THE UNIVERSITY of HULL Voluntarism in Crisis: An

THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL Voluntarism in Crisis: An Exploration of the Effects of the Great Depression in Delaware 1929-38 being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by Barry John Plimmer, BA(Hons) July 1996 CONTENTS Page List of Tables iii Preface iv Map of Delaware vii Introduction: The State of Delaware 1 Chapter 1: The Depression Strikes 12 Chapter 2: State and Federal Involvement in Relief 1932-34 42 Chapter 3: The CWA in Delaware 1933-34 68 Chapter 4: The Failure of State Relief 1933-34 82 Chapter 5: Funding of Relief May to September 1934 107 Chapter 6: The Republicans Take Control 138 Chapter 7: Relief in New Castle County 1935 162 Chapter 8: Relief funding by the Levy Court of New Castle 189 County 1935-38 Conclusion: The Failure of Voluntarism? 213 Appendix A: Brief Biographies of the Principal Personages 224 Abbreviations Used in Notes 231 Notes to Chapters 232 Notes to Appendix 'A' 286 Bibliography 287 Ill LIST of TABLES 1 Comparison of Federal Expenditure with Federal Tax Collections 1933-1937. 214 2 New Deal Expenditures - Federal Income Tax Receipts 1933-1939. 216 3 Federal Expenditure in Fiscal Years 1933-37. 217 4 Voting Behaviour in Delaware 1928-1940. 220 iv PREFACE. The choice of Delaware, and indeed the effects of the Great Depression on the state, as the subject of my dissertation may seem strange, particularly as I am a resident of the UK. My connection with Delaware is somewhat tenuous; my brother, an ex-Du Pont research scientist, has spent many of his working years in the state and it is through frequent visits to him that I have established my link to Delaware. From the very beginning of my academic career, which began some ten years ago, I have had an interest in the New Deal era, and in seeking a suitable area for research I was drawn to Delaware, which I perceived as a likely subject for this period. I have not been disappointed; it has proved to be an intriguing topic and I trust that I have done it justice. Because of the lack of any previous detailed account of this period in Delaware's historography, I have utilised a largely empirical and narrative format in writing this dissertation. I have also relied heavily on one Wilmington daily newspaper, the Joumal-Everv Evening, for contemporary reports in order to achieve some sense of continuity. This newspaper was controlled by the du Pont family and inevitably its reporting of events must have reflected Republican opinion. For this reason I have endeavoured to use these reports without this bias. The Democrats did not control any newspapers and those published in the southern counties, which may have given a Democratic view of events, were only issued weekly. This fact was confirmed by Mrs Oscar S. Williams of Georgetown Sussex county, vice-chairman of the Democratic State Committee, in a letter'she wrote to the Director of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee V in December 1935: "You know, I am sure, of the very antagonistic attitude of the Wilmington papers, regarding ... all New Deal agencies. It is unfortunate that we Democrats in Delaware have no newspaper for we are helpless to combat the kind of publicity that has recently been given the WPA."i The main reason that I was attracted to looking at Delaware through its welfare activities during the period of the Great Depression, and at the effect that the internal state politics of the era had on the provision of these, was that I believed that a detailed examination of them would give a unique picture of what occurred in Delaware, and perhaps elsewhere; for the state politics of the period were not altogether dissimilar to those of some other states in the Central Alantic region; for example, they were very close in many particulars to those of Connecticut.2 I have chosen neither to examine the internal workings of Delaware's politics nor those of the major parties within the state, except where they affected welfare, for these, considered more broadly, should properly be the subject of a separate study. However, because it is apparent that welfare in Delaware became a "political football" during this time, particularly following the shift from private to public sector funding, and was frequently used to disquiet opponents politically, I decided to use the discussion and delivery of welfare in the political arena as my main focus, and to examine the principal programmes operating in Delaware in that context. My research was made far easier by the ready and expert help of numerous library staffs, particularly those of the Hagley Museum and VI Library, Greenville, Delaware, where Dr Patrick B. Nolan made it possible for me to obtain a vast quantity of primary source materials which ,/ providedthe basis of my research. I am also indebted to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the University of Delaware, Morris Library Special Collections Department, the Roosevelt Study Center in Middleburg, Holland, the Historical Society of Delaware, the Delaware State Archives and the National Archives, Washington, DC. I would also like to thank Delaware's leading historians, Dr John A. Munroe and Dr Carol E. Hoffecker, for the guidance they both provided at the start of my research project. However, my largest scholarly debt is to Dr Stephen W. Baskerville, who not only provided me with expert guidance but encouraged me from the beginning and who gave unstintingly of his time, expertise and insights in talking through questions with me. vii - 1 - INTRODUCTION: The State of Delaware The Great Depression of the 1930s was one of the most devastating economic events of modem history and has been described as "the gravest crisis of the industrial age"1 . Its effects were generally felt throughout the whole of the western world and in particular in the United States where they were far from being uniform; what they were on individual states has only been explored in a relatively small number of good studies.2 This thesis is an attempt to explore and document in detail the effects that the Great Depression had on Delaware and the measures that were taken to cope with them. It is also an attempt to fulfil John A. Munroe's hope, expressed in the "Preface" to his History of Delaware, that there might be new studies of the state, particularly in areas previously unexamined. "Unfortunately", he wrote, "in Delaware's historiography, as in the Arabian desert there are 'empty quarters', areas that have hardly been explored"3 . While the Great Depression and the New Deal hardly fall into the category of "empty quarters" from the national perspective, there have been no detailed studies made and published of this important period in Delaware's history. Delaware is not one of the best known states; it is located on the eastern seaboard of the United States, bounded by Maryland to the west and south, Pennsylvania to the north, and New Jersey, Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. It has a total area of 1,982 square miles and comprises three counties: New Castle, the smallest but most densely populated region; Kent; and Sussex, the largest of the three counties. It is 96 miles long and varies from nine to 35 miles in width. Delaware does not fall easily into one of the sectional categories that are regularly used to describe the United States. It cannot be described as a New England state for instance; neither can it be regarded as part of the South, although it was a slave state until the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865. Neither has it inherited much from Pennsylvania, of which it was a part from 1681 to 1776. During the Civil War, Delaware was a border state which supported the Union war-effort not only with troops, but also by the production of one of its major - 2 - industries. Indeed, E.I. du Pont de Nemours produced a significant amount of the gunpowder used by President Lincoln's army.4 Delaware is the second smallest state of the Union, only Rhode Island being smaller. This, however, has not prevented it from playing an important role in the history of the nation. Delaware became an independent entity in 1776, two months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, not only proclaiming itself free from the British Empire, but also establishing a republican government entirely separate from that of Pennsylvania. In 1786, John Dickinson of Delaware presided over the Annapolis Convention which called for the establishment of the Federal Constitutional Convention which met at Philadelphia in 1787. When the Constitution of the United States was submitted to the states for ratification, Delaware was first among the thirteen original states to ratify and, on 7 December 1787, became the "First State" of the new Federal Union.5 In the early part of the twentieth century, Delaware's influence on national events continued through the involvement of her most pre eminent family, the du Ponts. Political Structure and Control In the 1930s it,could be said that Delaware was a microcosm of the United States, in as much as the state had a densely populated, urban, industrialized area as well as a larger agricultural hinterland; but here the comparison ended. Politically the structure in Delaware was the antithesis of that prevailing in the greater part of the nation: for the urban, industrialized segment of the state was Republican, while the rural agricultural part was Democratic. Once the Depression struck, the Democrats were largely opposed to the provision of aid to the worst affected area of the state, and it was the Republicans who became the prime movers in all efforts to afford relief.

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