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How Did Harvey Couch's Impact On The Great Depression

691 Words3 Pages

Meghan Thurlkill 1

Harvey C. Couch

This article is about Harvey C. Couch and his impact on The Great Depression. He was very vital to the History of Arkansas. He created the Utilities Empire governed by the Arkansas Power and Light Company, and directed a series of railroads linking much of the southeastern United States. He became rather wealthy from his accomplishments and raised living conditions for thousands of people in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Apparently this is not all he is known for. According to the article he is not mentioned as an important part of Reconstruction Finance Corporation during the Great Depression. He was a director from 1932-1934 and established the precedent for massive, federally-financed public …show more content…

Couch was very versed in issues of unemployment and toured Arkansas to observe the employment needs. He was convinced that the residents in Arkansas would work if given the opportunity with available jobs. He later applied this idea to the entire country, that if Americans has employment opportunities, they would work. President Hoover, seeing Couch’s enthusiasm he appointed him as supervisor of this new public works phase of the RFC's many …show more content…

The program started out with severe difficulties restricted Harvey’s ability to artificially stimulate employment. The Government put restrictions on the Act so that every project had to be self-sustaining and bringing in profits to be able to pay back the Government. Not to mention, came with ridiculous terms of rates on the loans were set at 5 1/2%, and mortgages had to be repaid in a maximum of ten years. Jesse Jones, a Democrat from Texas and close ally of Couch on the RFC Board of Directors, complained that hundreds of applications were being denied because they did not comply with the technicalities of the administration's restrictions. The program, on the eve of the election, authorized $108,000,000 for three huge projects in California: the bay bridge from Oakland to San Francisco; the water works system in Pasadena; and the Metropolitan aqueduct to carry water from the Colorado River to Los

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