CHAPTER 21- "THE TOWNSEND
PLAN":
(In this Chapter Dr. Townsend tells us the story of the
beginnings of the Townsend Plan, and he reproduces the famous
Letter to the Editor of the Long-Beach Press-Telegram, which
started the whole thing.)
As I look back upon it, I can see that the Townsend Plan
was not born all in a lump, but took gradual shape. Certainly
it has undergone evolutionary revision since it first saw
the light of day in cold print back on September 30, 1933,
in the vox pop columns of the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Essentials
of the measure now before the United States congress are the
same as those in the first proposal offered to America ten
years ago. But a few details have changed. The first draft
of the Plan in the form of a letter to the editor, read:
"If the human
race is not to retrogress, two facts of essential
importance must be recognized; the stimulus to individual
effort must be maintained by the certainty of adequate
monetary reward.
"If business is good at all times, we
need not worry about the reward of individual effort;
and if money is plentiful we need have no fears that
business will become bad.
"Of late years it has become an accepted fact
that because of man's inventiveness less and less
productive effort is going to be required to supply
the needs of the race. This being the case, it is
just as necessary to make some disposal of our surplus
workers, as it is to dispose of our surplus wheat
or corn or cotton. But we cannot kill off the surplus
workers as we are doing with our hogs; nor sell them
to the Chinese on time as we do our cotton. We must
retire them from business activities and eliminate
them from the field of competitive effort.
What class should we eliminate, and how should it
be done: Wars have served in the past to hold down
surplus population, but the last big war, in spite
of the unprecedented slaughter, served only to increase
production, while reducing the number of consumers.
"It is estimated that the population of the
age of 60 and above in the United States is somewhere
between nine and twelve millions. I suggest that the
national government retire all who reach that age
on a monthly pension of $200 a month or more, on condition
that they spend the money as they get it. This will
insure an even distribution throughout the nation
of two or three billions of fresh money each month.
Thereby assuring a healthy and brisk state of business,
comparable to that we enjoyed during war times.
"Where is the money to come from? More taxes?"
Certainly. We have nothing in this world we do not
pay taxes to enjoy. But do not overlook the fact that
we are already paying a large proportion of the amount
required for these pensions in the form of life insurance
policies, poor farms, aid societies, insane asylums
and prisons. The inmates of the last two mentioned
institutions would undoubtedly be greatly lessened
when it once became assured that old age meant security
from want and care. A sales tax sufficiently high
to insure the pensions at a figure adequate to maintain
the business of the country in a healthy condition
would be the easiest tax in the world to collect,
for all would realize that the tax was a provision
for their own future, as well as the assurance of
good business now.
"Would not a sales tax of sufficient size to
maintain a pension system of such magnitude exhaust
our taxability from our sources?, I am asked. By no
means--income and inheritance taxes would still remain
to us, and would prove far more fertile sources of
Government income than they are today. Property taxes
could be greatly reduced and would not constitute
a penalty upon industry and enterprise.
"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 pay our taxes. But the fact is,
we must learn to expect and demand that the central
Government assume the duty of regulating business
activity. When business begins to slow down and capital
shows signs of timidity, stimulus must be provided
by the 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 1929, the
brakes must be applied through a reduction of the
circulation medium. This function of the Government
could be easily established and maintained through
the pension system for the aged." |
Since that early draft of the Plan the sales tax provision
has been dropped in favor of a fixed percentage levy upon
the gross incomes of all individuals, businesses and corporations,
exempting only the first $100 a month of personal income.
We have learned that a sales tax is a levy upon the little
fellow; that a tax upon gross incomes would touch all equally.
Since that first draft of the Plan was written, the provision
for a fixed sum to pensioners monthly has been altered to
provide that each annuitant shall receive his or her pro rata
share of all revenue collected during the month through the
gross income tax described.
And since that first bill, the class of annuitants who are
to receive pensions has been broadened from merely the aged
to include the physically handicapped, the chronically ill,
mothers with dependent children and others who, through no
fault of their own, are unable to work for a living.
But we are interested in that first Townsend Plan--why it
was written and what happened to it in its earliest days.
Weeks before publication of the Townsend Plan, mother and
I had been wondering, as had the other aged folks in our city
and throughout the nation, about our future. I had never been
a top-flight, though usually a competent, physician and surgeon.
Mrs. Townsend was an excellent nurse but past sixty and a
grandmother.
We debated whether I should try to make a fresh start as
a doctor in private practice. To what end ? What good would
even a fairly large practice do me when well-established physicians
could barely make a living due to the impossibility of collecting
fees?
Then came the idea that I thought might give hope in its
contemplation and--if anything were done with it--might alleviate
at least some of the ills of the economic system under which
we live.
That first publication of my program had stimulated several
answers in the vox pop columns of the Press Telegram. Some
readers had liked the idea; others scoffed at it and cited
what appeared to them its defects. I had little else to do,
so took the trouble to answer each criticism, as best I could,
in succeeding days. It was surprising how much correspondence
it developed--and how quickly. Within a few weeks the editor
was devoting a full page daily to vox pop discussions pro
and con of this "ridiculous" or "sublime"
Townsend Plan.
