A Just and Generous Nation

by Harold Holzer

  190 “a man who rose out of the ranks”: Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom: A Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1961), 60.

  190 “It is amazing,” he said: Ibid., 47.

  190 “[F]or indeed, if you stop to think”: Ibid., 60.

  190 “American industry is not free”: Ibid., 106, 125, 162, 126, 162–163.

  192 First came tariff reform: Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era (Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, 2012), 36–43, 193–196; Gould, Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, 162.

  194 “Not heroism, but healing”: William E. Leuchtenburg, The Perils of Prosperity, 1914–1932, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 289.

  195 “The chief business of the American people”: Calvin Coolidge, address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, DC, January 25, 1925, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=24180.

  195 “Give tax breaks to large corporations”: Andrew Mellon, Taxation: The People’s Business (New York: Macmillan, 1924).

  195 Americans for the most part: William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1963), 1–3. For the unemployment estimate, see US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1975), 1:135.

  Notes to Chapter Ten

  197 “Given later developments”: William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1963), 11.

  198 “Financial and industrial leaders”: Lippman on fall of business leaders, see Mark H. Leff, The Limits of Symbolic Reform: The New Deal and Taxation, 1933–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 158.

  198 “It is common sense”: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., “The ‘Hundred Days’ of F.D.R.,” New York Times, April 10, 1983.

  198 “I believe with Abraham Lincoln”: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fireside chat, September 30, 1934, http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/093034.html.

  198 “I can better describe”: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, address at Wilmington, Delaware, October 29, 1936, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15215.

  200 “the effort to place capital”: Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861, Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 8 vols. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953–1955), hereafter cited as CW, 5:51–53.

  201 “The royalists of the economic order”: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speech before the 1936 Democratic National Convention, http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his2341/fdr36acceptancespeech.htm.

  201 He weighed in “against dictatorship”: Ibid.

  201 “Again I revert to the increase”: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, State of the Union address, January 3, 1938, http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/franklin-delano-roosevelt/state-of-the-union-1938.php.

  202 Roosevelt described his prolabor and prounion policies: Ibid.

  202 When Roosevelt took office in 1933: Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment, 1929–39: Estimating Methods, Technical Note,” http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1948/article/pdf/labor-force-employment-and-unemployment-1929-39-estimating-methods.pdf. See also Maurice W. Lee, Economic Fluctuations (Homewood, IL: R. D. ­Irwin, 1955), 236.

  203 Recognizing the negative consequences: Ibid.

  203 The government’s stimulus expenditures: Ibid.

  204 Roosevelt supported legislation: Leuchtenburg, Franklin Roosevelt, 150–152.

  205 by 1940 labor union membership rose: Gerald Mayer, “Union Membership Trends in the United States” (Cornell University, August 2004), http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1176&context=key_workplace, 29.

  205 The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act: US Department of Labor, http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/flsa1938.htm.

  205 Roosevelt tried to codify the gains: Franklin D. Roosevelt, State of the Union address, January 6, 1941, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=16092#axzz2fvBBNA6l.

  206 The GI Bill provided: Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 2:1147.

  207 Total spending for veterans: Ibid.

  208 Roosevelt found a way to give tangible reality: Ibid.

  208 the compromise Employment Act of 1946: G. J. Santoni, “The Employment Act of 1946: Some History Notes,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review (March 1986): 5–16.

  210 bluntly confided to a journalist: Brett Zongker, “Education Center Explores Lincoln’s Life, Death,” Wisconsin State Journal, April 14, 2012.

  Notes to Chapter Eleven

  213 Abraham Lincoln was taken away: Eleanor Roosevelt, Yank Magazine, May 25, 1945.

  216 “This party of ours”: Harvey Kaye, The Fight for the Four Freedoms (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014), 171.

  216 “Should any political party”: Ibid.

  216 He did more than any president: Norton Garfinkle, The American Dream vs. the Gospel of Wealth (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 133–136.

  216 The shadow of Roosevelt was so long: Ibid., 138–139.

  216 Roosevelt’s economic program: A. M. Okun, “Efficient Disinflationary Policies,” American Economic Review 68 (1978): 348–352; Herbert Stein, Presidential Economics (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1995), 217–218.

  217 “For the public today”: Daniel Yankelovich, “Taking Account of the Non-economic Features of Inflation,” presented to American Council of Life Insurance, February 1979, cited in Robert J. Samuelson, “Unsung Triumph,” Washington Post, June 9, 2004, A21.

  218 “Government is the problem”: Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/12081a.htm.

