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Retrenchment in a Period of Defensive Opposition to the New Deal: The Business Community and the Public Schools, 1932–1934

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

S. Alexander Rippa
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Extract

In the political ferment which followed economic collapse in 1929, many hallowed business symbols lost their luster. Politicians mocked openly at “rugged individualism” and “natural economic law.” In President Roosevelt's speeches the major domestic enemies appeared as the “unscrupulous money changers” and the “resplendent economic autocracy,” who sought “to carry the property and interest entrusted to them into the arena of partisan politics.” A proliferation of unorthodox political ideas and movements threatened the status quo. “Technocracy,” for example, was widely discussed as a method of bringing about a planned Utopia under the direction of the engineers. New concepts potentially dangerous to the status quo emerged from the “Keynesian Revolution.” The shock of economic collapse, followed by uncertainty and New Deal attacks, marked the beginning of the most formidable challenge to the business community in American history.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , June 1962 , pp. 76 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © 1962, University of Pittsburgh Press 

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References

Notes

1. “Annual Message to Congress, 3 January 1936,” in Mason, Alpheus T., ed., Free Government in the Making: Readings in American Political Thought (New York, 1949), 776–79.Google Scholar

2. See George Frederick, J., ed., For and Against Technocracy: A Symposium (New York, 1933); and Stuart Chase, Technocracy: An Interpretation (John Day Pamphlets, No. 19; New York, 1933).Google Scholar

3. Klein, Robert L., The Keynesian Revolution (New York, 1947), 165–87.Google Scholar

4. New York Times, May 27, 1932.Google Scholar

5. Ibid. See also ibid., Jan. 1, 1932.Google Scholar

6. Chamber of Commerce of the U. S., Local Fiscal Problems (Washington, 1928), 25.Google Scholar

7. Chamber of Commerce of the U. S., Local Fiscal Problems (Rev. ed.; Washington, 1929), 19.Google Scholar

8. Chamber of Commerce of the U. S., Twentieth Annual Meeting (Washington, 1932), 7.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., “Resolutions,” 38.Google Scholar

10. Chamber of Commerce of the U. S., Committee on Education, “Minutes of the Meeting of September 19, 1930” (Mimeographed; Washington, 1930), 1–2.Google Scholar

11. Chamber of Commerce of the U. S., Nineteenth Annual Meeting (Washington, 1931), “Board of Directors Annual Report,” 9.Google Scholar

12. Chamber of Commerce of the U. S., Twentieth Annual Meeting, “Board of Directors Annual Report, Resolutions, Officers and Directors,” 5–23.Google Scholar

13. Citizens' Conference on the Crisis in Education: Report of Proceedings Prepared by the Agenda Committee (Washington, 1933), “Points of View Presented: IV. By Cheney, Howell of South Manchester, Connecticut, and the National Association of Manufacturers,” 32–36.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., 34–35.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., 36.Google Scholar

16. “The Growing Cost of Education,” Nation's Business, XX (1932), 15.Google Scholar

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18. The complete text of this letter, dated Dec. 19, 1932, is reproduced in The School Review, XLII (1934), 2–3.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., 3–4.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., 3.Google Scholar

21. Dewey, John, “Education and Our Present Social Problems,” School and Society, XXXVII (1933), 473–78. See also Nation's Business, XXI (1933), 6.Google Scholar

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23. Ibid. Italics in original.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., 474.Google Scholar

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26. Ibid. Italics in original.Google Scholar

27. “The Attitudes of Two Service Organizations Toward Retrenchment in Education,” The School Review, XLII (1934), 4–6.Google Scholar

28. Citizens' Conference on the Crisis in Education, “Points of View Presented: III. By Morrison, Frank, of Washington, D. C., and The American Federation of Labor,” 29.Google Scholar