People began coming to see me at my home-- not many, but
a few. They wanted to know what concrete campaign I had mapped
out for achieving this Townsend Plan. I felt foolish in admitting
to them that I had no program at all!
As weeks went by and the necessity for thinking about some
such program was more and more forced upon me, I found myself
arriving at a solution for at least our first step along the
road. I talked it over with my wife.
We knew the people among whom we lived, knew their hardships
and sorrows. I was almost certain they would rally to leadership.
I knew enough of practical politics to know that no elected
representative of the people is going to listen to any of
the "little folks" unless they are organized into
a reasonably strong bloc of votes. No one man can change the
course of things--not in a democracy; he has to have a pile
of votes behind him.
This was apparent and I thought I saw a way to achieve the
goal. Mrs. Townsend was skeptical as to the good that might
be accomplished. She did not admit the need of the aged for
a psychological buoy to lift them out of the sea of despair.
I told her, "Here's a job that must be done and I'm going
to try to do it."
My solution lay in advertising.
First, I drew up a Townsend petition, comprising only a few
lines, directed to our local congressman. Then I inserted
a one-inch advertisement in our evening paper asking elderly
men and women who had nothing better to do to call at my office
the following morning. The advertisement told them they could
help me circulate a petition that might, possibly, result
in alleviating the distress of the thousands who had become
victims of the depression.
The nation-wide Townsend organization was born the following
morning, in November of 1933, in a little eight-by-ten room
in the rear of a real estate office. Its personnel at that
time consisted of one member--the author. Its equipment, one
office desk chair and one straight-backed chair for visitors--if
there were to be any--and one small desk.
I was surprised, that morning, to find a dozen or more men
and women waiting at the office door when I arrived. I showed
them the petition and we attached it to ruled sheets for names
and addresses. Then they went forth.
From their lighted countenances, I knew that my prognostication
was right. Their hope had been revived They had been shown
that there was something they could do about the distressing
situation from which they suffered. Before night they began
coming in with hundreds of signatures. They had been met with
sympathy and encouragement by almost every soul they appealed
to. That night they told their fellow-sufferers about what
was doing and the next day they brought others with them,
all ready and anxious to go out on the new crusade.
Our entire stock of literature, on those first two days,
consisted of fifty petitions like those still being circulated
over the nation by the hundreds of thousands today. Such was
the modest borning of our Townsend movement.
But the borning was well attended by the midwives and male
attendants who had been attracted by that one inch newspaper
advertisement.
It soon became apparent to these volunteer solicitors that
they were carrying a message that eighty percent of the average
voters met on the street were deeply impressed with; the simple
logic of the Plan and its implied promise of relief from the
desperate condition then afflicting them made the collection
of signatures an easy chore.
In two weeks' time, four or five thousand people had signed
the petition and we deemed it advisable to move "headquarters"
a few blocks away where it was possible to receive more visitors
than could be handled in the small box-shaped office.
We found a remodelled building that could do with some tenants.
It was quite an exceptional building there in Long Beach,
with a front glorying in five or six modernistic colors.
"How much can you pay?" asked the landlord, when
approached for office space.
"The fact is," we said, "we don't want to
pay anything for awhile. We've got to draw in some money before
we can pay any out."
"Well, I'll let you have an office in my building free--
for one month. After that I'll have to have rent."
So the Townsend Plan started off with a total over head,
as near as available figures show, of two buckets of paint.
The floor was made of concrete blocks and we wanted to brighten
them up some, so we got two buckets of paint, one gray and
one blue. On New Year's Day 1934, with the help of a young
real estate man, I got down on my knees and started in to
paint the blocks alternate colors. We had on old trousers
and overalls I would paint a block and skip a block, then
my partner would come along behind and fill in. The idea was
to make the floor look like rubber composition.
I was 67 and my helper was 40 but he got tired before I did.
Three-quarters of the way across the floor his knees began
to creak and groan and buckle on him. And before the job was
done he was stretching himself and muttering:
"Doc, you're a better man than I am!"
The Townsend Plan was underway, a national "reform"
movement without employees, without finances without literature
or propaganda necessary to any movement, with a mailing list,
but without anything else at all--except determination.
We put up a big sign in front of the building reading, "Old-Age
Revolving Pension Headquarters." It stretched across
the front and made the place look like a convention was on.
When we were able to rent the office free of charge--even
if only for a month--a whole new program of operations was
opened for the Townsendites. We went to see a friendly printer.
The depression had knocked him nine ways from Sunday and he
was getting ready to shut up shop.
"Look here," we said to him. "We want some
printing done. Can't afford to pay anything for it. But we
expect to see some money come in as a result of it and as
fast as the money comes in, you'll get paid for the work."
The printer didn't think long. With times what they were,
he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Even if he
never got paid, he would be no worse off than he was right
then. And if he did get paid, he knew it wouldn't be at the
chiseling depression rates that some of the flint-hearted
ones would have taken advantage of.
"I'll do it," he agreed. "How many thousand
do you want for a starter?"
