Legacy in living part of our history . A great chicken of the Roosevelt Legacy and of one of my favorite actors, Frances Perkins. Small family, committed family of roosevelts. I am a newbie in this world. I have been welcomed warmly. I appreciate that. But there are a few who have been more dedicated and more thoughtful in their writings about it. Please welcome chris bryson. [applause] thank you. We have all come to count on the new deal safety net to remain secure. Much that hadwhen seemed secure is coming unstuck, we need to remind yourselves of what that new deal legacy is, and how it came about in the first place. Understanding is history is crucial to preserving it. The impact of disregarding our history, the disease we are painfully aware has afflicted us at the highest levels, can seriously undermine the foundations of the new deal , as of other institutions that were created after circumstances that now threatened. We are fortunate to have the grandchildren of the leaders and pieced together the new deal in response to a disintegration of American Society, happening because of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Their grandparents, including franklin and eleanor roosevelt, henry a wallace, Frances Perkins, and Harry Hopkins, had a vision of what government do, too, indeed must meet the urgent needs of all americans. They had a vision. Theyg upon that vision, dramatically change the relationship between the American People and their government. And through that relationship, the way americans learned to deal with and help each other as fellow citizens. Today, these. Grandchildren, James Roosevelt junior, David Wallace douglas, common perkins, shawl, and jane hopkins, whose comments will reign because a family emergency prevents her from being with us. Describe thel contributions to create the new deal. Then we will ask them to help us shape a vision that can inform our future efforts to meet the needs of our country as it negotiates vast social, economic, and cultural challenges, both within our nation and within a World Society increasingly tightly built. The job is nothing, the new deal policies and programs, but to capture the vision of what our society is becoming and to begin to look at how our government, which is the instrument of all the people, how it can respond to the needs of all our people. This is what their grandparents did in the 1930s. We need to do this for the 20 20s. We had the opportunity today with a National Audience to capture the spirit of the new dealers and project that spirit forward beyond the immediate crises of our political present, to our future as a people and as a crucial player as a whole human family. David, tomlin and june through my hearing have framed in approach, we will turn to you for your questions and observations. You have brief biographical introductions to our speakers. Directly turn to them and have them say whatever is of moments to suggest their own careers as a way of leading to interpreting their grandparents. Let me first begin with the grandson of franklin and eleanor roosevelt, James Roosevelt junior. [applause] thank you. Let me begin by saying how appreciative we are of the work that chris does. Many of you in this room join him in that effort. It is very important. And also paul sperry. Just 8 wall paul spero. Just a word of thanks. [applause] 1945, about six months after my grandfather passed away. With the legacy of the new deal in place. Person, probably as we all do when we are young, some things had always been that way. In fact, only a dozen years before i was born, this is a country of desperation. Was probably true around the world. But focusing on this country, think about the level of unemployment. Millions of people unemployed. One third of potential workers unemployed. Think about the poverty that existed in this country. Inequalityocus on and there is real poverty there. But we should be at a point in the United States of america where one terrible event after another was prefaced by the word hoover overfill, hoover ,obile hooverville hoovermobile that was the situation in this country. My wifes family, i hear stories about relatives who lived for a week on oatmeal in those days. Not for breakfast, for every meal all week. That is the kind of poverty that existed in what we would today call middleclass family. An educator, aas phd, a brother who was a priest, and members of the Family Living on oatmeal. I think of the lack of opportunity for education. , who wasy own mother the valedictorian of a small Town High School where she grew up, going a few tens over to state teachers college, but then dropping out because her family could not afford to feed and shelter themselves and clothes themselves if she stayed in college. Switched, which ended up quite providentially, to a nursing career. Nursing school in those days provided a place to live and three meals a day. No pay, accept for a very small stipend. Eat allace to live and you got a professional education. Data being a nurse at the hospital that was part of the mayo clinic, and my father ended up being a patient there. That worked out ok, but it gives an idea of the decisions that families face, even if they had the ability and the intent of striving for education. The lack of infrastructure in this country we talk about our crumbling infrastructure have the reason we crumbling infrastructure, of course, is underfunding. But because a lot of infrastructure was built after the new deal was started, there were not the roads or even the electricity or means of communication that could help a country build it self out of the depression that it was in. And in those times, just a dozen years before, real racial tension in isolation. On the latercus events of the civil rights movement, we dont read much about that, but that was a real factor