July 15, 1949: The Housing Act of 1949

July 15, 1949: President Harry Truman signed the Housing Act of 1949 into law. It is a major part of his "Fair Deal" legislative program.

In the 1948 campaign, Truman ran largely against the Republican-controlled Congress as obstructive and "do-nothing." But on this legislation, he worked with perhaps his own harshest critic, the man so conservative, he was known as "Mr. Republican," Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Taft and 2 Democrats, Robert Wagner of New York and Allen Ellender of Louisiana, sponsored the bill in the Senate. 

The bill authorized loans to help cities acquire slums and blighted land for public or private redevelopment. It amended the National Housing Act of 1934, by reauthorizing the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) for 6 weeks, and raised by $500 million the amount the FHA was allowed to offer as mortgage insurance.

It required that public housing authorities demolish or renovate one slum dwelling unit for every public housing apartment they built. It provided funds and the authority to conduct extensive research into the economics of housing construction, markets, and financing. And it addressed the problems of rural housing by reorganizing and expanding the loan program initiated under the Bankhead-Johns Farm Tenant Act of 1937, which allowed farmer to purchase and improve farms.

The Senate passed the bill on April 21, 57-13; the House, 227-186 on May 9. A conference committee worked out the differences, and both houses passed it on July 8.

On the plus side, actual houses became more available to people than ever before, and some awful tenements were replaced by housing projects, with aid to cities to provide for police departments for such complexes. On the down side, many of those projects became the same kind of crime-ridden places, anyway, with little net gain, to the point where "the projects" became a byword for black-populated ghettoes in the cities.

*

July 15, 1949 was a Friday. Author Richard Russo was born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 6-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Eddie Lopat pitched a 5-hit shutout. St. Louis native Yogi Berra hit 2 home runs. Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-5 at Ebbets Field. Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Tommy Brown hit home runs in support of Don Newcombe.

* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Howie Pollet pitched a 6-hit shutout, outpitching Robin Roberts. Stan Musial went 1-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Dick Fowler pitched a 7-hit shutout, while Bob Feller didn't get out of the 6th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-7 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Ted Williams went 3-for-5.

* The Washington Senators beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-4.

* And the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at the Polo Grounds. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Pirates, swept, 9-0 and 7-6. Bob Chesnes pitched a 6-hit shutout in the opener. Wally Westlake hit 2 home runs. In the nightcap, Westlake homered again. In the top of the 11th inning, Vic Lombardi singled STan Rojek home with the winning run.

Over the 2 games, Westlake went 6-for-11 with 3 home runs, a walk and 6 RBIs. Ralph Kiner went 4-for-9 with a home run, a walk and 3 RBIs.

July 9, 1952: Dirksen vs. Dewey at the Republican Convention

Everett McKinley Dirksen

July 9, 1952: The Republican Convention is in progress at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. The Eastern establishment wing of the Party, led by Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, their 1944 and 1948 nominee, is angry at losing 5 straight elections, and they want to win. So they want to nominate the most popular man in the country.

Unfortunately, while he is a Republican, Bing Crosby isn't available. So they settle for former General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom they promote as the man who beat the Nazis (as if he didn't answer to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall), and is the best man to beat both the Communists and "the mess in Washington." They run on a formula they call "K₁C₂," for "Korea, Communism, and Corruption."

The conservative wing of the Party is angry at losing 4 straight nomination fights -- to Governor Alf Landon of Kansas in 1936, to Wall Street lawyer Wendell Willkie in 1940, and then to Dewey twice -- and they want one of their own to be nominated. They want Senator Robert Taft of Ohio: The son of a President, the grandson of an Attorney General, a mover and shaker on both domestic and foreign policy, and a man known so conservative, he is known as "Mr. Republican."

Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois, who, like Taft, will one day be named the GOP's Senate floor leader, gives Taft's nominating speech. With a voice so low and a style so florid that it earned him the nickname "The Wizard of Ooze," he points at Dewey, saying, "We followed you before, and you took us down the road to defeat!"

