The Garment Maker's Daughter by Hillary Stern

Author:Hillary Stern [Stern, Hillary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hillary Adrienne Stern
Published: 2016-11-30T08:00:00+00:00

The rest of the weekend was filled with receptions and parties. When it was over, Daniel put Julie on the train back to New York City. He knew she was disappointed that he hadn’t said anything specific about when he would see her next. He was disappointed in himself for not figuring out what he wanted when it came to their relationship. But as the real work of governing the state of New York began, he had little time to think about Julie or anyone else.

The state’s economy was in deep trouble. Employment levels were sinking and more and more people were out of work for longer periods of time. Governor Roosevelt ordered his staff to come up with ideas for getting people back to work as well as ways to tide them over while they were between jobs. Daniel was busier than he had ever been in his whole life.

And then things got even worse. If the beginning of 1929 had been bad, the ending was a disaster. A little over nine months after Daniel arrived in Albany, the stock market crashed and the national economy descended into a deep depression. Roosevelt made it clear that getting the people back to work and helping them manage until they found a job was his top priority. Daniel’s main assignment was to develop some kind of system for providing compensation to those who’d lost their jobs through no fault of their own. He realized, however, that if New York State started doling out unemployment compensation but neighboring states didn’t, people would start moving to New York just for the benefits and the state would be inundated. He thought Roosevelt should host a meeting with the Governors of the surrounding states and try to persuade them to adopt a similar unemployment compensation system. The idea was enthusiastically received within his department and Louis said he would bring it to Roosevelt’s attention at the next cabinet meeting. Friday afternoon, Daniel sat in his office, waiting for Stimson to return with the Governor’s verdict. When he heard his boss’s voice in the hallway, he hurried out to meet him.

Louis looked grim. As soon as he saw Daniel, he shook his head. “Every time I think it can’t get worse, it does. Unemployment in New York has hit twenty-five percent. The foreclosure rate is climbing so fast, we don’t even have reliable statistics.”

“President Hoover still doesn’t get it.” Daniel said.

Louis nodded. “Hoover’s living in a bubble and he’s surrounded himself with a bunch of incompetents who can’t even calculate the national unemployment rate properly. Frances had to correct their figures for them.” He was referring to Frances Perkins, who Roosevelt had appointed as the State Commissioner of Labor.

If the news hadn’t been so awful, Daniel probably would have enjoyed the fact that Frances had had to correct Hoover’s labor secretary. But nothing about the current situation was amusing.

“So,” he asked, “did you have a chance to talk to Roosevelt about hosting a multi-state conference on unemployment compensation?”

“Yes, and he’s very interested.

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