SOCIALIST PLATFORM OF 1928
(NOTE: Herewith the economic planks of the Socialist party platform of
1928, along with an indication in parenthesis of how these planks have
fared. The list that follows includes every economic plank, but not the
full language of each.)1
1. "Nationalization of our natural resources, beginning
with the coal mines and water sites, particularly at Boulder Dam and
Muscle Shoals." (Boulder Dam, renamed Hoover Dam, and Muscle Shoals are
now both federal government projects.)
2. "A publicly owned giant power system under which the
federal government shall cooperate with the states and municipalities
in the distribution of electrical energy to the people at cost."
(Tennessee Valley Authority.)
3. "National ownership and democratic management of
railroads and other means of transportation and communication."
(Railroad passenger service is completely nationalized through Amtrak.
Some freight service is nationalized through Conrail. The FCC controls
communications by telephone, telegraph, radio, and television.)
4. "An adequate national program for flood control, flood
relief, reforestation, irrigation, and reclamation." (Government
expenditures for these purposes are currently in the many
[non-adjusted] billions of dollars.)
5. "Immediate government relief of the unemployed by the
extension of all public works and a program of long range planning of
public works ..." (In the 1930s, WPA and PWA were a direct counterpart;
now, a wide variety of other programs are.) "All persons thus employed
to be engaged at hours and wages fixed by bona-fide labor unions." (The
Davis-Bacon and Walsh-Healey Acts required contractors with government
contracts to pay "prevailing wages," generally interpreted as highest
union wages.)
6. "Loans to states and municipalities without interest
for the purpose of carrying on public works and the taking of such
other measures as will lessen widespread misery." (Federal grants in
aid to states and local municipalities currently total [non-adjusted]
tens of billions of dollars a year.)
7. "A system of unemployment insurance." (Part of Social
Security system)
8. "The nation-wide extension of public employment
agencies in cooperation with city federations of labor." (U.S.
Employment Service and affiliated state employment services administer
a network of about 2,500 [in 1980] local employment offices.)
9. "A system of health and accident insurance and of old
age pensions as well as unemployment insurance." (Part of Social
Security system.)
10. "Shortening the workday" and "Securing to every worker a
rest period of no less than two days in each week." (Legislated by
wages and hours laws that require overtime for more than forty hours of
work per week.)
11. "Enacting of an adequate federal anti-child labor
amendment." (Not achieved as amendment, but essence incorporated in
various legislative acts.)
12. "Abolition of the brutal exploitation of convicts under the
contract system and substitution of a cooperative organization of
industries in penitentiaries and workshops for the benefit of convicts
and their dependents." (Party achieved, partly not.)
13. "Increase of taxation on high income levels, of corporation
taxes and inheritance taxes, the proceeds to be used for old age
pensions and other forms of social insurance." (In 1928, highest
personal income tax rate, 25 percent; in 1978, 70 percent; in 1928,
corporate tax rate, 12 percent; in 1978, 48 percent; in 1928, top
federal estate tax rate, 20 percent; in 1978, 70 percent.)
14. "Appropriation by taxation of the annual rental value of all
land held for speculation." (Not achieved in this form, but property
taxes have risen drastically.)
1 Free to Choose (©1980), Milton & Rose Friedman, pg. 311