Oral History Program Arthur P. Brown Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Arthur P. Brown Interviewed by Mack S. Taft circa 1960s Copyright © 2016 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Great Depression in Weber County, Utah, is an Oral History Project by Mack S. Taft for completion of his Master’s Thesis at Utah State University during the summer of 1969. The forty-five interviews address the Great Depression through the eyes of individuals in several different occupations including: Bankers, Laborers, Railroad Workers, Attorneys, Farmers, Educators, Businessmen, Community and Church Leaders, Housewives, Children and Physicians. All of these individuals lived in Weber County from 1929 to 1941. The interviews were based on what they remembered about the depression, how they felt about those events and how it affected their life then and now. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Brown, Arthur P., an oral history by Mack S. Taft, circa 1960s, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. 1 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Arthur P. Brown. Mr. Brown discusses his county commissioner experience during the post-Depression years. The interviewer is Mack Taft. MT: Would you please give me your name for the recording? AB: Arthur P. Brown. MT: You were a county commissioner for a number of years in Weber County. Would you give me those years please? AB: I served from 1941 and '42, and then was defeated in the next election. Then I served from 1946 to 1965. MT: Are there any other county commissioners that you know of that served prior to you that are still living? AB: No, I don't think that there are any. MT: Let's just talk a little about the county government and its function in trying to recover the county from the Depression and so forth. AB: Well, I know that I worked on the roads before I was in the county commission. I had worked on the roads for about seven years. And of course, in our time, after '42, the Depression was over, but we worked along with the government on that. I was driving a truck and patching the roadways, and the commission would send us out with the equipment. MT: Did the county participate with the federal government on new road projects, or what did they do on that? AB: Yes, they would help on it with the equipment and one thing and another. 2 MT: Remembering back, which roads did you work on? Did you have anything to do with the North Ogden overpass over here? AB: Yes, I worked on that. I was a county employee then, but I was never on the welfare rolls myself. They sent us out there to work as county employees. MT: What other areas do you recall where the county worked with the government to bring about recovery? AB: Well, the Depression was over when I was on the commission. When I was working on the roads, I didn't have any occasion to know what was going on. MT: What other occupations did you pursue during the period from 1929-39? AB: I was farming down here in Roy. This is the old place here, and we bought an old place over here. Then I moved out here in the north part of Roy for five years, and my contract was one-half for the lease of the property. I didn't want to lease it anymore, so I moved over into Riverdale. I got a job working over there on the county roads. That was in March of 1933. And I worked there until January of 1941, then I was the commissioner. I wouldn't mention that, Mack, because I - as far as it concerned me - I was lucky to have pretty well something to do. MT: What overall impressions stick with you from the Depression? What do you think that the people learned as a result of the Depression? MT: I guess that each individual would have a different effect from it. One individual would say, "By golly, I'm not going to do this, and I'm not going to do that," and one thing and another. MT: Are there any lasting effects of the Depression that you think kind of guide you in what you do? 3 AB: Well, I don't think of anything right now. I know that I was awful lucky and fortunate at that time to have something to do. And I moved out here in '39, to this little place in '39, so that I would always have something to come back to, and keep me busy. But as far as the Depression is concerned, I would hate to see us go through another one like that. MT: What's your overall assessment of the government programs, the CCC and the PWA, and those programs? AB: Well, all these programs that were put into effect were put in for a good purpose. The purpose that they were put in for is good. But when they do anything like that, I don't care whether it's in civilian life or religious life or anything like that, somebody has got to take advantage. Now, for the people who really needed the work, it was a godsend to them. And the people who would get in there, and take it for what they could get out of it, then it wasn't so hot. So it had an effect both ways. Well, as I say, it did affect me some, but I didn't suffer or go without too much. I'd just like to say one thing: I've found the public in general very cooperative, if they know what you're talking about and all the circumstances. People have come in and jumped all over us for taxes, and that, and when you sit down with them and reason with them, why then they can see it. And we try to be fair.