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(Governor Alfred E. Driscoll (R) - His legacy: The New Jersey Turnpike)

The world of politics seems to be one endless procession of bright lights, sterling hopefuls and utter flame-outs.

During the 1948 Presidential campaign, the name Alfred E. Driscoll was bandied about as a possible vice-Presidential running mate with Thomas E. Dewey on the Republican ticket. It surfaced again in 1952. But neither panned out and New Jersey Governor Driscoll quietly faded from the public scene after leaving office in 1954. His legacy, it would appear, are a number of bridges along with championing the cause of the New Jersey Turnpike.

At the time though, (1948) eyes were trained on him as serious Capitol Hill material, as is evidenced by this rather lively discussion on an early incarnation of Meet The Press regarding the postmortem on the 1948 election and the disastrous defeat for the Republican party.

Lawrence Spivak: “Fortunately, I have before me Governor, Clarence Buddington Kelland’s quotation on the campaign. Mister Davis, a moment ago asked you about it and I’d like to read it to you and see if you agree or disagree with what he said. He said ‘Dewey’s campaign was smug, arrogant, stupid and supercilious. No issues were stated or faced.’ You think that was true of the Republican campaign, that they failed to state their issues or face them?”

Governor Driscoll: “ Well I would like to enter an emphatic denial on the first part of . . that statement. I think that the Republican party did fail for reasons that are now apparent, which were perhaps not apparent at that time. To adequately state and fight the issues.”

Although it's clear Driscoll wasn't up for exchanging fistfuls of mud with the panel, his answers give some indication where the Republican party's troubles lay in 1948. And one could say the same for the election of 2008, sixty years later.

Some things don't change.

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(Paul Hindemith - complicated relationships)

This week's batch of 78's is the Violin Concerto written in 1939 by the German composer Paul Hindemith. It was slated to be premiered in Germany that year, but fate and the Nazi's had other plans and it was finally performed in Holland in 1940, with Hindemith having migrated to Switzerland in 1938 and eventually living and working in New York by 1940.

This recording, made in Paris for French HMV in 1948, features the violinist Henri Merckel with the Lamoureux Orchestra led by Roger Desormiere.

Don't quote me on this, but I think this is the first commercial recording of the concerto.

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(Jerusalem 1948 - Same as it ever was - Same as it ever was)

With the recent news of the attempted kick starting of talks between Israelis and the Palestinians, I was reminded just how long this entire odyssey has been going on - a lot longer than many people have been on the planet, for one thing.

But it seems there was a time when the U.S. had actually considered sending troops over to the region, acting as a sort of buffer between factions. The notion that we'd still be over there, some sixty years later gives pause as to how it could end up with us now in Afghanistan. When, during the election John McCain entertained the possibility of the U.S. being in Iraq for a hundred years, everyone recoiled. But in retrospect, it appears we're rather good at suggesting those sorts of things. Thank God we don't act on our instincts all the time.

But in 1948, with the British getting ready to leave the region and fighting between Jews and Arabs going full tilt, the Chicago University Roundtable hosted a discussion, featuring several pundits (aka: "experts"as they were called at the time) to venture an opinion on whether our involvement in the Middle East was a good idea or not.

The opinions ran the gamut, although it's interesting to note that no one actually from the region (i.e. Arab or Jew) was included. So there is something of a strange bias to be had going into this discussion, one of an "armchair" viewpoint rather than one actually on the ground, with the possible exception of Arthur Creech-Jones who was Colonial Secretary in charge of Palestine at the time. But times have changed. I don't think this type of discussion would take place today (unless it was Fox). But it's interesting to see what factors formed an opinion some sixty years ago.

John A. Wilson: “First, Palestine cannot survive economically if it’s carved into two zones. Second, a policing and occupying army does not bring a country together. It rather pulls it apart. Let’s look at the other countries which have been carved apart and held apart by force. Germany and Austria have been arbitrarily divided into zones, cutting off the normal and traditional flow of goods. Four enforcing armies hold Germany apart and prevent normal economic life. In Asia, Korea is in exactly the same situation, cut by an arbitrary line into two zones. A drastic surgical operation divided India into a Muslim state and a Hindu state at a cost of perhaps a quarter of a million lives. Partition is bad economy in Germany, Austria, Korea and India. It will be bad in Palestine. Imagine American and Russian military contingents inside Palestine. Would they bring the country together? Or would they push it further apart? How soon could they leave? It is not a pleasant outlook. American and Russian troops eyeing each other in Palestine for our lifetime. Everyone who argues a population increase in Palestine has done so on the basis of potential water power there. Well certainly, a Jordan Valley Authority like our TVA would be a marvelous asset to Palestine.

