Blog: 80 Years Ago This Month

It was quite a year! Needless to say, it was a time I find very interesting.

In January 1933, Adolph Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.

In February 1933, the US Congress voted to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment, bringing an end to Prohibition, if not to the problems prohibition had hoped to solve.

In March of that year, America witnessed a revolution—a revolution in the definition of government.

The Wall Street Crash had created the worst depression in American history. In declaring there was nothing to fear but fear itself, Franklin Delano Roosevelt made his greatest single contribution to the politics of that time: he gave the people hope and courage. He made clear that he had the people's interests at heart, and that he would mobilize the power of the government to help them.

Just as it does today, the Republican Party, largely supported and led by the very rich, vigorously opposed his liberal proposals.

On February 15, at a political rally in Miami, an Italian immigrant, Guiseppe Zangara, fired five shots at Roosevelt. They all missed FDR, but one hit and killed his friend, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.

On Saturday, March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the thirty-second President of the United States.

Roosevelt's first act as president was to deal with the country's banking crisis. On March 6, the day after taking office as president, Roosevelt ordered all banks to be closed.

And, Ida Mae Frank Flounders gave birth to—me.

Since the beginning of the depression, a fifth of all banks had been forced to close. As a consequence, around 15 percent of people's life savings had been lost. The American people were losing faith in the banking system, and a significant proportion of depositors were withdrawing their money.

By 1933, the needs of more than fifteen million unemployed had overwhelmed the resources of local governments. In some areas, 90 percent of the people were on relief. On March 9, Roosevelt called a special session of Congress; he suggested that only the government could solve the unemployment problem – "by direct recruiting.”

It took only eight days to create the Civilian Conservation Corps. It authorized half a billion dollars in direct federal grants to the states for relief. The CCC was designed to tackle the problem of unemployed men between 18 and 25 years old. The pay was $30 dollars a month with $22 dollars of that sent home to each man’s family. The men planted trees, drained swamps to fight malaria, worked on flood control projects and others to help conserve the environment.

Ex-president Herbert Hoover opposed Roosevelt's “New Deal” program. He told the New York Times, "I rejected the schemes of economic planning to regiment and coerce the farmer. That was born of a Roman despot 1400 years ago and grew into the AAA. I refused national plans to put government into business in competition with its citizens. That was born of Karl Marx. I vetoed the idea of recovery through stupendous spending to prime the pump. That was born of a British Professor (John Maynard Keynes).”

The NAACP hoped that the election of FDR would bring an end to lynching. African American leaders helped Roosevelt’s election campaign. Eleanor Roosevelt had also been a long-time opponent of lynching. But, even that horror of racist bigotry was not yet ready to die.

Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Wealth Tax Act, a progressive tax that took up to 75 percent on incomes over $5 million. The tax created a great deal of hostility: "The forces of organized money are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match." Many wealthy people used loopholes in the existing tax code to evade taxes.

At the end of FDR’s historic 12 years as president, Hitler’s end was only waiting for a final bullet, two weeks later. Our nation had survived the Great Depression, WWII, and America’s social conscience and entrepreneurial spirit had combined in common purpose for a bright future.

We spent this March 6th in Sandestin, Florida—celebrating my big 8-0 with my brother, a Tea Party Republican from Virginia, and my sister, an Independent from Dallas, and our loyal spouses – discussing, what else, the current political morass. We love and respect each other tremendously, and our conversations are lively, opinionated and très politique. They are generously tolerant of my rants and respectful of my advanced years. I only hope the same of my blog readers.

Jac Flanders is the author of “What I Learned On The Way Down” - eBook and paperback at Amazon.com.