The New Deal

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, first elected in 1932, was a hero not only to the nation but to residents of Anne Arundel because he put people back to work. Nationwide in 1932 monthly wages were only about 60 percent of what they had been in 1929 and average monthly unemployment was 12 million.

Although Maryland had been spared the initial crash, things were getting worse here, too. Unemployment was up, many companies in Baltimore were going bankrupt and people were turning to the government for help.

J.H. Janney, chairman of the Anne Arundel Relief Committee, said the numerous families that had asked for public assistance were getting little more than starvation rations, according to historian Robert J. Brugger.

Federal and state governments had been backing away from the public's grinding need for assistance to avoid heavy taxes. But in 1932, Gov. Albert C. Ritchie organized a governors advisory committee on unemployment relief.

It was one of the first in the country, and doled out state funds by raising short-term borrowing. There was even talk of Ritchie joining Roosevelt as the Democrats' vice presidential candidate.

Once he was elected, Roosevelt's famed "fireside chats" and bank holidays began to quell fears of total financial collapse.

Works Progress Administration

After Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration and other government employment programs in 1935, conditions improved for workers lucky enough to get a job draining ditches or paving streets. Pay was standardized at 45 cents an hour on these jobs, although it was limited to 30 hours a week, Mr. Christiansen said.

Traditionally a Democratic county, Anne Arundel went solidly for Roosevelt in 1936, giving him 4,347 votes a record-breaking county majority. Democrats and "Wets" - those who favored an end to Prohibition - controlled the State House.

While money was bleeding from government coffers in some ways, the Depression years also saw some unexpected money flowing in.

The 1935 Social Security Act provided some relief by creating federal and state programs of unemployment compensation and old age retirement and insurance. But unemployment was far from the nation's only concern.

The elimination of public enemies occupied the spotlight throughout 1934 as federal law enforcement agents led by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover staged the most publicized drive on crime in modern American history.

Notorious outlaws like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson were taken out by government guns. The law that led many of them to their doom - prohibition - was out. The Supreme Court ruled in 1930 that buying bootleg liquor was not, after all, a violation of the 18th Amendment. Next

Published 12/05/99, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2000 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

Anne Arundel County History: Roaring Changes, Law and Order, The Depression, The New Deal, An Education, War & Remembrance.

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