Transcripts For CSPAN2 Burt Folsom The Myth Of The Robber Barons 20240714

Activism initiatives conferences and conference lectures. Dubbed by the news york times as the conservative force called the key pillar of the conservative movement by politico the role of educating americas youth is undeniable. And today i also have the honor of announcing my favorite beaker dr. Burton folsom. I first heard dr. Fulsome speak two years ago after the conference. He is one of the main reasons i decided to start a chapter on my campus and why now i aspire to become a history professor myself as a native of lincoln nebraska dr. Fulsome received his va from indiana university, his m. A. From the university of the breast and his ph. D. From the university of its bird. Over the last four decades dr. Fulsome is taught u. S. History at Murray State University Northwood University Hillsdale College. He was a professor of history at Hillsdale College in 2003 to 2017 gritty was recently pointed the distinguished fellow at Hillsdale College as well. His two favorite course to teach were history of american presence in the history of the American Economy. He is also a regular speaker and friend of Young America foundation especially our center for entrepreneurship and free enterprise. Please join me in giving a warm autumn two. Your burton folsom. [applause] [applause] thank you, thank you, thank you. And i have a question for you. [applause] are you glad to be here . [applause] i am delighted to be here. Im delighted to be here and since i have this one talk here remaining i wanted to give you some of the best wisdom that i have for dealing with the historic all records and the myth that you will encounter on your college campus, the ones that i encountered when i was a student and if i can help in anyway prepare you to deal with this when you leave the Conference Today i hope that will be success i might part that i want to do three myths, three myths of history that most College Professors teach. The teaching of these myths perpetuates the idea that government solves problems and capitalism creates them. It is really the reverse. That may look at the historical record and talk today about some of those myths. Myth number one, the Great Depression was caused by capitalism. We know the Great Depression of the 1930s. How many of you have heard that argument may be in classrooms already . Wow, a lot. The greatest economic catastrophe in u. S. History was caused by capitalism and you see sometimes the connection. The stock arcade crashes, banks are closing began employment rate skyrockets over 20 . And it looks like hey business collapsed, capitalism collapse, it failed. Some of you have seen the movie its a wonderful life for christmas were you see Jimmy Stewart and hes running a bank and it collapses under the strain of the Great Depression or almost collapses. Hes there to try to rescue it. What i want to do is go through this a little bit and talk about what is the problem with that argument. Its true that the stock architect collapse, absolutely true. Street that many many thanks, hundreds of them failed and its true that unemployment skyrocketed. Absolute truth of the issue is what caused that. For example i have three causes that have really nothing to do with capitalism. Number one, the Federal Reserve which has been manipulating Interest Rates throughout the 1920s, the Federal Reserve raised Interest Rates in 1929. The raising of those Interest Rates made money harder to borrow and therefore made it harder for Business People to get the capital they needed to invest and expand. Milton friedman won the nobel prize for her report that he coauthored on the Federal Reserve and the American Economy and part of that book included the 1930s. His argument is that the Federal Reserve manipulating of the Interest Rate really is the chief cause of the Great Depression. Thats point number one. Point number two the protective tariff, tariffs were raised in the 1930s. They were raised to record highs the smoothawley tariffs was the highest tariff in u. S. History. The he was enacted during president hoovers presidency when the Great Depression began. You were thinking gee i tariff attacks on imports, a tariff is help ring to cause the Great Depression . That sounds like it may not quite make sense but it does if you think of it this way. Tariffs have to do with trade. When you tax imports and you tax them highly you restrict trade. When you restrict trade you slow down and economy. In particular the restrictions that we had in the smoothawley tariffs were we put a high tariff on roughly 3000 items and they raised tariffs sharply on several of them for example we had switzerland with the major export. Swiss watches were the best watches in the world. If we would translate this 2 today they sold for about 30 apiece. The swiss watches were the best in the world. He kept perfect time and they sold for 30. Americanmade watches from New England States like rhode island were not as good and they cost 45. In other words they cost more than the swiss watch. The american watch and this is back in the days when we had to wind their watches. Every morning we would wind our watch and then it would keep time for that day and then we would wind to begin the next day. The americanmade watches have rovlin. You would wind it and it would run for an hour. It ran to our and about 58 minutes. Which is to say was off sometimes a couple of minutes in an hour but thats okay because remember you wind up the next day so you just reset