In the new quarters, where a desk was rented among a lot
of others used by real estate men, the movement began to attract
the attention of business men. Though scoffing at the "crazy
thing" they were impressed with the immediate hold it
seemed to take upon its converts. Every man and woman who
signed the petition at once became an ardent champion of the
Plan and stood ready to enter the lists of debate for it against
all comers.
When we announced that 15,000 signatures had been obtained
in the city of Long Beach alone, the author deemed it time
to carry the message outside the confine of the city. It was
becoming apparent that help would soon be needed to keep a
record of the growth of the movement and to lay plans for
future expansion.
Here I doff my chapeau to Mr. and Mrs. Volunteer Worker!
No such crusade as ours had been seen on this earth in 2,000
years. No such ardent army has ever enlisted in any cause
in all the world. Where Christianity numbered its hundreds,
in its beginning years, our cause numbered its millions. And
without sacrilege we can see that the effects already apparent
from our movement-- with social security on a national scale
and state old-age pensions ranging up to $50 a month--may
bring some of the deep and mighty changes upon civilization
which Christianity sought.
Volunteers sprang up on all sides to carry the work of propaganda
on to ever remoter sections of the country. Not content with
canvassing their home towns, many took their petitions to
adjacent towns and started workers out with them. Within a
few weeks we had 75,000 names upon our petitions! That is
phenomenal, as any one familiar with the drudgery of cause
organization will know at a glance.
People began writing us from Maine and Florida from Texas
and from Oregon, in response to letters written them by friends.
Everywhere throughout the nation letters were being sent and
new workers being enlisted to circulate petitions directing
local congressmen and senators to study the philosophy of
the Plan. It was truly spontaneous, rather than stimulated.
As one good old preacher put it, "The souls of men seem
to have been touched with the torch of the Holy Ghost."
Spreading like wildfire, the movement swept the country from
end to end. It called the people together in great crowds,
speakers sprang up in every community who professed to believe
that the millennium was not far away--that the regeneration
of mankind, prophesied throughout the ages, was at last being
accomplished.
I had started a fire that I did not want to extinguish, but
that I feared might be difficult to control. I was right I
soon saw that unless the people could be organized and their
enthusiasm given direction and their purposes defined, there
could well be a resulting confusion and conflict of opinion
as to procedure which would end in disaster for the movement.
The first thing to be done, obviously, was to get the people
into an organization through which their zeal and enthusiasm
might be amalgamated into a declared purpose.
(pgs. 137-147)
CHAPTER 22- "A CORPORATION":
(In this Chapter Townsend discusses the dynamics and mechanics
of forming the mass movement that would propel the Townsend
Plan to center stage in America's debates about our economic
direction.)
The Townsend movement in its first days was a hand-to-hand
and a mouth-to-mouth campaign. No magazine editor gave the
Plan the benefit of his columns no metropolitan newspaper
placed its stamp of approve on the Plan's philosophy of justice
and security. All these purveyors of news turned a deaf ear
to appeals of their readers to give the Plan publicity.
When we were mentioned at all in the press it was with ridicule
or abuse. No matter. As we grew "cock-eyed" and
"crazy" and "fantastic" and "impossible"
we also became more militant and more ardent in our effort
to spread the news.
I have said that no newspaper took up our cause as its own.
I must make one exception. The Daily Chronicle of Centralia,
Washington, under the editorship of the late Harry L. Bras,
espoused the Townsend Plan in an editorial on February 13,
1934, which started:
"There has come to our desk a proposal for financing
a nationwide old-age pension plan that really has merit. At
first glance it would appear to be impossible, but a careful
reading of the proposed bill and a thorough analysis of the
objects to be gained through the carrying out of its provisions
cannot fail to impress one of its practicability."
To crystallize our mass movement into an effective purposeful
society with units in every state in the nation, we incorporated,
early in 1934, as a non-profit corporation under the laws
of California. It was the first of several steps which were
simultaneously to make us the targets for editorial sniping--and
to make us effective on the national scene as the first "lobby"
ever to go to Washington with no thought except for the benefit
of the little people.
Editorial writers, demagogues and a handful of congressmen
later took occasion to note this incorporation as our first
step in becoming "a business" rather than "a
cause." If great mass movements of the little people
of America must incorporate as businesses to achieve their
goals, then by all means let us see many more such businesses.
We have never felt the step was a mistake.
From such feeble beginnings, our cause has become the mightiest
issue in the political history of our nation. Before our appearance
on the scene, old-age pensions in America were limited to
supreme court justices and their widows; police, firemen,
war veterans and other such organized pressure groups also
received pensions. The little people were not organized as
a pressure group, so were left out in the cold.
Pensions, we believe, should be given supreme court justices.
They should be given policemen and firemen. Because members
of these professions have given years of faithful service
to the community. But in the same breath, so has any aging
citizen whose life has been one of hard work, depressions,
rearing a family, being a good citizen and neighbor, living
a life free from habitual criminality. Any such aging citizen
should be entitled to a pension when his days of physical
productiveness have passed. And Townsendites "pressured"
for him.
