Written by David Jarmul

August 10th, 2006

 

 

 

VOICE ONE:

The situation in Europe was much more difficult and serious for the United States. The problem was simple: money. The Great Depression did not stop at America's borders. It moved to Britain, Europe, and beyond. And it brought extremely hard economic conditions.

 

欧洲的形式对美国来说要困难和严重得多。问题很简单：钱。大萧条并不仅仅发生在美国国内。它蔓延到英国、欧洲及更远的地方。并且它带来了非常困难的经济形式。

 

In Germany, the value of the national currency -- the mark -- collapsed. German people were forced to buy goods with hundreds, thousands, and millions of marks. They lost faith in the existing system. And they looked for some new leader to provide solutions.

 

在德国，本国货币马克的价值贬值了。德国人不得不用上百、上千及上百万的马克去购买物品。他们对现有的体制失去了信心。他们寻找新的领导者来解决问题。

 

The economic crisis also put great pressure on the international circle of debt that had been created after the war. Suddenly, American bankers could no longer make loans to Germany. This meant that Germany could not pay back war debts to France and the other Allied nations of World War One. And without this money, the Allied nations could not repay money they owed American banks.

 

经济危机还对战后建立的国际债务循环产生巨大的压力。突然，美国银行家们不能再提供贷款给德国。这意味着德国没办法向法国及其他一战盟国偿还债务。没有钱，盟国就无法还钱给美国银行。

 

The circle of debt fell apart.

 

债务循环链断裂。

 

VOICE TWO:

The situation grew steadily worse throughout the early months of nineteen thirty. Hoover finally had to announce that all nations could delay their debt payments to the United States for one year.

 

这种状况在 1930 前几个月不断变坏。Hoover 最后不得不宣布所有国家可以延后一年偿还债务。

 

Hoover's action did what he wanted it to. It put a temporary stop to the international debt crisis. But it caused great damage to private banks. People lost faith in banks. Throughout Europe, people withdrew their money from banks. As a result, the European banks could not repay more than a thousand million dollars they had borrowed from private American banks.

 

Hoover 的举动并不是他想要的。这暂时阻止了国际债务危机。但是这使得私营银行受到巨大损失。人们对银行失去信心。整个欧洲的人民从银行取现。结果可想而之，欧洲银行没法支付比他们从美国私营银行借来的 10 亿美元还多的钱。

 

 

Written by David Jarmul

August 10th, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

Written by David Jarmul

August 10th, 2006

 

 

VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

 

(MUSIC)

The stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine began a long and difficult period for the United States. President Herbert Hoover struggled to find solutions as the nation sank into the worst economic crisis in its history.

 

1929 年的股市崩盘使美国开始了漫长的困难时期。Herbert Hoover 总统在国家陷入史上最糟糕的经济危机的时候努力寻找解决方案。

 

But the Great Depression was not the only problem demanding answers from Hoover. The president also had to deal with a number of important foreign policy issues. There were revolutions in South America. The economic situation created serious problems in America's relations with Europe. And Japan launched a campaign of aggression in northeastern China.

 

但是大萧条并不是唯一的困扰 Hoover 的问题。总统还需要处理许多重要的外交政策的制定。在南美洲出现革命起义。这种经济状况在关系密切的欧洲产生了严重的经济问题。日本向中国的东北发动侵略战争。

 

Hoover failed in his efforts to solve America's economic troubles. But as we will see in our program today, he did succeed with some of his foreign policies. He and most other Americans, however, would fail to understand the long-term importance of the forces gaining control in Germany and Japan.

 

Hoover 挽救美国经济的努力失败了。但是我们今天将会看到，他的一外交政策取得了成功。然而他和许多其他美国人没有意识德国和日本军国主义的增长具有深远意义。

 

VOICE TWO:

Herbert Hoover's foreign policies were marked by his desire to make friends and avoid war.

 

Hervert Hoover 的外交政策的特点是建立友好关系和避免战争。

 

Like most Americans, the new president had been shocked by World War One. Hoover had seen the results of that terrible war with his own eyes. He led the international effort to feed the many European civilian victims of the fighting. And the new president was a member of the Quaker religious group that traditionally opposes armed conflict.

 

像许多美国人一样，新总统对一战心有余悸。Hoover 亲眼看到了那场可怕战争的后果。他实施过国际救援，以帮助许多欧洲的战争受害者。并且新任总统是贵格会(Quaker)宗教团体的成员，这个团体是反对武装冲突的。

 

Hoover shared the wish of most Americans that the world would never again fight a major war. He felt the bloody bodies at Verdun, the Marne, and the other battlefields of World War One showed that conflict should be settled by peaceful negotiations.

 

Hoover 与许多美国人的愿望一样，希望世界不会再发这样的战争。他感受到那些在 Verdun、Marne 及其他一战战场上的带血的尸体说明冲突应该通过和平谈判的方式解决。

 

 

Written by David Jarmul

03 August 2006

 

 

VOICE ONE:

On and on the Great Depression continued. Of course, some Americans were lucky. They kept their jobs. And they had enough money to enjoy the lower prices of most goods. Many people shared their earnings with friends in need.