  218 Sharp change in present economic policy: Coordinating Committee on Economic Policy, “Economic Strategy for the Reagan Administration,” November 16, 1980, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204880404577225870253766212.

  219 The Heritage Foundation claims: The Heritage Foundation, http://www.heritage.org/about/our-history/35th-anniversary.

  220 “whoever would understand in his heart”: Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

  221 “It is my intention to curb”: Ibid.

  221 our “most productive citizens”: See, for example, Jack F. Kemp, “New York State’s (Groan) Taxes,” New York Times, May 20, 1978, 19.

  222 This new business-oriented economic philosophy: Andrew Mellon said, “Give tax breaks to large corporations, so that money can trickle down to the general public, in the form of extra jobs.” Lewis Gould, Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans (New York: Random House, 2004), 152.

  222 Now with the Reagan philosophy in command: Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself (New York: Liveright, 2013), 394–398.

  223 “We believe as Democrats”: New York Times, July 17, 1984.

  223 The fortieth president went on to quote: Ronald Reagan, Republican National Convention speech, August 18, 1992, http://www.cnbcfix.com/ronald-reagan-1992-convention.html.

  225 most popular newspaper columnist in America: Ann Landers column, Gettysburg Times, July 26, 1995.

  Notes to Chapter Twelve

  228 “felt, as Abraham Lincoln did”: Bill Clinton, My Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 62, 480.

  228 Clinton loved telling the story: Harold Holzer, Why Lincoln Matters to American Presidents (Ontario: Centre for American Studies, University of Ontario, 2011), 12.

  228 Clinton saw himself in the tradition: Clinton, My Life, 458–463, 490–497, 694–696, 719–721, 743–745, 754–755, 795, 842–843, 889–894, 911, 951–955.

  228 Clinton insisted that government: See, for example, White House: Economic Report of the President, 1996 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1996), 18–21.

  229 Clinton also rejected Reagan’s claim: Norton Garfinkle, The American Dream vs. the Gospel of Wealth (New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 158–159. For a more detailed discussion of the “third way” approach to economic issues, see Norton Garfinkle, “Communitarian Economics,” Journal of Socio-Economics 26, no. 1 (1997).

  229 “These are good times for America”: William Jefferson Clinton, State of the Union address, January 27, 1998, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/states/docs/sou98htm.

  230 Clinton had explained his successes: Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2003), 314–317, 376–378.

  230 The Clinton presidency was characterized: The great economic growth during the Clinton years came to a considerable extent from the burgeoning computer hardware and software industry built on the foundation of the government-created “Internet.” By the end of the Clinton presidency in 2001, half the US population was using the Internet. The number of registered dot-com Internet domain names increased from fewer than 1,000 in 1990 to more than 20 million in 2000.

  230 More than 23 million jobs were added: US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, latest employment statistics, http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CEU0000000001.

  231 Since the end of World War II: Garfinkle, American Dream vs. the Gospel of Wealth, 201–204.

  232 The goal, he argued: George W. Bush, remarks by the president to women business leaders, March 20, 2001, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010320-2.html; president’s remarks to the Latino Coalition, February 26, 2003, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/02/print/20030226-3.html.

  233 By 2007 the wealthiest 20 percent: U.S. Congressional Budget Office, “Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007,” October 2011, http:/www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/10-25-HouseholdIncome_0.pdf.

  233 the wealthiest 1 percent of American taxpayers: Ibid.

  234 candidly stated that the goal of the movement: Cited in William Greider, “Rolling Back the Twentieth Century,” Nation, May 12, 2003.

  234 “The taxing power of the government”: Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 12, 1981.

  235 not a panacea for full employment or economic stability: For a more extensive discussion of this subject, see Garfinkle, American Dream vs. the Gospel of Wealth, 142–188.

  235 when federal outlays averaged: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Unemployment Rate, http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000; White House, Office of Management and Budget, Table 1.2, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/.

  235 The economic record: See Appendix.

  237 A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: New York Times, January 14, 2015, B1, B3.

  238 “Those of us who have looked”: New York Times, October 28, 2008.

  238 The only segment of the population that gained: Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, “Top Incomes and the Great Recession: Recent Evolutions and Policy Implications,” paper presented at the Thirteenth Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference, Washington, DC, November 8–9, 2012. See also Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2014).

  238 “The change in the benefits of the American capitalist economy”: Henry Jackson Initiative for Inclusive Capitalism, “Towards a More Inclusive Capitalism” (2012), http://www.mckinsey.com/global_locations/europe_and_middleeast/united_kingdom/en/latest_thinking/renewing_capitalism.

