The Way We Were A Glimpse Ahead

Startups are all the rage today. They capture our imagination for reasons that seem timeless. They embody the force of a new idea, a willingness to take risks, a faith in the future.

At BUSINESS WEEK, our moment came 70 years ago, in a far different era. In September, 1929, workers were commemorating Labor Day with celebrations of a new five-day workweek. The Graf Zeppelin finished circling the world in 20 days and 4 hours, encouraging executives at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to start raising money for transatlantic airship lines. A bank executive, who insisted on remaining anonymous, expressed concern that people were apparently withdrawing money from their savings accounts to invest in the "speculative orgy" in the stock market. In debating what would become the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, Senator Reed Smoot insisted that neither his tariff, nor any other tariff, could have any effect whatsoever on prices. "Thus he alarmed lobbyists and perplexed simple solons, who are now wondering what a tariff is for, anyway," said BUSINESS WEEK's editors.