FDR A Four Term Progressive--Part 7

In 1936 Roosevelt won in a landslide against Alf Landon, the Republican Governor from Kansas. The Democrats took every state except Maine and Vermont. FDR was entering his second term with his second New Deal.

The congressional elections of 1934 had given Roosevelt an overwhelming majority in both the Senate and House. In 1934 he initiated the Works Progress Administration or WPA. It was to be a national relief agency and was suppose to deal with lowering the unemployment problem. It employed close to two million people who were the heads of the family. It never fully solved the unemployment problem. The unemployment figure was at 12.5% in 1938 when the WPA was at its peak.

Two other major pieces of legislation were passed in the year prior to the 1936 election. They were the Social Security Act and the National Labor Relations Act, a law that allowed federal workers to organize unions, strike and engage in negotiations.

With his second victory Roosevelt came to Congress and asked for more. More for the WPA that saw its employment peak at 3.3 million in 1938. In addition to this a new Agricultural Adjustment Act came on board in 1938. This time Congress left out the processing taxes and did not impose any production quotas on farmers. They did, however, put marketing quotas into place for cotton, wheat, corn, rice and tobacco. When the Secretary of Agriculture found that production of one of these crops had gone too high, he had the power to impose a marketing quota as long as two-thirds of the producers of said crop agreed with him via a referendum. The Secretary was able to assign quotas for each farm and impose severe penalties for going over the quotas.

What was truly amazing was that the Court, many members having been frightened out of their wits by the Court Packing Plan, found this Agricultural Adjustment Act to be constitutional. This would go on and on and on through FDR's second term. In West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, the Court allowed that a minimum wage was constitutional. In National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel the Court upheld the National Labor Relations Act that had put into place very extensive and detailed controls upon labor-management relations. This decision began the constant use of the commerce clause to beat industries over the head in order to favor the unions. These are just a few of what would be many cases that took this nation down the road of liberal nationalism or, if you will, the so called Progressivism we have today. Please keep in mind that if we do not stand up to this, we will be a collectivized country.

Don't believe me? Listen to candidate Obama who tells us that we must think of the rest of the world. We are consuming to much. We shouldn't be driving our big SUVs. We shouldn't burn all that petroleum. We should not eat all that food or consume all that energy.

Look at Speaker Pelosi. She tells the president to go to the Middle East and get them to drill more oil and make the price cheaper for us. Meanwhile no drilling in ANWR, off the American Coasts or in the Gulf of Mexico. Drill somewhere else. Keep Americans dependent on foreign oil. Put Americans in teeny unsafe cars. Where are the producers, the creators, the Captains of Industry, the Robber Barons? Where in the world is John Galt?

FDR A Four Term Progressive--Part 6

Roosevelt did not let the decision on the Agricultural Adjustment Act stop him from implementing additional legislation that moved the New Deal forward. He continued to meet with members of his administration, while for the most part ignoring Congress, to draw up programs supposedly designed to rid the nation of its economic problems. This is how the vast majority of programs were put together. It was, for all intents and purposes, a dictatorial process.

The primary solution to the Depression was known as "pump priming". Simply put it was more and more government spending. Indeed as a youngster in high school and then college, I vividly recall teachers and professors preaching that the Federal government was the only facility that had access to tremendous amounts of money that could now be used to pay for all these wonderful programs espoused by the Roosevelt Administration.

Recovery went on at an enormous price. The National Industrial Recovery Act spent $3.3 billion through the Public Works Administration or PWA later to be know as the WPA. These two organizations were supposed to end unemployment but that did not happen. Then there was the Tennessee Valley Authority. Working with Republican Senator George Norris, FDR put together the largest government owned industrial enterprise in our history. The first impulse is to say TVA was a good thing. Was it? Why wasn't this effort carried out by private industry? Why didn't we give incentives to public power companies to do this job? Most importantly how happy were those folks, already in poor economic condition, about TVA and the loss of their homes and livelihoods?

In the economic arena Roosevelt moved in 1933 to regulate the banks and in 1934 put into place the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate Wall Street the epicenter of capitalism. However, a major and extremely controversial move was taken under Executive Order 6102 which took all the gold owned privately and turned it over to the US Treasury. Declared by many to be unconstitutional, FDR claimed that he had the power to do this under the 1917 War Powers Act. The ability of Americans to own gold was finally reinstated under President Ford in 1934.

