal which. clearly reflects the depressed financial condition of its members: 78 ... request ... Common Council ... consider the possibility of allowing for this year, an· extension of time of two months for the payment of ta.xes, without penalty or interest, the same as has been done in Rochester and some other cities.
The Corporation Council, in response to a request for his legal opinion, responded for the December meeting of the Common Council that the Charter did not permit this in Poughkeepsie. To accomplish this required a charter amendment which could not be acted upon soon enough to beat the tax paying date established by the charter and therefore could not be done in time for any practical benefit.79
The proposal by the' Taxpayer's Association called for a two months period of grace, without penalty or interest in which the property owners could extend their payments of taxes due the City. An editorial comment upon this plan, headed "Deferred Tax Payments", rejected the idea on the grounds that it would do nothing for those most in financial need:80 ... two months grace will afford them only a savings of two months interest, which at six per cent would be one per cent of their bills. Of course this would mean a considerable amount to large ta.xpayers, but it would mean comparatively little to the small property owner. Even on a $15,000 assessment, which is above the average for homes, at a $50 rate, the savings would be only $7.50, and for a
114 Jack Lippman
great many of the persons on whom the present depression falls heaviest the_savings would be little more than a couple of dollars ...
The issue was debated further, but no charter amendment was introduced to accomplish the Taxpayer's Association suggestion. The Chamber of Commerce directed its solutions at another target, namely unions. If the unions would reduce their wage scale for a limited time, it was thought that the Unemployment Relief Committee could place "a number of men" who would be able to earn "$12 or $15 a week in time for Christmas. 1181 The representative of the Poughkeepsie Trade and Labor Council was invited to the meeting but announced that while he would be willing to discuss the suggestion, the unions would not consider such a suggestion.82
Department heads in the Dutchess County government met and agreed to take a 10 per cent cut in salary to take effect September 1, 1932 and to continue through May 1, 1933. If economic conditions had not improved by then, the decrease in salary would continue. The following day, June 24, 1932, the Poughkeepsie Eagle News reported on the front page that the "Heads Of City Boards Agreed To Pay Return". The body of the story reported that the City Administration had requested all officials and municipal employees to assign ten per cent of their salaries to the Public Welfare Fund for the months of September, October and November.83
A few weeks later, the newspaper headlined that the Aldermen had taken a pay cut, and that 37 city officials had signed agr2.ements to turn over their contribution of ten per cent to the fund.84 This phenomenon spread to the paid firemen, 85 and to the teachers.86 These actions were applauded not only for the humane gesture in contributing to the aid of the distressed, but because it coincided with the prevalent notion that what government had to do was to economize.
One persistent phenomenon in this period, was -the decline in the circulation of money. About a quarter of America's labor force were out of work in 1932 and 1933. In all the previous depressions in America's history, none had affected the.laboring force so destructively. The Federal Governments' expansive fiscal policy during the New Deal appears to some to have been far too little to effectuate a necessary
The Depression Comes to Poughkeepsie
PRIMING IT ! 115
i
r-·
I
SOURCE: t'Oughkeepsie Eagle News, 27 December 1930
increase in the supply of money, but the fiscal policies of the states and local government were contracting. State.constitutions and local government charters made no provisions for deficit spending. When the Public Welfare Board's funds were depleted before ·the year's end, Poughkeepsie borrowed money through the acceptable instrument of bond issues. This meant that on January 1, the City's books were balanced. Tax increases were also characteristic of the period. 87
The incoming Common Council, on January 2, 1933, announced with pride that it was "pruning" the City payroll. This action turned out three ash garbage inspectors and abolished these positions. This was an "economy" move doubly sweetened 1:>ecause those turned out had been appointed by late administration,
116
ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE POSSIBILITY Jack Lippman
71k
~J
SOURCE: Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 6 February 1931
which hact been Democratic.88 · There were subsequent reductions in other departments as well, including the police and fire. 89 Moreover, in the face of -t'he growing incapacity of many to buy, not because o~ ~Jtiation, but because of absences of money, there was an abnormal emphasis on the danger of inflation; this at a time of unprecedented deflation.