  239 “It’s not merely an issue”: New York Times, July 27, 2014.

  240 capitalist society envisioned by Adam Smith: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Bantam Classics (New York: Random House, 2003) and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (New York: Gutenberg, 2011).

  240 More and more Americans saw their leaders: Public Agenda and Kettering Foundation, “Don’t Count Us Out,” Report on Accountability and Democracy, 2011, 16.

  241 “In the shadow of the Old State Capitol”: Illinois senator Barack Obama’s announcement speech, Washington Post, February 10, 2007.

  242 He said he relied on the wisdom: President Theodore Roosevelt speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/12/06/archives-president-teddy-roosevelts-new-nationalism-speech.

  242 “My grandparents believed in an America”: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, December 6, 2011, http://www.whitehouse.gov.

  243 “I do share the belief”: Remarks by the president on the economy, June 14, 2012, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/06/14/remarks-president-economy-cleveland-oh.

  243 “The legitimate object of government”: Lincoln fragment on government, July 1, 1854[?], Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 8 vols. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953–1955), hereafter cited as CW, 2:220.

  243 “I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed”: President Obama, State of the Union address, January 24, 2012.

  244 The United States must be: President Obama, Second Inaugural Address, January 1, 2013, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/21/inaugural-address-president-barack-obama.

  245 “The combined trends”: President Obama, “Making Our Economy Work for Every Working American,” December 4, 2013, https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/12/04/making-our-economy-work-every-working-american.

  245 “I think America was very lucky”: Conversation with David Remnick, New Yorker, January 27, 2014, 61.

  246 Stiglitz’s approach to increase: Joseph Stiglitz, “Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy—An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity” (New York, the Roosevelt Institute, May, 2015), 23–40, 57, 73–76. The New York Times provided further details on executive compensation in New York Times, May 17, 2015, Sunday Business, 1, 4–5. Addressing the same question, Eduardo Porter reported in the New York Times, “Evidence suggests that American corporations, constantly pressured to increase the next quarter’s profits . . . are walking away from basic science . . . It’s time for a different paradigm . . . to finance the innovation that will power America’s future,” (New York Times, Innovation Lies on Weak Foundation, May 20, 2015), Business 1, 5. The Economist magazine also took note of the fact that “there has been a big change in income inequality, driven by the high rewards given to corporate executives who make up three-fifths of the top 0.1% of American earners” and “there is little correlation between executive compensation and the creation of wealth for shareholders,” Economist (June 20, 2015), 68.

  247 The American middle class: Bureau of Labor Statistics. See also New America Foundation, “The American Middle Class Under Stress,” April 2011, http://growth.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/26–04–11%20Middle%20Class%20Under%20Stress.pdf.

  247 With the defeat of the Democrats: Timothy Egan, “Obama Unbound,” New York Times, December 10, 2014, A21.

  247 The economic news was greeted: New York Times, January 10, 2015, A1, B2, B3.

  248 “This is still a buyer’s market”: Ibid.

  248 “[T]here is more work to be done”: Ibid.

  248 “President Obama will not be satisfied”: http://www.whitehouse.gov/economy.

  248 President Obama announced “a major step”: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/07/fact-sheet-making-homeownership-more-accessible-and-sustainable.

  249 The president addressed these issues: Barack Obama, State of the Union address, January 20, 2015.

  249 At the same time he proposed a program: Ibid.

  250 They believe that the economic and political malaise: John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State (New York: Penguin Press, 2014), 174–178, 237–248.

  251 “Sweden has reduced public spending”: Ibid., 264–275.

  252 By contrast, in the United States: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, “Revenue Statistics—Comparative Tables,” http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=REV.

  252 an effective estate tax provides “a certain corrective”: Martin J
. Daunton, Just Taxes: The Politics of Taxation in Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 124.

  252 “I say the community fails”: “Wealth Tax Views in Notable Talks,” New York Times, December 14, 1906.

  252 “Capitalism will never be genuinely popular”: Andrew Woodcock, “Cameron Sets Out Vision for ‘Popular Capitalism,’” Independent, January 19, 2012, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-sets-out-vision-for-popular-capitalism-6291768.html.

  Notes to Epilogue

  256 American consumer spending accounts for: US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=9&step=1#reqid=9&step=3&isuri=1&904=2014&903=5&906=a&905=1929&910=x&911=0.

  259 The evidence is mounting: See Appendix.

  Index

  Abolitionism

  Henry Clay’s political idealism, 97–98