The August Day Plutocracy Would Love Us to Forget

[unhappycamper]

The August Day Plutocracy Would Love Us to Forget
by Chuck Collins and Sam Pizzigati
Published on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

Ex-Presidents almost always follow a small number of well-worn scripts. Some rush to cash in on their celebrity. Some do charitable good deeds. Some just lay low.

Exactly one century ago, on August 31, 1910, we had an ex-President who took a brash and bold leap that took him far beyond these narrowly circumscribed roles. On that day, in the middle of Middle America, a former President — Theodore Roosevelt — essentially called on his fellow citizens to smash the nation’s rich down to democratic size.

We need, Roosevelt told a massive assembly of 30,000 listeners, to “destroy privilege.” Ruin for our democracy, he warned, will be “inevitable if our national life brings us nothing better than swollen fortunes for the few.”

Those listeners — in Osawatomie, Kansas — roared their approval. Back East, apologists for grand fortune would be aghast. Editorial writers would label Roosevelt “frankly socialistic,” even “anarchistic.” A later historian, George Mowry, would call TR’s talk, soon to be known as his “New Nationalism” address, ”the most radical speech ever given by an ex-President.”

Time hasn’t dimmed that radicalism. Indeed, TR’s speech speaks powerfully to us today, mainly because we confront, a hundred years after he spoke in Osawatomie, the same concentrated wealth and power that TR so feared.

[happyslug]

1. The Country had been moving leftward since the 1880s

That would stop in the 1920s, but resume in the 1930s. The Main cause of this was the financial situation. Do to the debt of the Civil War, the Dollar by 1862 no longer was at the "legal" rate of $20 for an ounce of gold. after the Civil War an effort was made by Congress to get it back to $20 to an ounce of gold, but that lead to massive deflation from 1865-1900. This deflation lead to massive economic hardship and demands that Government do something about it. As long as Wall Street was kept happy (and it wanted $20 to an ounce of gold) the GOP would win elections (Except when another issue came up, like Civil Service Reform that lead to the Democrats winning in 1884 and 1892, and then both times by a nominee of the Conservative Wing of the party). By 1896 the situation was so bad that the left wing of the Democratic Party revolted and took over the Convention and picked a left wing candidate, William Jennings Bryan.

Reading History you sometime get the opposite opinion of that period, but that is because the people writing school history book often having an agenda to down play that left ward movement. One way they did this was to say the William Jennings Bryan, leader of the left wing of the Democratic Party, would get less votes in 1900 then he had in 1896 (Bryan was the Democratic Nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908). Out spend 8-1 in most of these campaign he still received more votes in all three election that he lost then Wilson would get in 1912 (When Wilson won the Presidency). Furthermore in 1904 when the conservatives manage to put their candidate as the Democratic Nominee he only received 37% of the vote, while Bryan lowest was 43% (And the GOP Candidate in 1904, Theodore Roosevelt received 56%, the GOP candidates against Bryan never reached 52%, most the Democratic Drop off after 1896 was to even more radical left wing parties NOT to the GOP, with the exception of Theodore Roosevelt election in 1904.)

Vote totals 1788-2008:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781450.html

Election maps with voting percentages:
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/

Thus by 1910 it was clear the country had moved to the left. The Democrats were in the best position to exploit this. Thus it was a big fight over who was to be the Democratic nominee in 1912, the left saw they chance, the South wanted one of they boys to get it, but the right wing of the Democratic party opposed both, thus Wilson was the Normie, he had been born in the South, but was from New Jersey, he was to the left of the party but to the right of Bryan, thus Wilson won the nomination and then the election. One of the reasons Theodore Roosevelt made the speech in 1910 was he saw this left wing movement and wanted to use it to regain the Presidency.

This left ward push started with the Free Silver movement (i.e. cause inflation by minting Silver Dollars instead of Gold Dollars. thus dropping the value of the Dollar below $20 to an ounce of gold). This was the big issue in the 1880s and 1890s. It died after 1896 for gold fields open up in South Africa and Australia that brought DOWN the price of gold. i.e. you had inflation even of you kept $20 to an ounce of gold for after 1896 more and more gold was coming into the market causing the price of gold to do down and to keep $20 to equal an ounce of gold more dollars had to be printed. Thus after 1896 you finally had the inflation the country needed since 1865.

By 1900 the issue was imperialism (Which the left wing of the Democratic Party opposed), Women's right (Which the left wing of the Democratic Party kept silent about for it was opposed in the south, an area the Democratic party needed to win if they plan to win the Presidency, that was the situation in 1900-1920 America), more power to labor (Which the Democrats supported for the South, being rural in 1900, did not object to union in industry or mining). Minority rights were ignored by the Democratic Party (Remember the Party still needed Southern Support to win) but as a whole the Democratic party was on a left wing march from 1896-1980. Bryan is often attacked for NOT speaking out against Segregation (Remember he needed southern support to win election) and for NOT speaking out for woman's right to vote till after he last run for the Presidency in 1908 (Again he had to think in terms of the South, but this was a man who encouraged his wife to become a lawyer as while as his daughters in addition to his sons, until William Clinton was election in 1992, Byran's spouse was the highest educated nominee's spouse and until 1992 the only lawyer who was a spouse of a candidate running for President. She did NOT practice, but neither did he after 1894, making his money on the speaking circuit instead).

Just a comment that the Country was on a left wing movement in 1910 that would last until 1980 and the election of Ronald Reagan.

Please note Bryan spoke at the Chautauqua Speaking circuit NOT the rubber chicken circuit used by speakers today. Chautauqua Speaking circuit was more a rural adult self education program then someone going to hear a speaker speak. Helen Keller was the most popular draw, with Bryan a close Second. It died out in the 1920s for two reasons, first was the Great Depression hit the Rural Areas early and hard (The Depression started in Rural America by 1927, two years BEFORE the Wall Street Crash of 1929) AND the advent of radio which permitted much of the programs popular on the circuit to reach out to the rural areas without the rural population going to a central location for the education program. Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua

Please also note that when Bryan was most active, pre-1920, they was NOT loudspeakers or electrical or mechanical amplification. i.e. you heard the person speaking from his or her month NOT a loud speaker.

One of the last Chautauqua Speaking circuit sites still is use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Chautauqua