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Chapter 10

Transpacific Airmail—issued November 22, 1935

Franklin Delano Roosevelt pointed out a mistake in the design: the clipper ship on the left had only two masts instead of three. In 1937, China was added to the route, and the name of the series became China Clipper airmail.

Warm Springs, Georgia—1939

The six-room cottage was finished in 1932 at a cost of $8,738, which included a garage, servants’ quarters, a guesthouse, and landscaping. The front of the cottage had a circular drive that balanced the grand entrance. A covered roof extended out from the building and was held in place by four white pillars. There was no porch from the drive to the front door. Each side of the door had two sets of windows that were rimmed with shutters. The architect Henry Toombs had done other work for the occupant of the cottage. He had designed the unusual floor plan so that it allowed the occupant, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to move around in his wheelchair. Roosevelt had come to Warm Springs in 1924 with hopes of a cure for the effects of infantile paralysis he contracted in 1921.

The mineral waters at the Meriwether Inn had reputedly cured another victim of polio, a man who regained the use of his legs in the warm mineral waters. This expectation drew Roosevelt to buy twelve thousand acres of land close to the health spa and its healing waters for $195.

Then the governor of New York, Roosevelt began working on the cottage, which became known as the little White House when he was installed in the office of president of the United States in March 1933. The same year, Adolf Hitler assumed the position of chancellor in Germany and started his grab for complete power. He would have his escape home built later at Berchtesgaden called the Eagle’s Nest.

As the world seemed to be turning away from democratic governments and moving toward authoritarian strongmen, FDR was seen by many as the man to save the nation from collapse into dictatorship. His first days in office—called the Hundred Days—saw a rush of activity and hope, reminiscent of Napoleon’s escape from the island of Elba and his defeat at Waterloo in just a hundred days.

However, as time went by, the business community and members of Wall Street loathed and feared FDR. They saw new taxes as a left-wing attack on capitalism. The Hearst newspapers began calling the New Deal the Raw Deal, and the tax bill was labeled Soak the Rich. These business leaders feared FDR was taking America into socialism, or even communism, with his pampering of labor unions and the rise of the Young Communist camps around the country.

The conservatives began forming an alliance, including Dr. Francis Townsend, Father Coughlin of Detroit, and Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana. This alliance began attacking the president as the capitalist kingpin who wanted to keep the little guy down.

Dr. Townsend had published an article in the Independent Press Telegram of Long Beach, California, in September of 1933 that offered two hundred dollars a month for every person over the age of sixty. The fact that the plan would consume half of the national budget to provide income to 9 percent of the population hit a nerve. Thousands of Townsend Clubs were formed with over two million members collecting more than twenty-five million signatures on a petition to the congress to support the Townsend Plan.

Then there was Father Charles E. Coughlin, who had been one of the first to recognize the reach of radio programming. By 1932, his audience was large enough to require over a hundred clerks and four secretaries to handle his fan mail. His program was the most listened to program at the time and was filled with proclamations of hate for Jews and big banking. By 1935, he led the campaign to stop the New Deal administration from ratifying a treaty that would make the US a member of the World Court by claiming that it was an international conspiracy of money interests that would destroy American sovereignty. As a result of Coughlin’s political propaganda, the US did not join. Senator Huey P. Long, the Kingfish and the catalyst to the populist mix of anti-administration leaders, started out by selling Bibles on the road and went on to be governor and senator of the state of Louisiana, even holding both offices at the same time. He was repeatedly investigated for corruption, but no charges were ever filed. He took his Share the Wealth and Every Man a King programs to the national level and attempted to form a coalition with Townsend and Coughlin.

The far right had different plans. Teutonia in Chicago, the German Bund center with Camp Siegfried on Long Island, and the Silver Shirts in Los Angeles formed the American fascist movement. Still others worked behind closed doors to train spies and saboteurs. Their goal was corporate socialism based on the guidelines of Italy and Germany.

FDR’s social legislation of 1935 weakened attacks from the left as attacks from the right picked up steam. In response to the business community turning away from his program, FDR turned to organized labor for support with the Wagner Act and Social Security Act. Then a new problem was created with the postmaster general over a simple stamp.

FDR sat in his office behind his massive desk. “Tell me again how this thing started, James, and what can we do to control it,” he commanded Postmaster General James Farley.

“Well, to be honest, no good deed goes unpunished. I had a few sheets of stamps printed for friends and for you, including the National Parks imperforated stamps. Then one sheet of stamps showed up in New York. Someone tried to use the sheet with my signature on it as collateral for a loan. When collectors found out, they started yelling favoritism and demanded the same opportunity to get these Farley’s follies.”

“You know, James, we have to deal with this problem quickly. There is an election coming next year, and there are several individuals who want me out of office. Congress is being pulled in, and Republicans are demanding an investigation. Representative Millard of New York wants an explanation before his House committee in February.”

“Yes, sir…I know. I thought this would die down and people would forget about it.”

“Huey Long and his friends are going to have a heyday with this if we do not control the fallout quick.”

“I will reprint the stamps in a limited number for collectors. That should quiet things down before the election campaign gets rolling, Mr. President.”

“Let’s hope so. I do not want to lose leverage with the unions now that business has turned away from our plan to make a society that will leave no one out.”

“You know, James, that Long fellow will be a candidate like a Hitler type.”

“I conducted a secret poll and it showed that as a third-party candidate, he would pull 10 percent of the voters. I am keeping an eye on the situation.”

“We need to solidify the South before the election in 1936.”

“I am working on it, Franklin.”

The threat from the right ended with an assassin’s bullet that set off a chain of events, ending the life of Kingfish on the night of September 8, 1935. Bodyguards opened fire on Carl Weiss, leaving thirty bullet holes in his front and twenty-nine bullet holes in his back. When the bodyguards were done firing, it was unclear who fired the fatal bullet that killed Huey P. Long.

Huey’s death left the coalition weak and fragmented, without a strong leader to hold the personalities together. Plus, the Second New Deal found loyal support with the working man.

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