Political Quotes

“in the early 1930's, this country faced what was called the Great Depression. That was a time that in the history books is even hard to understand. But banks had their doors locked and depositors could not get into the bank to get their money. Banks were formally closed and informally closed. Factories were either slowed down or stopped completely. Homes were foreclosed upon. Families moved in with each other. You had brothers living with brothers and everyone living with each other. It was such that books were written about what was taking place. It was the ``Grapes of Wrath,'' as indicated in the book by John Steinbeck, where the State of California, to stop people from migrating to California, actually tried to close its borders, as people were fleeing from the economic hardship they found in the States east of California. We were a rich nation. We are a rich nation. But the rich nation we knew had collapsed. Mines were closed. Farms became dust bowls. Trees were not cut in our forests. It was the stuff of which songs were written. The troubadour of the Depression, Woody Guthrie, wrote many songs dealing with the Depression--``Dust Bowl Blues,'' ``End of the Line,'' ``Hey, Buddy, Have You Got a Dime.'' These are a few of the songs Woody Guthrie wrote. There was much written, Mr. President, that capitalism had failed, and maybe even democracy was failing. We had soup kitchens, bread lines, people scavenged the dumps to find the bare necessities of life.…”