it. You get back. Would you rather do that with the 45dollar american watch or would you rather have the swiss watch for 30 that you didnt have to do that with . Most americans said i want the swiss watch which is fine because switzerland would buy our watches and switzerland would sell us their watches and then they would die or products, typewriters for automobiles. United states had the cheapest cars in the best cars so we would sell switzerland our cars and they would sell us watches. We put a huge tariff on swiss watches we did it because the watchmaking Congressional District wanted price wristwatches out of the market so theres would sell instead tree to do this they had to pass a tariff that are truly doubled the price of swiss watches so roughly a 30dollar tariff on a 30dollar watch. In other words you pay 30 for a swiss watch in 30 for the Customs Service for the tariff so now its become a 60dollar watch and a lot of american watchmakers thought good if ours are 45 and a switch and a the switch watches 60 maybe more people will buy or watch his even though they dont tell time very well. You might say well yeah maybe and we can if you watch sales but look at it this way we lose car sales. Switzerland absolutely caught us off in our exports. Think about this. We put a height tariff on blankets on french wine. We put a tariff on spanish olives. All of these things so we have tariffs on all of these items and all of those countries european and otherwise refuse to buy our products. So now american cars which sold over 5 million in 1929 are down to 1. 5 million by 1932 and michigan detroit is in a Great Depression. We lost those sales and that became part of the problem and the auto industry. What im saying is that tariff the smoothawley tariff was a key cause in the Great Depression. The third and final one i want to do under the Great Depression is president hoover responded. You are staying hoover was a republican and he absolutely was. He was a member of i guess si with dave the liberal wing of the Republican Party and his presidency was in deed a disaster but he wanted to use government whenever he could then thought it would be good. He raised taxes because he thought this would be good to gather more money for the government as we are losing money because the depression is creating lower revenues, lower income and therefore lower revenue coming to united the United States. He thought attacks rate would be good. The tax rate in 1929 when hoover became president was 25 maximum i have an essay by the way a chapter in the book in the myth of the robber barons on Andrew Mellon which talks about the tax rate which was lowering the tax rate in the 1920s down to 20 and when we did that big a tremendous inventions like talking movies, radio. Heres one thats good for a summer day. Airconditioning. Im enjoying it right now. In some cases the air conditioner was the included in the 20s but it wasnt adopted until the 20s. We got tax rates down and those entrepreneurs like Willis Carrier have the incentive to invest. In the 20s it was very prosperous but the tax rate goes from 25 which is the maximum up to 63 . That means wealthy people at some point are paying more than half of their income to the government. If youre going to pay more than half your income to the government you are going to be careful about what you invest in and maybe you shouldnt be investing in much at all. In other words to tamp down heavily on entrepreneurship on investment right when we need investment to create jobs to replace the ones that we lost by the Federal Reserve raising its Interest Rate and by the smoothawley tariffs. What im saying is if we have three things the Federal Reserve raising Interest Rates for high tariffs and raising taxes, think about that, that capitalism or is that government . You have government creating the great oppression. Those changes are changes that made it hard, almost impossible for capitalists to operate. Free enterprise thinkers were at a standstill because of high taxes, because the tariffs affected import so much and because of the Federal Reserve raising Interest Rates. So what we have here i would just use the Great Depression was caused not a capitalism. The Great Depression was caused by government or capitalism is going to be ultimately part of the solution, not part of the problem. Thats number one. Myth number two is this. Franklin roosevelt, because hoover lost the election in 1932 to Franklin Roosevelt and so the republican is out in the democrat is in roosevelt and his program is called the new deal. Hes going to have a set of her grams what shes going to use to combat the Great Depression. Myth number two fdr or frank and roosevelt with his new deal, huge government effectively to help get the United States out of the Great Depression. Franklin roosevelt with his new deal used government effectively to help get the United States out of the Great Depression. How many of you had that talk to you in school . Thats exact weight what i have taught to me. And over here, how many of you have that . That is the prominent teaching. There are sometimes variations that some professors will say well the new deal may not have completely got the south but it helped. It was a movement in the right direction and then other things came later to help more. The new deal was a step in the right direction and some will say it was really the whole way out of the Great Depression or some part of the Great Depression. Capitalism failed, government through new deal programs is ready to