Discussions.about the proposal to pay off the veterans' bonus reveals this fear. President Hoover's opposition to this payment in paper money was clearly based upon the inflationary impact this would have. In Poughkeepsie there were many who shared this concern as a series of articles in the local newspapers attest. An editorial entitled "The Economics of Bonus Payment" which appeared in the Poughkeepsie ·Eagle ·News Febru-
The Depression Comes to Poughkeepsie
117
ary 3, 1931, is illustrative of this point of view. It spoke out strongly against the payment because it would, said the editorial writer, inflate the economy, depress the value of government bonds and encourage unemployment. A cartoon by the distinguished political cartoonist, Cargill, underscored the apprehensions about devastation which the passage of the bonus payment bill must visit upon an already reeling America. It showed a rotund male figure in dark suit and wide brimmed hat, identified as the Senate, standing next to a mortar which he had just fired and the falling shell is poised over a structure labeled "Business and Financial Structures", as a staggering figure viewing this is saying, " ... we're ruined!", the shell is labeled "Bonus payments. 1190 The failure to grasp the reality of the contraction in consumer spending is difficult to understand from the vantage point of almost a half a century later.
Pronouncements in the local newspapers about depression hysteria, editorials urging spending, advertisements purveying patriotic efforts to spend the nation out of the depression, as well as the opportunity for bargains, reveals as perhaps no other method can that there seemed to be a perception of Americans hiding their money in mattresses who had to be enticed to spend. In one of the many editorial efforts in this direction, headed "Buy Now", this perception is quite clear:91
... Poughkeepsie is not lacking in money. It fortunately has experienced no PSYCHOLOGICAL BUYING STRIKE such as has hurt some communities~ but it has not been buying as much as it can and should. If everyone would buy normally~ the greater part of the present problem would be solved ...
Poughkeepsie viewed the calamity of the Great Depression as though it were a natural disaster. In its response, it called upon civic pride and charity from its own community, to meet the trial. The citizens, organizations of charity, the fraternal groups and the business community answered the call for aid. Committees were formed to place men into jobs, to provide food, clothing and shelter for those in need; the City bustled with activities toward these ends. A careful survey of the main daily and weekly newspapers from the onset of the crisis and throughout the period under examination, reveals this activity. No edition
118 Jack Lippman
of these papers failed to print a story about what was happening in this battle. Editorials, committee reports, and appeals for support, were a daily occupation, (a weekly one in the Sunday Courier), in the Poughkeepsie .·Eagle. News. Mass meetings, benefit dances, clothing drives, even the free haircutting service reported above, all reflect real concern and willingness to help. While the politicians and the newspapers recognized the national and indeed, international, components of the qepression, they approached it in the time-honored minute-man fashion. It assumed a local perspective and in true-blue traditional posture not only resented at first, but actively opposed, any action by Albany or Washington which seemed to depart from the past. In an already cited editorial affirmation of President Hoover's Lincoln Day address in 1931, the editors expressed the community fear of the errosive effects of a federal bureaucracy, "supreme over a collection of weak governments," the editorial then went on, "when the doing of the public business shall have lost all contac_ts with the people ... 11 92
The Great Depression was not like a catastrophic fire, or a breached dam; the depression was not caused in Poughkeepsie, nor could it be cured in Poughkeepsie. After circling the wagons in a valiant effort, the defenders found that the enemy could not be repulsed. Voluntarism, while it had and still has much to commend ,it as an American way to accomplish some community ends, could not then, nor can it now, cope with a problem of the magnitude of the economic debacle of a national depression. Reluctantly, this became apparent to the citizens of Poughkeepsie, and Albany and Washington became part of the defense forces in what should have been perceived as a common struggle.
SUMMARY The "Great Depression" engulfed the citizens of the City of Poughkeepsie shattering lives, bringingdistress in an unprecedented degree. A budget allotment of $39,000 for charity for 1929 almost doubled by 1930, it mo-re than tripled by 1931 and by 1932 had skyrocketed more than five-fold.
Under assault by need, the citizens attempted to rally in the traditional voluntary way, only to find the danger of such magnitude as to dwarf their resources. Despite efforts to discourage the seeking of aid from
The Depression Comes to Poughkeepsie
outside of the community on the grounds that such succor from the state or worse, the Federal governments, would lead to the loss of home rule, the City Fathers were unable to resist the help from those quarters.