While many would say that all these programs were wonderful, they did not end the Depression. There were consequences for all these programs in that Peter was robbed to pay Paul. In order to keep his campaign promise of cutting the federal budget, Roosevelt had to make cuts and he did so in a rather harsh but not unusual manner. He cut benefits to veterans by 40% and cut the military budget overall a tactic that would soon prove to be costly but one still practiced to this day. Over 500,000 veterans and their widows were removed from the pension rolls and had benefits cut. The salaries of Federal workers were cut as were the budgets of the military and navy. Spending was reduced on education and research and little was done to assist science until World War II began. However, he did sign an Executive Order in April of 1933 that ended Prohibition because much as politicians today view gambling, FDR was convinced he could acquire lots of money from taxing alcohol.

FDR and the Democrats had tremendous success in the 1934 Congressional election. Roosevelt gained larger majorities in the House and Senate. This in turn allowed him to move forward and continue the nationalization of our government with the consolidation of power in the hands of the central government. As for the people, they were going to pay more for less, move toward becoming wards of the state and pay no attention as everything from charity to education fell within the control of the Federal government.

FDR A Four Term Progressive--Part 5

The Roosevelt Administration was absolutely furious with the Supreme Court decision on the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The primary reason for the anger was that the Social Security Act was coming on line and they feared that the Court would declare it unconstitutional. Roosevelt was so irate that he took to calling the justices the "nine old men" and that something needed to be done to stop them.

In 1937 Congress passed the Judiciary Reorganization Bill. This Bill soon came to be known as the Court Packing Bill. It contained a lot of provisions. The primary one gave the President the right to add extra judges to the Court for every judge over the age of 70.5 years of age. This would have given Roosevelt the power to appoint 6 new justices. It was all done as a counter to the Court declaring a pile of New Deal programs unconstitutional.

Normally a Justice is replaced upon his retirement or death. Roosevelt, however, was extremely impatient and decided to force the Court's hand after Butler. He turned to Article III of the Constitution and found that it was silent on how many justices could be on the Supreme Court the exception being that there could be but one Chief Justice because he was mentioned in the Constitution under Article 1 section 3. There was also precedent in that there had been changes numerous times to the number of justices on the Court

Roosevelt went on offense. He declared that the conservatives on the Court were putting words in the mouth of the Constitution, words that had never been there and it was never the intent of the Founders to have those words. He stated that the Court's decisions were "frustrating" and they were blocking his political and economic programs to bring about an end to the Depression.

Roosevelt had won re-election in 1936 despite the fact that his first New Deal not only failed to end the Depression but came under attack by the Court and those political opponents to its Left. The election victory gave him the courage he needed to take on the Court.

The administration stated that they only wanted the bill in order to assist older justices with their work load. When a justice reached the age of 70.5 years a new younger justice with ten years experience was to be appointed. FDR knew he could count on the Democratic controlled Congress to pass his nominees but first he was going to have to get it by both the Congress and the American public.

The debate in Congress did not go well for Roosevelt. Many Democrats thought this to be a good idea; many thought it wasn't and it certainly was not liked by the Republicans. Meanwhile, those in the press looked on with a jaundiced eye on Roosevelt and questioned his motive. Some pointed out what it was, a grab for power and an attempt to intimidate the Supreme Court of the United States.

Things were not going well for him in the countryside. Public opinion polls showed FDR that the citizens were opposed to this law. Despite those polls, Roosevelt felt that he had them by his side.

On March 9, 1937, he gave his first fireside chat of his second term. In it he noted his true intentions--he wanted a Supreme Court that understood the modern era. Was this Progressive showing his true hand? Was he telling the folks that the centralization of power into the hands of the Executive Branch was the wave of the future.? I believe he was.

As things turned out there was a change in the bill. Support for FDR in the Congress began to slip after the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. On June 14 that committee presented a report that stated that FDR's plan was stepping all over the principles found in the Constitution. To make matters worse the man Roosevelt selected to get the votes for him in the senate, majority leader Joseph Robinson, had a heart attack and died on the day when the roll call was to be taken. Vice President Garner was charged with the task of telling FDR he did not have the votes in the Senate thus the bill and the plan were dead.

At first glance this appears to be a loss for Roosevelt. However, the Senate did provide him with a revised bill that allowed him to appoint two new judges. He signed it into law on August 26, 1937. He also was going to have to deal with a bunch of conservative Democrats who had looked at the Court as their wall, the place where the New Deal would be stopped. In the end, however, all turned out well for Roosevelt. In his second term, FDR nominated and Congress confirmed five new justices to the Court thus cementing the New Deal into place.