come to the rescue. Franklin roosevelt. When i was writing my look and i wrote the book new deal or a raw deal. In writing that book i spent a lot of time, about 10 years writing it the longest time i ever spent writing a book in the respected soap if was because i wanted to get this right. I went and i asked my fellow history professors and students to, what do you think was Franklin Roosevelts best policy maneuver, what did you think was his best program backs i would then sometimes say Franklin Roosevelt failed and i would cite program after program that was a failure where it had horrible unintended consequences. I would say what you think of that and they would frequently say well yeah maybe but he he did this which was good enough in came back to one particular program, the program which went under the name of the emergency relief and construction act. It was a program they gave money immediately to cities and states to feed starving people because we have almost 25 unemployment. I think there is some logic in that argument if you take it just that far. You have a situation where you have 25 of people unemployed and naturally they are going to run out of money at some point unless their savings is huge and most people didnt have that. Then they can feed their families and so even if other parts of roosevelts program are not so good the fact that he was willing to feed people and use that money is a good thing and it shows the importance of a Good Government program. What i want you to do though is get this, i explored this emergency relief act and the First Program really the First Federal Welfare Program in u. S. History. They called the relief back in the 1930s. We often call it welfare today. Heres an interesting point that it was 300 million. It is a lot if you put it in todays terms of many billions of dollars. It was a Large Program and end away was distributed you might find interesting. The state of illinois which now we have some illinois students. We are not putting them. These are the politicians in the state of illinois. Those politicians in the state of illinois were very clever and very crafty and they maneuvered the situation so that their state received almost 20 of all the money. In other words out of that 300 billion illinois got close to over 55 million. They got more money in illinois than new york, california and texas put together. They did it bite pleading need but they did it more pipe pleading we are good with Franklin Roosevelt getting votes for him when they needed them the most. Roosevelt could count of illinois delivering systems and emergency situations. They were politically important. Illinois was a swing state and roosevelt wanted to carry it. Illinois ansf the number one state receiving this relief money. Pennsylvanias number two. I know those are large states but they are not the largest states and you also find it adjusting to know that states that tended to be republicans in the 1930s didnt do so well. Massachusetts, its hard to believe that massachusetts was a republican state at one time but it was pretty 1930s massachusetts and connecticut were both republican states. Massachusetts and connecticut received a grand total of zero money. In other words three and william dollars is being spent for relief and massachusetts boston get zero. They werent the only states to give zero. The bottom five states all that zero and they tended to vote republican and the top five states got over half the money. So you have 300 million. The top five states get over half the money. The bottom five states give zero now what is in effect is this not a Welfare Program or a Relief Programs, its a redistribution program. We are redistributing wealth from republican states or states that are are not in some ways serviceable to Franklin Roosevelt to states that are very influential and key in Franklin Roosevelts economic or political career. So what we have Harry Hopkins was one of the leaders on the relief act of endless one of fdrs people and his Administration Administration who was helping to distribute the money and they would be careful to distribute the money to the people who they thought were politically the most worthy of receiving it. Boston is caught in a bind and is part of my research in the book i try to deal with how massachusetts was dealing with this. Listen to this massachusetts constantly worked to raise money because massachusetts has defeated its own unemployed plus it has to sin taxes to washington defeat illinois. Listen to this and massachusetts statewide unemployment drive racine 9 and that in todays money would be more like 50 million. The bostick civic symphony were. We gave concerts to benefit the child whispered Boston College and holy cross played an exhibition Football Game for charity. Benefit wrestling match in austin garden supplied 5000 for local needs. I would be closer to 100,000 day. City officials helped mayor curley at boston raised a remarkable 2. 