in the Great Depression as well. My grandfather, fdr, was not a politician of ideology. Newspaper columnists, like walter litman, thought he was shallow because he didnt talk about ideology. He was in the best sense of the word a populist. He focused on what would improve peoples lives, both in terms of the direct services, which i will talk about in a minute, but also regulation of the forces that had gotten them into this situation. Populist didn of not exploit or divide people. It was about focusing on the needs of americans. And what he saw was the need for andge the need for hope, the need for action. Paraphrase what he said what he focused on was to paraphrase him the country needs, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. Take a method and try it. If it fails, try another. But above all, try something. And what that really captured as the contrast between the prenew deal government, which was passive, totally relied on the market have you heard reliantely . Totally on the market, laissezfaire government. It failed. New deal counted that countered that failure with an activist government. Regulatedegree the greed of the private sector. Think of all of the programs are comprised the new deal. Ng bill,ely, the banki federal deposit insurance, so people could be secure with the money in banks, reading the risky activities of banks from the deposit activities with the glasssteagall act, the creation of the securities and Exchange Commission and the set of securities laws so that the Financial Sector actually operated with some transparency and reliability. The end of prohibition, which not only make people happier [laughter] but was aimed directly at doing away with a criminal conspiracy to evade a law that did not have broad support. We might see that going on again right now actually. They agricultural adjustment act to keep farmers in business. The civilian conservation corps, which was so important in providing jobs for younger men in those days to save money home to their families. My mothers brother was one of those core members. Surviving conservation Corps Members who had intended to be here, but due to transportation difficulties, wasnt. Look how that combined jobs and conservation. Brother going to conservation corps when she had to drop out of college. Not only did he receive a job in the selfesteem that that brought, the money to send to his family, he had no health care for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, for the first time in his life, he identified severe diabetes and he died of it. Had he had access to health care before that, he might have been treated even in those days, when we dont have the treatments that we have today. Corporation,s loan which help people restructure their mortgages to avoid foreclosure. Had a little bit of that in the great recession, but not enough. That was very important in the new deal. Relieferal emergency act, which provided cash to people who were in desperate situations. Cwa the the Public Works Administration and the civil works administration, later on the Works Project Administration. Huge effects in, again, directly providing people jobs, which was so important, both for the income and the selfesteem that they created. And, of course, the great buildings and Arts Projects and produced. That they when you look at even today at post offices and libraries and roads and parks. Legislation,hts leading to the wagner act and the right to organize and so on. The National Recovery organization, which was found unconstitutional by the supreme court, but set out the process of finding a way for businesses to cooperate, to stay in business. And very important to me and the work i have had a chance to do in my life, the Social Security act, which was so important because a lot of it affects whole families. Yes, it provided for a decent retirement for older people, but it also meant that families could save to send kids to college, that families did not have to take care on their own members. Older family and is part of the Social Security act, beyond retirement, which is what we all think of and which later added disability therage, equally important, concept of unemployment compensation, when people lost jobs. And of minimum wage, also part of the Social Security act. The National Youth administration and directly at jobs for young people. The food, drug and cosmetic bill. If you talk about regulation that actually meant something valuable in peoples lives, there had not been agile regulation of dangerous or possibly effective but certified safe food and drug and cosmetics before that. Regulationt has become a dirty word. Is so much regulation important. I even think about you know, you take hoover my which claimed itself the end of regulations. Fortunately, cities like new york and states like massachusetts have runways to drivers,now for uber for fairness in ridehailing. And fairness for those employees as well. Federal housing administration, which we still have for fha loans, the u. S. Housing authority, which began for the firsttime federal construction of housing for the poor. And the fair labor standards act, which included limits on work hours and age of workers and so on. What is amazing to me is that nothing none of this existed deal. The new what is amazing is that much of it still does exist today. What is amazing to me today is that much of it is still under attack. And what is amazing is that much of it still needs expansion. For one example, Social Security benefits should be raised. That would do something to convince people under 40 that Social Security will be there for them, which, by the way, it will. It is actuarially sound. And then subsequently, the legacy of the new deal has finally fired health care access. And medicare and medicaid in the 60s and the Affordable Care act in our