Had the American people gained with this action? The answer is a resounding no. FDR used his position and his popularity to threaten the members of the Court. The Court is suppose to be a neutral branch rendering decisions on the constitutionality of laws and no more. This would open the door to put pressure on the Court and for the Judicial activism that we are seeing today.

FDR A Four Term Progressive--Part 4

The Roosevelt administration moved quickly to establish control of the government. Within days they had 15 major pieces of legislation drawn up and presented to Congress. Ultimately a tremendous amount of power was gathered by the national government while stripping rights and responsibilities from the people. In the process of initiating and passing this legislation a welfare nation was created.

In order to get the legislation ready the Executive Branch all but ignored the Legislative Branch. The National Industrial Recovery Act passed in 1933 had as its mission ending cutthroat competition. In order to do this the government was going to force industries to come up with codes that would govern all the companies in a certain industry. The leaders of said industries wrote the codes, sound familiar, and the NIRA officials then approved them. In order to get this approval the industries had to raise wages. On top of that, the NIRA encouraged industries to accept unions and in return anti-trust laws were suspended. Ultimately the NIRA was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Of all the legislation passed in the early days of the New Deal, the Agricultural Act was the most odious. This legislation was designed to assist American farmers. The intent of the Act was to balance the supply and demand for farm products, an age old problem for farmers. It was also suppose to address the matter of farm income and it was so written into the Act. This was going to be accomplished by paying farmers not to grow certain crops namely corn, wheat, cotton and peanuts, produce dairy products or raise some animals like sheep and pigs. In return, the government paid the farmers for not growing or raising these items. The money for the payment came from those who took the crops and manufactured products from them. Thus the guy who ground the grain paid a tax which in turn went to a farmer who was not producing. The goal was to put the farmer in a position where his wages were keeping up with his costs. There were only two problems with this. Some farmers, those who raised steers, were left out of the program. The other was the fact that despite the fact that land was taken out of production, as it is today, farmers raised more food due to fertilization and improved technology.

In 1937 the U.S. Supreme Court declared AAA to be unconstitutional in United States v Butler. The administration had attempted to get this by on the welfare clause in that the government was "to provide for the common defense and general welfare" of the nation. Justice Roberts consulted Madison and Hamilton on the matter. He found that Madison stated that said clause was simply an introduction to the enumerated powers while Hamilton viewed it as the government having the power to so provide. Roberts found two reasons to declare it unconstitutional. First, the processing tax levied on the manufacturers was not a proper tax under the taxing power in that one group was being taxed to support another group. Next he found that crops did not fall under the welfare clause in that "they were a system of agricultural regulations projected under the guise of appropriations for the general welfare" and these thing actually came under the Tenth Amendment. Roberts went on to note that the farmer was not given a choice in the matter and had to "accept the benefits and submit to regulation." In this decision Roberts recognized the right to appropriate under the general welfare clause but the government could not put conditions on those who accepted the funds. The government could give away their money but could not tell the recipient what to do with them.

Roosevelt was furious. Not only was AAA shot down, and rightly so, but it was going to cause great consternation within the Administration. Coming up on the SCOTUS's docket was the issue of Social Security, the greatest Ponzi scheme approved by man. This in turn lead to Roosevelt's infamous Court Packing Plan

The decision was 6-3 in Butler. There were decent arguments on both sides. The Act itself was re-written and became law. As such the farmers, who to this day accept subsidies in bloated farm bills, went on to become wards of the state with many bad ones hanging on when they should have moved on to other jobs.

FDR--A Four Term Progressive Part 3

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt won the presidential election defeating Herbert Hoover handily with 57 percent of the vote and carrying all but 6 states. He was a charming man with a considerable base given his roots and popularity in New York state. He had the assistance of Al Smith and William Randolph Hearst as well as the support of Joseph Kennedy from Massachusetts and William McAdoo, Democratic leader in California. John Nance Garner came over to Roosevelt's side and brought Texas into FDR's column while picking up the Vice Presidential spot for himself.

In addition to his above mentioned supporters, Roosevelt was able to put together what came to be know as the New Deal coalition. The unions, the poor, Southern whites, ethnic minorities, and folks living in the cities of the nation were brought together by FDR .This coalition stayed together for over half a century.

