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(Mildred Younger campaigned for California State Senate - Doing it the old Fashioned way)

Coming up on the off-year elections in 2010 I ran across a documentary produced in 1954 about the off-year elections of that particular year.

Alben Barkley(former Vice-President to Truman): “Finally I said to him ‘how’s politics?’ – ‘well, he said, ‘it’s pretty badly mixed’. That created some suspicion in my mind, well I said ‘well, how am I running?’ ‘Well, he said ‘it’s gonna be pretty close’. Well I said ‘you’re for me aren’t you?’ Well, he said ‘I thought I’d vote for Chandler’. Well, I said ‘my friend, how can you do that? Now don’t you remember that when you couldn’t get your allotment fixed up that I did it? ‘ He said, ‘yes you did’. ‘And when you couldn’t get your insurance I got that straightened out”’ He said ‘yes, you did’. And I said ‘and when you were injured over there in France didn’t I sit on the bed with you for an hour?’ And he said ‘yes, and I never enjoyed a mans visit in my life like I did yours.’ And I said ‘ when I came home and the Armistice came didn’t you want to get home at once and didn’t you write to me and didn’t I write General Pershing and weren’t you on your way home in a month?’ And he said ‘yes, you did that.’ And I said ‘didn’t you want a loan on your farm, and didn’t I help you?’ And he said ‘yes.’ ‘Didn’t you have a loan on your property when the flood washed it away?’ He said ‘yes, you did that’. I said ‘well, how can you vote against me?’ Well he said ‘my friend, what in the thunder have done for me lately?’

Seems the styles have changed, the methods, the dirt - but then as now, it's all about politics and the art of the horse race.

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(Harry Truman - laying it out in plain, understandable English)

Harry Truman never gave up on the idea of Universal Health Care. He brought up the subject in 1945 and he was present when the Medicare Bill was signed into law in 1965.

In 1952 he addressed a convention of the American Hospital Association and, even though his term of office would be up in a few months, he still campaigned for a decent system of health care for all Americans.

Pres. Truman: “This great free enterprise system of ours has made it possible for more Americans to have more things, more of the good things of life, than any people anywhere on earth or anywhere in the history of the world. Can it now also make it possible for every American to protect his health? I would not call such a goal socialism. I would call it a goal of enterprise. American free enterprise. Meeting the health needs of our people is one of the most important ways we can make our American promises come true. It’s also one of the mainstays of national defense. Only the strong can survive and only the healthy can be strong.”

After almost 60 years, it's still sounding like a good idea.

(Technical note: The original recording of this speech is completely trashed, with a thick coat of static going through the entire speech that goes from bad to worse. I have spent several hours with ProTools trying to pull some usable portions of this one hour speech out to make it as legible as possible, but some things were just impossible to do. Therefore, it might require some close listening in order to make out what's being said. Sadly, it's the only known recording of the speech, which was never broadcast - but it's an important document of great historic importance. And for that reason I'm including it in this post. Apologies in advance - G.S.)

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(Oddly, still is)

Since its enactment in 1947, the famous (or infamous) Taft-Hartley Act (or Slave-Labor Bill as some call it) has been in an almost constant state of proposed revision. But never getting off the ground. Initially vetoed by Truman in 1947, it was overridden and set into law by the Republican led 80th Congress. Amendments have been proposed ever since.

In 1949, part of the America United Series, moderated by David Brinkley, approached a panel consisting of a young Eugene McCarthy newly elected Congressman, Thruston Morton, Anthony P. Alfino from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Harris who represented the CIO.

Tom Harris (CIO): “The question you ask, ‘How Should The Taft-Hartley Act Be Amended’ is an easy one in our judgment to answer. It shouldn’t be amended at all but should be replaced with an entirely different statute, along the lines of the Wagner Act. That is essentially what the Thomas-Lezinsky Bill does. We think that should be done because the approach of the Wagner Act to industrial relations was sound. While that of the Taft-Hartley Act is wholly wrong. The ideas behind the Wagner Act were very simple; they were first, to permit workers to form strong unions if they wanted to. Secondly, to require employers to deal with those unions on wages, hours and so on. The authors of the Wagner Act hoped by these means to promote industrial peace and to raise the living standards of workers. With consequent benefit to the entire community. The idea behind the Taft-Hartley Act is also very simple; it’s to weaken unions. The men who wrote the Taft-Hartley Act just didn’t believe in labor unions. The Taft-Hartley Act is a composite of all the anti-union devices which reactionary congressmen were able to think up during the years of the New Deal. When they got into power, briefly as it turned out, in the 80th Congress, they wrote these numerous devices into law. That’s the Taft-Hartley law. And its bad in its entirety and should be stricken from the books.”

