and honest man of principle that somehow became President. FDR was pretty solid, his first new deal only addressed banks but did include regulations such as Glass-Stegall put it was progressives that pushed the "Second new deal" which led to Social Security, WPA, and the Housing Act known better by Section 8 of the 1937 Housing Act. There was also things that was just rhetoric
Tax policy
In 1935, Roosevelt called for a tax program called the Wealth Tax Act (Revenue Act of 1935) to redistribute wealth. But there was more rhetoric than revenue in that proposal. The bill imposed an income tax of 79% on incomes over $5 million. Since that was an extraordinary high income in the 1930s, the highest tax rate actually covered just one individual – John D. Rockefeller. The bill was expected to raise only about $250 million in additional funds, so revenue was not the primary goal. Morgenthau called it "more or less a campaign document". In a private conversation with Raymond Moley, Roosevelt admitted that the purpose of the bill was "stealing Huey Long's thunder" by making Long's supporters his own. At the same time, it raised the bitterness of the rich who called Roosevelt "a traitor to his class" and the wealth tax act a "soak the rich tax".[91]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal#Second_New_Deal_.281935.E2.80.931938.29
He also compromised with the Southern bloc to expand new deal benefits to benefit African-Americans while overall a great President Truman is truly impressive. Because of his no nonsense solving problems Committees led him to be a popular figure who FDR agreed when ad adviser suggested him for VP for reelection. As President he had a Committee on Civil Rights during an election year
From Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks
Four months later his committee comes in with a report, 178 pages, beautifully documented. It’s the blueprint; 35 explicit recommendations. He publicly embraces them all. Doesn’t hesitate. Embraces them all. Washington Post headlines call it an explosive revolutionary report and the President just two months from the election year with a Republican Congress embraces them all. The next year he goes to his Congress, January 7th. When you start a presidential campaign year, the State of the Union is your kick-off speech. He says to the Congress, still Republican-controlled Congress, I’ve got five priorities. The no. 1 priority is civil rights reform and by the way, I’m going to tell you members of Congress more about it in the short term. Twenty-five days later, February 2nd, he sends the first ever comprehensive civil rights bill to the U.S. Congress, a proposal--10 points, everything, anti-lynching, voting rights, end of discrimination in interstate commerce, comprehensive civil rights bill. This is an election year. First ever. By the way, this legislation finally gets adopted in the heat of the civil rights upheaval in the ‘60s, but Harry Truman’s there first with the blueprint.
Not surprising, a month later Gallup conducts a poll and this is where it really does become shocking for a politician--82% of those polled by Gallup opposed Harry Truman’s civil rights proposal, 82%. And I have to read you Harry Truman on polls, because it really says it all, [were it] that more politicians felt this way. These are his words, not mine. “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt. What would Jesus Christ have preached if he had taken a poll in Israel. Where would the Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn’t polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It’s right and wrong and leadership. Men with fortitude, honesty and a belief in right,” and by the way, at that point, obviously House member Lyndon Baines Johnson was taking polls because a month after all this happens he launches his campaign for Senate, his second and ultimately successful campaign and who is public enemy no. 1? Harry Truman’s civil rights proposal. He calls it a sham and a farce. So it was widespread political opposition to Harry Truman. This is an election year. Harry Truman is unflinching. He has no intention of backing down.
<snip>
At this point, Harry Truman’s popularity is not increasing at all, I can assure you. The Republicans on June 24 hold their convention in Philadelphia. Come up with a dream ticket. The dream ticket for ‘48--Thomas Dewey, Governor of New York; on the other coast of the country, Earl Warren, Governor of California. There was so much concern in the Democratic leadership that Harry Truman could not be elected largely because of civil rights that a number of leading Democrats tried to recruit Dwight Eisenhower to be the nominee for the party. That finally collapsed. It’s only on July 15th a week before the Democrat convention. That convention takes place in Philadelphia like the Republican convention. It’s a free-for-all. Why? Harry Truman’s civil rights proposal. There’s a fight over the plank that is legendary. Harry Truman puts forward a plank that is constitutionally anchored and calls for legislation. The state rights Democrats respond with a regressive proposal and Mayor Hubert Humphrey from Minneapolis comes in with a very explicit plank that tracks Truman’s February 2nd proposal to Congress. It’s a fight that would shatter the party. The more explicit plank prevails by 69 votes.