It was during the campaign that FDR made his famous speech where he pledged a "new deal for the American people." Denouncing Hoover's failures and inability to stop the economic slide into the abyss of the depression, FDR campaigned on an immediate need to cut public expenditures, getting rid of useless offices and government commissions, and the consolidation of bureaus while supporting a strong currency that needed to be kept despite any hazards. Doesn't even sound like FDR does it? This was a very conservative platform given the fact that many believed that government needed to ride in and spend big bucks while redistributing the wealth.

This optimism on FDR's part disappeared almost overnight. On September 23, 1932, just a few weeks before the election, Roosevelt spoke from his Progressive heart. "Our industrial plant is built; the problem just now is whether under existing conditions it is not overbuilt. Our last frontier has since been reached."(Great Speeches by FDR) Golly shades of what was to come in the Carter and Clinton administrations. Now we know where they got it. Hoover, meanwhile, was furious with this admonishment. He called it a denial "'of the promise of American life'" (The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America).

Despite Hoover's response, there was no chance that the Republicans were going to win in 1932. When Hoover asked FDR after the election about forming a joint commission to end the downward spiral of the nation's economy, FDR turned him down. Probably a bad idea on FDR's part. With the election won, Roosevelt set about formatting and implementing his New Deal. He consolidated more power into the central government then had ever been amassed prior to his administration. It was not and is not a good thing.

FDR--A Four Term Progressive Part 2

In 1920, FDR had his first run at a national office. The Democrats selected him as the running mate for Ohio Governor, James Cox. It was not a good year for the Democrats. Wilson had botched his opportunity at Versailles. Congress had shot down our joining the League of Nations and Wilson himself had declared in 1919 that within a decade the world would find itself again at war.

The Republicans ran Republican Warren Harding also from the Buckeye State. His running mate was Calvin Coolidge. They handily defeated Cox and Roosevelt. Harding ended up having one of the most scandalous administrations in the history of the nation and died three years into his term. His womanizing and the famous Teapot Dome scandal brought a huge uproar in the nation. His Secretary of Interior, Albert Fall, leased the oil at Teapot Dome, oil that was part of the naval reserve, to oil operator Harry Sinclair. Coolidge,with no blemishes from the scandal, took over as president with Harding's death.

FDR let no grass grow under his feet. Having contracted what many thought was poliomyelitis, it now appears it was more likely Gullian-Barre syndrome, FDR underwent a wide variety of therapies for his illness. He was able, even during his presidency, to keep his illness secret from the public.

His handicap did not keep him from running for the Governor's office in New York in 1928. He had stayed close to the leaders of the Democratic party despite the fact that he had been an outspoken opponent of Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine in New York City.

One of his early steps was to assist Al Smith in his victory for the Governor's office in 1922. Then at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic National Conventions, Roosevelt gave speeches nominating Smith for the presidency. This endeared him to Smith who asked FDR to run for the Governor's position he was vacating.

FDR's run for the Governor came at the ideal time. The nation was prospering and Roosevelt moved to help it along with tax relief for the farmers of New York State and cheap electricity. Then in 1929, the stock market collapsed and the country fell into the Great Depression. Roosevelt moved immediately calling for government involvement. He put into place a model of what would later become the Civilian Conservation Corps. Over 100,000 men and boys were put to work in New York planting trees, putting erosion plans into place, and building park buildings in New York's state forests. Once again big government was on the move and Roosevelt, the new Progressive governor, was going to light up the sky with government programs and government spending that would take him from the seat of power in Albany to the seat of power in Washington, DC

FDR--A Four Term Progressive Part 1

Handsome fellow isn't he? This is the young Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the two terms of President Woodrow Wilson, our first aggressive Progressive.

His long and distinguished political career started in 1910 when he was elected to the New York Senate. Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913. In 1920 he ran with James Cox on the Democrat ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. In 1921 he was diagnosed with polio, a disease that would see him tied to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Despite his illness he ran for Governor of NY in 1928 and entered the governor's mansion on January 1, 1929 with a full blown depression starting that year. FDR's next stop was the White House with his victory over Herbert Hoover in November of 1932. He went on to win the presidency three additional times to become the only four term president in the history of the country.

FDR is a man whose name causes emotions to be put into churn mode. As a young lad growing up in rural Pennsylvania farm country I was surrounded by Roosevelt Democrats. Indeed, like my entire family, I to looked upon myself as a Roosevelt Democrat and did so into the late 1960s when, in 1968, I voted for Richard Nixon and did so again in 1972. Obviously my views of FDR changed. I came to believe, and still do, that FDR is the man who placed us on the road to fascism the road we are currently traveling. This series will look at his life, his record and legislation during the depression and war time periods.