In 1949 they wanted to amend it. It's 2009 - still waiting.

Tweety really let "Americans for Prosperity" President Tim Phillips have it on Hardball last night. Boy, he's really got a bug up his butt about health-care reform and he just won't let go:

MATTHEWS: "How do we get around the problem that there's so many people out there, and this is why we're having this debate, sir ... the question that's bothered the American people since, what? since Teddy Roosevelt's time, is some people have health insurance and some don't. How do we reconcile that with our sense in this country of looking out for each other, to some extent, to some extent."

"Here's my problem with you guys. The conservatives talk reasonably when the Democrats get in power and say 'well, we've got an alternative that's more free-market, it's less onerous, it's less big-shot, big-government stuff...' but when you guys are in power, you don't do anything on health care. And that's what happens, and that's why for, god, almost a century of foot-dragging on this, the Democrats get in power, whether it's Truman or it's Bill Clinton, or it's Hillary Clinton, or it's Barack Obama, they try something and it fails, because you guys are good at playing negative politics. You're really good at destroying Democrats plans, chances for reform..."

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(The debate rages - sixty years and going strong)

In my continuing coverage of the Health Care debate and its historic place in our political life, here comes another debate via the NBC Radio program "America United" hosted by David Brinkley from June 27, 1948.

This debate, under the title "should we expand our Social Security coverage?" also takes on the subject of Universal Health Care, a proposal brought about months earlier by President Truman. It spends a good deal of time talking about the status of Social Security, since it was enacted in 1935, but the talk gets a bit heated when it turns to Health Care. The panel features Philip Pearl of the AF of L, Rep. John Dingell Sr. (D-Mich.) who co-authored a Universal Health Care bill in 1948. Dr. Emerson P. Schmidt of The U.S.Chamber Of Commerce and Dr. Lloyd Halverson of the National Grange.

Dingell is adamant about the subject of Health Care, despite the overwhelming amount of negative statements concerning the fear of "socialized medicine" (the ever-present mantra that continues to this day). It should also be noted that Dr. Lloyd Halverson was also a member of the AMA and this certainly shades his comments.

Rep. Dingell: “ The most important thing about Social Security, is that which was never put in; that’s Health Insurance. It’s more important than Unemployment Insurance. It’s more important than old age pensions. It’s more important than annuities. It’s more important than aid to the widows and orphans for this reason; that a man can take care of all of these if he’s in health – and he can take care of none if he’s sick. . . . It was, as you agreed, a complex problem. And it was one to which there was so much opposition on the part of reactionaries in this country that it was deemed wise to delay it. But there is no further excuse for it now."

And sixty one years after that was said, there's still no excuse for it.

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(Lobbies - like Baseball and Character Assassination, an American institution)

Lobbies have been part of our political landscape forever it seems. The cartoon above is from 1892, to give you an idea.

In 1949 it became the topic of much discussion and hand wringing. But as history proved in a Shakespearean way, it was Sound and Fury, signifying nothing.

The radio series American Forum of The Air ran a panel discussion on the problem. And on November 27, 1949 invited Herbert Q. Nelson from the National Real Estate Board, Joseph D.Keenan from the AF of L (pre-CIO) and Col. Robert S. Allen, a beltway columnist to discuss the situation and what could, if anything, be done about it.

Clearly, if they had any great ideas, nobody listened - or if they did they've been long forgotten.

(President Truman and members of the NATO Alliance, April 3, 1949)

"A simple document. Had it existed in 1914 and in 1939, supported by the nations that are here today, I believe it would have prevented the acts of aggression which led to two world wars." President Truman

Sixty years ago today, President Truman signed the treaty that created NATO, a document which basically stated that an aggressive act towards one member nation constituted an aggressive act towards all member nations. Viewed as another block of ice in the already frozen Cold War, it was largely a reaction to the increased presence of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe and a rise in tensions brought about by the situation in divided Germany. Six years later, in response, the Eastern Bloc nations would form The Warsaw Pact, pledging to do pretty much what NATO was doing.

In his opening statement, President Truman remarked if NATO was in existence in 1914, World War 1 and World War 2 would have been prevented. I'm not entirely sure that would have been the case in 1914 since the heads of most of the warring nations were, in fact cousins. Perhaps family counseling, but not NATO would have been a good idea.

But that's another story.