Replies

I caught that too. That "spectacular economic growth" led my grandfather to enter into union politics. He eventually worked his way up the chairs to a position as national president.

He decided to do the union thing right after he took a paycut ~ something folks forget ~ FDR cut federal employees' pay (which, at that time meant pretty much Post Office Department and Railway Post Office Department employees).

He was a font of stories about that "spectacular economic growth", then he'd laugh.

One day FDR signed his first, last and only federal employee payraise ~ my grandfather was right there and he got the pen.

FDR, like other Presidents, regularly signed new laws with a variety of pens ~ first an F with a blue pen, then an R with a black pen, and so forth so that all the big dogs in Congress and the agencies could get a pen to hand down to the kids, or display in their offices.

He signed this bill, which he'd been forced into, with one pen ~ and then just held up his hand.

Reading through some of the "confidential" government reports of the late l930s concerning federal employee unions, I was able to find that they got their raise mostly for their work engaging in street fights with Commies in DC, Cleveland, New York, etc.

It's hard to find news reports on those matters ~ all very hush, hush.