A Fair Deal: The progressive America

[Mr Progressive]

In his 1946 State of the Union speech, president Harry Truman outlined his economic/social policies that would continue the tradition of his preceded Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal. The Fair Deal would be immense amount of new legislative proposals to encourage a stronger nation based on the fundamental works of the "have-nots", such as the working class, the poor, the disabled, and minorities. In this address, Truman speaks to a very conservative congress that wants to dismantle the New Deal. The speech would be otherwise known as the "21 Points" speech. The measures Truman wanted to propose to congress in his "21 Points" speech included the following:


1.Major improvements in the coverage and adequacy of the unemployment compensation system.
Substantial increases in the minimum wage, together with broader coverage.
2.The maintenance and extension of price controls to keep down the cost of living in the transition to a peacetime economy.
3. A pragmatic approach towards drafting legislation eliminating wartime agencies and wartime controls, taking legal difficulties into account.
4.Legislation to ensure full employment.
5.Legislation to make the Fair Employment Practice Committee permanent.
6.The maintenance of sound industrial relations.
7.The extension of the United States Employment Service to provide jobs for demobilized military personnel.
8.Increased aid to farmers.
9.The removal of the restrictions on eligibility for voluntary enlistment and allowing the armed forces to enlist a greater number of volunteers.
10. The enactment of broad and comprehensive housing legislation.
11. The establishment of a single Federal research agency.
12. A major revision of the taxation system.
13. The encouragement of surplus-property disposal.
14. Greater levels of assistance to small businesses.
15. Improvements in federal aid to war veterans.
16. A major expansion of public works, conserving and building up natural resources.
17. The encouragement of post-war reconstruction and settling the obligations of the Lend-Lease Act.
18.The introduction of a decent pay scale for all Federal Government employees--executive, legislative, and judicial.
19. The promotion of the sale of ships to remove the uncertainty regarding the disposal of America’s large surplus tonnage following the end of hostilities.
20.Legislation to bring about the acquisition and retention of stock piles of materials necessary for meeting the defense needs of the nation.
21. Cleaning slums

[d32123]

It will be interesting to see how this timeline progresses.

[Van555]

I like where this is going

[Mr Progressive]

On February 6, 1946, Harry Truman took an overseas trip to Great Britain for an exclusive talk with Clement Attlee over a discussion on the future of both of their receptive countries. Attlee talk of nationalizing health care in his own receptive country gave new ideas of how Truman could instituted the Beveridge model in a country where the opposite side of congress are hostile to anything government funded related. Truman also gives consideration to public funding TV/radio since Truman thought the BBC was "one of most extraordinary spectacular thing I've ever witness when it comes to the fields of combining the arts/entertainment with the news and the sports. I feel that every American ought to have an American equivalent of this service you have Mr Attlee". Foreign policy talks were discuss with the problems surrounding the Soviet Union post WWII and how to rebuild Europe and bring back her foot to the bright glory days of pre Depression-WWII era.

[THE OBSERVER]

Keep going!

[Drakan]

Being a conservative, I still like parts of the fair deal that Truman propose.

[Mr Progressive]

The introducing of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1946 that will establish the American Association Broadcasting Corporation and American Broadcasting Radio is proposed by California congresswomen Helen Gahagan Douglas. The bill is passed in the house with narrow 235-200 with most of the opposition coming from the far-right of the GOP and the conservative wing of the Democratic Party.

The act starts as:


1) it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes;
(2) it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of nonbroadcast telecommunications technologies for the delivery of public telecommunications services;
(3) expansion and development of public telecommunications and of diversity of its programming depend on freedom, imagination, and initiative on both local and national levels;
(4) the encouragement and support of public telecommunications, while matters of importance for private and local development, are also of appropriate and important concern to the Federal Government;
(5) it furthers the general welfare to encourage public telecommunications services which will be responsive to the interests of people both in particular localities and throughout the United States, which will constitute an expression of diversity and excellence, and which will constitute a source of alternative telecommunications services for all the citizens of the Nation;
(6) it is in the public interest to encourage the development of programming that involves creative risks and that addresses the needs of unserved and underserved audiences, particularly children and minorities;
(7) it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to complement, assist, and support a national policy that will most effectively make public telecommunications services available to all citizens of the United States;
(8) public television and radio stations and public telecommunications services constitute valuable local community resources for utilizing electronic media to address national concerns and solve local problems through community programs and outreach programs;
9) it is in the public interest for the Federal Government to ensure that all citizens of the United States have access to public telecommunications services through all appropriate available telecommunications distribution technologies; and
(10) a private corporation should be created to facilitate the development of public telecommunications and to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control

[Mr Progressive]

Comments on my timeline so far?

[THE OBSERVER]

Keep it up. Perhaps thing will be different.

[Drakan]

Originally Posted by Mr Progressive

Comments on my timeline so far?

I like it! Keep it going!

[freethinker]

America could be transformed if Hellish Harry can nationalize the energy and the steel industries

[Simreeve]

Are you sure that this is Harry Truman and not Harry Hopkins?

[historybuff]

You have my attention.

[Jape]

This is interesting. Always found the idea of the New Deal Coalition establishing more "socialist" institutions in the United States intriguing.

[MrHuman]

Subscribed, keep it up.

[TheMann]

I'm liking this a lot already. Truman following FDR's second set of policies? Oh boy does that cause a lot of changes for modern America.... keep it up!

[Orville_third]

Will Wallace still be asked to stay on, or will foreign policy be the wedge that forces him out?

The new network will need a new name- ABC has been around a few years...

[Jape]

Federal Broadcasting Corporation

National Television & Radio System (actually that sounds more like a civil defence group than a media company)

EDIT: Actually I did do a small 'one-shot' TL about the 'Federal Broadcasting Service' headed by a familiar face if its of any inspiration:

http://www.alternatehistory.com/disc...d.php?t=136279

[Apollo 20]

Originally Posted by Mr Progressive

Comments on my timeline so far?

I like this. Keep it going.

[Van555]

I like where this is going.