"Financial Irrigation of the United States by Funds Appropriated for Emergency Use Under the New Deal",

This fascinating allegorical map was drawn by LeRoy Appleton and highlights the New Deal programs that, according to the text on verso, "is leading us remorselessly on to complete financial ruin." At the top of the map is the U.S. Treasury dam with a $14B budget (1935) with reservoirs on each side representing the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). From there a convoluted series of pipes fill various new governmental agencies, with the left side showing spending programs represented by a desert and the right side showing a healthy forest of lending programs. The critical text concluded that "if Calvin Coolidge could be brought back to life to view this vast new superstructure of government he would probably think himself on Mars." Published in the December 1934 issue of Fortune Magazine, which was owned by vocal New Deal critic Henry Luce.

References: PJ Mode Collection #8548.

Condition: A+

A colorful example on a clean sheet.