The Great Depression and our present circumstances have many parallels but one in particular is striking: that the President of the United States engaged in demagoguery against the wealthy and, indeed, against any person or group who got in his way. And people and groups who could organize a recovery sidelined themselves for fear of attracting the President’s jaundiced eye.
And the demagoguery went on until a very small group of people with courage, influence and communication skills took on the President and changed public perceptions.
In the 1930s, there was Wendell Willkie, who became Franklin Roosevelt’s chief nemesis, challenging him publicly, rallying the opposition and eventually running against him for President. In a piece in Forbes entitled, ‘The Man Who Talked Back’, Amity Shlaes discusses Willkie’s career and his persistent opposition to Roosevelt’s program.
For Wilkie, there came a moment when he realized that ‘going along to get along’ wouldn’t work and that what the President was doing was destructive and even vindictive.
But as years passed Willkie realized his cooperative stance was costing C&S’ shareholders. Lilienthal used tax advantages and subsidies ruthlessly to achieve his boss’ grand goal: to expand public-sector utilities. C&S lost in court against the TVA, then won, then lost again. Meanwhile, the TVA expanded in the Tennessee Valley. FDR signed legislation so restrictive to the private sector that a clause within it was referred to as the “death sentence.” The utilities industry, which should have been a growth leader, paid a terrible price for Washington’s attacks. Between early 1932 and early 1936 the DJIA rose 88%–the Roosevelt Rally. Utility stocks barely budged during the same time frame.
In a radio debate in January 1938, five years into the New Deal, Willkie found his Dimon moment. Roosevelt’s casual epithets of “economic royalists” and “banker control” had actually chilled investment, Willkie said. The New Dealers’ high capital gains and undistributed profits taxes were retarding American firms’ recovery. The government was making the Depression worse by getting in the way. “For several years now,” Willkie warned, “we have been listening to a bedtime story, telling us that the men who hold office in Washington are, by their very positions, endowed with a special virtue.”
Hearing Willkie, the country snapped awake. Perhaps the New Deal had all been “a bedtime story.” Maybe citizens should have spoken out in 1933, not 1938? The Saturday Evening Post dubbed Willkie “The Man Who Talked Back.” Other businessmen from other companies and industries soon publicized their own concerns.
Question: Where’s our Wendell Willkie?
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