NEW DEAL LECTURE

Congressional Record dated Thursday, May 1, 1997

Senate Section

A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 29) to direct the Secretary of the Interior to design and construct a permanent addition to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Memorial in Washington, D.C., and for other purposes.

The FDR Memorial will be dedicated on Friday, May 2, 1997. This memorial
represents a plan and design that has undergone extensive review and study by the Commission of Fine Arts, the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, and the Congress. After 23 years, and three design competitions, one of which bestowed a $50,000 award, the final design for the memorial was approved in 1978.

Approximately 2 years ago, after all design plans were approved, all funding appropriated by the Congress, and the construction of the memorial was well underway, the disabled community made a demand that the Commission add another statue of FDR in a wheelchair. In the early days, the children of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt made it clear they wanted no statue showing President Roosevelt in a wheelchair. I might add that during the approval process no member of the disabled community came forth to request the Commission amend the design plans for the memorial.

However, in an effort to be sensitive to their concerns yet historically
accurate, the Commission agreed to display an exact replica of one of
President Roosevelt's wheelchairs in the entry building of the memorial.

From Reason Magazine:

“Of course, in the rough and tumble of special-interest politics, some groups will inevitably lose out. All reference to one of FDR’s most memorable talismans, the smoldering cigarette holder, was quietly omitted from Estern’s statue, indeed from all images of the president that adorn his memorial.”

So, here’s your ethical dilemma:
Should the FDR memorial have included a wheelchair, cigarette, neither, or both?
Justify your answer:



Here’s another one, just for discussion:
Would FDR have been elected if the country
had known he was in a wheelchair?
Would someone in a wheelchair be elected president today?







I. The Election of 1932:
Herbert Hoover vs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt



II. THE NEW DEAL
--RELIEF, RECOVERY, REFORM—

A. RELIEF:
1. work relief:
2. direct assistance
B. RECOVERY:
1. industry:
2. agriculture:
C. REFORM:

1. Social Security Act:


2. Emergency Banking Act:


Was the New Deal Successful?



III. OTHER RESPONSES TO THE DEPRESSION:
A. Cultural Responses
B. Political Responses from the Left:
1. Huey Long, "Share Our Wealth"


2. Dr. Townsend, "Old Age Revolving
Pension"

3. Father Coughlin, "Social Justice"




C. Political Responses from the Right:
1. Father Coughlin turns Right

2. William Dudley Pelly's "Silver Shirts"


IV. SIGNIFICANCE:
A. desperate times require desperate policy
B. changing expectation of government involvement