Robert A. Taft

The conservatives had decided they would rather lose with Taft than win with a "liberal." And they launched a pro-Taft demonstration that lasted half an hour. This actually made the Delegate race close. But on the 1st ballot, Eisenhower had 595, leaving him 9 short of a majority. Taft had 500, and his team thought that, by denying Ike a majority on the 1st ballot, they had burst his bubble of invincibility.

Governor Earl Warren of California, Dewey's 1948 running mate, had 81 Delegates. Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota, making the 2nd of his many runs for President, had 20. And General Douglas MacArthur, not actively running because he wanted to be seen as having been "drafted," had 10.

But Stassen, running as a "favorite son," with his own State as a Delegate base, had not received 10 percent of the Delegates. That freed Minnesota's Delegates from their pledge to support him, and, before the 1st ballot could be finalized, those Delegates changed their vote, all but 1 or them, giving Ike 614 and a majority.

There no longer were enough conservative Delegates to deny Eisenhower the nomination. But there were enough of them to stick "Ike" with one of their own as his Vice Presidential nominee. Senator Richard M. Nixon of California was only 39 years old, but already had a reputation as a Communist-hunting firebrand -- and also one as the biggest liar in either house of Congress.

Pat & Dick, Ike & Mamie, and the Chicago Tribune,

still billing itself as "The World's Greatest Newspaper,"

was, as usual, in the tank for the GOP.

Two nights later, on July 11, Ike was nominated. He had famously titled his postwar memoir Crusade in Europe. The Republicans had called their fight against Communism a "crusade." Ike told the Delegates, and told the nation, "I know something about leading a crusade. I have led one."

If the Democrats want to keep the White House for another 4 years, they will have to run against the Republicans as a whole, and against the man already known as "Tricky Dick," as much against Ike. Because running just against Ike, without the strength of the incumbent, but with the status as incumbents in an anti-incumbent year, would be a fool's errand. And, at this point, they don't even know who their nominee will be, only that it won't be outgoing President Harry Truman.

As it turned out, it was just as well that Taft was not nominated to be the 34th President of the United States: In April 1953, 3 months into his tenure as Majority Leader, he was diagnosed with cancer. He died on July 31, 1953, at the age of 63.

One thing is for certain: If Taft had won the nomination, it would have been the other wing of the party demanding a balanced ticket, and thus Nixon would not have been nominated for Vice President, and thus someone else would have been sworn in as the 35th President of the United States on July 31, 1953.

*

July 9, 1952 was a Wednesday. John Tesh, former co-host of the TV show Entertainment Tonight, and composer of "Roundball Rock," the theme song to NBC's NBA broadcasts, was born on this day.

But there were no games played: The only sport in season in North America at the time was baseball, and this was during the All-Star Break. The night before, the All-Star Game was played at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. This is the only time that game has ever been shortened due to rain: The National League was leading the American League, 3-2 after 5 innings, making it official, when it was called.

Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Hank Sauer of the Chicago Cubs, who would go on to be named the NL's Most Valuable Player despite the Cubs only finishing 5th, hit home runs. Among those selected for the 1st time, but not getting into the game, were 20-year-old Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees and 46-year-old Leroy "Satchel" Paige, then with the St. Louis Browns.

June 28, 1940: Wendell Willkie Is Nominated for President

June 28, 1940: Wendell Willkie is nominated for President at the Republican National Convention, at the Philadelphia Civic Center. It was the 1st political convention broadcast on television -- the Democratic National Convention would follow, 4 weeks later -- but that's not what was historic about this Convention. Hardly anybody had television sets to watch it on, anyway.

Lewis Wendell Willkie was born on February 18, 1892 in Elwood, Indiana, 46 miles northeast of Indianapolis. The U.S. Army reversed his name to "Wendell Lewis" when he enlisted in World War I, and, since his family had always called him "Wendell," anyway, he never corrected the mistake, and later made that his legal name. He served, but did not see combat.

He dropped out of law school to enlist, and returned. He was hired by the law firm that represented Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, but when he met company founder Harvey Firestone -- a friend of President Warren G. Harding, a Republican -- he was told he would never amount to anything because he was a Democrat.

