DOCSLIB.ORG

Fiorello H. Laguardia Author(S): Thomas Kessner Reviewed Work(S): Source: the History Teacher, Vol

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fiorello H. Laguardia Author(S): Thomas Kessner Reviewed Work(S): Source: the History Teacher, Vol Society for History Education Fiorello H. LaGuardia Author(s): Thomas Kessner Reviewed work(s): Source: The History Teacher, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Feb., 1993), pp. 151-159 Published by: Society for History Education Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/494812 . Accessed: 31/01/2012 15:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Society for History Education is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The History Teacher. http://www.jstor.org Fiorello H. LaGuardia* Thomas Kessner CityUniversity of New YorkGraduate School WHEN WOODROWWILSON WAS GOVERNORof New Jersey he received a message telling him that one of the state's senators, a dear friend, had died suddenly. Stunned,he canceled all appointmentsfor the day. Just a few minutes later he received a phone call from a local politician. "Governor,"said the caller, "I would like to take the senator's place." "Well,"said Wilson, shocked by the man's unseemly haste, "You may quote me as saying that that's perfectly agreeable to me if it's agreeableto the undertaker."' For the past forty years New York City mayoral campaigns have featuredcandidates promising to fill Fiorello LaGuardia'splace. But the "LittleFlower" lies buriedin Woodlawn, and none of the pretendershave been able to resurrectthe type of honest, efficient, and passionately fair governmentthat has made whatone journalistrecently dubbed "Fiorellism" into New York's municipal religion; the metropolis' secular faith that governmentcan be made to do good things for the people ratherthan the politicians.2 It would be tempting simply to exchange stories about this most colorful and flamboyantof New Yorkers, who as he got up in Congress one day to complain about the price of meat began fidgeting throughhis pockets, only to remove a puny cut of steak which he waved before his colleagues as he informedthem thatthis pauper'sportion was beyond the The History Teacher Volume 26 Number 2 February1993 152 Thomas Kessner means of most of his constituents:"Gentlemen," he said, "we simply musteat. We haveformed the habit."3 Or the timehe defiedan Alcohol Agent to arresthim as he demonstratedto a bevy of reportershow to preparean intoxicatingbrew during prohibition. He readthe comics over the air, took a sledgehammerto the slot machines,taught housewives how to conserveon fats duringwar time, and conveyedthe magical abilityof politicsto instruct,care, transform and energize a generationof New Yorkerswith bracing visions of possibility.4 He cameby his Progressivecredentials through honest experience. He hadlived the life. His parentswere poor immigrants who had come to the UnitedStates in 1880.Born on lowerManhattan, Fiorello was raisedon thewide plains of theAmerican frontier where a tinhom'sdeath might be explainedsimply by, "He neededkilling." In the expansiveWest he formedhis senseof widepossibility. Here also he witnessedfirst hand the mistreatmentof theIndians and the exploitation of immigrantworkers by the railroads.' In 1914he madehis firstrun for electiveoffice only to be defeatedin his bid for a Congressionalseat by a Tammanystalwart. He wouldnot lose anotherCongressional election until 1932. Over these years he becamethe leaderof a corps of urbanProgressives who insistedthat prosperitydrunk America could not substitutea cashregister for a heart andkeep its moralbalance. In 1919 he marriedThea Almerighotti in a marriagethat brought him great happiness and promised to calmsomewhat his bristlingCongressional style. A yearlater Thea gave birthto a baby daughter.But the babybecame ill andThea too was slow to recover.By the endof the yearFiorello knew that his daughterand his wife bothhad the killingdisease of the tenements,tuberculosis. He movedthe family out of the city for freshair and more healthful surroundings, but on May 8, 1921, the baby died. Fiorello had to go alone to bury his infant daughter,and six monthslater he wentback to the cemeteryto buryhis wife. The soft joy of his life was gone and a journalistwrote, "He was withoutambition except to forget."6 Somemen aredefeated by circumstances,others become hardened by tragedy;in a few, adversitymolds sensitivity,sympathy and character. Adversitymade him common with the people he represented.Other men, he would say, had their families. He had only his politics, and the commonpeople to whomhe dedicatedit. Streakedby the vulnerabilityof his losses he brokewith his conservativeparty to fightfor a Progressive social agenda.7 In 1929,LaGuardia ran against James J. Walkerfor the mayoralty.He was defeatedby the largestmargins in New York City's history.His strident charges of corruption and insistence on reform threatened to Fiorello H. LaGuardia 153 make a seriousthing of government,while New Yorkerswere quite happywith good timesand their insouciant Beau James, but by 1933the devil-may-careworld of ragtimeprosperity was shatteredby thecrashing of the stock marketand Samuel Seabury'sdisclosures of systematic municipalcorruption. How,Samuel Seabury asked Tammany loyalist Sherrif Thomas Farley, hadhe managedto builda savingsaccount of morethan $400,000 on a reportedincome of $8,500?Well, said the good natured Mr. Farley, these savingsrepresented funds that came out of his "tinbox," his wonderful, magical"tin box." The genialpractitioners of honestgraft had focused