“…The Great Depression brought into question all the basic assumptions of the American society. The single issue with which it confronted the nation was one of primary purpose. Which should have absolute preference–the social welfare of all the people, or the maintenance of a social situation in which, under normal circumstances, the greatest possible profit was assured to private enterprise? Most Americans had always assumed that social welfare was contingent upon the prosperity of private enterprise. But the Great Depression generated a widespread suspicion–despite the oracular pronouncements of statesmen, bankers, and industrialists–that this equation was not an axiom handed down by God.” –from, “Postcript to Yesterday: America in the Last Fifty Years,” by Lloyd Morris (1947).

“I gave up looking forward to anything seven years ago, and I’ve got along all right that way.” — John Van Droten, “The Voice of the Turtle.” (1944)

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