<snip>
Harry Truman makes a great speech. He wasn’t a great orator but he outdid himself this night and he blamed all the ills of the country on the do-nothing Republican-controlled Congress. He also said Republican Congress, you want to make the country right. I’ll give you a chance. Come back to Washington. I’m calling a special session, the Turnip Day Session. Be back in un-air-conditioned Washington on July 26th. We’ll meet for two weeks and we’ll see if you can deliver on your plank. No reason you can’t. You’ve got the leadership. Before that session started, however, the party really fragmented. July 17th then South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond creates the Dixiecrat Party. Two days later Henry Wallace who had been FDR’s vice president creates the Progressive Party. Essentially the Party is shattered. Two of the three prongs that Democrats had relied on, that FDR had relied on for his four victories are gone, the Progressives, the Southern Democrats.
The Turnip Day Congress starts on July 26th, un-air-conditioned. Cruel to do that to bring everybody back when they should be running for office, and Harry Truman was relentless. The first day back in he hits them with a political 2” x 4”. He issues two Executive Orders. He doesn’t need their approval, so with one, 9981 he integrates the military of the United States and what most people don’t remember and historians overlook, he simultaneously issues Executive Order 9980 which integrates the vast federal bureaucracy. He essentially undoes what Wilson has done in 1913. The federal government is now integrated. The Turnip Day Session, of course, advances no agenda. It’s a debacle for the Republicans and he constantly reminds people and he returns to Independence, Missouri, for the month of August because campaign started mercifully after Labor Day in those days, and he goes home to Independence with his wife and daughter who he loved, and just about everybody in Washington thinks when he comes back after campaigning, he’ll be a lame duck president. No one thinks Harry Truman’s going to be elected president.
<snip>
Now, Harry Truman could write some nasty letters when he was irritated. He took a week before he answered this letter and I must tell you, this letter to me was one of the most instructive things I found in my research. I’ll just read an excerpt of a long letter. “Dear Ernie. I’m going to send you a copy of the report on my Commission on Civil Rights and if then you still have that antebellum, pro-slavery outlook, I’ll be thoroughly disappointed in you. The main difficulty with the South is that they are living 80 years behind the time and the sooner they come out of it, the better it will for the country and themselves. When a Mayor and a City Marshall can take a Negro Sergeant off a bus in South Carolina, beat him up, put out one of his eyes and nothing is done about it by the state authorities, something is radically wrong with the system. I cannot approve of such goings on and I shall never approve it as long as I am here. As I told you before, I’m going to try to remedy it and if it ends up in my failure to be reelected, that failure will be in a good cause.”
http://www.virginia.edu/uvanewsmakers/newsmakers/gardner.html
He is known for the Fair Deal & civil rights reforms he could enact with executive orders & court victories(helped by Truman's Supreme Court appointees). He has ahead of his times for American Presidents & remarkable courage that you don't see from politicians of today -- I see Bernie Sanders with similar respect & integrity attributes.
The last of his kind to live out his Post Presidency as a poor man
Once out of office, Truman quickly decided that he did not wish to be on any corporate payroll, believing that taking advantage of such financial opportunities would diminish the integrity of the nation's highest office. He also turned down numerous offers for commercial endorsements. Since his earlier business ventures had proved unsuccessful, he had no personal savings. As a result, he faced financial challenges. Once Truman left the White House, his only income was his old army pension: $112.56 per month.[177] Former members of Congress and the federal courts received a federal retirement package; President Truman himself ensured that former servants of the executive branch of government received similar support. In 1953, however, there was no such benefit package for former presidents,[178] and he received no pension for his Senate service.[179]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman#Judicial_appointments
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