theirlimited political intelligence and imagination on "seein'my oppor- tunitiesand takin' them,"on sackingthe municipalitythey had been pledgedto serve.Little wonder that they had failed to developa govern- ment appropriateto New York'ssize andcomplexity. Jimmy Walker's New Yorkwas notmerely corrupt, it lackedthe freshness and vision with whichto meetthe challengeof modemtimes.8 New York's322 squaremiles representedperhaps the most densely packedand intricately divided cityscape in theworld. Commerce, industry, and a surgingresidential population competed with the city's bulging office districtsfor limitedspace, all in a relentlesslyuncharted fashion. Completionof the fifty-six-storeyChanin Building and the seventy- seven-storeyChrysler in 1929was followed a yearlater by the 102-storey EmpireState. Built upon privateinitiative these soaringmasterpieces createdsafety and congestion problems that had profound public effects, butno communityimperative guided or limitedtheir development. Here in this world class city, the only authoritativemaster plan for metropolitandevelopment was conceived by the privatelyorganized RegionalPlan Association of New York,and paid for by theRussell Sage Foundation.Amidst the crises of the times, municipalgovernment de- mandedcreativity, imagination and a largeconception of publicrespon- sibility; and all New York had was JimmyWalker and his "tin box brigade."By 1934hard times prepared them for LaGuardia. His firstadministration, all agree,was his best.He cameinto office as if driven.Every day broughtnews of some new scourgethat had been defeated,some new outrageuncovered and eliminated. The town seemed to be overrunwith little fat men in sombrerosputting out fires,opening parks,chasing "tinhoms and gangsters,"and running up to Albanyfor authorityto do more. LaGuardiainherited a crippledcity. A humiliatingbankers agreement had placed a consortiumof money lendersabove its elected officials. Morethan 230,000 were unemployed; one in six New Yorkerssubsisted on relief.And they had no confidencein government."I am,"LaGuardia 154 Thomas Kessner lamentedsoon afterhis election,"a captainof a brokenship who must patchand repair and struggle continually to keep it afloat."But keeping New Yorkafloat was the leastof his goals.He didnot succumbto small enthusiasms;he broughtinto office an agendafor the comprehensive transformationof city governmentexpressed in five largegoals: 1) Restoringthe city's fiscalhealth and winningback its political independencefrom the bankers' consortium; 2) Developinga humane and fiscally prudent relief program; 3) Cleaningout municipal racketeering and corruption; 4) Establishinga merit-based civil service for an efficient and modem municipalgovernment; and 5) RebuildingNew Yorkinto a modem,aesthetically pleasing, effi- cientlylaid out city. Traditionallymayors had negotiated with governors and aldermen, not with presidentsand cabinetsecretaries, but LaGuardiaunderstood that the key to manyof his planslay in Washington.He hadbeen a friendof theNew Dealin Congress,and public works chief Harold Ickes welcomed his election. "His careerin Congress,"Ickes wrote aboutLaGuardia, "showsthat he has realability and high courage.... He oughtto give New York a greatadministration." Nonetheless, when the MayorElect first came to Washingtonto discussfederal assistance for his strappedmu- nicipality,Ickes sent him home with a bluntmessage: "Go home and balanceyour budget, your credit is no good."'9 Withinthe firstone hundreddays the new FusionGovernment which LaGuardiaheaded pushed through an EconomyBill that trimmedthe budgetand pared the municipalworkforce, established a humanerelief policy, launcheda wide rangingattack on corruption,and expanded the meritbasis of the civil service.With this done,LaGuardia
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Scholarships and Special Funds 1 Scholarships and Special Funds
    Scholarships and Special Funds 1 Scholarships and Special Funds An asterisk (*) indicates a scholarship or special fund that was transferred by Andover Newton Theological School (now Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School) in 2019. Scholarships The Bradford E. Ableson Scholarship was established in 2008 by Julia Ableson to honor her husband, the Rev. Dr. Bradford Edward Ableson, M.Div. 1985. The scholarship is awarded annually with a preference for students who are postulants or candidates for Holy Orders of the Episcopal Church and demonstrate superior promise for pastoral ministry. The Harry Baker Adams Scholarship was created in 1993 by a gi from Frank P. Wendt, charter member and chairman emeritus of the Yale Divinity School Board of Advisors. The scholarship has since been augmented by numerous gis from other friends, students, and admirers of Professor Harry B. Adams, B.A. 1947, B.D. 1951, who has touched the lives of so many who have attended the School. The purpose of the scholarship is to attract “the brightest and the best.” The Rev. Dr. Marilyn McCord Adams Scholarship Fund was established in 2020 by the Rev. Christopher T. Worthley, M.Div. 2002, and Christian M. Clough, M.A.R. 2003, for the benefit of deserving students affiliated with Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. *The Rev. Dr. Paul R. Adkins Scholarship is awarded with a preference toward United Church of Christ students and students in the Andover Newton Seminary program. The African Methodist Episcopal Church Scholarship was established in 2007 by Bishop Frederick Hilborn Talbot, M.Div. 1957, and his friends and family to honor him for receiving the YDS “Lux et Veritas” Alumni Award.