Such aid put men to work, provided sick and old-
119
age support and relieved some of the misery of the absence of money to pay for food, rent and fuel. In a combined effort, the citizens of Poughkeepsie and their elected officials soon came to accept the cooperative nature of the struggle against what was slowly being perceived as a national, and indeed an international, crisis, and to turn with more enthusiasm and hope to the resources of the Federal Government in the struggle to extr~cate the City from the worst effects of the Great Depression.
ENDNOTES
1Board of Governors of.the Federal Reserve System. Federal Reserve Bulletin, xvi, No. 1 (January 1930) p. 14. 2Poughkeepsie Eagle News.· 21 September 1929, p. 1, (hereafter cited as PEN). 3Ibid. 4 PEN., 24 September 1929, p. 3. 5Minutes of the Common Council of the City of Poughkeepsie, 19 October 1931, (hereafter cited as Minutes.) 6 PEN., 18 November 1929, p. 6. 7(Poughkeepsie) Sunday Courier, 17 November 1929, p. 6. The editorial was entitled! 11Logical Business. 11 (hereafter cited as S.C.) 8s.C., 15 December 1929, p. 6. 9 S.C., 22 December 1929, p. 5. 10 S.C., 20 December 1929.
120 Jack Lippman
11PEN., 11 January 1930. 12PEN., 2 January 1930. 13PEN., 11 September 1930. 14PEN., 29 November 1930. See also, 16 December 1930. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19PEN., 3 December 1930. 20PEN., 11 December 1930. It was reported that 400 families were provided with food through private charities. PEN., 28 Novembe_r 1930. 21PEN., 11 December 1930. PEN., 22 October 1930, editorial cartoon. PEN., 13 November 1930. 22 S. C. , 30 September 1930. ·PEN. , 26 October 1930. PEN., 27 October 1930. In an editorial, "A Reasoned Faith in the.Future", the Poughkeepsie ·Eagle News. The editors saw reasons to be optimistic. Reporting on a speech at the Rotary Club by Charles M. Ripley of the General Electric Company, the editor summarized Mr. Ripley's characterization of "The present economic situation as merely a dip in the upward surge of prosperity, a slight and temporary recession in.the curve on the chart of progress ... " 23PEN., 18 Novemper 1930. A half-page advertisement vending optimism asked, "Is.Business Shot? Or only Half-Shot? (We Mean in Poughkeepsie)." PEN., 20 November 1930. A quarter page advertisement donated by the newspaper. ·PEN., 21 November 1930. A full page advertisement trumpeting spending as patriotic. PEN., 11 November 1930. An editorial urging the readersto make their purchases now. The editorial was entitled, "Best Time to Spend." PEN., 22 November 1930. An editorial pronounced, "Poughkeepsie Prospers." PEN., 20 December 1930. A frontpage story about economic conditions asked, "Is it mental?".
The Depression- Comes to Poughkeepsie 121
24Minutes, 20 July 1931. The request. was made to the chairman of the Finance Committee, but- the letter accompanying the request noted.that there was no balance. Iri fact, .they were overdrawn to the amount of $750. See also, 'PEN., 31 December 1931. A front page story, "What Charity Costs Dutr>.hess." 1930 1931
T.B.