No one ever dreamed of a federal social security law until
the Townsend Plan caught the imagination of the people. In
1936, three years after the Townsend wave had begun swelling
toward Washington, congress acted hurriedly. In excusing certain
deficiencies of the present social security act, President
Roosevelt once intimated that an imperfect law had to be rushed
through to stem the Townsend tide!
It was 10 years ago that the Townsend movement started. Today
it has become respectable. Doctors, lawyers, ministers, educators,
philosophers and--naturally-- politicians are flocking to
our standard. We number thousands of clubs of active workers
who are organized throughout the nation.
When the Townsend Plan grew into an incorporated society
for the legal achievement of its aims, the transition took
place so fast that amazement began to be tinctured with fear
on the part of those who controlled the finances of the country.
Some there were who pronounced it a national hysteria that
soon would blow over; others said it could only be compared
to the advent of Christianity and that it bore the impress
of Christ's own teachings--that it was the blueprint of practical,
workable, Christianity.
Whatever it was, all thinking people recognized that it was
a manifestation of power and determination on the part of
the people to right the wrongs that had afflicted them so
long and so severely. Politicians became alarmed. It became
whispered about Washington that this thing must be stopped
before it completely upset the political apple cart. How some
few politicians hit upon a program meant to stop it dead in
its tracks will be discussed later
Now that we were a corporation, we wanted to get on a thoroughly
business-like basis. After a month in the building that looked
like a convention headquarters with the Townsend banner across
the front, the owner came around wondering about rent. That
was fair enough. We asked what rent he wanted for the place.
He wanted $100. As far as we were concerned in those days,
such a sum was tremendous, impossible and out of sight. We
would not dispute that the office might be worth that, but
you cannot pay unless you have the money. We looked around
for cheaper quarters and found an office that we could have
for three months for $100. That was just about our limit.
Early in January in 1934--just two months after the first
petitions had been circulated on the Townsend Plan--I helped
an out-of-work bookkeeper set up a simple accounting system
for the Townsend Plan. As it happened, he had only one leg.
He was on relief and dared not accept any pay for keeping
our books--in fear of being denied his relief allotment.
We found a stenographer to write our letters for a small
wage. A fellow came to us and said he had a small printing
press and could turn out pamphlets and hand-bills for us at
cost. We found volunteer workers for almost every phase of
the work that needed to be done.
I determined to scrape by as cheaply as I could and take
no more than barest living expenses out of receipts. When,
a year later, I was able to start my own newspaper, I started
drawing a salary as its working publisher and editor. I never
have taken any money except expenses-- and they do not run
very high at my age and with my frugal tastes--from the Townsend
National Recovery Plan organization.
Shortly after arranging with our man with the hand-press
to publish our little weekly pamphlet called "The Townsend
Crusader," he began taking on added dignity and importance.
Overnight he became, in his own estimation, an editor and
public figure. When we suggested moving the publication to
Los Angeles and enlarging it, he informed us that he was the
owner of the publication and that it would not be moved.
This was the first of a long series of revolts and attempts
to steal the movement and direct it into a money-making scheme
for those in control. It was to protect our small weekly publication
that we incorporated under the name of Prosperity Publishing
Company, Ltd., in the late summer of 1934. Our weekly pamphlet
soon became a newspaper of considerable size and circulation,
its name being changed in January, 1935, to Townsend National
Weekly.
About a year later the man who had helped me to incorporate
began to insist that the money should be divided as it came
in and that he should do as he liked with his half. This was
contrary to the entire conception I had in mind when undertaking
to organize the people in their own interests, and I balked.
I decided then and there that no person would, in future,
use the Townsend organization for personal profit beyond fair
compensation for his services. I determined to take over the
entire authority and hold it until an organization could be
built up and disciplined into an effective system by which
the membership could elect and direct through their chosen
representatives. I could see that nothing less than this would
have a chance of survival.
When, in a disagreement with my partner one day he suggested
that I buy him out, I called my attorney and instructed him
to interview the partner and ascertain how much money it would
take to get rid of him. He named an amount. I told the attorney
to offer him slightly less. He did, and the offer was accepted.
There was some money in the treasury at the time, and I borrowed
some from a bank, pledging the income of the organization
for security.
I paid for the stock in the publishing company held by my
partner and was now in a position to see that funds intrusted
to me by the multitude of little people would not go into
the pockets of schemers and those interested only in their
personal profits.
To safeguard the funds of the organization, I had all members
of the national headquarters staff, including myself and all
employee who handle money, covered by surety bonds to a total
amount of $50,000. All accounts are audited quarterly by a
firm of certified public accountants and financial reports
are published, after each audit, in Townsend National Weekly.
On March 22, 1938, the Townsend Foundation--a common law
trust--was formed to perpetuate principles of the Townsend
Plan. Two United States senators, several congressmen and
ex-congressmen, and a handful of business men and women act,
with myself, as trustees. The purpose of this trust is to
administer bequests and gifts toward enlightening citizens
in civic responsibility in the science of constitutional government
and in the principles of the Townsend Plan.
(pgs. 148-154)
CHAPTER 24- "SPREADING LIKE
WILDFIRE":
(In this Chapter Townsend discusses growth of the
movement and some of the people who were sympathetic--including
Harry Hopkins and H.L. Mencken, according to Townsend. He
also reproduces a very favorable column by the journalist
Westbrook Pegler.)
PREVIOUSLY, I said that only one newspaper publisher espoused
the Townsend Plan in its early days. True. But hundreds wrote
of it. Some liked the idea but didn't see how it could be
done; others scoffed at it frankly; still others would not
have liked it no matter how we did it. They just didn't think
old folks ought to have "something for nothing"
as they termed pensions--just as though sixty years of useful
work in the community were "nothing."
Among those who considered our program and its founder with
fairness, if not with favor, were H. L. Mencken, editorial
writer for the Baltimore Sun papers; Harry Hopkins, ex-relief
administrator and adviser to President Roosevelt, and others.
For what it is worth, I quote from a column by Westbrook
Pegler, syndicated writer for the Scripps-Howard papers:
"Of all the
mahatmas who have undertaken to lead the poor to plenty
in the last five years, the only one who seemed to
bleed internally for them and to have neither vanity
nor selfish ambition is old Dr. Frank Townsend, the
author of the old-age pension plan.
"Dr. Townsend retired from medicine one day
when he saw an old woman fumbling in a garbage can
for scraps of food. He decided that this was too awful
and abandoned the work that he did so well, to attempt
a task which he knew nothing about.
"Townsend clubs were springing into existence
all over the country and new membership rolls were
tumbling in on him in big bundles every hour--yet,
though he had become the leader and the hope of many
millions of old people, the Doctor, never for a moment,
thought of himself as a power. For himself, he wanted
not even recognition.
"All he wanted for himself was the knowledge
that the old woman who had been reduced to foraging
in a garbage can for food, and all the other old people
in the country, were secured from want and relieved
of worry about the material necessities of life until
death should come to them.
"There was in his bearing neither the querulous
martyrdom and mock humility of Upton Sinclair nor
the strutting vanity and arrogance of Huey Long. He
knew nothing about politics, and his innocence in
this respect was in sharp contrast to the man in the
White House, whose sympathies were about like his.
"If he could feel sure today that by turning
over his leadership to someone else he could achieve
the pension of $200 a month which he bespoke for everyone
beyond the age of sixty who had no criminal record,
no selfishness of his would stand in the way of that
consummation . . .
"His followers, young as well as old, supplied
the fanatical wrath which Dr. Townsend could not find
in his make-up. To criticize his theory was to wound
him in his feelings, but he loved his fellowmen so
tenderly that he could not anger." |
How near or how wide of the mark Pegler may have been may
be judged by readers of this book. Certainly the fact that
columnists and editorial writers were devoting columns of
space to discussing the plan and its author was evidence of
the public interest in the subject. The movement had assumed
tremendous political significance almost overnight. Working
units, by the summer of 1934, had been established in Arizona,
Colorado Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota,
South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming, as well as in our native
state of California.
After our petition to the congress had been carried into
all small towns surrounding Los Angeles--and we had secured
hundreds of thousands of signatures to it-- we deemed it time
to invade the big city. We moved our headquarters to Los Angeles.
The first copy of out paper, The Modern Crusader, published
in that city was dated June 7, 1934. Within the next few months
so many additional working units had been established that
the Townsend movement was represented in thirty states.
Our weekly newspaper flourished in Los Angeles for a time.
It gained a wide reading clientele and consequently, a good
command of local advertising. By the way, the little editor
who had refused to come along with us very shortly folded
up and lost his publication for lack of supporters.
Our headquarters was doing a thriving business. The club
idea was a logical step as necessity for closer coordination
of the movement became apparent. Our first club, in Huntington
Park, California, was chartered on August 7, 1934. We started
the organization of these clubs everywhere--loose-knit organisms
without by-laws or rules other than those which might be adopted
by a debating society--but how they grew.
After that first club, hundreds and then thousands were chartered
throughout the forty-eight states and Alaska. By October 24,
1935, when we held our first national convention at the Stevens
Hotel in Chicago two years after the Townsend Plan had first
flashed upon the world, we had exactly 4,552 chartered clubs.
A year before this convention we had tried an interesting
experiment. Townsendites were asked to hold simultaneous open
air meetings in whatever community they might be on a particular
sunny Sunday afternoon. Newspapers estimated that 500,000
persons attended 700 of these simultaneous rallies in thirty
states.
Half a million people in unison recited the Lord's Prayer,
petitioning Heaven for a continuance of their daily bread--and
then read their demand upon congress which urged that body
to give Heaven a hand at the job!
Knowing the extreme poverty of those who were attracted to
the pension movement we made the first mistake, of all the
great number of mistakes we have made, of putting the annual
dues for joining our society at only 25 cents.
Only during the first flush expansion days of our mushrooming
movement were those dues sufficient to carry the ever-growing
load of expense. For a time it was hoped new converts would
continue to come in great numbers and that the constant stream
of quarters would not fail us until the appeal in our benevolent
undertaking would reach the hearts of those who lived above
poverty.
Alas, for the flinty hearts! After ten years of effort we
have not reached many of them yet. At one of our national
conventions a majority of the delegates sanctioned the raising
of the dues to 25 cents a month, but even that small advance
caused us to lose almost as much as we gained, when club members
dropped out of the organized effort.
Much of the bungling clumsiness of humanity in securing for
itself a just share of the wealth produced by labor lies in
the fact that about nine out of ten who are looking for benefits
want George to pull the load while they ride. As far as the
Townsend organization was concerned, as our means increased,
so also did the calls upon our revenue. More money was constantly
required to carry on this and that phase of advancement. We
have never had enough. I feel certain, today, that had our
friends in the movement been willing to supply our headquarters
with dues to the maximum of only 25 cents a month, we could
long ago have "sold" the Plan to a vast majority
of our citizens.
When our first 75,000 names had been obtained upon the Townsend
petition in Long Beach, I had drawn up a letter urging our
congressman from the 18th district of California to have a
bill drawn, incorporating principles of the Townsend Plan,
and presented to the United States congress. The completely-filled-in
petitions were forwarded to Congressman Burke in Washington.
Sensing that here was a movement among his constituents which
might have far-reaching effects in coming elections, he had
a bill drawn up embodying the features previously described--and
presented this bill to congress.
By the time the bill was ready and presented, the movement
was sweeping the country.
In the late summer of 1934, we Townsendites decided we wanted
more action out of our Long Beach congressman than we had
been getting. We decided to elect our own man. John S. McGroarty,
a pleasant old gentleman who liked to be known as the "poet
laureate of California," offered to run on our platform.
We elected him by an overwhelming vote--and from then on stayed
up
to our necks in national politics on a non-partisan and non-sectarian
basis.
(pgs. 160-165)
CHAPTER 25- "THEY LIKED THE
IDEA":
(In this Chapter Townsend discusses relationship
of the Townsend Plan to several of the competing movements
of his day, including Upton Sinclair's EPIC Plan, Huey Long's
Share The Wealth plan and Father Coughlin's Union for Social
Justice.)
THERE is an ancient saying that it is hard to teach an old
dog new tricks. I had become an old dog (spelled backwards)
to a lot of people and I did not know how to play the role.
There were always a lot of folks who thought they could do
a better characterization of the Almighty than I could--and
I'm not the one to say them nay. After all, my background
of farmhand, cowboy, hobo, school-teacher and country doctor
had not fitted me to be much else than a very human, human
being with (I flatter myself) at least my fair share of common
sense.
But as the Townsend movement swung into high gear there were
visible signs of resentment at some of the adulation which
came my way because I happened to be, at the moment, a symbol
of security to a lot of little folks who were looking for
a leader. From time to time throughout the 10-year history
of the movement, there have been those both within and without
who thought to use the determination and the votes of the
Townsend people for their personal aggrandizement.
In early days of the movement, the name "Townsend"
was thought to be important when attached to the old-age pension
cause. So when a Denver lawyer who had been one of the organization's
speakers set himself up as the head of his own old-age pension
movement, he sought to use the name Townsend, claiming that
I had no copyright on it.
Judge Orie L. Phillips, in the Denver court, heard arguments,
then granted me an injunction denying this group of insurgents
the right to use my name in connection with their organization.
(Their organization, I may add, died within a short time.)
In his precedent-setting decision, Judge Phillips said:
"The right of the public as a third person is a paramount
consideration." This was in answer to the contention
of the others that I held no copyright on my name nor patent
on my program for social legislation. The court held that
use of the name--particularly its unauthorized use--on a program
other than that led by me would deceive the public.
"I might think it perfect folly," the court
said, "but literally millions of people have become convinced
that this Townsend Plan is a good thing and that Dr. Francis
E. Townsend is its great leader. They want to associate with
him."
The decision was of vital importance to future progress of
the movement as it stopped rebels from using my name in their
schemes.
But it was not merely groups splitting away from the Townsend
banner that constituted the total of 47 really widespread
popular movements which came into public notice with the depression
of 1929-39. Other stars flashed upon the horizon and for a
period of several years it seemed that most everybody was
discussing the comparative merits of the Townsend Plan, Upton
Sinclair's EPIC program, Howard Scott's Technocracy, Huey
Long's Share-the-Wealth, Father Coughlin's Social Justice,
the Bigelow Plan in Ohio and the Ham 'n Eggs platform in California.
It seemed to me then and it seems to me now that the Townsend
Plan was the only one of all this group which (1) was national
in scope and (2) had a definite, clear-cut program for which
it was fighting. Some of the others were like the Townsend
movement on the first point some on the second. None of them,
except the Townsend Plan, had both.
