“We lost everything. It was the time I would collect four, five hundred dollars a week. After that, I couldn’t collect fifteen, ten dollars a week. I was going around trying to collect money to keep my family going. Very few people could pay you. Maybe a dollar if they would feel sorry for you or what. We tried to struggle along living day by day. Then I couldn’t pay the rent. I had a little car, but I couldn’t pay no license for it…I sold it for $15 in order to buy some food for the family. I had three little children… Finally people started to talk me into going into the relief. They had open soup kitchens and somewhere downtown, where people were standing in line. And you had to go to two blocks, stand there, around the corner, to get a bowl of soup… I didn’t want to go on relief. Believe me, when I was forced to go to the office of the relief, the tears were running out of my eyes. I couldn’t bear myself to take money from nobody for nothing. If it wasn’t for those kids…many a time it came to my mind to go commit … I went to the relief and they, after a lot of red tape and investigation, they gave me $45 a month. Out of that $45 we had to pay rent, we had to buy food and clothing for the children. So how long can that $45 go? I was paying $30 on the rent. I went and find another cheaper flat, stove heat, for $15 a month. I’m telling you, today a dog wouldn’t live in that type of a place. Such a dirty, filthy, dark place.” -Ben Issac, clothing salesman, Hard Times; An Oral History of the Great Depression What is the main idea of these primary source documents?