    [Show full text]
  • Mason Williams
    City of Ambition: Franklin Roosevelt, Fiorello La Guardia, and the Making of New Deal New York Mason Williams Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2012 © 2012 Mason Williams All Rights Reserved Abstract City of Ambition: Franklin Roosevelt, Fiorello La Guardia, and the Making of New Deal New York Mason Williams This dissertation offers a new account of New York City’s politics and government in the 1930s and 1940s. Focusing on the development of the functions and capacities of the municipal state, it examines three sets of interrelated political changes: the triumph of “municipal reform” over the institutions and practices of the Tammany Hall political machine and its outer-borough counterparts; the incorporation of hundreds of thousands of new voters into the electorate and into urban political life more broadly; and the development of an ambitious and capacious public sector—what Joshua Freeman has recently described as a “social democratic polity.” It places these developments within the context of the national New Deal, showing how national officials, responding to the limitations of the American central state, utilized the planning and operational capacities of local governments to meet their own imperatives; and how national initiatives fed back into subnational politics, redrawing the bounds of what was possible in local government as well as altering the strength and orientation of local political organizations. The dissertation thus seeks not only to provide a more robust account of this crucial passage in the political history of America’s largest city, but also to shed new light on the history of the national New Deal—in particular, its relation to the urban social reform movements of the Progressive Era, the long-term effects of short-lived programs such as work relief and price control, and the roles of federalism and localism in New Deal statecraft.
    [Show full text]
  • Great Cloud of Witnesses.Indd
    A Great Cloud of Witnesses i ii A Great Cloud of Witnesses A Calendar of Commemorations iii Copyright © 2016 by The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America Portions of this book may be reproduced by a congregation for its own use. Commercial or large-scale reproduction for sale of any portion of this book or of the book as a whole, without the written permission of Church Publishing Incorporated, is prohibited. Cover design and typesetting by Linda Brooks ISBN-13: 978-0-89869-962-3 (binder) ISBN-13: 978-0-89869-966-1 (pbk.) ISBN-13: 978-0-89869-963-0 (ebook) Church Publishing, Incorporated. 19 East 34th Street New York, New York 10016 www.churchpublishing.org iv Contents Introduction vii On Commemorations and the Book of Common Prayer viii On the Making of Saints x How to Use These Materials xiii Commemorations Calendar of Commemorations Commemorations Appendix a1 Commons of Saints and Propers for Various Occasions a5 Commons of Saints a7 Various Occasions from the Book of Common Prayer a37 New Propers for Various Occasions a63 Guidelines for Continuing Alteration of the Calendar a71 Criteria for Additions to A Great Cloud of Witnesses a73 Procedures for Local Calendars and Memorials a75 Procedures for Churchwide Recognition a76 Procedures to Remove Commemorations a77 v vi Introduction This volume, A Great Cloud of Witnesses, is a further step in the development of liturgical commemorations within the life of The Episcopal Church. These developments fall under three categories. First, this volume presents a wide array of possible commemorations for individuals and congregations to observe.