FDR came into the world on January 10, 1882. He was an only child born to James Roosevelt and Sara Delano, both from wealthy families with long pedigrees. His father was of Dutch heritage with lines that ran to Elizabeth Monroe, the President Monroe's wife, Benedict Arnold, and Joseph Smith, Jr the founder of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints. On his mother's side he was related to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and to four travelers on the Mayflower, Richard Warren, Isaac Allerton, Degory Priest, and Francis Cooke. One thing to keep in mind; he was, during her lifetime, completely devoted to his very possessive mother.

A graduate of Groton School, an Episcopalian prep and boarding school, FDR studied under the tutelage of Endicott Peabody, the headmaster at Groton. It was Peabody who taught young Roosevelt that public service should be his great calling, a fine idea as long as one leads with one's brain instead of one's heart. In assisting the unfortunates teach them to fish instead of giving them fish because the former will insure the continued dignity of man.

After his graduation from Groton, FDR entered Harvard. Harvard was the school attended by cousin Teddy and he became president while FDR was at Harvard. Teddy's use of the bully pulpit would serve as the model for FDR. Keep in mind that cousin Teddy was the Republican who took that party into the Progressive era and began the centralization of the federal government.

The next few years were busy for Roosevelt. He met his future wife in 1902, Anna Eleanore Roosevelt, the niece of Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin married his fifth cousin in March of 1905. Franklin married Eleanore despite the protestations and resistance of his mother who opposed the marriage. Even after moving to their home in Springwood, part of his family's holding, Sara made a point of frequent visits to the young couple much to the chagrin of Eleanore.

In 1905, FDR also entered Columbia Law school but dropped out in 1907 wen he took and passed the New York Bar. Roosevelt never did graduate from Columbia. He practiced law as a member of a Wall Street firm, Carter Ledyrd and Milburn concentrating on corporate law from 1908-1910.

It was in 1910 that Roosevelt entered the political arena. Young, handsome, and articulate, he ran for a seat in the state assembly representing the wealthy area around Hyde Park, home to many wealthy people. Roosevelt won that election and was now launched into his political career, a career he would continue for a life time.

The Progressives--A Long Range Plan--Summation Of The Early Era

Have you heard Americans asking how did we get into this situation and when did it begin? Gas and home heating oil prices out of control with no end in sight. Food prices, that's food prices, going through the roof here in America. Minority groups running the country and yes, I am talking about environmental groups and government control freaks.

I believe a lot of what is going on today is happening because we took a wrong turn with the ascendancy of Theodore Roosevelt to the office of the presidency and moved into high gear under Woodrow Wilson. Principally what these two men did was initiate a centralized government program that has taken the power of government out of the hands of the American people and put it into the hands of the politicians who have now made politics a profession controlled by lawyers. We have returned to the era of the monarch.

One can readily make the case that a lot of things done by the early Progressives were certainly for good causes. Lives of the poor and down- trodden were supposedly improved. But we must ask at what cost? From the moment Teddy Roosevelt began ignoring the Constitution and broke up companies to purportedly save the little guy and his family, we were on that proverbial slippery slope. We are now at the point where our elected representatives are telling us what our rights are. Didn't we fight a war in 1776 to change that?

The second impact was the cost of the nationalization of our government. While Washington, DC remained a relatively quiet community during the early Progressive period everything changed with the Depression and World War II. Buildings were built. People were hired. We were on a crisis/war time footing and the enemy had to be defeated. We had to come together to defeat these two evils and in the process government size and cost grew and we haven't seen any sign of a return to the ideas and principles of our Founding Fathers primarily that we the people are in charge. It seems that we are willing to surrender to a collective form of government. "In God We Trust" will be replaced with "Can't We All Get Along" as stated by the drunken but noble Rodney King.

After Woodrow Wilson we enjoyed a decade of prosperity under Republicans. Unfortunately that bubble of the Roaring Twenties fell on hard times. It has been reported that Calvin Coolidge did not run for office in 1928 because he did not want to be there when things fell apart. Supposedly he was asked why didn't he say something and he responded, correctly, that no one would have listened to a president calling wolf. Herbert Hoover was elected and became the fall guy for the Great Depression that in turn would re-open the door for liberal Democrats with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt.