Iowans Harry Hopkins and Henry A. Wallace Helped Craft Social Security's Blueprint
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Iowans Harry Hopkins and Henry A. Wallace Helped Craft Social Security's Blueprint FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM by David E. Balducchi staggering 25 percent of American workers were unemployed. Poverty rates for the el Aderly neared 50 percent. The spring of 1934 was a time of colossal hardship. In the months to come, however, Iowans Harry Lloyd Hopkins and Henry Agard Wallace would help invent the land mark Social Security Act, which would include un employment insurance. While Hopkins and Wallace are known as liberal lions of the New Deal in areas of work relief and agricultural policy, their influential roles on the cabinet-level Committee on Economic Security are little known. Harry Hopkins was born in Sioux City in 1890, where his father operated a harness shop. The family lived in Council Bluffs and a few other midwestern towns. When Hopkins was 11, they settled in Grin- nell; his mother hoped her children could attend col lege there. Hopkins graduated from Grinnell College in 1912 and then began to make a name for himself in child welfare, unemployment, work relief, and public health, particularly in New York City. Agree ing with New York Governor Franklin Delano Roos evelt's push for aggressive unemployment relief measures, Hopkins supported Roosevelt's presiden tial bid. In May 1933 he joined Roosevelt in Wash ington as the bulldog head of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). His mastery of inter preting and carrying out Roosevelt's wishes later would make him the president's closest advisor. Iowa-born Harry Hopkins was a key m em ber on the cabinet- level Com m ittee on Economic Security. Here in his office Henry A. Wallace was born on a farm in Adair in the Walker-Johnson Building in Washington, D.C., three County in 1888. His father, Henry C. Wallace, had ‘ stand ready and a December 1934 calendar marks been secretary of agriculture under Republican presi the co.i tree’s deadline for a report to FDR. dents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. A 1910 46 lOlin h Illustrated graduate of Iowa State College, young Henry became editor of the popular Wallaces' Farmer, the fam ily-run periodical. Wallace experi mented in botany and genetics and LIBRARY OF CONGRESS formed the first commercial com pany to produce hybrid seed corn. Although initially a Republican, he supported Democratic farm and tariff policies in 1928, helped devise Roosevelt's farm policy in the 1932 campaign, and prodded Iowans, albeit overwhelmingly Republican, to vote for the native New Yorker. A few months before the elec tion, Wallace was invited to meet with Roosevelt and his advisors, the famed Brain Trust, at Hyde Park. The scholarly corn breeder impressed them, particularly ag ricultural economist Rexford G. Tugwell, who admired Wallace's modesty, polish, and forward thinking. Wallace met again with Roosevelt, this time in the president elect's one-story vacation cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia. Wallace was escorted through a cozy living room to Roosevelt's back bedroom, and the two men talked while the president-elect shaved with a straight-edged razor and breakfast ed. A month before the inaugura Iowa native son and U.S. secretary of agriculture, Henry A. W allace also served tion Roosevelt offered Wallace the on Roosevelt’s C om m ittee on Economic Security. “O ur greatest wealth,” W allace secretary of agriculture post. said in 1934, “is the understanding and sympathy which exists in our hum anity Wallace and Hopkins were here in the United States.” both dedicated social reformers. Wallace was a thinker with a sci entific bent, courteous though perplexing, an intel arlier that year, bills had been introduced in Con lectual loner ill at ease in social settings. He was a gress to adopt old-age retirement and unemploy vegetarian and often walked the three miles to work. Ement insurance. But Roosevelt saw the problem With a taut physique, he looked younger than 46. as bigger than the solutions offered; his goal was to re Hopkins, on the other hand, was a doer, brusque, vitalize capitalism and prevent dependency. Roosevelt but with a sense of humor. He enjoyed parties and told the bills' sponsors that a thorough study of social thick steaks. His gangling frame made him look old and economic security was needed. Ever pragmatic, he er than 44. also wanted to wait until after the mid-term election The story of how these two Iowans—so different in before deciding what programs had the best chance style and experience, attitude and approach—helped for congressional approval. Laying the groundwork in craft the report that recommended Social Security be June, Roosevelt told Congress he intended to offer spe gins in the summer of 1934. cial legislation to protect people against the economic Summer 2011 47 NATIONAL ARCHIVES AWO RECORDS ADMINISTRATION * n 48 !?ge Illustrated uncertainty that caused "social unrest and economic demoralization." "Among our objectives," he said, "1 place the security of the men, women and children of the Nation first. "Next winter," Roosevelt continued, "we may well undertake the great task of furthering the security of the citizen and his family through social insurance. The various types of social insurance are interrelated; and I think it is difficult to attempt to solve them piece meal. Hence, I am looking for a sound means which I can recommend to provide at once security against several of the great disturbing factors in life—especial ly those which relate to unemployment and old age." Later that month, Americans who tuned into his fifth radio fireside chat heard him tally up Congress's and the administration's successes in economic recov ery. Now, he reminded his listeners, America "must look to the larger future" and "use the agencies of gov ernment to assist in [providing] sound and adequate protection against the vicissitudes of modern life—in other words, social insurance." Roosevelt had already decided, at the suggestion of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, to form a "Com mittee on Economic Security" to address the problem of social insurance (broadly called "economic secu rity"). He drafted five members of his official family to serve on the committee: Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (as chair), Secretary of Treasury Henry Mor- genthau, Attorney General Homer Cummings, and FERA Administrator Harry Hopkins. Perkins had recommended Morgenthau, Cum mings, and Hopkins, as well as Secretary of Com merce Daniel C. Roper. But FDR scratched Roper, even though industrial workers would became a focus of the committee's work, and chose Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace instead. Roosevelt surely had his rea sons: Wallace was a fervent liberal; agricultural labor represented a quarter of the U.S. workforce; the ever- curious Wallace was interested in economic security; and he and Perkins had become close friends. Perkins, along with native Iowans Hopkins and Wallace, would be a prime mover in recommending economic security programs. The Committee on Economic Security often was referred to as the cabinet committee, though Hop kins did not yet head a cabinet department. Perkins chose University of Wisconsin economist Poverty stalked Am erican families during the G reat Depres sion. Despite early relief program s for the needy, New Dealer Harry Hopkins told reporters in I 934, “W e have to keep in mind . the children who have to live under those squalid conditions. 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