Ralph Edward Flanders (September 28, 1880 – February 19, 1970) was an American mechanical engineer, industrialist and
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
U.S. SenatorThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
from the
stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
of
VermontThe State of Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd by land area, , and 45th by total area. It has a population of 621,270, making it the second least-populated state...
. He grew up on subsistence farms in Vermont and Rhode Island, became an apprentice first as a machinist, then as a draftsman, before training as a mechanical engineer. He spent five years in New York City as an editor for a machine tool magazine. After moving to Vermont, he managed and then became president of a successful machine tool company. Flanders used his experience as an industrialist to advise state and national commissions in Vermont, New England and Washington, D.C. on public economic policy. He was president of the
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
Federal Reserve BankThe United States Federal Reserve System consists of twelve Federal Reserve Banks, each responsible for a particular district, and some with branches.-Brief history:...
for two years before being elected U.S. Senator from Vermont.
Flanders was noted for introducing a 1954 motion in the Senate to censure Senator
Joseph McCarthyJoseph Raymond McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
. McCarthy had made sensational claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. He used his Senate committee as a nationally televised forum for attacks on individuals whom he accused. Flanders felt that McCarthy’s attacks distracted the nation from a much greater threat of Communist successes elsewhere in the world and that they had the effect of creating division and confusion within the United States, to the advantage of its enemies. Ultimately, McCarthy's tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate.
Biographical
Flanders was born oldest of ten children in
BarnetBarnet is a town in Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,690 at the 2000 census. Barnet contains the locations of Barnet Center, East Barnet, McIndoe Falls, Mosquitoville, Passumpsic and West Barnet.-Geography:...
, a town in
Caledonia CountyCaledonia County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of 2000, the population was 29,702. Its shire town is St. Johnsbury.The county was given the Latin name for Scotland, in honor of the many settlers who claimed ancestry there....
in northeastern Vermont, and spent much of his childhood in
Rhode IslandRhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. In his
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
,
Senator from Vermont, Flanders described life on his family’s subsistence farms in Vermont and Rhode Island, before he left to work in the
machine toolA machine tool is a powered mechanical device, typically used to fabricate metal components of machines by machining, which is the selective removal of metal. The term machine tool is usually reserved for tools that used a power source other than human movement, but they can be powered by people if...
industry for most of his career. In his first years as a machinist and draftsman, he spent his vacations traveling by bicycle over country roads between Rhode Island and Vermont and New Hampshire. Later, he lived for a time in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
where he edited a machine tool magazine, but after five years decided to move back to Vermont. In 1911, he married
Helen Edith HartnessHelen Hartness Flanders , a native of the U.S. state of Vermont, was an internationally recognized ballad collector and an authority on the folk music found in New England and the British Isles...
, daughter of inventor and industrialist
James HartnessJames Hartness was an American inventor; a mechanical engineer; an entrepreneur who mentored other inventors to develop their machine tool products and create a thriving industrial center in southeastern Vermont; an amateur astronomer who fostered the construction of telescopes by amateurs in his...
. They made their home in
Springfield, VermontSpringfield is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 9,078 at the 2000 census.-History:One of the New Hampshire grants, the township was chartered on August 20, 1761 by Governor Benning Wentworth and awarded to Gideon Lyman and 61 others...
, where Flanders became president of the Jones & Lamson Machine Company. Flanders and his wife had three children: Elizabeth (born 1912), Anna (also known as Nancy—born 1918), and James (born 1923).
Professional career
Flanders’s career began with an apprenticeship, progressed into engineering, journalism, management, policy consulting, banking, finance, and finally politics when he was elected U.S. Senator from Vermont.
Education and apprenticeship
Flanders had no formal education beyond the high schools that he attended in
PawtucketPawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 72,958 at the 2000 census. It is the fourth largest city in the state.-History:Pawtucket was the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution...
and
Central Falls, Rhode IslandCentral Falls is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 18,928 at the 2000 census. With an area of only 1.29 square miles, it is the smallest but most densely populated city in the smallest state, and the thirty-second most densely populated incorporated place...
. But even so, he achieved a solid grounding in mathematics, literature, Latin and Classical Greek there. Unable to afford college tuition, his father bought a two-year apprenticeship for him in 1896 at the
Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing CompanyBrown & Sharpe is today a division of Hexagon Metrology, Inc., a multinational corporation focused mainly on metrological tools and technology. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Brown & Sharpe was one of the most well-known and influential firms in the machine tool industry...
, a leading machine tool builder. There and through the International Correspondence School he learned machinist and drafting skills. Following his apprenticeship, he worked for various machine tool companies in New England. Despite his lack of a formal university education, he was a self-taught scholar, who read extensively in the literatures of science, engineering and the liberal arts.
Technical journalism
Flanders began writing early in his career. His published articles on machine tool technology led to a job as an editor of
Machine magazine in New York City. This job, which he held between 1905 and 1910, required him to cover developments in the machine tool industry. He traveled widely to visit the companies that he wrote about, which provided him many valuable contacts with leaders in the industry. As editor, he wrote articles on
gear tooth systemsA gear is a component within a transmission device that transmits rotational torque by applying a force to the teeth of another gear or device. A gear is different from a pulley in that a gear is a round wheel that has linkages that mesh with other gear teeth, allowing force to be fully...
,
gear cutting machineryGear cutting is any number of methods used to manufacture precision gears.Gear hobbing is a method by which a special hobbing anto cutter and gear blank are rotated at the same time to transfer the profile of the hob onto the gear blank....
,
hobsHobbing is a machining process for making gears, splines, and sprockets on a hobbing machine, which is a special type of milling machine. The teeth or splines are progressively cut into the workpiece by a series of cuts made by a cutting tool called a hob...
