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Millions of settlers believed that only an end to<br />
traditional capitalism could make things run again. The<br />
new answer was to raise up the U.S. Government as the<br />
coordinator and regulator of all major industries. To<br />
restabilize the banking system, Roosevelt now insured consumer<br />
deposits and also sharply restricted many former,<br />
speculative bank policies. In interstate trucking, in labor<br />
relations, in communications, in every area of economic<br />
life new Federal agencies and bureaus tried to rationalize<br />
the daily workings of capitalism by limiting competition<br />
and stabilizing prices. The New Deal consciously tried to<br />
imitate the sweeping, corporate state economic dictatorship<br />
of the Mussolini regime in Italy.<br />
The most advanced sections of the bourgeoisie -<br />
such as Thomas Watson of IBM and David Sarnoff of<br />
RCA - backed the controversial New Deal reforms. But<br />
for most the reaction was heated. The McCormick family's<br />
Chicago Tribune editorially called for Roosevelt's<br />
assassination. Those capitalists who most stubbornly<br />
resisted the changes were publicly denounced by the New<br />
Dealers, who had set themselves up as the leaders of the<br />
anti-capitalist mass sentiment.<br />
The contradictions within the bourgeoisie became<br />
so great that a fascist coup d'etat was attempted against<br />
the New Deal. A group of major capitalists, headed by<br />
Irenee DuPont (of DuPont Chemicals) and the J.P.<br />
Morgan banking interests, set the conspiracy in motion in<br />
1934. The DuPont family put up $3 million to finance a<br />
fascist stormtrooper movement, with the Remington<br />
Firearms Co. to arm as many as 1 million fascists. Gen.<br />
Douglas MacArthur was recruited to ensure the passive<br />
support of the U.S. Army. The plan was to seize state<br />
power, with a captive President Roosevelt forced to officially<br />
turn over the reins of government to a hand-picked<br />
fascist "strong-man."<br />
shals, collector of customs, and over 400 other Federal<br />
positions.<br />
Irish workers in the neighborhood got raises from<br />
the new Federal minimum wage and hours law. Unemployment<br />
benefits went to those who were still jobless. 300-500<br />
Irish youth earned small wages in the National Youth Administration,<br />
while thousands of adult jobless were given<br />
temporary Works Progress Administration (WPA) jobs.<br />
Forty per cent of the older Irish were on U.S. old-age<br />
assistance. 600 families got ADC. Many received food<br />
stamps. Federal funds built new housing and paid for park<br />
and beach improvements. The same process was taking<br />
place with Polish, Italian, Jewish and other European national<br />
minority communities throughout the North.<br />
It was not just a crude bribery. The Depression<br />
was a shattering crisis to settlers, upsetting far beyond the<br />
turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s. It is hard for us to fully<br />
grasp how upside-down the settler world temporarily<br />
became. In the first week of his Administration, for example,<br />
President Roosevelt hosted a delegation of coal mine<br />
operators in the White House. They had come to beg the<br />
President to nationalize the coal industry and buy them all<br />
out. They argued that "free enterprise" had no hope of<br />
ever reviving the coal industry or the Appalachian communities<br />
dependent upon it. 80<br />
As their would-be Amerikan Fuhrer the capitalists<br />
selected Gen. Smedley Butler, twice winner of the Congressional<br />
Medal of Honor and retired Commandant of the<br />
U.S. Marine Corps. But after being approached by J.P.<br />
Morgan representatives, Gen. Butler went to Congress and<br />
exposed the cabal. An ensuing Congressional investigation<br />
confirmed Gen. Butler's story. With the conspiracy shot<br />
down and keeping in mind the high position of the inept<br />
conspirators, the Roosevelt Administration let the matter<br />
just fade out of the headlines.<br />
During the 1936 election campaign one observer<br />
recorded the New Deal's open class appeal at a Democratic<br />
Party rally in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. The packed crowd<br />
was whipped up by lesser politicians as they expectantly<br />
awaited the Presidential motorcade. State Senator Warren<br />
Roberts recited the names of famous millionaires, pausing<br />
as the crowds thundered boos after each name. He orated:<br />
"The President has decreed that your children shall enjoy<br />
equal opportunity with the sons of the rich. " Then Pennsylvania<br />
Gov. Earle took the microphone to punch at the<br />
Republican capitalists even more:<br />
"There are the Mellons, who have grown<br />
fabulously wealthy from the toil of the men of iron and<br />
steel, the men whose brain and brawn have made this great<br />
city; Grundy, whose sweatshop operators have been the<br />
shame and disgrace of Pennsylvania for a generation; Pew,<br />
who strives to build a political and economic empire with