On July 1, 1935, I wrote a front-page by-line article for
Townsend National Weekly which started:
"Inasmuch as both
Democrats and Republicans, through their leaders, as
well as the in-betweeners like Huey Long and Father
Coughlin, are coming along with us in our demand for
a redistribution of wealth, perhaps some of them will
delve deeply enough into their gray matter to present
us with a plan that will make their suggestions of sharing
the wealth appear feasible. "Thus far,
none of them proposes anything new in the matter of
taxation. In practically a chorus accord, they cry:
"soak the rich with heavy taxes." They forget
the fundamental principle of justice which demands that
we "soak" everybody proportionately to their
ability to buy or spend their money. "Soaking
the rich alone and running the money into the national
treasury will not add to the buying power of the poor.
It will merely provide more money for the politicians
to handle. It can never reach the outer fringes of society,
where it is most needed. Billions might be piled up
in the national treasury until the rich, scared and
discouraged, would refuse to venture into any sort of
enterprise and productivity would cease. "Only
one thing will restore prosperity and make it permanent.
The hewers of wood and the drawers of water must be
given opportunity to supply their needs liberally. The
poor must be given opportunity to cease being poor.
This, our Townsend Plan alone makes feasible and practical."
After describing the Townsend Plan in operation the
editorial ended: "This is our plan. Let
us hear from the soak-the-rich crowd as to how they
will improve upon it. But we shall not hear from them
except in vague generalities. The politicians are cowards
and the wealthy are very timid. Thank God, the common
man and woman have the vote. These outnumber all others,
a hundred to one. They are demanding a redistribution
that is fair and just--no more. When justice and fairness
prevail. each will have opportunity to prosper in accordance
with his ability. That is all we ask." |
None of the other nationwide movements did offer, it seemed
to me, except in glittering generalities, any program for
achieving the promise held forth by their slogans. We felt
then, have always felt and feel now that the Townsend Plan
could not be achieved by our amalgamation with any of these
other programs. Any program which succeeds in pointing up
the people's need--in awakening the nation to the fact that
this country's factories and farms can produce ever so much
more than the people have ever had an opportunity to consume--any
such program is doing us good. But we do not amalgamate.
Early in April of 1935, Upton Sinclair wired Congressman
McGroarty, urging that the revised Townsend Plan be withheld
from congress until EPIC and Townsend leaders had an opportunity
to consider joining forces. With no ill will toward Sinclair,
I told reporters:
"We don't endorse any socialistic program. The EPIC
plan opposes the profit system. The Townsend Plan represents
an attempt to make the profit system function. The gates are
open for anyone to join us, but we are affiliating with no
other movements."
Between 1933 and the fall of 1934, Upton Sinclair, known
to two generations as a loveable Socialist and widely-read
author came so close to winning California's governorship
that some of the heavy business interests and old-line political
hacks in California went into a sweat that hasn't completely
dried up yet.
Howard Scott's Technocracy--full production for use--has
inherent in its first platform plank that the government,
i.e., congress, already shall be Technocracy-minded. But Scott
says he scorns politics as at present constituted. And just
how he ever intends to get a Technocracy-minded congress without
electing Technocrats to the national legislature, I have never
heard him explain.
Father Charles Coughlin, pastor of the Roman Catholic Chapel
of the Little Flower at Royal Oak, Michigan, had become known
as a radio orator in the earliest days of the depression.
His broadcast sermons against the "international bankers"
of New York fell on willing ears. By 1932, Coughlin had become
a force in the nation.
Coughlin's "National Union for Social Justice"
never took more definite form than embodying its desires into
a set of 16 principles. It seems to me it was a one-man organization,
at best, dependent for direction upon the pastor's most recent
radio address. In various broadcast campaigns, he attacked
the Rothschilds, the Mexican government and the world court
program of the League of Nations. But his movement seemed
to lack a definite program for achievement.
Huey Long of Louisiana was the first important representative
in the United States senate of the suppressed classes of the
South.
He conceived the "Share-the-Wealth" clubs. These
clubs had a philosophy rather than a program, the chief feature
of which was a desire to place a limit on the wealth controlled
or owned by any one man or family. All wealth above this limit
was to be divided among the masses.
Upon the occasion of his death, early in September of 1935,
I wrote for Townsend National Weekly:
"Sen. Huey P. Long
of Louisiana, dead by an assassin's bullet, still holds
the thought and attention of the nation. Newspapers
called him a dictator. He met the death of other dictators
of the world. But his was a dictatorship of a state
by consent of the majority. He was the product of the
ballot box, not the bullet. He commanded the unquestioning
allegiance of his followers by his appeals during his
swift rise to power and eminence. His wish became this
purpose. "No person was indifferent to
Huey Long. He was either hated or admired. He asked
no quarter and gave none. He stood alone in his niche
in American politics and American history.
"Many people in many states turned to his share-the-wealth
program. They understood, perhaps, the need for economic
changes rather than the philosophy of his plan. They
trusted the personality at the top, rather than the
principles he advocated. His crusade was personal. His
courage, his daring, his very ruthlessness, found followers.
"That was his triumph and his tragedy. No
strong character shared his influence, able to seize
the torch of a fallen leader and carry on his crusades.