In 1924, he was a Delegate to the Democratic Convention, the one that went to 103 ballots before Congressman John W. Davis was nominated. Despite being a Midwestern Protestant, Willkie had supported Governor Al Smith, because of Smith's opposition to the Ku Klux Klan, which had essentially taken over the Republican Party in Indiana. In 1925, Willkie got Klan members expelled from the Akron school board.

Willkie built a reputation as a great trial lawyer, representing public utilities. In 1932, he was a Democratic Delegate again, supporting Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected President. But in 1935, with FDR at the height of his New Deal, Willkie broke with him to represent Commonwealth & Southern Corporation against the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1936, Willkie voted for FDR's Republican opponent, Governor Alf Landon. In 1939, he switched parties, becoming a Republican, becoming perhaps the 1st ex-Democrat to say, "I did not leave my party, my party left me."

In 1940, the Republicans figured, after 8 years of the New Deal, the American people would want to go back to conservative leadership. They didn't expect FDR to run for a 3rd term. But with Adolf Hitler taking over most of Europe, and threatening Britain, FDR knew he was the only American politician experienced enough to handle the Nazi leader.

The elections of 1932, 1934 and 1936 had brought many Republican figures down to defeat. But the economic downturn of 1938 knocked a few potential Democratic successors to FDR out of contention. Neither party really had a wealth of contenders. The leading Republican contenders were Senators Robert Taft of Ohio (son of President William Howard Taft) and Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan; and the District Attorney of Manhattan, Thomas E. Dewey.

Dewey was just 38 years old, and, though nationally famous due to his prosecution of organized crime figures, would have been a poor choice as nominee against the veteran FDR. But Taft was in only his 2nd year in the U.S. Senate. More importantly, Taft and Vandenberg were isolationists: Had they been elected, they would have done everything they could to keep America from going to war with Hitler. Therefore, millions of Americans, in both parties -- none more so than FDR -- wanted the Republicans to nominate an internationalist.

After the Nazi invasion of Poland started The War, Willkie gave speeches, including on radio, about the threat to America and the need to aid its allies. He transformed his image: Before, he was mocked, including by Republicans, as "the barefoot boy of Wall Street." As Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Neal, who wrote books about both him and FDR (and also Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower), put it, his wartime speeches "transformed Willkie from a big-business critic of the New Deal into a champion of freedom. And it gave his candidacy new purpose."

Senator James E. Watson, of Willkie's home State of Indiana, was appalled that his candidacy was being taken so seriously. It wasn't because Willkie was the least-qualified Presidential nominee in GOP history. It was because he had so recently been a Democrat: "I may welcome the town whore into my church, but I wouldn't want him to lead the church choir." And Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and widow of House Speaker Nicholas Longworth, owner of the sharpest tongue in Washington society, said that the Willkie campaign came "from the grass roots of ten thousand country clubs."

But Willkie had one key ally: Henry Luce, publisher of Time, Life and Fortune magazines. (Sports Illustrated came later, in 1954.) Luce was one of the biggest names in American conservatism, and he was an internationalist. Born in China as the son of Christian missionaries, he opposed the Nazis in large part because their Axis included the Empire of Japan, which was devastating China. He made sure the stands at the Civic Center were packed with people chanting, "We want Willkie!" This gave the "dark horse" the appearance of having more support than he actually did -- leading to more people switching their support to him, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The brothers Gardner and John Cowles, publishers of Look magazine, and owners of the largest newspaper chain in the Midwest, sought to break the Taft/Vandenberg hold on the region. They figured Willkie could be the man to do it, and asked him to make a speech in St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota. For half an hour, Willkie read a very dry speech. At its end, he threw it to the ground, and said, "Some damn fool told me I had to read this speech. Now, let me tell you what I think." He did, and the audience perked up, and they loved it. The brothers published the speech, and it gained Willkie some support.

Furthermore, Hitler's victory in France, 2 weeks before the Convention, left only Britain between the Nazis and America. When the Delegates gathered in Philadelphia, they joked that Dewey was "the first American casualty of World War II."

Before a candidate could be nominated, a platform had to be approved. It split the difference between what the interventionists and the isolationists wanted: "We favor the extension of aid to all people fighting for liberty or whose liberty is threatened, as long as such aid is not in violation of international law or inconsistent with the requirements of our national defense."

