TOWNSEND, FRANCIS EVERETT 1867-196O

The "stepfather" of the social security act of 1935

A Generous Man with a Tender Heart

According to the story promoted by his loyal followers, one morning Francis Everett Townsend, an elderly retired assistant medical officer in Long Beach, California, was startled to see three old women rummaging for food in some garbage cans outside his window. He let forth a shocked bellow that brought his wife, who cautioned him that he should not shout because the neighbors would hear. "I want all the neighbors to hear me!" he defiantly shouted. "I want God Almighty to hear me! I'm going to shout till the whole country hears!" And thus Townsend became identified as the champion of old people, credited by many with the creation of state-supported pensions—social security.

Old-Age Benefits

Although a form of national health insurance had been one of the top concerns during the Progressive Era, the Depression sidetracked it in favor of other priorities. With millions out of work, unemployment insurance became the leading priority. Old-age benefits were a second and often unaddressed issue. A generous man with a tender heart, Townsend was outraged by the lack of public concern for the elderly victims of the Depression. In 1933 he suggested that all retirees over the age of sixty should receive two hundred dollars a month (in scrip) on the condition that they retire and "spend the money as they get it." The plan, popularly known as "$60 at 60," thus would help elderly citizens and stimulate consumer spending, at that time extremely low. The funds were to come from a national sales tax.

The "Townsend Plan."

The kindly doctor told audiences all over the country that his "Townsend Plan" would provide security for the nation's elderly and would reinvigorate the economy by creating jobs for young men and women. The following year Townsend established Old Age Revolving Pensions, a loose organization of local clubs that within two years numbered seven thousand—with a total membership of about 1.5 million. Although his unlikely scheme would have turned over half the national income to 8 percent of the population, its following of older people led many of their congressmen to pledge themselves to work for its enactment and the Townsend Plan was incorporated into a bill introduced in Congress in early 1935.

The Social Security Act versus the Townsend Plan

When critics, including President Roosevelt, attacked the measure as unworkable, the Townsend Weekly, the doctor's editorial voice, responded with an angry attack on the administration. Townsend joined the opposition and made plans to link his movement to that of Roosevelt's most serious political rival, New Deal Sen. Huey P. Long of Louisiana. To steal the stage from Townsend, Roosevelt supported the Social Security Act of 1935. Many congressmen breathed a sigh of relief and saw support of the Social Security Act as a way to escape from their improbable commitment to the Townsend Plan. The Social Security Act's pensions were tiny compared with Townsend's call for two hundred dollars a month, but for the first time the United States government assumed responsibility for the welfare of people who were disabled or too old to work.

A Step Along the Way to Medicare and Medicaid

In the summer of 1936 Townsend emerged as a principal backer of the third-party candidacy of Rep. William Lemke for president. Allied with him were the Reverend Charles E. Coughlin, the Detroit radio priest, and the Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith, the national organizer for Sen. Huey P. Long's Share Our Wealth Society. Townsend's excursion into national politics alienated a substantial part of his following and led to lawsuits and disputes. But the plan still continued in popularity for several decades after the 1930s with claims of at least five million members in 1953. Townsend traveled extensively and appeared at different Townsend clubs throughout the country, discussed his plan with various political leaders including Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, and addressed rallies of elderly people. His greatest triumph, he said, was the "actual proving" of his contention that there must be no power that shuts off the circulation of money. While the Social Security Act itself included only one minor reference to health insurance, it did extend the government's role in public health and was a major step along the way toward the Medicare and Medicaid amendments to the Social Security Act in 1965.

Sources:

Abraham Holtzman, The Townsend Movement, A Political Study (New York: Bookman Associates, 1963);

Obituary, New York Times, 2 September 1960, p. 1;

Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (New York: Basic Books, 1982), pp. 266-267.

Francis Everett Townsend , 1867–1960, American reformer, leader of an old-age pension movement, b. Fairbury, Ill., grad. Univ. of Nebraska medical school, 1903. He practiced medicine in several Western states before he settled (1919) at Long Beach, Calif. In 1933, at the height of the economic depression, he produced the Townsend plan, which called for a pension of $200 per month for citizens of 60 years of age or older, on condition that the $200 be spent in the United States within a month after receipt. The funds were to be raised principally by a 2% federal sales tax. The simplicity of the proposal, the apostolic zeal of Townsend, and the organization of the Townsendites into a formidable pressure group brought increasing support for the plan despite its condemnation by competent economists. Bills to establish the Townsend plan were continually defeated in Congress after 1935, and the strength of the movement declined after the economy began to recover and the effects of social security were felt in the United States. Townsend modified a few of the provisions of his plan in the 1940s.

Townsend, Francis Everett (1867–1960) US physician and reformer. He is mainly remembered for his Old Age Revolving Pension scheme, known as the Townsend Plan, that was meant to help the elderly and assist the USA out of the Great DEPRESSION. The plan called for payments of $200 a month to all aged 60 or more. The funds were to be provided by a federal tax on commercial transactions. The popularity of this and other programmes (he secured at least ten million signatures to his petitions) may have persuaded Franklin D. ROOSEVELT to adopt more far-reaching social policies.