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 |
|---|
| 0.66 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Working hours and labor standards | Spread employment by substantially reducing hours of labor, starting in government service |
| 0.63 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public employment offices | A federally coordinated system of state employment offices (the vetoed Wagner bill) |
| 0.63 | 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 |
| 0.62 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Right to organize and bargain collectively | Collective bargaining by representatives of the employees' own choice, 'without the interference of any one' |
| 0.61 | 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 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public works as employment policy | 'Employment for all surplus labor at all times' through self-liquidating public works (the Shearon letter, as Hoover read it) |
| 0.59 | 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 |
| 0.58 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Right to organize and bargain collectively | Guard the worker's right to organize and bargain collectively |
| 0.58 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Unemployment insurance | Compulsory unemployment insurance funded by employers and by higher income and inheritance taxes |
| 0.58 | 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 |
| 0.57 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Federal responsibility for relief | Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole |
| 0.55 | 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 |
| 0.55 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Public ownership of major industries | Transfer the principal industries — banking, natural resources, utilities — to social ownership by compensation, not confiscation |
| 0.55 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Unemployment insurance | Leave unemployment insurance to State experiment; no federal tax to compel it |
| 0.53 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Concentrated economic power vs. the average citizen (rhetorical framing) | Take power from the 'economic royalists': the mandate of 1932 is to end economic tyranny |
| 0.53 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Working hours and labor standards | Shorter hours, higher wages, end child labor and sweatshops |
| 0.53 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Unemployment insurance | Unemployment insurance under state laws |
| 0.52 | 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 |
| 0.51 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Old-age pensions and social insurance | Build on the Social Security Act toward economic security for all |
| 0.51 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | National economic planning | Industry leaders to organize cooperatively for the common good; government regulates only as a last resort |
| 0.51 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Public employment offices | Commend and continue the enlarged United States Employment Service |
| 0.51 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Regulation of banks and securities | The RFC and the 'shield of Government credit' saved 5,000 institutions and must continue — but no direct government lending to everyone |
| 0.50 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | International economic and monetary conferences | A world economic conference on monetary stabilization and trade, with an agricultural representative |
| 0.50 | 1932 | John Nance Garner | Regulation of banks and securities | RFC loans to individuals and corporations generally — 'the Government into personal banking' (the Rainey bill) |
| 0.50 | 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 |