5 million in gifts from city employees. Heres the one i liked the best. Teachers donated 2 of their salary. Lets hear it for the teachers. [applause] i cant take any credit, i was one of teachers for teachers to donate 2 of their salaries to help. Historian charles trout who his studies bostons amazing ability to meet major needs no city had such a High Percentage of jobless. Boston had to because remember the money is being redistributed from massachusetts to alumni. Boston has to take care of its own poor people plus it has to send money to washington so it can be given to illinois. Once you see the Relief Program in this way you realize my gosh this wasnt really so much helping needy people although i guess if you were in illinois you may up and help that this was a redistribution taking it away from massachusetts which is usually are public and state and giving it to alumni which is a swing state. Thats a key component of the one that is the most vigorously defended as part of Franklin Roosevelts new deal. He was greatly expanded under roosevelt. It was passed late in hoovers administration in the campaign of 32 and operated mostly under roosevelt and expanded under roosevelt. The program that is best known as the new deal is wpa. The Works Progress administration to give jobs and other things. There are a lot of roads being built by the wt a. They are unemployed and now well have them build roads. That pokes them to get will to work and in media roads built and thats a good program to. And the wpa we find theres a familiar picture here. This sounds familiar like you are listening to a broken record those people who had influence were able to get at a lot of wpa funds. Those people who were not from influential states did not get very much at all. I have some quotations that i thought maybe would make the point in the book. Beachy copeland democratic county chairman of indiana explained in this quote what i think will help is to change the wpa management from top to bottom. Put men in there who are in favor of using these democratic projects to make votes for the Democratic Party. That doesnt leave a lot to the imagination, doesnt it . James dougherty from New Hampshire said quote it is my personal belief that the tour belongs to spoil to the democrats should be holding most most of this those wpa position so that we might strengthen the 1940 election. Wow. The wpa director in new jersey answered his phone. Hes the w. Pa director and he always answered his telephone democratic headquarters. That is where you had to show yourself to be able to get a job in new jersey with the wpa. Frank palley who was a congressman from newark new jersey said this. In this county there are 18,000 people on the wpa. With an average of three people and a family you have 54,000 potential democratic votes. Can anyone beat that if its properly mobilized . This is again a program to redistribute money and a political direction to benefit president roosevelt. The final program i want to mention is the aaa agriculture adjustment act geek is farmers were in trouble. So roosevelt came up with a plan to help the farmers. This plan that roosevelt came up with is so wild it could only have been invented by a college professor. And it was. Professor john black of harvard help to this program the aaa predict he component we are going to give aid to the farmers and give aid to the farmers because they are getting low prices for their crops. What we are going to do is get more money to the farmers because their crops are not getting much money and we are going to do it by paying farmers not to produce. They will be allowed to take part of their land out of circulation up to one fourth of their land and they will be paid not to produce on that land. That way they get more money because they are paid not to produce. They dont have to work as hard and it doesnt produce as much crop so maybe that will raise crop prices. Turns out a lot of farmers were buying fertilizer with their money and heavily fertilizing netherlands and they had crops that were bigger than ever. Anyway put that aside for the ideas if you pay farmers not to produce. Lets be honest students i have my glasses and im ready to look how many of you would like to be paid not to do homework . This is really big. I dont want to appear so righteous i would like to be paid not to grade homework. [applause] the crazy thing is one of roosevelts cabinet members would say if we are going to pay farmers not to produce how are we going to tell others that we are not going to pay them not to produce . Said program of kansas. Said this is stupid. Then he got a plus. There were a lot of people plotting. And then the farmers came up and said, are you going to take our program away from us . Are you going to take our program away from us . In these kind of a rhino, he was out of kansas and he said, no, ill discriminate better than the democrats. It raises the question doesnt it. If youre going to validate it as a reasonable program who should the farmers vote for, the guy who paid them and gave them a program that pays them not to produce or a guy who says im going to run better. Well we got an answer to the question historically and in 1936 governor was a republican candidate running against Franklin Roosevelt and he received, roosevelt carried kansas, that tells a lot doesnt it. He cannot carry his home state. He lost kansas because people like subsidies in impact he lost in the Electoral College and roosevelt had 523 electoral votes and landon had eight. And that was the first message that roosevelt even when employment was still very high that roosevelt by redirecting the way people thought about politics, all give you a subsidy i hope to get your vote. This politics was going to be new and changed the american Political Landscape forever. The final thing want to mention that roosevelt did, you have to ask a question, if Unemployed People are getting subsidies or people who dont have anything to eat maybe get up subsidy and farmers getting subsidies, who is going to pay for all this. The taxpayers are going to have to pay for which roosevelt says we will raise the tax rate, he raised the top marginal rate the highest income earners to 79 , then he raised it to 90 and then he brought the tax to 94 on all income over 200,000. , 94 tax rate you might think roosevelt is pushing it. He wanted more. He personally wanted a tax rate of 99 , 99. 