Years later, someone discovered that the text was lifted, almost verbatim, from an ad that had appeared in several newspapers, including The New York Times, over the names of isolationist Congressmen, written and aid for by Nazi agents. But, even at the time, the nationally syndicated journalist H.L. Mencken, no stranger to epic put-downs, especially of the Republican Party, wrote that this was "so written that it will fit both the triumph of democracy and the collapse of democracy, and approve both the sending of arms to England and sending only flowers."

On the 1st ballot, Dewey led with 360 Delegates, to 189 for Taft, 105 for Willkie, 76 for Vandenberg, 74 for Governor Arthur James of Pennsylvania, and 196 scattered among other candidates. James' name was placed in nomination because, in the old days, before Primaries became the way nominees were selected, the Governor of the host city's State, should he be of the same party, was usually given the courtesy of being nominated as a "favorite son." Dewey led, but he was nowhere near a majority of the Delegates, so more ballots would be needed.

On the 2nd ballot, it was Dewey 338, Taft 203, Willkie 171, Vandenberg 73, James 66. On the 3rd ballot, it was Dewey 315, Willkie moving up to 2nd with 259, Taft gaining so that he also had 259, Vandenberg 72, James 59.

Willkie took the lead on the 4th ballot, with 306, to Taft 254, Dewey 250, Vandenberg 61, James 56. On the 5th ballot, Dewey's support collapsed, leaving only 2 contenders: Willkie with 429 Delegates, and Taft with 377. On the 6th ballot, Willkie clinched a majority, with 655 to Taft's 318. Charles McNary of Oregon, the Senate Minority Leader, was nominated for Vice President.

Charles McNary

FDR was relieved. Not because he thought Willkie, whom he'd met a few times, would be easy to beat. Nor because he thought, should Willkie beat him, he would be a good President. It was because FDR knew that, no matter what, whoever was President from 1941 onward would oppose Hitler, and that was Issue Number One, to the point where, whatever people thought Issue Number Two should be, it was far behind in consideration.

Indeed, over the next 4 months, Willkie gave several speeches supporting an internationalist outlook. He did, however, rip FDR's policies more strongly than Landon had in 1936, proving that Republican voters will vote for any Republican, as long as he sufficiently rips the Democratic nominee.

The election was closer than FDR would have liked: He won 55 percent of the popular vote, to Willkie's 45. The Electoral Vote gave the appearance of a landslide, as FDR won 36 States, beating Willkie 449 to 82.

After the election, Willkie made 2 foreign trips as Roosevelt's informal envoy. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into The War, Willkie, as nominal leader of the Republican Party, gave the President his full support.

The War was serious enough that Vandenberg dropped his former isolationist policies, and became one of the leading advocates for building up the armed forces, to the point where one of the early bases of the U.S. Air Force, outside Santa Barbara, California, would be named for him. Taft supported the war effort in full, although, after The War, he opposed the formation of NATO. To his credit, Taft was opposed to the internment of Japanese Americans. To America's detriment, he was the only major American politician, of either party, who was.

Willkie had not entered the Republican Primaries in 1940. In 1944, he did enter the Primaries, but conservatives, angry at his being chummy with FDR, turned on him, and nominated Dewey, who had been elected Governor of New York in 1942.

Willkie died of a heart attack on October 8, 1944, before the election. His former running mate, McNary, had died earlier in the year. So, while the Republicans engaged in a whispering campaign that FDR was sick, or even dying, which turned out to be true, both of the Republicans' 1940 nominees failed to live to see the end of the term for which they had run.

After Willkie, the Republican Party took great care to nominate more qualified candidates for President: From 1944 to 2012, not counting the renomination of incumbent Presidents, they nominated 3 current or former Vice Presidents (Richard Nixon twice and George H.W. Bush), 5 current or former Governors (Dewey twice, Ronald Reagan of California, George W. Bush of Texas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts), 3 Senators (Barry Goldwater and John McCain of Arizona, and Bob Dole of Kansas), and a 5-star General (Dwight D. Eisenhower).

