American Decades
Old Age Revolving Pensions
Pamphlet
By: Francis E. Townsend
Date: c. 1934
Source: Old Age Revolving Pensions: A Proposed National Plan. Pamphlet. c. 1934. Available online at http://www.ssa.gov/history/towns5.html; website home page: http://www.ssa.gov (accessed August 29, 2002).
About the Author: Dr. Francis E. Townsend (1867–1960) was an elderly, country doctor who had relocated to California from South Dakota in 1919 for health reasons. He worked for the Long Beach Health Office until he lost his job in 1933. Sixty-seven years old and with barely enough money to get by, he developed an idea for a pension program to aid America's elderly which brought him to national attention. Townsend's plan attracted the attention of millions and was an important catalyst in the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935....
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1930's Government and Politics Primary Sources
- "The Importance of the Preservation of Self-help and of the Responsibility of Individual Generosity as Opposed to Deteriorating Effects of Governmental Appropriations"
- The Proceedings and Transactions of a Conference of the Mayors of the State of Michigan
- Press Statements and Related Correspondence on the Use of Troops to Control the So-called Bonus Marchers
- Campaign Speech at Madison Square Garden, New York City
- "On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program"
- Letter to Major General Stuart Heintzelman
- "American Fascism in Embryo"
- "Carry Out the Command of the Lord"
- Harry Hopkins Press Conference, February 16, 1934
- "Federal Emergency Relief"
- Old Age Revolving Pensions
- "On Social Security"
- "What's the Matter with Congress?"
- "I Have Seen War.…I Hate War"
- "Hemingway Reports Spain"
- The Debate over Isolation
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
The 1930's: Primary Sources
