Work in progress — cycles are added one at a time. Every quote is machine-verified against an archived source; follow the links to read it.
| Score | Cycle | Candidate | Issue | Position |
|---|
| 0.63 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Direct relief for the unemployed | Provide useful work at prevailing wages for the needy unemployed rather than a dole |
| 0.60 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Maintenance of wage levels in depression | Uphold wages and spread work by voluntary agreement of employers and labor; shorter hours in government service |
| 0.57 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Public works as employment policy | Federal construction at three times normal and $1.5 billion of RFC loans for self-liquidating works — but no pork-barrel or non-productive projects |
| 0.55 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Public works as employment policy | A $5 billion federal public-works program — roads, reforestation, slum clearance, workers' housing — and idle factories and land turned over to the unemployed |
| 0.55 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | How to finance old-age and unemployment insurance (contributory reserve vs. pay-as-you-go) | Defense of the payroll-tax financing: the employer pays an equal share and the reserves are safe |
| 0.53 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Right to organize and bargain collectively | Guard the worker's right to organize and bargain collectively |
| 0.52 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public works as employment policy | Expand self-sustaining public works and temporary federal work (forests, flood control, waterways), with advance planning |
| 0.51 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public works as employment policy | Public works spending is only a stopgap, not a cure for unemployment |
| 0.50 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Working hours and labor standards | Spread employment by substantially reducing hours of labor, starting in government service |
| 0.48 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Overall role and scale of the federal government | Government as a check on concentrated economic power — "individualism" redefined as equality of opportunity |
| 0.48 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Unemployment insurance | Leave unemployment insurance to State experiment; no federal tax to compel it |
| 0.47 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Public employment offices | Commend and continue the enlarged United States Employment Service |
| 0.46 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Farm prices and agricultural surplus | Continue soil conservation and domestic allotment payments; end ruinous surpluses; commodity loans on seasonal surpluses |
| 0.46 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Unemployment insurance | Compulsory unemployment insurance funded by employers and by higher income and inheritance taxes |
| 0.46 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Equal rights and opportunity for Black Americans | Equal opportunity for colored citizens: protect their economic status and personal safety; further their employment |
| 0.46 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Unemployment insurance | Unemployment insurance under state laws |
| 0.45 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Federal responsibility for relief | Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole |
| 0.45 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public employment offices | A federally coordinated system of state employment offices (the vetoed Wagner bill) |
| 0.45 | 1936 | William Lemke | Minimum wages | A 'living annual wage' -- $1,800 for a family of five -- by federal law and a constitutional amendment if necessary |
| 0.44 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Politics and patronage in relief administration | Relief will continue, but purged of politics, administered locally on merit, with economies taken from 'the political exploiters' |
| 0.44 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Reforestation and land policy | Employ a million men reforesting marginal and abandoned land |
| 0.44 | 1936 | Alf Landon | National economic planning | End federal regimentation: no revival of NRA or AAA controls, no more emergency powers over production, wages and hours |
| 0.44 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Right to organize and bargain collectively | Collective bargaining by representatives of the employees' own choice, 'without the interference of any one' |
| 0.43 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Conservation of natural resources | Real soil conservation and a national land-use and flood-prevention program run with the States and 'out of politics' |
| 0.43 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Regulation of utility rates and holding companies | Eight-point federal utility program: publicity, Federal Power Commission control of holding companies, prudent-investment rate base |