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Cultural Context of Liberalism of the 1930s

When Herbert Hoover took the Oath of Office as the 31^st President of the United States, hew was unaware of the economic tribulations and the repercussions of his response that would come to define his presidency an in turn, his legacy. The culture of the 1930s and the mood that defined the nation was captured in a popular media of the time, that of photography and paintings. While the 1930s was captured as the decade that defined the application of liberalism in America, the two presidents of the decade had drastically different beliefs for the application of liberalism. While Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed in improving the economy through the creation of government programs, Herbert Hoover believed in the sanctity of individual liberty. President Hoover defined individual liberty as protected by the United States Constitution, and believed that government intervention was a detriment to individual liberty. While the sentiments of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were captured through their written word and in transcripts of their speeches, the spirit of the American identity was captured in photographs and pictures. The effects of the New Deal produced particular images of American history and joined them to the idea of the government working behalf of everyday people. The pictures exhibited are representative of the effects of the laissez-faire interpretation of liberty as introduced by Herbert Hoover.

Author and historical critic Walter Sussman believed that the 1930s were the decade of participation and belonging, despite the economic turmoil. While the stressors of the economy affected individuals, the programs that resulted from the New Deal gave individuals an identity.  Yet Herbert Hoover differed in his belief of the implementation of New Deal programs. Hoover believed that the implementation of government funded programs infringed upon the liberty of the individual man because citizens were forced to take part in programs that were dictated by the government. While Franklin D. Roosevelt believed it was the responsibility of the government to provide for the well being of the citizenry, Hoover believed that freedom would not be constrained. While Roosevelt poured funds into programs that provide jobs to those that were not previously employed or skilled laborers, Hoover believed that the government should reserve the right for intervention to programs that provided national security. The New Deal was considered a government intervention into the lives of private citizens, on which Herbert Hoover stated “ The Spirit of liberalism is to create free men; it is not the regimentation of men.” (Hoover, Part. 1) The government intervention on behalf of private citizens did not just extend to the white man, instead it announced that it would provide benefit to both women and the African American men, This was exhibited by the New Deal through the payment of women and African Americans at the same rate of men. However, as Hoover stated “it is through taking vast sums of the people’s money and then manipulating it’s spending to build up personal power”. White men were therefore paying taxes to support programs that benefited the minority much more than themselves. Photos of workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps, hired through the WPA (Works Progress Administration) illustrated the duties of nearly 3 million young men. These were men that were not previously employed; yet through New Deal programs became eligible for federal-state unemployment benefits, ect.  While jobs were being offered at a rate not supported by the economic conditions and demand of the unregulated market, Warren Sussman asserts that while poverty was being combated, Herbert Hoover underestimated the national poverty average. This was due to the fact that Herbert Hoover did not count those that lived on farms as being in poverty.  Hoover believed that the spirit of the famer, that of self-made fulfillment and contribution to the economy, was the essence of personal liberty and a sense of the liberalist government.

            While the programs established by Franklin D. Roosevelt were government supported and economically inefficient due to the manipulation of the job market, Herbert Hoover believed in the ideas of volunteerism. As opposed to pouring government funds into programs that would encroach upon the liberty of the citizenry, he encouraged citizens and private enterprises to make contributions that would benefit the less fortunate and harder hit.  Hoover calls for liberalism in terms of an American plan that contrasts with that of the New Deal. Hoover believes that the extension of the 19^th century sense of freedom of the individual requires not extending “the mastery of government over the daily life of a people”. (Hoover, pg.2) Hoover sees America as a classless country, and therefore invokes the images of minorities as an equally optimistic culture.

            Seymour Fogel, an artist who made significant contributions to the realm of 20^th century art, created works that were representative of unprecedented social and cultural change. Fogel produced works of social realist art that echoed the sentiments and effects of the New Deal.  From 1934 to 1941 Fogel was awarded several mural commissions through the Fine Arts project of the WPA and the Treasury Department. Fogel’s murals were executed on the Treasury Building in Washington D.C., with several other works hanging at the Corcoran Gallery.  Fogel’s work “Security of the Family” is representative of a family engaged in urban industrial society. The painting depicts a family tied to the common sense of economic labor that Hoover believed all Americans should be engaged in. In Hoover’s address “This Challenge to Liberty” on October 30, 1936 he states that economic labor will lay ground for the first social American objective, which should be the “protection of the health, the assurance of the education and the training of every child in our land.” (Hoover, part IV) Hoover then goes on to advocate fro the freedom and virtue of a county where children are afforded the best of every opportunity, as “freedom can march only upon the feet of educated, healthy and happy children”. (Hoover, part IV) In the Fogel Painting ‘Security of the Family” the notion of health, well educated children is presented by the girl practicing mathematical equations at the chalkboard”. The depiction of a young female, practicing mathmatics is representative of the equality that was attempted during the 1930s. Hoover believed that any child could grow up to be President, and this idea of equality for all was represented through the exchange of gender stereotypes in Fogel’s work.  The painting has an idealized nature, representing what the programs of the New Deal could have given to the people if implemented properly, and with a shared understanding of the purpose of the program.

            The people represented in Fogel’s paintings are very important to the overall mood and sentiment created by the effects of the New Deal programs. The people depicted in both “Security of the Family” and ‘Industrial Life” do not have very exact features. For example the faces have shapes but the features are not chiseled. This relates to Hoover’s belief that too much government involvement in the lives of private citizens will lead to a loss in identity. This can also mean that the government has the ability to shape the citizenry into what it desires. In “Security of the Family” gender roles are reversed, where a man is holding the baby and the women is reading the newspaper. This is a contrast to the actual division of gender roles in New Deal programs as prescribed by Hoover and Roosevelt, where gender appropriate roles were assigned to women and men based on gender stereotypes. This could be due to strains of economic depression reinforcing the containment of feminism that had developed following the success of the women’s’ suffrage movement.

            Through his construct of the American idea of “liberalism”, Herbert Hoover believed that in order to address the real problems of society, the government must address the root cause of the problems as opposed to just throwing money into undeveloped solutions. Hoover believed that the  “American system” was one in which the government could not intervene in the lives of the people without becoming the ‘master of people’s souls and thoughts”. (Hoover, part II) Hoover differs from Roosevelt in that he was not the eternal optimist nor did he think all problems of society could be fixed by government intervention. Hoover believed that overarching government would destroy the identities of the citizenry, as exhibited by the depictions of faceless people in the paintings of Seymour Fogel. Fogel’s abstract paintings, representative of the 1930s citizenry, were representative of the gender constructs of the period that were defined by New Deal policies.