5 of all income over 100,000 and suggested that to the budget director. That means if you earn 200,000, you pay a lot on the first hundred but the second hundred thousand, you get to keep 500 and you send 99500 to washington. When roosevelt proposes his budget director he said oh my gosh and roosevelt said why not. And it was called the why not solution. Why not. When i raise us up i think we will have tax of 99 of income over 100,000 there you go why not. Will that did not become, roosevelt tried in executive order of 100 on all income that are 25000. That got repealed by congress. Then roosevelt tried another attempt and 100. 6 tax on millionaires. 100. 6 tax on millionaires. Why not if you were a millionaire according to this textbook, you would pay 1,006,000 so another words if you earn 1 million you pay 1,006,000. I thought this would be good to read the congressional record and see what people are saying about this, the coauthor of this book was my wife anita is called fdr goes to war. And this was in 1940s and we had 100. 6 tax proposed and i thought we will see does that strike you, i have not seen any historian whatever done that. But i thought i would like to know how the debate went on this tax. I discovered one congressman said this, the government at any time make income taxes as big as the necessities of war require if any plan does not reason of money, taxes can be increased and the government always has a moral if not an actual lien on all of her income. Senator chandler from kentucky, Happy Chandler from the state of kentucky, he said mr. President , all of us to wait for everything that we have. And that is the basis of obligation in the government can take everything that we have if the government needs it. The government can assert its right to have all the taxes it needs for any purpose either now or at any time in the future. In other words, there is support for the taxable. I see the look on some faces. Did any protesters . Did anybody speak against it . I home to the record that you be happy to know there was people who spoke against it. [applause] [cheering] and forever more, one of them, again back in the day massachusetts was a republican state and congressman Charles Gifford of massachusetts this 100. 6 tax bill was supposed to be in effect for three years. It was not initially proposed as a for everything. But a year thing to 100. 6. However, it had the potential to be forever with the three year trial. Charles stated the problem this way. For three long years he has to pay more than he receives, how does he pay his other taxes . How does he meet his living expenses. I was glad to see somebody asked that. There was a response. Congressman jerry cooper from tennessee defended the 100. 6 and he said this. The first statement is profound and i want to give this to you. It may not be possible to pay more than one year taxes out of one years income. We read the whole thing. It may not be possible to pay more than one years taxes out of one years income but with few exceptions persons in the higher bracket have asset that they can used to pay. And that is the defense and we have the same in the senate. Senator of louisiana said i submit the taxpayer is likely to have accumulated sufficient assets which to make the necessary income payments. Now there were some, i have to give arthur credit here. Senator from michigan, he said that bill is called class baiting. I decline to be any part of it. If we start discriminating, how will we ever stop. The bill was defeated. [applause] president roosevelt settled for 94 on all income over 200,000. You might say, what did get us out of the depression . , we cut taxes after world war ii and we cut the Corporate Tax from 90 to 39 and we cut the income tax and promise more tax cuts later and roosevelt died in all of a sudden the republicans had the conservative democrats plus republicans took control of congress in 1946 and they freed up the economy in all of a sudden we get incredible inventions and expansion and now all of a sudden people have the capital to make these investments. Things like fastfood and mcdonalds comes in at this time. Things like the copy machine, Chester Carlson invented xerox machine in the 1930s. But he could not raise capital to invest in that because of the high tax rate. Once the tax rate goes down in world war ii he is able to invest. What happens after world war ii with the cutting of the tax rate in the freeing up of our economy the capitalist come back into the lineup and begin to make the investments in the United States end up Unemployment Rate drops to less than 4 in 1946 and also in 1947 and with that freeing of the economy at last we are out of the Great Depression. [applause] why not. In other words, these are important because they go together. If you believe capitalism caused the Great Depression, and then you believe government got us out of the Great Depression, that bias any discussion you are going to be in on why should we not use free enterprise. But if you realize that government got a sin to the Great Depression and getting lesson to the Great Depression and it took a lot of free markets which was not the beginning of the depression because what happens to the soldiers when