They weren't always more qualified than their respective Democratic opponents, but, at least, they were qualified. Willkie may have been smart, but by no measure was he remotely qualified to be President. An advisor to the President, certainly: He proved that after the election. But the President himself, no. A nominee for the office must be qualified, or you risk having a disastrous Presidency.

In 2016, the Republican Party nominated Donald Trump, who had never previously run for elective office, and had never served in appointive office at any level of government. He and his supporters thought that was a plus. As it turned out, it was a huge minus.

*

June 28, 1940 was a Friday. Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi financier who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his "microcredit" initiative, was born on this day.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. Marius Russo went the distance for the win, Charlie Keller hit a home run, and Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-3.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers were leading the Boston Bees -- as the Braves had been known since 1936, but they would switch the name back the next season -- 2-1 at Ebbets Field, when the game was called due to rain after 8 innings.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Charlie Gelbert doubled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Ted Williams went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Neither of the Waner brothers, Paul or Lloyd, played in this game.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later, on a Sunday. The Browns won the opener, 7-6. George McQuinn singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. The Tigers led, 7-1 after 7 innings, when the game was called due to darkness. Over the 2 games, Hank Greenberg went 3-for-7 with a home run, 2 walks and 4 RBIs.

* And the New York Giants, the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians, and the Philadelphia Phillies were not scheduled.

June 23, 1947: The Taft-Hartley Act

June 23, 1947: The Taft-Hartley Act becomes law, perhaps the most famous example of a law passing over the veto of the President of the United States.

On November 5, 1946, the 1st Congressional elections since the end of World War II were held. After 14 years of Democratic Party control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the Democrats could no longer use the Great Depression and the war's enemies, both of which they'd defeated, as an excuse for continuing some of their policies.

Many of those policies had been pro-labor. Organized labor had largely refrained from striking during The War, but with the end of the war, labor leaders were eager to share in the gains from a postwar economic resurgence.

These strikes unnerved many, including even some within the labor movement, such as the President of the Screen Actors Guild, 35-year-old second-tier movie star Ronald Reagan. Strikes within the film industry turned violent, and it began his turn from liberal to conservative. Indeed, many people weren't smart enough to understand the difference between being pro-labor and being Communist, and turned against the pro-labor Democratic Party.

And the Republican Party, which had been continually punished for having caused the Depression, had a simple slogan for the voters: "Had Enough?" They gained 55 seats in the House, making Joseph W. Martin of Massachusetts the new Speaker of the House; and 12 seats in the Senate, making Wallace H. White Jr. of Maine the Senate Majority Leader, and giving serious committee chairmanships to men like Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan at Foreign Relations. The man considered the real Republican leader, though, was Robert A. Taft of Ohio, son of former President William Howard Taft, and a man so conservative, he was known as "Mr. Republican."

Among the newly-elected Congressmen were 2 future Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts; and Richard M. Nixon, Republican of California.

Many of the newly-elected Congressmen were strongly conservative, and sought to overturn or roll back New Deal legislation such as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which had established the right of workers to join unions, bargain collectively, and engage in strikes.

Taft and Fred Hartley, a Congressman from New Jersey, each introduced measures to curtail the power of unions and prevent strikes. Taft's bill passed the Senate by a 68-to-24 majority, but some of its original provisions were removed by moderates, like Republican Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, who would later switch to the Democrats.

Meanwhile, the stronger Hartley bill garnered a 308-to-107 majority in the House of Representatives. The Taft–Hartley Bill that emerged from a conference committee incorporated aspects from both the House and Senate bills. The bill was promoted by large business lobbies, including the National Association of Manufacturers, wanting labor to be cheap again. In response, the major unions called it a "slave labor bill."

The Taft–Hartley Bill prohibited jurisdictional strikes, in which a union strikes in order to assign particular work to the employees it represents; wildcat strikes, in which unionized workers strike without union leadership's authorization, support, or approval; "solidarity" or "general" strikes, in which a union with no apparent grievance with its workers' current employer goes on strike anyway, in sympathy with another strike; and "closed shops," in which all employees must be union members.

The bill also allowed States to pass "right-to-work" laws, introducing what has been a tendency of Republican action ever since: Giving a law or agency a name that suggests the exact opposite of what it actually does. "Right-to-work" laws prohibit union security agreements between employers and labor unions. This proved particularly popular in the conservative South, a region where "the Party of Lincoln" had previously had very success.

