Transcripts For CSPAN3 Townsend Plan 20160411 : vimarsana.co

Year, cspans touring cities across the country, exploring American History. Next, a recent 11 our recent visit to long beach, california. Youre watching American History tv on cspan3. This is from the townsend letter on september 30, 1933, to the long beach newspaper, the Long Beach Press telegram. Saying, our attitude toward government is wrong. We look upon government as something entirely foreign to ourselves as something over which we have no control, and which we cannot expect to do us a great deal of good. We do not realize that it can do us infinite harm, except when we go to pay our taxes. But the fact is, we must learn to expect and demand that the Central Government assumed the duty of regulating business activity. When business begins to slow down and Capital Shows signs of timidity, National Government in the form of additional capital. When times are good and begin to show signs of a speculative debauch such as we saw in my can 29, the brakes must be applied. Thousands of banks collapsed. When you have your life savings in a bank that collapses, there was no recourse. There were no federal programs to help. You have people in long beach sleeping in the streets, sleeping on park benches, scrounging for food. They seemed to be no help. Most of the help was going to younger men and younger people with families. That makes sense in a certain way. In a volume of the Long Beach Press telegram, we find on september 30 a letter from dr. Francis townsend. He proposed that every american over the age of 60 should get a check from the federal government every month. The only proviso is that you would have to spend that money every month. So the older citizens would have a safety net. It would provide an income for Older Americans, they could spend it every month and it would generate jobs for local areas. This became known as the townsend plan. The townsend plan caught fire. Within two years, townsend was touring the United States and creating townsend clubs. Millions joined the clubs and paid monthly dues. For a while, he became a Major Political figure. This is 1933, the era of small government. The federal government was much smaller, tax receipts were much smaller. This is the issue about the Great Depression and the new deal, this is why Franklin Roosevelt was regarded as controversial. The government did not routinely step in and help people who found themselves in severe economic crisis, or national emergency. There was not a tradition in america of washington, d. C. Or the state capital responding with money, help in the case of a tragedy. You are. Left to work it out on your own there were crisis you were left to work it out on your own. There were crisis and groups that would step in, but not the government. The idea that the government would step in to issue a check for no reason other than that people had no money this was a radical proposal. People criticized it. In washington, d. C. , Franklin Delano roosevelt recognized that Francis Townsend represented a political threat. If you have millions of Older Americans alive with Frances Townsend aligned with Frances Townsend, that might be a threat in terms of getting their votes. Roosevelts response was to blunt the force of the townsend plan by offering his own solution, which is the emergence of the Social Security plan. Though townsend remained a viable political figure for a few years, the threat of dr. Townsend began to dissipate through the middle 1930s. It is now one of the most important plans that people rely on in the United States. Although people criticize Social Security, and take various positions about it, it has been in effect for more than seven decades. This is a Major Federal Program that helps people across the United States, whatever its failings. It is a Major Program that people rely on. This came into existence largely because of the ideas of one guy Walking Around the streets of long beach who did not like what he saw. It shows how important a single idea can become, how it can ignite and catch fire across the United States. This is not unusual. When you think about the populist party of the 1880s, or huey long in louisiana, over other people who have these important ideas and become part of the american fabric. This is not unusual, and it is interesting to see how these things develop. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to long beach, california. To learn about its rich history. Learn more about long beach and other stops on our tour by visiting cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Next, tyler perry, and africanamerican studies professor at California State University fullerton talks about the american president s that dealt directly with slavery. 12 president s were slave owners and eight owned slaves while in office. Professor parry discusses these cases and the broader discussion of racism in the states. Now, lets get to todays