Continue reading »

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(Sen. John Sparkman - D-Alabama - I know what you're thinking!)

Before Blue Dogs arrived on the political scene, we had Dixiecrats. That bunch of Southern Senators who always seemed to break with the rest of their party and go off on tangents, mostly about Civil Rights legislation at the time.

One such Dixiecrat Senator was John_Sparkman who was vehemently opposed to the re-election of Harry Truman during the 1948 election based on his proposed Civil Rights Bills, pending in the Senate.

Here he is, explaining his position, during the Sunday interview program "Chicago University Roundtable" from June 13, 1948 - the subject was "The Southern Democrats and the Convention".

Sen.Sparkman: “In our primary that was held May 4th, with runoff on June 1st, we selected delegates to the Democratic Convention to be held in Philadelphia. All of those delegate, every one without exception, is pledged against Truman. Furthermore, we named our Democratic electors who are to cast Alabama’s vote in the Electoral College in November . . .in December – elected in November. Every one of those electors, there are eleven of them, made a pledge to the people of Alabama prior to that election that, if chosen as an elector, each one of them pledged that he would not, under any condition, vote for President Truman.”

Talk about inspiring Party Unity. The irony to all this, is Sparkman wound up being Adlai Stevenson's Vice-Presidential running mate in 1952.

Somehow, it now makes sense why Stevenson didn't win in 1952.

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("Those pills are 25 bucks a-PIECE?")

(I originally posted this in February and am reposting it now in its complete form, as opposed to the excerpt which I ran in February. It's a nice companion piece to the post I did earlier this week, and further evidence our friends at the AMA have been doing this a long-long time.)

In case anyone thought the whole concept of Universal Health Care was something cooked up in the 1990's, I'm here to tell you it just ain't so.

Nope, it's been with us forever and attempts to introduce a Universal Health Care program go back to the days just post World War 2. Over sixty years of wrangling, cajoling, hand-wringing and warnings of dire consequences. And strangely, nothing has changed.

In 1945 a proposal known as the Wagner/Murray/Dingell Bill was introduced, establishing a system of Universal Health care for all Americans, regardless of financial status. And almost immediately the forces of paranoia, propaganda and dire consequences roared into place.

A lot of this came via the AMA, whose President was the dubious Dr. Morris Fishbein, the most vocal opponent of Universal Health Care and had the membership of the AMA to tap into.

This clip, from a 1948 CBS Radio program called "In My Opinion", features Senator James E. Murray (D-Montana) who co-authored the bill in question. His vocal opponent was Representative A.L. Miller (R-Nebraska) whose paranoiac doomsday rant belied the fact that he was, prior to his stint in Congress, a practicing surgeon and a member of the AMA.

Do I hear conflict of interest? Do I hear a certain breach of ethics?

Who ever said Politics was ethical? It's politics, fer chrissake!

Miller - "I saw physicians on clean surgical cases without surgical masks or rubber gloves. They were chattering like magpies over the open abdomen"

Murray - "But I do want to talk to Americas doctors. To the doctors through the country who are busy treating the sick, to the practicing doctor who usually hears of health insurance over from the Political Doctors, who are obstructing an intelligent, practical program."

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(The debate rages - sixty years and going strong)

In my continuing coverage of the Health Care debate and its historic place in our political life, here comes another debate via the NBC Radio program "America United" hosted by David Brinkley from June 27, 1948.

This debate, under the title "should we expand our Social Security coverage?" also takes on the subject of Universal Health Care, a proposal brought about months earlier by President Truman. It spends a good deal of time talking about the status of Social Security, since it was enacted in 1935, but the talk gets a bit heated when it turns to Health Care. The panel features Philip Pearl of the AF of L, Rep. John Dingell Sr. (D-Mich.) who co-authored a Universal Health Care bill in 1948. Dr. Emerson P. Schmidt of The U.S.Chamber Of Commerce and Dr. Lloyd Halverson of the National Grange.

Dingell is adamant about the subject of Health Care, despite the overwhelming amount of negative statements concerning the fear of "socialized medicine" (the ever-present mantra that continues to this day). It should also be noted that Dr. Lloyd Halverson was also a member of the AMA and this certainly shades his comments.

Rep. Dingell: “ The most important thing about Social Security, is that which was never put in; that’s Health Insurance. It’s more important than Unemployment Insurance. It’s more important than old age pensions. It’s more important than annuities. It’s more important than aid to the widows and orphans for this reason; that a man can take care of all of these if he’s in health – and he can take care of none if he’s sick. . . . It was, as you agreed, a complex problem. And it was one to which there was so much opposition on the part of reactionaries in this country that it was deemed wise to delay it. But there is no further excuse for it now."

And sixty one years after that was said, there's still no excuse for it.