Posted on 07/11/2012 1:16:09 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
HYDE PARK, N. Y., May 31 (U.R) - President Roosevelt today began implementing his proclamation of an unlimited national emergency today by naming Secretary of Interior Harold. L. Ickes virtual dictator of the $10,000,000,000 American oil industry.
Designating Ickes as petroleum coordinator for national defense, Mr. Roosevelt ordered him to formulate a program to insure "that the supply of petroleum and its products will be accommodated to the needs of the nation and the national defense program."
The move followed Mr. Roosvelt's warnbig in a letter to Speaker Sam Rayborn that oil rationing in the east is a "distinct possilbility" in the next tew months and Ickes’own prediction that gasoline-less Sundays in eastern states may shortly become an actuality.
Mr. Roosevelt, in a letter to Ickes, gave him power only to "make specific recommendations" to federal or state governmental authorities and, to the petroleum industry. But under the state of unlimited emergency proclaimed by Mr. Roosevelt last Tuesday night, there was little doubt that the "recommendations" of the new coordinator or matters of petroleum dispersion and use would amount to a virtual ukase.
(Excerpt) Read more at newspaper.twinfallspubliclibrary.org ...
This is history that needs to be remembered. I'm glad to dig it out and put it on display.
FDR's 11 Dictators are as follows:
(1) Censorship Dictator (Dictator of Censorship)
(2) Information Dictator (Dictator of Information)
(3) Economic Dictator
(4) Food Dictator
(5) Manpower Dictator
(6) Oil Dictator
(7) Price Dictator
(8) Production Dictator
(9) Rubber Dictator
(10) Shipping Dictator
(11) Transportation Dictator
The Wikipedia page for Executive Branch Czars unsurprisingly omits this fact.
You post a lot about WW2 related items, are you interested in this?
He was pretty honest about it, at least.
And yes, that Harold Ickes is the father of the Harold Ickes we all know and love from the Clinton years.
Not going there....nope, not me............
Ahh, come on, why not????
Thank you for not going there. I appreciate that.
(9) Rubber Dictator
I think that is a rubber potato that is worn at a “come as you are” costume party.
Actually the WW2 “Rubber Czar” was a man named Jeffers, head of the Northern Pacific Railroad who took on Ickes and others regarding the problems with the Synthetic Rubber/Natural Rubber conflicting programs.
Jeffers was “old school”. He demanded from FDR that if he took over as “Rubber Czar” he could do the following.
1. Make the final decisions about priorities. He got it.
2. Run his railroad at night from his hotel room. He got it.
3. Get paid breakfasts, etc. He did not get this.
America got both a successful rubber program and synthetic rubber program so vital to the war effort (tires for planes, trucks, etc).
One of America’s great unsung heroes (A Dollar A Year Man) of WW2.
Ickes was sometimes right on setting priorities but he was a bastard to work with and alienated many hardworking subordinates.
Actually, the article says Ickes would be a virtual dictator, not that this was his title.
If you have any reference that shows these guys actually carried the title Dictator, I’d like to see it.
BTW, this was entirely justified at such a time, and necessary to win the war. The problem is that liberals are enthralled with the power (properly) given such guys during wartime and want to extend it into peace and make it permanent. With them in charge, of course.
a great cartoon from 1934 Ickes is on the wagon. read more here: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/06/14/trib-reruns-1934-cartoon-planned-economy-or-planned-destruction
In times of war extreme measures are often called for and in times of peace they should evaporate. Unfortunately we’ve become a nation perpetually at war with an ever expanding definition of someone or something and the dictators/czars have become permanent unelected bureaucratic fixtures that perpetuate themselves.
We now have redundant czars not doing the job the original czar wasn’t doing. We have a great lakes czar who is supposed to have jurisdiction over invasive species in the great lakes AND a carp czar who has the same jurisdiction.
BTW Great lakes czar Cameron Davis is another radical environmentalist who has spent his life “freeing” the rivers from man’s stewardship. (removing dams and restricting access to water.)
This cartoon is the blueprint of the democratic party.
Looks like the Clinton people are being put into place.
All Plants Ready Soon Jeffers leaves the rubber dictatorship with two-thirds of the synthetic rubber plants planned for this year completed and ready for operation..............
In appointing Chester C. Davis as food dictator, President Roosevelt picked a man who..........
America’s corporate leaders were a different breed in the 40s. In fact, the whole population of America was a different breed.
I said “title” of dictator. Not what the press calls them.
They call Obama’s “special advisors” czars, but that ain’t their title.
“...this was entirely justified at such a time, and necessary to win the war” I agree with much of what you stated; with all due respect, this story is dated six months before The U.S. entered the war. Thank you for considering another viewpoint.
I was well aware this was prior to the US entry into the war.
However, I assume the reason he was given these powers by Congress was their (accurate) awareness that the world had become a very dangerous place and the US needed to get its military act together as a precautionary measure if nothing else. Less than a year before, the US had reintroduced the draft, a much bigger imposition on personal freedom.
I’m as big a fan of freedom and free markets as anybody, but while they are wonderful things, they are no way to fight and win a war.
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