This column came from the file cabinet and was printed on March 11, 2009. I think it's still good today, especially considering the upcoming political debates and 2024 elections.
In fact, I think I could call it one of my favorites.
It brings to mind the fact that while we were beginning to believe we could eventually be involved in a war back in 1941, it was Japan who pulled the trigger. As I tell people, I'm at the age where I already have everything I need — but I never know when I might find something that I can't live without.
Such was the case when a super salesman tried to get me to buy a box of old magazines he'd sell me for $5.00. They were all smoke damaged from a house fire and, as such, had no possibility of ever becoming an investment. They were from the middle- and late-1930s, and the ads alone were fun to look at, particularly the car ads. (This was when a new 1935 Plymouth could be picked up at the factory for less than $600.)
I could not resist.
There were short stories by well known writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's magazines. Those two publications had clever cartoons, with Collier’s having the most and the best ones. The other items in the box were mostly women's magazines, farming magazines and a few Better Home and Gardens.
I slowly read my way through them, soiling my hands and my trousers by touching the smoke-discolored covers, until I reached the bottom about 20 days ago. (Remember, this was 2009 that I first wrote this).
There I found the gem of them all — the June-July, 1940, issue of the Democratic Digest, devoted almost entirely to the upcoming party convention to choose a presidential candidate. There were no mysteries about who that would be, of course, although no president had ever run for a third consecutive term before.
But Franklin Delano Roosevelt became our first.
A surprise (to me) was learning how, officially, the party was still taking an isolationist stance at the same time (as we now know) that the president was working to engage us in the European war front.
Three statements listed under the New Deal Foreign Policy Statement bear this out.
On Oct. 2, 1935, in San Diego, the president said, "The United States shall and must remain as, the father of our country prayed that it might remain, unentangled and free.”
At Chautauqua, New York, in August FDR said, "We shun political commitments which might entangle us in foreign wars."
Finally, at a press conference on Feb. 3, 1939, he said, "We are against any entangling alliances, obviously."
Elsewhere, an article on the first two years under the wage and hour law noted that the minimum wage had just been raised from 25 cents an hour to 30 cents an hour. Wow! The work week was reduced to 42 hours as well.
There were several articles on recruiting more women for policy-making positions. The fact that Eleanor Roosevelt was at the forefront in those efforts shouldn't surprise anyone today.
And, so, as we confront the challenges of today's world, it doesn't hurt to remember that critical, crazy times are not new. This periodical reminded me of that. After I read the articles, I decided to donate them to the Lewis County Democratic Central Committee, which I did after having already received my $5 worth of enjoyment — and insight into what might be ahead.
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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
