During 1934 was the Great Depression in California. People lost their faith in capitalism. One out of every four workers in the state was without a job. People were being evicted from their homes with caused a worse epidemic of poverty. The stalk market lost 80 percent of its value and the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product was down by more than half. What made Sinclair want to help California was by seeking to influence more voters. His radical beliefs were combined with European Radicalism with American populism.
How Sinclair wanted to help the nation economically was his EPIC plan. A sixty page pamphlet that described a two year plan to end poverty in California. One of his key plans was # 11 of his pamphlet “the remedy is to give the workers access to the means of production and let them produce for themselves not for others.” The resources made would help take over farms that had not been used which give more jobs to the unemployed. Some other points he had was individual income tax, inheritance tax, property tax relief for small homeowners and public programs.
The traditional Democrats did not like Sinclair’s success. About every institutional force feared and hated the campaign. Harry Chandler made a plan with other prominent Republicans to defeat him. For example Anti- Sinclair cartoons were mailed free of charge to newspapers. Eventually enough negative propaganda against Sinclair brought many against EPIC thinking it’s almost like communism.
The aftermath of it all