Financial Irrigation of the United States
Cartographer:
Appleton, LeRoy H.
Date of Creation:
1934
One of two allegorical maps illustrating articles on the New Deal spending and taxes that appeared in Fortune Magazine in consecutive months. This map, published in December 1934, shows the "Financial Irrigation of the United States By Funds Appropriated for Emergency Use Under the New Deal". Money from taxes and the sale of government securities at the top flows into the U.S. Treasury and "reservoirs" for the Public Works Administration and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and from there through a series of overlapping pipes to dozens of new government agencies. Some agencies are "irrigated" from all three sources, others from only one or two. The explanation of the map emphasizes that "There is no specific limit to the amount by which the funds could be increased", to one of the 34 agencies listed.