The Conference Committee reported the new Taft-Hartley Bill back to Congress on June, 4, 1947. The same day, the House passed it, 320-79, meaning it had overwhelming support in both Parties. The Senate passed it 2 days later, 54-17 -- meaning that 25 Senators were not even present, not that it would have made a difference.

President Harry S Truman vetoed the bill on June 20, calling it "a dangerous intrusion on free speech." In order to override a President's veto, 2/3rds of each House of Congress must pass it. At the time, that would have meant 290 out of 435 members of the House (which is still the case), and 64 out of 96 Senators (it would now be 67 out of 100). Later in the day on June 20, the House overrode the veto, 331-83, including 106-71 among Democrats. On June 23, the Senate overrode, 68-25, including 20-22 among Democrats. In other words, in each House, the bill actually gained votes. The Taft-Hartley Act was now law, and Truman's grand popularity from right after the war was gone, and then some.

In 1948, running for a full term, Truman made repealing the Taft-Hartley Act part of his standard stump speech. The CIO's unions were fully behind him, and he won, bringing new Democratic majorities to each House of Congress with him.

But he never had full support for repealing the Act. Worse still, there were 12 times over his 1949-53 term that he actually used the Act's provisions. Organized labor felt let down, and abandoned the Democrats in the 1952 election.

Taft died in office, of cancer, in 1953. Hartley, first elected to Congress in 1928, did not run for re-election in 1948. His seat was won by Assemblyman Peter Rodino, a Democrat, and he held it for the next 40 years. Hartley lived until 1969.

The Taft-Hartley Act is still on the books. No subsequent Democratic President has mounted any effort to get it repealed: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

*

June 23, 1947 was a Monday. Australian actor Bryan Brown was born. And these 5 baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-5 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th, to make a winning pitcher of Joe Page in relief of Bill Bevens. Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-4. Rookie Yogi Berra hit a home run.

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Walker Cooper hit a home run for the Giants.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams went 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 10-6 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Braves, 6-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

March 11, 1952: The New Hampshire Primary Matters for the 1st Time

Estes Kefauver

March 11, 1952: For the 1st time, the New Hampshire Primary ends up making a difference.

On the Democratic side, President Harry S Truman hadn't even bothered to campaign, because he'd already decided, but hadn't yet announced, that he wasn’t running for what would have amounted to a 3rd term. He said if he'd run again, "Bess would have impeached me," meaning his wife.

Still, it is a shock that Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee – a Southern State – got 55 percent of the vote, to Truman getting 44 percent as a write-in candidate. Kefauver had become famous while chairing a Senate Committee on organized crime, with its hearings televised. And yet, he did not end up with the nomination. Despite his getting the Vice Presidential nomination in 1956, the 1952 New Hampshire Primary will be the high-water mark of his career.

On the Republican side, the election is won by an unannounced candidate. Retired U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower gets 56 percent. Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, son of a President and the nation's leading active conservative icon, to the point where his nickname was Mr. Republican, only gets 31 percent.

Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota, a holdover candidate from 1948, got just 8 percent, and he never got so close to the Presidency again, despite running again and again until 1992, becoming a national joke. Both Eisenhower and Stassen were then Presidents of Ivy League universities: "Ike" of Columbia in New York, and Stassen of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Forcibly retired General Douglas MacArthur figured that all he had to do was get write-in votes in the Primaries, and a swell of support at the Republican Convention would "draft" him, and he would become the 34th President of the United States. He got 4 percent of the Republican vote in the New Hampshire Primary, and ended up losing the nomination and the White House to Ike, whom he once derisively called "the best clerk I ever had," but who had surpassed him in the public imagination.

This was the 1st time that New Hampshire, with its Winter tableaus, its hatred of taxes of all kinds, and its "retail politics," had seemingly changed the course of a Presidential election. It has saved eventual nominees: Republicans Ronald Reagan in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1988, John McCain in 2008, and Mitt Romney in 2012; and Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.