they come back home. Because of the tax rate cuts in the 1940s and the freeing up of the economy, they did have places to work and were out of the Great Depression in the 1940s and the incentives were put in place for entrepreneurs to invest and invent and expand and were out of the Great Depression. Its the reverse of the myth. They got a sin to the Great Depression and capitalism got us out. [applause] lets do one more myth. Myth number three, the final one. Black americans supported let me ask you this. You can about voting. We will get the 13th amendment which will end slavery, the 14th amendment which gives civil rights to black americans and then you have the 15th amendment which gives the vote to box. From 1860s 1870s with black americans running for office, let me put it this way. From after the civil war roosevelt, about 60 some years, we had 23 members of congress who were africanamerican and black. 23 members. Somebody know what party they ran . All 23 were republican. [applause] 23 out of 23 were republican. Two members of the senate over the 65 or so year. And everyone was republican. In part because not only because republican Abraham Lincoln was instrumental in securing their freedom but when it came to voting on it thats where the republicans were. On ending slavery, on the 13th amendment, 100 of republicans supported it and less than a quarter supported it. You take the 14th a moment, which gives civil rights to blacks. 100 of republicans supported it, 0 of democrats supported it. So what i am saying, its northern and southern democrats that are involved in opposing Voting Rights, civil rights and even freedom for africanamericans. Yes they will be republican, the ku klux klan became the arm of the Democratic Party. And there was even massacres that occurred, not just stopping Voting Rights but massa cures with the death of the ku klux klan. You might think it is secret. This is before we have the secret ballot. That really happens in the 1890s. And a lot of blacks were threatened by employers sometimes, you had to come in, he they could see your ballot and if you vote republican you are fired. Theres all sorts of pressure, even with the pressure with 23 congressman all republicans. The question is, you seen how Franklin Roosevelt is a politically shrewd person. And he looks at this, not only are every black republican but the first woman to be elected to congress, republican. The first hispanic and u. S. Senate republican, when roosevelt beat hoover the Vice President was in india. Charles curtis senator from kansas ran as hoovers Vice President. You have a native american as a Vice President and you have the first woman in congress as republican and roosevelt want to break that because republicans tend to say we want limited government and therefore opportunity and immigrants and others come over and we want to minimize barriers so they can participate in the American Economy and thats it from the freedom that is so special with the United States. Roosevelt is practicing more identity politics where we pick groups, try to get the votes with money and theres farmers over there, lets wheel the truck load of dollars and drop it. Now that is the firm vote. Now wheel the truck over to unemployed and were going to try to get those votes and put together a coalition to win elections. Obviously roosevelt is saying the blacks are in the Republican Party are they. The staff on the white house was integrated. Everything is hyde park up the hudson river roosevelt had a summer home in warm springs georgia. The staff was segregated at the warmest springs resort and he bought warm springs and he had that because many of you know roosevelt had polio and it says something positive, he tried to do something with his life and he became president. But he did have polio and was incapacitating and he had springs and georgia that he used that helped him be able to move his body a little bit and gave him relief. However, only whites were allowed to use these, the blacks were barred. If you are black you had polio and you could only come in if you are white. So roosevelt was not exactly a friend to black americans in fact his first appointee to the Supreme Court was hugo black. From alabama who was a member of the ku klux klan. And who had his campaign for senate, not his Campaign Manager but chief advisor was a leader of the ku klux klan in alabama. So that was roosevelts first appointment. The question, can someone without record when the black vote. Roosevelt wanted to give it a try. What roosevelt did, he looked at the one republican congressman, oscar the priest who all the enough was from chicago and i so the first 23 black members of congress were republicans, they all had come and gone and there was one in office with roosevelt became president and that was a priest from chicago. He says lets get 70 to run against the priest. So they cannot find anybody really so they went to another republican in chicago and got him to change his registration and said they would back him. So Arthur Mitchell was going to run against the priest. Then we have the funding of mitchell. It often went through black churches in the area to priest district and he became an advocate for African American rights in the cafeteria in the house of representatives and you looking to integrate that. Mrs. Uber was meeting with the wives of congressman and his wife was involved in integrating blacks into whites in washington, d. C. And oscar being the only black congressman at the time. He thought this would pull