Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

LYMAN JAMES BRIGGS 309
the wake of the financial collapse of Europe in early 1931, this country began
the steep slide into the great depression.
By late 1932, 85,000 business firms and 5,000 banks had failed and
unemployment reached 12.8 million (24.9 percent of the labor force), rep-
resenting 1 out of every 4 workers in the Nation.31 With varying intensity,
the depression lasted for 10 years, until the vast pooi of manpower and in-
dustrial capacity was absorbed by war.
Constitutionally opposed to emergency Government measures, Presi-
dent Hoover at first sought, as he had in his recovery program of the early
twenties, to prod private enterprise into action by stepping up Federal con-
struction, urging local governments to accelerate their spending, and busi-
nessmen to maintain wage rates.32 By 1931, as State and city treasuries
emptied and business and industry acknowledged their helplessness, the ad-
ministration was forced to act. Much against his will, Hoover brought large
areas of the economy—the banks, railroads, insurance companies, farmers,
and finally the unemployed—into the Federal orbit. A Reconstruction
Finance Corporation was set up to lend money to States and municipalities
for self-liquidating public works and a Federal Home Loan Bank Act was
passed to prevent home foreclosures. A "public works administration" was
proposed to promote expansion of Government construction. In the presi-
dential campaign of 1932 these and other measures intended to shore up the
financial and industrial structure, relieve unemployment, and restore balance
were rejected by the Democratic opposition as rampant socialism, encroach-
ment of the Federal Government on States' rights, and radical spending of
public funds.33 By the summer of 1932 Hoover's influence was gone and a
vast apathy, born of confusion and despair, settled over the Nation.
The Bureau gave no sign that it was in any way aware of the stock
market crash of 1929. Its first recognition of "reduced industrial activities"
occurred in mid-1931, following the collapse of Europe, with the note that
"every effort [is beingj made to operate economically." Still, the Bureau
exhibited no alarm. That year in his annual report Dr. Burgess counted
525 projects under 22 research appropriations made to the Bureau, the
largest number of projects ever. Both public and Government demands for
tests continued to increase each year, and it was expected they would ac-
"Historical Statistics, p. 73. By comparison, at the height of the 1920—21 depression,
unemployment did not rise above 5.01 million or 11.9 percent of the labor force.
a Leutenburg, The Perils of Prosperity, 1914—1c32, p. 251; Dixon Wecter, The Age
of the Great Depression, 1929—1941 (New York: Macmillan, 1948), p. 17.
"Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt: Crisis of the Old Order, 1919—1933
(Boston: Houghton Muffin, 1957), pp. 416—417, 423, 433.