 

大萧条仍在持续着。当然，一些美国人是幸运的。他们继续着他们的工作。并且他们有足够的钱去享受许多低价货物。许多人将他们的收入分给需要帮助的朋友们。

 

"We joined our money when we had some," remembered John Steinbeck. "It seems strange to say that we rarely had a job," Steinbeck wrote years later. "There just weren't any jobs. But we didn't have to steal much. Farmers and fruit growers in the nearby countryside could not sell their crops. They gave us all the food and fruit we could carry home.

 

“我们有一点钱就省下来，” John Steinbeck 回忆道，“我们有一份工作，这看上去看稀奇，”Steinbeck 在几年后写道。“只是没有事情做。但是我们不会去偷。在临近乡下的农民和果农卖不出去他们的作物。他们给我们所有我们能拿走的食物和水果。”

 

VOICE TWO:

Other Americans reacted to the crisis by leading protests against the economic policies of the Hoover administration. In nineteen thirty-two, a large group of former soldiers gathered in Washington to demand help. More than eight-thousand of them built the nation's largest Hooverville near the White House. Federal troops finally removed them by force and burned their little shelters.

 

其他的美国人对危机作出反应，他们抗议 Hoover 领导的经济政策。在 1932 年，一大群退役军人在华盛顿聚集要求得到救助。8000 多人的他们在白宫附近建立了国家最大的胡佛村庄。联邦军队驱逐了他们，并烧毁他们的一些庇护所。

 

Next week, we will look at how the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties affected other countries.

 

下一周，我们将看到 20 世纪 30 年代的大萧条波及其他国家。

 

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION.

 

 

Written by David Jarmul

03 August 2006

 

 

 

VOICE ONE:

The depression caused serious public health problems. Hospitals across the country were filled with sick people whose main illness was a lack of food. The health department in New York City found that one of every five of the city's children did not get enough food. Ninety-nine percent of the children attending a school in a coal-mining area reportedly were underweight. In some places, people died of hunger.

 

大萧条引起了严重的公共卫生问题。所有的医院里充满了那些因饥饿而生病的人。纽约市的卫生部发现每五个城市儿童中就有一个无法获得足够的食物。传闻在一个煤矿地区的学校中有 99% 的儿童的体重都偏轻。在一些地方，人们饥饿而死。

 

The quality of housing also fell. Families were forced to crowd into small houses or apartments to share costs. Many people had no homes at all. They slept on public streets, buses, or trains. One official in Chicago reported in nineteen thirty-one that several hundred women without homes were sleeping in city parks. In a number of cities, people without homes built their houses from whatever materials they could find. They used empty boxes or pieces of metal to build shelters in open areas.

 

居住质量也下降了。一家人不得不挤在一间小房或者公寓中以节省开支。许多人甚至都没有家。他们睡在大街上，公共汽车上，或者火车上。一们芝加哥官员报导说，在 1931 年有几百名无家可归的妇女睡在城市公园。在一些城市中，无家可归的人们用任何他们可以找到的材料来搭建他们的房子。他们在公共区域用空纸箱或者金属碎片搭建栖息之所。

 

VOICE TWO:

People called these areas of little temporary houses "Hoovervilles." They blamed President Hoover for their situation. So, too, did the men forced to sleep in public parks at night. They covered themselves with pieces of paper. And they called the paper "Hoover blankets." People without money in their pants called their empty pockets "Hoover flags."

 

人家管这些临时住所的地方叫“胡佛村庄”。他们谴责总统使他们处于这样的状况。使得人们晚上不得不睡在公园。他们用纸盖住自己。他们管这些纸叫“胡佛毯子”。人们的裤兜里没有钱，他们管这个空裤兜叫“胡佛旗”。

People blamed President Hoover because they thought he was not doing enough to help them. Hoover did take several actions to try to improve the economy. But he resisted proposals for the federal government to provide aid in a major way. And he refused to let the government spend more money than it earned.

 

人们谴责胡佛总统因为他们认为总统没有做足够的事去帮助他们。胡佛做了许多努力试图改善经济。但是他反对联邦政府以提供援助为主要方式。他拒绝政府花费比收入还多的钱。

 

Hoover told the nation: "Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive decision."

 

胡佛告诉他的国家：“经济萧条不能被立法机关的行动或者行政决议改善。”

 

Many conservative Americans agreed with him. But not the millions of Americans who were hungry and tired of looking for a job. They accused Hoover of not caring about the common citizen. One congressman from Alabama said: "In the White House, we have a man more interested in the money of the rich than in the stomachs of the poor."

 

许多保守派的美国人支持他。但是上百万的还在挨饿及找工作的人并不支持。他们指责胡佛不关心普通市民。一位来自阿拉巴马州的国会议员说：“在白宫中，我们有一个更关心富人的钱而不关心穷人的胃的人。”