Photo of the Day

An anonymous letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Jan. 18, 1937

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,

Eleanor Roosevelt poses in her gown for FDR's second inaugural ball, January 1937.

I was simply astounded to think that anyone could be nitwit enough

to wish to be included in the so called social security act

if they could possibly avoid it.

Poster distributed from November 1936 to July 1937, during the initial issuance of Social Security numbers through US post offices.

Call it by any name you wish,

it, in my opinion (and that of many people I know),

is nothing but downright stealing.

Poster from the period 1937-1939 explains how wage records are kept for Social Security purposes. This was an area of public concern in the early days of Social Security.

Personally, I had my savings so invested

that I would have had a satisfactory provision for old age.

Now, thanks to FDR’s desire to ‘get’ the utilities,

I cannot be sure of anything, being a stockholder.

Trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, October 1937. The US economy entered a recession in 1937 and equity values auffered significant declines.

After business has survived his merciless attacks (if it does),

insurance will probably be no good either.

Then the president tells them they should hire more men

and work shorter hours…

Grapefruit packers, Fort Pierce, Florida, 1937. Arthur Rothstein photo.

…so that the laborers, who are getting everything now ( raises, etc.)

can have a ‘more abundant life.’

Migrant farm workers pull carrots in the Coachella Valley of California, 1937. Dorothea Lange photo.

That simply means taking it from the rest of us

in the form of taxes or otherwise.

Striking steelworker attacks an employee of the Jones and Laughlin Corporation steel plant who attempted to cross picket lines. 25,000 workers had gone out on strike. Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1937.

Believe me, the only thing we want from the president

is for him to balance the budget and reduce taxes.

Women employees at Detroit's Woolworth store stage a sit-in strike, 1937. Among their demands: they were then paid 25 cents per hour and wanted a ten cent per hour raise. They also asked for an 8 hour day.

That, by the way, is a ‘mandate from the people’

that isn’t getting much attention.

Unemployed workers registering for jobs and filing benefit claims under the new Social Security Act at a State employment office, 1935.

I am not an ‘economic royalist,’

just an ordinary white collar worker

at $1600 per year. [Ed.: the median taxable wage for 1937 was $723.]

In his speech to 100,000 people accepting the Democratic nomination for a second term, on June 27, 1936, FDR said, "The economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power.”

Please show this to the president

and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man…

… that is, the one who dared to vote against him.

Photo caption says, "Drought refugee, 1935." Dorothea Lange photo.

We expect to be tramped on

but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard.

A Missouri farmer's children, May 1940. John Vachon photo.

Security at the price of freedom is never desired by intelligent people.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt greets enlisted men. Early 1940s.

M.A. [female]

******************************

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

Banner image: Michigan National Guardsmen wheel machine guns during the GM strike in Flint in February 1937.