"We have not yet reached the goal but... we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation."
Herbert Hoover
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Aug. 2 said "rising wages will probably spur household spending in the next few quarters."
In June of 1930, ten thousand members of the Bonus Army were camped across the river from the White House. The army was made up of veterans and their wives and their children. Their weapons were their poverty and their desperation while the gates of the White House were guarded with Army tanks and troops patrolled the grounds. On June the 28th the United States Army assaulted the camp on horseback and with fixed bayonets. They lit the camp ablaze and routed the marchers their wives and their children. The crowd answered with cries of "Shame! Shame!" but their cries fell on deaf ears; for this country knows no shame.
In 1934 federal relief funds were discontinued in Colorado when the state legislature failed to appropriate funds for their share of the costs. The unemployed rioted, looting food stores and relief centers. The mobs then set their sights on the state capitol building, forcing the state legislature to flee in fear of their lives. In two weeks a new bill was sent to the governor for his signature and the relief aid was resumed.
Riots can never be blamed upon the people who start them; they are the symptoms of rage born out of desperation. The blame is placed squarely upon those who cause them. The French aristocracy was not murdered for their excesses but because they ignored the suffering of the people. They made pronouncements that it's really not that bad and it's getting better, just wait and see.
Herbert Hoover made the same pronouncements, but to hungry farmers in Lawrence, Kansas, who had gone without food for three days because of Red Cross bureaucracy, they thought that was time enough. The farmers came to town en masse and told the town's sheriff and Red Cross officials they had till five o'clock to release the relief supplies. After that they would take them by force, come what may.
It has been said that every nation is three days away from revolution; that the failure of government to protect its people from famine or ruin is its death sentence. There has never been a cause of revolution that has overthrown a government that did not in some measure deserve it. The people must be fed and housed and given work for meaningful remuneration.
"It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.
"I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.
"But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis--broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
"For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less." Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"So, for example, they've (Business) taken advantage of a new hiring tax credit we created that says small businesses don't have to pay a dime of payroll tax when they hire a worker who's been out of a job for at least 60 days. So in fact, almost half of the employees they've hired this year qualified for that tax credit, including one of the folks standing behind me today." Barack Obama
"More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment." Franklin Delano Roosevelt
FDR threatened the government of the United States on day one with action or revolution. Obama offers to buy them lunch.
These are not my prognostications, but histories. During the 1930s riots were commonplace but were given scarce coverage by the media. There were riots in: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Columbus (Ohio), San Francisco, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Boston. 35,000 people in New York, 70,000 in Detroit, 50,000 in Chicago and in every case the demonstrations were about food and jobs.
"We march on starvation, we march against death,
we're ragged, we've nothing but body and breath.
From north and from south, from east and from west
the army of hunger is marching."
Hunger Marcher's song, 1932
Herbert Hoover
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Aug. 2 said "rising wages will probably spur household spending in the next few quarters."
In June of 1930, ten thousand members of the Bonus Army were camped across the river from the White House. The army was made up of veterans and their wives and their children. Their weapons were their poverty and their desperation while the gates of the White House were guarded with Army tanks and troops patrolled the grounds. On June the 28th the United States Army assaulted the camp on horseback and with fixed bayonets. They lit the camp ablaze and routed the marchers their wives and their children. The crowd answered with cries of "Shame! Shame!" but their cries fell on deaf ears; for this country knows no shame.
In 1934 federal relief funds were discontinued in Colorado when the state legislature failed to appropriate funds for their share of the costs. The unemployed rioted, looting food stores and relief centers. The mobs then set their sights on the state capitol building, forcing the state legislature to flee in fear of their lives. In two weeks a new bill was sent to the governor for his signature and the relief aid was resumed.
Herbert Hoover made the same pronouncements, but to hungry farmers in Lawrence, Kansas, who had gone without food for three days because of Red Cross bureaucracy, they thought that was time enough. The farmers came to town en masse and told the town's sheriff and Red Cross officials they had till five o'clock to release the relief supplies. After that they would take them by force, come what may.
It has been said that every nation is three days away from revolution; that the failure of government to protect its people from famine or ruin is its death sentence. There has never been a cause of revolution that has overthrown a government that did not in some measure deserve it. The people must be fed and housed and given work for meaningful remuneration.
"It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.
"I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.
"But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis--broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
"For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less." Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"So, for example, they've (Business) taken advantage of a new hiring tax credit we created that says small businesses don't have to pay a dime of payroll tax when they hire a worker who's been out of a job for at least 60 days. So in fact, almost half of the employees they've hired this year qualified for that tax credit, including one of the folks standing behind me today." Barack Obama
"More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment." Franklin Delano Roosevelt
FDR threatened the government of the United States on day one with action or revolution. Obama offers to buy them lunch.
These are not my prognostications, but histories. During the 1930s riots were commonplace but were given scarce coverage by the media. There were riots in: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Columbus (Ohio), San Francisco, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Boston. 35,000 people in New York, 70,000 in Detroit, 50,000 in Chicago and in every case the demonstrations were about food and jobs.
"We march on starvation, we march against death,
we're ragged, we've nothing but body and breath.
From north and from south, from east and from west
the army of hunger is marching."
Hunger Marcher's song, 1932
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