time. I could go on about that because that is my day job, but i wont. [laughter] and because my wife is tommy i just use all my time. Me i just is telling use all my time. But the new deal philosophy was the government should intervene to help americans. That is the basic principle. Then, as now, powerful forces preached that government was the problem. About 1980. Ced in asther it is conservatives it was called then, libertarians as it is called later, or altright, the goal is to lead people on their own. The spirit of the new dealers is to adapt to the needs of the people. This is the longterm battle and this is what the concept of the new deal and the role of government is about. [applause] and now, David Wallace henry a the grandson of guard wallace. It is good to be here again. Thank you to politic racing to kathy for helping make this possible today. For henry a wallace, my grandfather, the contribution begins with agriculture. He was secretary of agriculture during fdrs first two terms, and at a time when 40 of the country population lived on farms. Because of his background as an iowa farm editor, as a scientist, as the founder of what would become the nations largest feed corn company, and thanks to fdrs strong backing, edge hair a Henry Wallace and the new deal lifted the farm economy out of the depression, stabilizing prices by controlling excess production with government incentives. He and the new deal instituted soil and for stream restoration. Flawlessnesss department wallacess department of agriculture started food stamps. Injured, nos less front, by the late 18th woodys 1940s called him the best secretary of agriculture the country had ever have. Wallace was talking was writing about ecological sustainability back in the 1920s and 1930s. I attribute to him and his mother i attribute to him and mother, theean, my sustainability of water and soil. My wife and i will be married or to use. The first book i ever gave her when we were dating was the classic romantic volume titled topsoil and civilization. [laughter] second key contribution of Henry Wallace in in 1940, fdr declared he would not run for a third term without Henry Wallace. Wallaces predecessor had cleared the office not worth a bucket of warm spit. In thery wallace used office to head up a key warrelated boards and played a vital role in its and persuading latin american countries to come into the war on the allied side. To define the causes for the fighting of the war, including Economic Justice and freedom and to provide a vision of postwar global order without american domination or british imperialism. One speech of particular that history of the common man speech, an editor called for the american century, a theme i think donald trump has doubled down on. 1940s envisioned in the instead a century where no nation will have the godgiven right to exploit other nations or older nations will have the privilege to help younger nations get started on the path to industrialization. As a quick aside, wallaces words provided the basis for Aaron Coplands musical piece called fanfare for the common man. Global view, his concern for global poverty, that others have adequate substance system sustenance has influenced my own work to increase funding for povertyfocused foreign assistance. The third and last point to make about Henry Wallaces contribution to the new deal was after he left the vice presidency. Fdr appointed him secretary of commerce. But after being fired by truman in 1946 first speeches trying to slow the cold war and the arms russia, Henry Wallace, first as editor of the new republic and then on a run for president with the progressive party, try to speak out for such new deal policies as higher minimum wage, decent housing, improved health care, the rights for working people, and desegregation. As well as u. S. Commitment to the. Wallace refused to for segregated audiences in the jim crow south or to stay in segregated or to stay in allwhite accommodations. He and his supporters were rough up. Rough up. Wallace warren of a democracy defensiveanatically of freedom. Trying to avoid the militarization of the as it emerged from world war ii as the worlds most powerful nation, k wrote the destiny and salvation of the u. S. Is to serve the world, not to dominate it. I always admired my grandfathers willingness to take unpopular positions and bear the costs. What was it like, i wondered, to go from being one of the nations most popular political leaders in the new deal to getting vilified and pelted with eggs as you campaigned. Henry wallace showed similar strength of character later in life after he left politics. He carried on speaking and returning to scientific research, devising new strains of plants, he knew had led the way in hybridizing the nations corn, showed his grandchildren with less success how to have strawberries and gladiolus. [laughter] to hybridize strawberries and gladiolus. [laughter] when he died in november, 1965, johnsons and previously kennedys secretary of agriculture said no single individual has contributed more to the abundance we owe today than Henry Wallace. The clarity of his progressive vision influenced the country and his values, strength in all of his descendents. If there is a single word to describe what i feel for my maternal grandfather, it would be this gratitude. [applause] and now the grandson of francis whorely perkins. Thank you, chris. Be herely honored to today on Hallowed Ground for the new deal. I want to thank chris for inviting me to participate and kathy flynn and the board of the National New Deal preservation association, for all the work they have put in to make today come about. Just for full disclosure, i am not a new deal historian and my mother was not a focus of my brain. It wasnt until 1980 that i learned my grandmother was a very important person and