For his followers followed the man, rather than his
message. "Even before this is read, the
picture will be changed. In his own state the floods
of bitterness may cause new tragedies. The struggle
for power will go on. And in this nation, those who
believed in Long will look for new solutions for their
economic problems. "Great causes are built
upon principles. They do not depend upon personalities.
The cause for which the beloved Lincoln died in the
same manner was more powerful after his death than during
his life. That will be true of every great advance of
civilization in a democracy." |
It has always been my hope that the Townsend members, through
their clubs and councils, would hold together until they have
achieved their aim. Since their earliest days they have been
under the most democratic system of government that we can
conceive. Briefly, it this:
Each club of twenty or more members (often running into the
hundreds) elects twelve members to serve each year as the
club's advisory council. There are as many clubs in each congressional
district as we have been able to organize. The president of
each club council is eligible to serve, through election,
as a member of the congressional district advisory council.
Out of all the club presidents only twelve are elected to
this district council and the president of each such council
automatically serves on the state council.
State councils are composed of as many members a there are
congressional districts in the state but in no case are there
fewer than twelve. In several states which have fewer than
twelve districts, additional members are elected to fill out
the body. Presiding as chairman of the state council, but
holding no vote, is the paid field representative from national
headquarters, whose other functions I will discuss in a moment.
Delegates from all clubs in each state hold annual conventions
at which they elect three members from the state council to
serve on a regional council of twelve. The continental area
of the United States has been arbitrarily divided into twelve
regions of four states each and these regional councils of
twelve members each serve the national organization in an
advisory capacity. They make their wills known through one
member whom they elect to serve on the national advisory council
of twelve--one from each region. This council meets annually
or at the call of the president of Townsend National Recovery
Plan, the post I now hold.
This is the theory. Each month since inception of the council
plan of government, we have advanced a little closer to its
realization. So far, seven regions have been completely organized
along these lines; five have made great strides toward such
organization. We found that the first year a district was
well enough organized to elect a council, the most popular
members were elected to serve. But after the first year, popularity
took second place to efficiency and sagacity. The people learn
how to use democracy only by using it.
On April 22,1935, I wrote a message to the Townsend clubs.
Written to defeat a demagogic movement within the clubs, it
still holds true:
"The purpose of
Townsend clubs is two-fold. The primary purpose and,
for the present, the sole object of Townsend clubs is
the enactment of the Townsend Plan into law. We have
our entire energy focused on the accomplishment of the
Townsend Plan at this session of congress. Such must
be the thought and purpose of every loyal Townsend club
member. The secondary purpose of Townsend clubs is a
desperate fight to continue the democratic spirit and
form of government in these United States.
"We truly believe that if such a vigorous fight
is not prosecuted with all seriousness and resistance,
we may expect to see our democratic form of government
pass; not only from this country but from the face of
the earth during this generation. Most certainly, this
is a challenge worthy of our bravest spirits. To accomplish
either of these purposes, which we believe to be not
only urgently necessary, but a purely patriotic duty,
is a task of huge proportions. It is therefore a prime
necessity that we maintain in our club organization
that spirit of pure democracy which we are willing to
fight for as an ideal. "If we allow ourselves
to be regimented, if we accept under the guise of "necessary
organization" any subservience which obligates
us to support any move or any person or persons who
are acceptable to some so-called "federation,"
or council or executive committee, we are by that very
act acknowledging that we are not capable of exercising
that independent thought and individualism which were
envisioned by the founders of our democratic form of
government. "The Townsend Plan and the
Townsend clubs are of magnitude equal in numbers to
a great percentage of our body politic. We must, therefore,
demonstrate that a purely democratic form of government
can prevail in this country, by having it prevail within
our own Townsend club organization. "Certainly
we are in a poor position to talk pure democracy if
we cannot practice pure democracy. National headquarters
of the Townsend movement has not to date attempted and
never will attempt to regiment or arbitrarily command
the Townsend clubs; rather it has always and will continue
to give advice and direction which have been tempered
by actual experience and good counsel. "The
best and purest intentions are often held by those who
promote other organizations within Townsend clubs; invariably
it is but a short time until a few are doing all the
thinking and planning, and our Townsend clubs are no
longer democratic, self-governing groups of free-thinking
and acting people, but instead are being told what to
do, what to think, what to believe and for whom to vote." |
I've wandered a bit from the life of Dr. Townsend, but thought
you might like to read of a few of the other "crackpot"
movements that had a depression birth in America. I've mentioned
principally the national movements. There were any number
of others that were limited to the sun-baked land of California,
my adopted state.
California has been called the home of the crackpots but
that connotes also that it is the home of new ideas. California
people are not afraid to spring a new proposal or to suggest
a change; they are a fast-thinking swiftly-acting heterogeneous
folk. They have come from everywhere and represent every nationality
under the sun. They are not afraid. You see none of the slavish
adherence to custom among them that characterizes non-migratory
peoples. They know what they want, and if old forms or customs
stand in the way of their getting what they want, they are
prompt to brush them aside. Give me the crackpot rather than
the dullard; give me the fast thinker rather than the drone.
Give me the west where civilization is ever reaching upward!
(pgs. 166-177) |