    [Show full text]
  • Henry Wallace Wallace Served Served on On
    Papers of HENRY A. WALLACE 1 941-1 945 Accession Numbers: 51~145, 76-23, 77-20 The papers were left at the Commerce Department by Wallace, accessioned by the National Archives and transferred to the Library. This material is ·subject to copyright restrictions under Title 17 of the U.S. Code. Quantity: 41 feet (approximately 82,000 pages) Restrictions : The papers contain material restricted in accordance with Executive Order 12065, and material which _could be used to harass, em­ barrass or injure living persons has been closed. Related Materials: Papers of Paul Appleby Papers of Mordecai Ezekiel Papers of Gardner Jackson President's Official File President's Personal File President's Secretary's File Papers of Rexford G. Tugwell Henry A. Wallace Papers in the Library of Congress (mi crofi 1m) Henry A. Wallace Papers in University of Iowa (microfilm) '' Copies of the Papers of Henry A. Wallace found at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Library of Congress and the University of Iow~ are available on microfilm. An index to the Papers has been published. Pl ease consult the archivist on duty for additional information. I THE UNIVERSITY OF lOWA LIBRAlU ES ' - - ' .·r. .- . -- ........... """"' ': ;. "'l ' i . ,' .l . .·.· :; The Henry A. Wallace Papers :and Related Materials .- - --- · --. ~ '· . -- -- .... - - ·- - ·-- -------- - - Henry A. Walla.ce Papers The principal collection of the papers of (1836-1916), first editor of Wallaces' Farmer; Henry Agard \Vallace is located in the Special his father, H enry Cantwell Wallace ( 1866- Collc:ctions Department of The University of 1924), second editor of the family periodical and Iowa Libraries, Iowa City. \ Val bee was born Secretary of Agriculture ( 1921-192-l:): and his October 7, 1888, on a farm in Adair County, uncle, Daniel Alden Wallace ( 1878-1934), editor Iowa, was graduated from Iowa State University, of- The Farmer, St.
    [Show full text]
  • Farm Security Administation Photographs in Indiana
    FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION PHOTOGRAPHS IN INDIANA A STUDY GUIDE Roy Stryker Told the FSA Photographers “Show the city people what it is like to live on the farm.” TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 The FSA - OWI Photographic Collection at the Library of Congress 1 Great Depression and Farms 1 Roosevelt and Rural America 2 Creation of the Resettlement Administration 3 Creation of the Farm Security Administration 3 Organization of the FSA 5 Historical Section of the FSA 5 Criticisms of the FSA 8 The Indiana FSA Photographers 10 The Indiana FSA Photographs 13 City and Town 14 Erosion of the Land 16 River Floods 16 Tenant Farmers 18 Wartime Stories 19 New Deal Communities 19 Photographing Indiana Communities 22 Decatur Homesteads 23 Wabash Farms 23 Deshee Farms 24 Ideal of Agrarian Life 26 Faces and Character 27 Women, Work and the Hearth 28 Houses and Farm Buildings 29 Leisure and Relaxation Activities 30 Afro-Americans 30 The Changing Face of Rural America 31 Introduction This study guide is meant to provide an overall history of the Farm Security Administration and its photographic project in Indiana. It also provides background information, which can be used by students as they carry out the curriculum activities. Along with the curriculum resources, the study guide provides a basis for studying the history of the photos taken in Indiana by the FSA photographers. The FSA - OWI Photographic Collection at the Library of Congress The photographs of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) - Office of War Information (OWI) Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress form a large-scale photographic record of American life between 1935 and 1944.
    [Show full text]
  • A Planners' Planner: John Friedmann's Quest for a General
    A Planners’ Planner: John Friedmann’s Quest for a General Theory of Planning The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Sanyal, Bish. "A Planners’ Planner: John Friedmann’s Quest for a General Theory of Planning." Journal of the American Planning Association 84, 2 (April 2018): 179-191 As Published http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2018.1427616 Publisher Informa UK Limited Version Author's final manuscript Citable link https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124150 Terms of Use Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Detailed Terms http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Bish Sanyal A Planners’ Planner (2018) A Planners Planner: John Friedmann s Quest for a General Theory of Planning (2018). Journal of the American Planning Association, 84(2), 179-191. doi:10.1080/01944363.2018.1427616 A Planners’ Planner: John Friedmann’s quest for a general theory of planning Bish Sanyal Massachusetts Institute of Technology This paper honors the memory of Professor John Friedmann by reflecting on his professional contributions in two ways. First, the paper provides an overview of Friedmann’s career as a planner and planning academic, which spanned six decades and three continents, and highlights how a confluence of factors led to a paradigm shift in his thinking regarding the role of planning in social transformation. Second, the paper assesses Friedmann’s position on three issues of importance for practitioners—namely, problem formulation, the role of technical knowledge, and organizational learning. The paper concludes that the establishment of UCLA’s planning program is a testament to Friedmann’s critical view of planning practice, which posed fundamental challenges to conventional thinking.
    [Show full text]
  • Fiorello H. Laguardia’S Life)...Page 13
    1 FIORELLO! Book by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott Music by Jerry Bock Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick A Study Guide Compiled by Brennan Parks, Dramaturg 2 Table of Contents An Insurgent’s Origins (Immigration and unions in New York City)….Page 3 “Major LaGuardia” (World War I)……………………………………………Page 5 “Incorruptible as the sun” (LaGuardia’s tenure as mayor)…………….Page 7 “The Society of the Corrupt” (Tammany Hall)…………………………….Page 9 LaGuardia’s two loves (Thea and Marie)………………………………….Page 11 “The Life of an Insurgent” (a timeline of Fiorello H. LaGuardia’s life)...Page 13 Works Cited and Related Sources………………………………………….Page 17 3 An Insurgent’s origins Immigration and unions in New York City In 1907, 1.3 million immigrants entered America. Although 5,000 was the maximum numbers of people allowed to go through Ellis Island per day, sometimes as many as 15,000 were put ashore. Many immigration officials grew hardened and uncaring as they processed thousands of people a day. Immigrants became fearful they would be separated from the rest of their family or sent back to their home country. They needed someone who would offer care and concern for their well-being. They found that someone in Fiorello H. LaGuardia. He took a job as an interpreter on Ellis Island during the day to pay his way through law school at night. He was no stranger to the government’s inner workings on immigration policy; he had worked for the U.S. Consular Service in three cities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, organizing the emigration process. Originally, LaGuardia was hired to handle Italian immigrants, but his experience and knowledge of several other languages allowed him to assist immigrants from many countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Ranked Choice Voting Now: a Shift Toward a Better Democracy
    Daemen College Daemen Digital Commons Articles & Book Chapters Faculty Scholarship 2020 Ranked Choice Voting Now: A Shift Toward a Better Democracy Erin Carman Vanessa Glushefski Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.daemen.edu/faculty_scholar Part of the Election Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, and the Social Justice Commons RANKED CHOICE VOTING NOW: A SHIFT TOWARD A BETTER DEMOCRACY ERIN CARMAN AND VANESSA GLUSHEFSKIÙ “Extend the sphere, and you take in a variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority [and under plurality, a minority] of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or, if such common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other.”1 “New candidacies and new coalitions serving as viable competition mean opportunity for substantive and public debate of ideas—the foundation of democracy—and help limit misuse of party power.” Ù Co-authored by Erin Carman, JD, LMSW and Vanessa Glushefski, CPA, Esq. Erin is an assoCiate professor for the MSW program at Daemen College, a private university in Buffalo, NY. Vanessa is the former aCting Comptroller for the City of Buffalo and is Currently working on pro bono work in the area of Immigration Law. Vanessa ran for loCal office twice, and Erin worked as Campaign manager on a loCal Campaign. The authors draw on these experiences for the benefit of this article. 1 Baber v. Dunlap, 376 F. Supp. 3d 125, 137 (D.
    [Show full text]
  • Academic Freedom and the Modern University
    — — — — — — — — — AcAdemic Freedom And — — — — — — the modern University — — — — — — — — the experience oF the — — — — — — University oF chicA go — — — — — — — — — AcAdemic Freedom And the modern University the experience oF the University oF chicA go by john w. boyer 1 academic freedom introdUction his little book on academic freedom at the University of Chicago first appeared fourteen years ago, during a unique moment in our University’s history.1 Given the fundamental importance of freedom of speech to the scholarly mission T of American colleges and universities, I have decided to reissue the book for a new generation of students in the College, as well as for our alumni and parents. I hope it produces a deeper understanding of the challenges that the faculty of the University confronted over many decades in establishing Chicago’s national reputation as a particu- larly steadfast defender of the principle of academic freedom. Broadly understood, academic freedom is a principle that requires us to defend autonomy of thought and expression in our community, manifest in the rights of our students and faculty to speak, write, and teach freely. It is the foundation of the University’s mission to discover, improve, and disseminate knowledge. We do this by raising ideas in a climate of free and rigorous debate, where those ideas will be challenged and refined or discarded, but never stifled or intimidated from expres- sion in the first place. This principle has met regular challenges in our history from forces that have sought to influence our curriculum and research agendas in the name of security, political interests, or financial 1. John W.