me through, this is who i am. I am helping to advance liberties for black americans. He discovered on election day that the pile of money that was contributed to Arthur Mitchell overpowered what he brought to the table in a 51 to 49 vote, the first democrat ever elected to the u. S. Congress in 1934, Arthur Mitchell beat oscar the priest in 1936 there was federal aid to africanamerican areas. Franklin roosevelt was the first democrat to win a majority of the black vote. It shifted from 75 or more to 75 democrat. Under Franklin Roosevelt and when he put those pieces into his new Deal Coalition he won four straight elections and died in the midst of his fourth term. My point on the myth, black africanamericans are blacks did not support the Democratic Party because the democrats earned the trust of the black community. Africanamericans like the farmers and like others who are unemployed support the democrats because the democrats got the votes. That might be hard for the democrats but they significantly increase their vote in those areas. That is myth number three. Those three, i was in college decades ago but i was in college too, my professors came forward with those three arguments again and again, and again. I found it difficult having conservative instincts to combat that. If capitalism causes Great Depression lets continue to use government. Once we turn this around and do the research the Great Depression was caused by government the capitals would have it to get us out in the shift of black voters was during roosevelts time because of the idea of making contribution to secure votes then we began to understand better why the world is as it is today in the task that conservatives have two try to create better laws that are more sympathetic to freedom to change a country around so we can have Less Government and more people. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Why not freedom . Heres a look at authors on book tv after words. The weekly Author Interview program that includes bestselling nonfiction books and guest interviewers. Last week former virginia democratic governor recounted events that led up to the tragedy in charlottesville following the 2017 ride the rally. Coming up Media Research founder and president who argued that the media is biased against President Trump and this weekend on after words journalist Natalie Baxter offers her thoughts on the u. S. Education system can be improved by expanding the Elementary Students and history, science and the arts. Those test which i become the yardstick which we measure progress, you look at them and they seem to be measuring comprehension skills. And find the main idea in teachers naturally in a ministry theres think thats whats being tested are the skills. One reason kids score low is because they dont have the background knowledge to understand the reading passages in the first place. Is not that they cant make and influence they make influence in the life all the time. Some toddlers can make a difference. Thats not the problem. They lack the background and vocabulary to understand the passage. That has been a big problem and overlooked. After words is saturdays at 10 00 p. M. And sundays at 9 00 p. M. Eastern and pacific on book tv on cspan2. All previous after words are available as podcasts and to watch online a booktv. Org. Book tv attends hundreds of programs every year. At a recent and that in washington, d. C. Former ceo of the Melinda Gates foundation spoke with her about her work with women around the world. Here is a portion of the program. I was there in northern india to talk to her because she had a young son standing beside her side and a beautiful newborn baby boy in her arms that she clearly loved. I was there to talk about her Safe Delivery in this clinic that we have helped support. We know if women go to clinics they are less likely to die in childbirth and their child is more likely to live to the childbirth. She had a wonderful experience, telling me about it, she was a little bit shy but willing to talk. So i was about ready to finish up the visit that i had with her and i said, what are your hopes and dreams for these two beautiful sons that youve got. And she cast her eyes down for a long time and i thought, i asked in indelicate question, i made a mistake. And all of a sudden she looked up with tears in her eyes after she was warm and smiling and she looked me in the eye and said the truth is, i have no hope, no hope for feeding this son when im finished breastfeeding or educating them. She knew i was a western woman in a pair of khaki pants and a tshirt and she said, would you take them home with you, that is their only hope. And i was devastated after the trip. Because for any mother anywhere in the world who loves her children to ask a stranger to take them home it tells you how dire the circumstances were. And i learned from talking with mina and many other women that you have to let your heart break over time and i learned from a trip to india to take the stories and the heartbreaking stories and figure out after you work through them and metabolize them in the deep sadness to say what can we do and what should we do what are we able to do to lift up these women and their children so they do have more hope in their lives and one of the answers, the best answers beside fox nation is birth control. Her new book is the moment of list. To watch the rest of the event visit our website at booktv. Org and search for the authors name or the books title at the top of the page. Conversations]