$28,335.93 $52,516.09 Hospital $63,897.17 $64,945.77 See also, S.C., 6 December i931. "Alarming prevalence of T.B. in adolescents in many sections of this county ... " The lead in an article soliciting Xmas seals. 25PEN., 16 December 1930. The front page story headlined, "Plea By Associated Charities" in recounting the associated charities general secretary's report. See also, S.C., 27 December 1931. Editorial headed, "Feed The Children" pointed to the plight of the poor and the obligation to feed the children. 26PEN., November 1930. The front page story headlined,"The Cold Snap" spoke to the misery of the distressed poor assaulted by bitter weather; One of the greatest floods of economic distress the city has ever knouJn ... Families left destitute by unemployment, their troubles increased by the cold, stormed the Board of Public Welfare for clothing, food and fuel. All three organizations were kept busy yesterday answering pleas for aid as the resistance of one family after another broke down under the onslaught of the weather. See also, PEN., 16 December 1930. 27PEN., 5 December 1930. 28PEN., 10 December 1930. 29PEN., 16 December 1930. 3oPEN., 17 December 1930. 31 Ibid. 32PEN., 19 December 1930. 15 men employed on a grading job. See also, PEN., 20 December 1930. Also, 23 December 1930. By 23 December, 50 men were added to the original 15 men. Bitterness developed when the Superintendent of Public Works accused the jobless of
122 Jack Lippman
refusing to help the city dig out of a heavy snow fall on Saturday, 27 December, because they were, "too well taken care of by charity." See PEN., 29 December 1930. 33PEN., 4 December 1930. See also; 'PEN., 29 December 1930. Editorial entitled, "Jobs Not Doie." 34 S.C., 1 December 1929. Also; S.C., 15 December 1929. --
35PEN., 30 October 1930. 36PEN., 12 December 1930. 37 PEN., 24 November 1930 .. The apple.selling campaign earned $40! See also, PEN., 21 November 1930 for a report on the inception of the apple selling campaign. 38PEN., 26 December 1930. 39PEN., 18 December 1930. 40 rbid.
41 Ibid.
42 S.C., 3 January 1931. 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46PEN., 24 January 1931. 47PEN., 21 September 1929. 48 Ibid., PEN., 23 September 1929. 49 Ibid., Only two days later the PEN. reported the letting of contracts for $40,000,000 for the construction of the Empire State Building. 50PEN., 3 January 1930. 51PEN., 21 February 1931. 52PEN., 7 January 1930.
The Depression Comes to Poughkeepsie 123
53PEN., 16 December 1930. 54PEN., 18 December 1930. 55 Ibid. 56PEN., 29 December 1930. 57PEN., 13 January 1931. Also, PEN., 19 December 1930. 58PEN., 19 February 1931. A front page appeal had been made the day before.
Urgent Appeal.· .. $3.,000 Is Found Needed To Provide Another Month of Work Only 125 Persons Have Contributed To This Fund. PEN. , 18 February 1931. 59PEN., 22 December 1930. This edition revealed that $1,000 had been received in donations in response to appeals. 60PEN., 3 January 1931. 61 Family Welfare Association of the City of Poughkeepsie. A Report To You Of The Results From Your Gift To The Family Welfare Association. (Formerly. Associated Charities) (Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 1934). 62 Board of Public Welfare City of Poughkeepsie. Report On Costs Of Home Relief For The Years 1933 and 1934. (Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 1935). 63 rbid., The article also contains a survey of the sources of monies from the towns in Dutchess County. 64 s.c.' 6 December 1931. 65 s .c., 3 January 1931. 66 S. C., 6 December 1931. 67PEN., 22 December 1931. See also, Minutes, 21 December 19·31. 68PEN., 22 December 1931. 69PEN., 30 December 1931. 70 rbid.
124 Jack Lippman
71PEN., 17 February 1931. 72 Ibid. 73PEN., 12 March 1931. 74 s.c., 20 September 1931: Ths ·surid~Y ~durier operating on the theory of· the depression as· a psychological phenomenon,.printed an editorial arguing that the depression was over, the economy could now be expected to climb. In what has to be the most incredible example of circular logic, the editor wrote, "prosperity is the only thing that will oust a depres-sion." S.C., 22.November 1931. See also; ·s.c., 29 November 1931: "Saving and Spending, The Psychology Approach 11 , and S.C., 20 December 1931: "What about Depression?" -75Minutes, 19 October 1931~ See also, S.C., 25 October 1931. These figures represented monies realized from franchise and bank taxes. This dramatic decline gave some clue to the state of business in Poughkeepsie at that time. 76M· 21 D b 1931 1nutes, ecem er .
77M. t 1nu es, 26 November 1931. 78Minutes, 1 December 1930. An association of business men and property owners concerned about public policy effect upon their interests. 79Minutes, 15 December 1930. The law made action before 15 January 1931 impossible.
SOPEN., 11 December 1932. 81P..,N _E_. ' 82 Ibid. 16 December 1930.
83PEN. , 23 June 1932. See also, PEN. , 24 July 1932. 84PEN., 15 July 1932. See also, Minutes, 2 May 1932 and id., 30 May 1932. 85PEN., 21 July 1932.