    [Show full text]
  • Fiorello H. La Guardia, a Model Mayor? 2017
    Fiorello H. La Guardia, A Model Mayor? 2017 From 1934 to 1945, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia transformed New York through determined leadership and tireless resolve, forging a relationship with the federal government that rejuvenated the city during the Great Depression. For his ability to marshal political and financial resources to realize bold ideas, he is widely considered to be New York’s best mayor. He supported projects that helped modernize the city’s infrastructure and landscape, including bridges, tunnels, reservoirs, parks, sewers, highways, airports, and housing. Never before or since did American cities have such a dedicated, dramatic, dynamic champion. Born of mixed Jewish and Catholic parentage, but raised as an Episcopalian, La Guardia has been called “the most remarkable hybrid in the history of New York City.” His lifelong reform agenda evolved from his experiences growing up on an Arizona army base where his immigrant father was a bandleader. His black Stetson hat evidenced La Guardia’s affinity for the West. But the West taught him sober lessons about the government’s neglect of Native Americans and the exploitation of workers by railroad companies. Newspaper accounts of corrupt New York City politics instilled in him a deep hatred of Tammany that, he admitted, became “almost an obsession.” La Guardia’s contempt for corruption in any form was confirmed when his father died after eating bad meat sold to the Army by dishonest merchants during the War of 1898. La Guardia’s early career shaped his views on public policy. In 1900, at age 18, he began working for the American Consulate in Hungary where he learned six languages and improved the medical inspection system for immigrants.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley Berkeley Planning Journal
    UC Berkeley Berkeley Planning Journal Title The Puerto Rican Industrial Policy Debate of 1940-1947: The Limits of Dependent Colonial Growth Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nf603h8 Journal Berkeley Planning Journal, 3(1) ISSN 1047-5192 Author Hernandez-Marquez, Reinerio Publication Date 1986 DOI 10.5070/BP33113191 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California THE PUERTO RICAN INDUSTRIAL POLICY DEBATE OF 1940-1947: THE LIMITS OF DEPENDENT COLONIAL GROWTH Reinerio Hernandez-Marquez Introduction The rapid development of the Puerto Rican economy fo llowing the Second World War provides a unique model of central planning within a dependent colonial economy. This project will present a brief overview of the conflicting socio-economic and political fo rces which initiated and guided the establishment of central planning in Puerto Rico during the period 1940-4 7. The goal of this presentation is to trace the interactions between the key actors and institutions, in the political and socio-economic environment of 1940-47, which led to a policy re-orientation of central planning in 194 7. This re-orientation defined Puerto Rican economic development not as an autonomous agricultural and industrial program based on both domestic and fo reign capital, but instead, economic development was viewed as a massive industrialization program based solely on private fo reign capital. Puerto Rico's industrialization program, Operation Bootstrap, was based on labor intensive, multinational branch plant industries. During Operation Bootstrap, Puerto Rico experienced extraordinary growth rates until 1971. In 194 7, the island's population was overwhelmingly poor and involved in agricultural production; by 1968, Puerto Rico had become one of the twenty most highly industrialized areas of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • 4 a Regular Guy
    4 A Regular Guy The collapse of the American economy, the Great Depression, and the Roosevelt administration’s response to it in the form of the New Deal represents one of the most appealing, fascinating, and intensively inter- rogated episodes in the history of the United States. The sources of con›ict in New Deal historiography have shifted many times in the three-quarters of a century since Franklin Roosevelt was ‹rst elected to the presidency, but there has never been a time when the New Deal was not in some way controversial. In the 1950s, for example, Edgar Robin- son charged that the New Deal was a failed experiment in state socialism, while others argued that the New Deal was a precious af‹rmation of democratic values at a time when dictatorships threatened to engulf the world. Historians broadly appreciative of the New Deal have neverthe- less been critical: Rexford Tugwell, himself a New Dealer, bemoaned the fact that early enthusiasm for economic planning was not pursued; James MacGregor Burns argued that Roosevelt blundered in putting political expediency before the noble objective of fashioning a truly lib- eral Democratic Party.1 In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and William E. Leuchtenburg, both of whom were liberal activists as well as historians, produced canonical works that—for their narrative grace and synthetic authority, respectively—are unlikely to be bettered. After them came historians in search of alternative interpretations. New Left scholars argued that the New Deal was a species of corporate liberalism; labor historians debated whether the New Deal sti›ed rank-and-‹le mil- 79 80 Mr.
    [Show full text]