FDR Takes Lessons From Wilson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, December 1943.
President Woodrow Wilson directly attacked citizens on pricing; for example, the seizure of property such as eggs, sugar, dry salt pork, salmon, and pig’s ears, when the stores would not agree “to sell them at a ‘reasonable’ price and under the watchful eye of a federal officer.”[1] Progressives always lead to tyranny.
Additionally, executive orders would make it a crime to produce, sell, and ship products like aviation fuel without approval of the Director of the Office of Petroleum Coordination (OPC). The Office of Production Management (OPM), by executive order, controlled “essential” civilian production and wartime production. Of course, the government — that is, FDR — determined what was essential.[2] America was completely under the foot of tyranny.
According to his son, Elliott, FDR also used the IRS for political purposes to destroy or damage those he viewed as his political enemies.[3] “My father,” Elliott Roosevelt observed of his famous parent, “may have been the originator of the concept of employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution.”[4]
As is the case with most dictators, nemeses became paranoid. Roosevelt was not only a threat to those against him but he also extended crafty tricks, such as wiretapping, to his supporters and friends.[5]
FDR’s son John declared, “Hell, my father just about invented bugging. [He] had them spread all over, and thought nothing of it.”[6] FDR had utterly no regard for the law and would become angry and agitated when his advisors would mention the illegality of his actions to him. As the Folsoms tragically write, “FDR amazed friends and enemies alike by his willingness to break laws and bend the Constitution.”[7] FDR was not mentally sound, nor did he care. Unsurprisingly, he had no empathy for the law or people.
[1] James Grant, 2014, The Forgotten Depression: 1921, The Crash that Cured Itself, (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster), p. 24.
[2] Burton W. Folsom, Jr., and Anita Folsom, 2011, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, (New York, NY: Threshold Editions), p. 120.
[3] Burton W. Folsom, Jr., and Anita Folsom, 2011, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, (New York, NY: Threshold Editions), p. 187.
[4] Burton W. Folsom, Jr., and Anita Folsom, 2011, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, (New York, NY: Threshold Editions), Chapter 10, pp. 211-229.
[5] For examples see Burton W. Folsom, Jr., and Anita Folsom, 2011, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, (New York, NY: Threshold Editions), pp. 217-218.
[6] Burton W. Folsom, Jr., and Anita Folsom, 2011, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, (New York, NY: Threshold Editions), p. 212.
[7] Burton W. Folsom, Jr., and Anita Folsom, 2011, FDR Goes to War: How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America, (New York, NY: Threshold Editions), p. 211.
Originally published on Townhall Finance.
Jim Huntzinger began his career as a manufacturing engineer with Aisin Seiki (a Toyota Group company and manufacturer of automotive components) when they transplanted to North America to support Toyota. Over his career he has also researched at length the evolution of manufacturing in the United States with an emphasis on lean’s influence and development. In addition to his research on TWI, he has extensively researched the history of Ford’s Highland Park plant and its direct tie to Toyota’s business model and methods of operation.
Huntzinger is the President and Founder of Lean Frontiers and a graduate from Purdue University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology and received a M.S. in Engineering Management from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. He authored the book, Lean Cost Management: Accounting for Lean by Establishing Flow, was a contributing author to Lean Accounting: Best Practices for Sustainable Integration.
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