It has given hope to insurgent candidates that ended up not winning: Democrats Kefauver, Eugene McCarthy in 1968, and Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020; Republicans Henry Cabot Lodge in 1964, Pat Buchanan in 1992 and 1996, and McCain in 2000. And, in 1972, it ruined a front-runner: Democrat Ed Muskie.

*

March 11, 1952 was a Tuesday. Douglas Adams, writer of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA. The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 88-84 at the Philadelphia Arena. And the Rochester Royals beat the Indianapolis Olympians, 82-81 at the Butler Fieldhouse (now the Hinkle Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.

February 19, 1942: The Wartime Internment of Japanese-Americans

February 19, 1942: In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066. According to the official report of the National Archives, "This order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to 'relocation centers' further inland -- resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans." 

Notably, far more Americans of Asian descent were forcibly interned than Americans of European descent, both in total and as a share of their relative populations. Those relatively few German-Americans and Italian-Americans who were sent to internment camps during the war were sent under the provisions of Presidential Proclamation 2526 and the Alien Enemy Act, part of the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 -- surprisingly, still on the books then, and now.

So, while the U.S. went to war with Nazi Germany, and its "concentration camps," it opened its own "internment camps" -- using the term "relocation centers." There were two in Arkansas, two in Arizona, two in California, one in Idaho, one in Utah, one in Wyoming, and one in Colorado.

They weren't slave labor camps, like the Nazi concentration camps or the Soviet gulags. Adults were given jobs, paying $12 to $19 per month. (About $215 to $349 in today's money.) Not much, but they were paid. Still, the camps were guarded by soldiers, and no one could leave. Mail was delivered in and sent out, but, in each case, was inspected by the U.S. Army.

In all, there were 112,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were interned. Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States. Among them was 5-year-old Hosato Takei of Los Angeles, later to call himself George Takei, and to play Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek franchise. He went on to write a play about the experience, titled Allegiance.

On December 18, 1944, forced to do so by the Supreme Court decision Ex parte Endo, FDR suspended Executive Order 9066. Detainees were released, often to resettlement facilities and temporary housing, and the camps were shut down by 1946.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford, who had served in the Pacific Theater of Operations with the U.S. Navy, signed a proclamation formally terminating Executive Order 9066 and apologizing for the internment. He said, "We now know what we should have known then: Not only was that evacuation wrong, but Japanese-Americans were, and are, loyal Americans. On the battlefield and at home, the names of Japanese-Americans have been, and continue to be, written in history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and to the security of this, our common Nation."

But the internment remains a black mark on American history, and especially on FDR's record as President. However, let the record show that the opposition, the Republican Party, raised no objection at the time. Pretty much the only major politician, of either party, who did was Ralph Carr, the Republican Governor of Colorado -- and he was defeated for re-election. Even Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the man so conservative he was known as "Mr. Republican," was convinced to support it.

Nor did anyone, including Taft, suggest a better idea. Certainly, no politician of any renown stood up and said it would have been better to do nothing. Even though it would have been better to do nothing.

On February 26, 1942, 1 week after FDR signed the Order, Canada followed suit with the internment of Japanese-Canadians. So our neighbor to the North, so often showing more freedom to their citizens than we have shown to ours, did the same bad thing.

(UPDATE: As of the elections of 2024, 4 Japanese-Americans have been elected to the U.S. Senate, and 14 have been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In the case of each house of Congress, all but 1 have been Democrats. And 3 members have been elected to both houses. George Ariyoshi and David Ige of Hawaii are the only Japanese-Americans to have been elected Governor of any State.)

*

February 19, 1942 was a Thursday. This was also the day that Japanese planes bombed the Australian port city of Darwin. I have a separate entry for that event. Also, British rock singer Graham Nash, of The Hollies, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, was born on this day.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games in the NHL:

* The Brooklyn Americans beat the Boston Bruins, 6-4 at Madison Square Garden. Desperate to attract fans, the Amerks changed their geographic identifier from "New York" to "Brooklyn," but continued to play at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan. Despite this win over the Stanley Cup holders, they suspended operations due to the war, and never resumed. The NHL was down to 6 teams -- the falsely named "Original Six" -- until 1967, and the New York Tri-State Area had only the Rangers until the arrival of the Islanders in 1972.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.