New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Al Smith

The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

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Crowd at New York's American Union Bank during a bank run early in the Great Depression (ca 1931)Initially many thought the severe Wall Street crash of October 1929 was a temporary phenomenon and like many subsequent crashes (i.e. 1987, 2008) the stock market would recover in a few months or years.

Unfortunately, this did not prove to be the case. After some upward spurts, stocks on the New York Stock Exchange continued to fall for the next three years and economic conditions throughout the country continued to worsen, so that by 1932 the market closed at 41, a drop of 89% over its 1929 high of 381. Employment in Wall Street firms plummeted, as the once heady activity evaporated and the Great Depression took hold.

The response would require a great reset between Wall Street and working Americans. [Read more…] about The First Great Reset: Wall St, the Great Depression & the Pecora Commission

Wall Street History: Individual Investors & The Crash of 1929

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Gasoline Marketing Territories of the Standard Oil companies in 1918The break-up of Standard Oil and other monopolies during the Trust-busting Era, created somewhat greater competition, but did not significantly impact Wall Street, or its major players. For example, after the success of the Justice Department in the 1911 Supreme Court Case United States v. Standard Oil (in which the Court ruled that Standard Oil of New Jersey violated the Sherman Antitrust Act), the company was ordered broken into 34 ostensibly independent companies. *

The stock in each of these companies was distributed to Standard Oil Company shareholders (principally the Rockefeller family) and each company had separate boards of directors and separate management, but by and large they continued to operate on separate floors of the same building — 26 Broadway in Manhattan. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: Individual Investors & The Crash of 1929

Tammany’s Last Stand: The McManus Club & The McGovern Campaign

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Jimmy McManus in 1972James R. McManus was born in Hell’s Kitchen in 1936 and recently died in 2019. For 54 years (from 1962 to 2016) he was the Democratic Party District Leader from the Hell’s Kitchen area. This was a position that his father Eugene E. McManus had held for 20 years before him.

Previously Eugene McManus’s great grand uncle, Thomas J. McManus, had held the position, since the formation of the McManus Democratic Club in 1892, when he defeated the prior District Leader George Washington Plunkitt, author of Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics (1905). [Read more…] about Tammany’s Last Stand: The McManus Club & The McGovern Campaign

Lighthearted Political Anecdotes From NNY Newspapers

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A New York Times pressman checking a newspaper for defects in 1942Trivia clue: This New York governor showed up too late to play in a November 12th golf game promoted as a friendly match between “is” and “to be.”

Correct response: Gov. Nathan Miller, the Republican incumbent who just weeks before had lost re-election to Democrat Al Smith, who Miller had un-seated two years earlier. [Read more…] about Lighthearted Political Anecdotes From NNY Newspapers

NY Newspaper Anecdotes From Political History

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Caroline Harrisons piano courtesy Benjamin Harrison Presidential SiteTrivia clue: The piano company that First Lady Caroline Harrison, a music teacher, selected for the White House piano in 1889 after an extensive scrutiny of domestic and foreign brands.

Correct response: Who is J & C Fischer of New York City? [Read more…] about NY Newspaper Anecdotes From Political History

Al Smith, John Apperson, FDR & The Fight That Expanded NYS Forests

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Paul Schaefer with John AppersonA young wildlands advocate Paul Schaefer was enamored of activist John Apperson from the day he first met him.

It was about 1931. Apperson was an General Electric engineer fighting to protect Lake George and other wild places. As Schaefer said, it was the pure sense of joy that Apperson exuded about conservation in the Adirondacks which galvanized young people looking for a cause.

These were very important years for the Adirondacks, as for the nation. The 1932 national election loomed, as the Great Depression sucked hope and savings from so many. One can imagine the anxiety that gripped the country and the opportunity for hucksters, demagogues, as well as statesmen. [Read more…] about Al Smith, John Apperson, FDR & The Fight That Expanded NYS Forests

Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

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Frances Perkins meets with American workersFrances Perkins, who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in all four terms of his administration, is often credited with designing many of the New Deal’s social welfare programs, including Social Security.  As such, she ranks among the most influential women of the 20th Century.

Few however, know that Perkins began her career in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city of New York, work that as inspired inn part by a chance meeting an Irish Tammany Hall District Leader Tom McManus. [Read more…] about Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

1920s KKK Recruiting Efforts in Northern New York

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BrthNation posterWhile we often look back fondly on the Roaring 20s for a number of reasons, it was a very dark period in the North Country in at least one regard: bigotry. For several years, the region was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity during a high-profile recruiting effort.

The assumption today might be that the effort failed miserably among the good people of the north. But the truth is, the Klan did quite well, signing thousands of new members to their ranks. [Read more…] about 1920s KKK Recruiting Efforts in Northern New York

George Lunn: The 1912 Socialist Victory in Schenectady

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George Lunn 1912 socialist victory in schenectadySchenectady County Historian Bill Buell’s new book George Lunn: The 1912 Socialist Victory in Schenectady (The Troy Book Makers, 2019) looks back at Schenectady native George Lunn, and his life in politics.

An Iowa native, George Lunn came to Schenectady in 1904 to become senior pastor at the First Reformed Church in the city’s Stockade Neighborhood. He entered politics in 1911 and was elected mayor of Schenectady as a member of the Socialist Party of America. [Read more…] about George Lunn: The 1912 Socialist Victory in Schenectady