, the manufacture of
cansA tin can, tin , steel can, or a can, is an air-tight container for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal, and requiring cutting or tearing of the metal as the means of opening...
, and of motor cars, including
Machinery’s reference series on the subject.
In 1909, while working long hours on his definitive book on gear cutting machinery, his energy gave out and he suffered a “nervous breakdown.” He had to take time off to recover. In 1910, he accepted a job offer to work in a machine tool company in Vermont. He continued to write on technical and other matters throughout his life and would develop a broader philosophy of the role of industry in society. In 1938, he received a Worcester Reed Warner Medal in recognition for his technical writing.
Engineering
Flanders's first major experience in machine design came when he helped an entrepreneur in
Nashua, New HampshireNashua is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA. As of the 2000 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,605, making it the second largest city in the state after Manchester...
develop a box-folding machine. After that, he worked as a draftsman for
General ElectricThe General Electric Company, or GE , is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York. In 2009, Forbes ranked GE as the world's largest company...
until 1905, when he moved to New York City to work for
Machine.
In 1910, he moved to Springfield, Vermont to work as a mechanical engineer for the Fellows Gear Shaper Company. He was already friendly with
James HartnessJames Hartness was an American inventor; a mechanical engineer; an entrepreneur who mentored other inventors to develop their machine tool products and create a thriving industrial center in southeastern Vermont; an amateur astronomer who fostered the construction of telescopes by amateurs in his...
, the president of the Jones & Lamson Machine Company (J&L), another company in town. In 1911, Flanders married Hartness' daughter, Helen. Shortly afterwards, Hartness hired Flanders as a manager of the “Fay Lathe Department” at J&L. Flanders redesigned that lathe to achieve higher productivity and accuracy. He became a director in 1912 and president of the company in 1933 after Hartness retired.
As president of J&L, Flanders implemented a continuous production line to manufacture the Hartness Turret Lathe instead of building each machine individually, attempting to bring some of the efficiencies of mass production to machine tool building.
By 1923, he had acquired and assigned more than twenty patents to J&L.
Flanders and his brother, Ernest, were instrumental in developing screw thread grinding machines. These incorporated advances in thread technology (furthered by the Hartness optical
comparatorIn electronics, a comparator is a device which compares two voltages or currents and switches its output to indicate which is larger.- Input voltage range :The input voltages must not exceed the power voltage range:...
) and Flanders’s engineering calculations for gear-cutting machinery. In 1946, the two brothers received the Edward Longstreth Medal of the
Franklin InstituteThe Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest and premier centers of science education and development in the United States. The Institute itself comprises three centers — The Science Center, The Franklin Center, and The Center for Innovation in Science...
as recognition for this accomplishment. They had improved the accurate manufacture of die-cut screws in soft metal and solved the problem of thread-grinding on hardened work.
Professional societies
Flanders became president of the National Machine-Tool Builders Association in 1923. He served as
president of the
American Society of Mechanical EngineersThe American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a professional body, specifically an engineering society, focused on mechanical engineering....
(ASME) from 1934 to 1936. He was vice president of the American Engineering Council in 1937. Throughout the 1930s, Flanders served as chairman of the Screw-Thread Committee of the American Standards Association. In 1944 the ASME awarded him the
Hoover MedalThe Hoover Medal is an American engineering prize.It has been given since 1930 for "outstanding extra-career services by engineers to humanity"...
for his “public service in the field of social, civic and humanitarian effort[s].” The British Institution of Mechanical Engineers made him an honorary member.
Public life
In 1917, Flanders served in the Machine-Tool Section of the War Industries Board. After World War I, he oversaw the completion of international standards for screw threads through the 1930s, first as a member, then as chairman of the Screw-Thread Committee of the American Standards Association.
During the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
Flanders began to write about social policy. His major concern was human development in a technological era. He addressed employing spiritual guidance with a “program of human values” to achieve a good life. Nevertheless, his underlying goal was to achieve “full employment.” So, he kept himself grounded in economic principles, as understood and debated during that era.
In 1933,
Franklin D. Roosevelt’sFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
Secretary of Commerce,
Daniel RoperDaniel Calhoun Roper was a U.S. administrator, particularly under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, born in Marlboro County, South Carolina...
, appointed Flanders to the Business Advisory Council, which was created to provide input to the administration on matters affecting business. The Council then made Flanders chairman of the Committee on Unemployment. This committee recommended addressing the problem both geographically and by industry. Flanders reported, however, that when the committee made its recommendations President Roosevelt was preoccupied with augmenting the Supreme Court and ultimately chose the undistributed profits tax instead—a choice that Flanders felt discouraged capital investment.
In 1933, the
National Industrial Recovery ActThe National Industrial Recovery Act , officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 (Ch. 90, 48 Stat. 195, formerly...
created the
National Recovery AdministrationThe National Recovery Administration was a New Deal agency in the United States. Created under the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933, it was one of the first major pieces of the New Deal program of President Franklin D...
(NRA). The NRA allowed industries to create "codes of fair competition," intended to reduce destructive competition and to help workers by setting minimum wages and maximum weekly hours. Flanders was appointed to the industrial advisory board of the NRA. In a speech before a 1934 conference of the code authority members, attended by
President RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, Flanders opposed a proposal by the Roosevelt administration to require that businesses cut worker hours by 10 percent and raise wages by 10 percent in order to spread employment more widely. Ultimately, economic policy moved away from the codes system.
In 1937, Vermont Governor
George AikenGeorge David Aiken was an American politician from Vermont. A Republican Party, he served as governor of Vermont from 1937 to 1941 and as a U.S. Senator from 1941 to 1975...
appointed Flanders to two commissions: first, the Special Milk Investigative Committee to study ways to modernize dairying in Vermont; and second, the Flood Control Commission, which chose Flanders as its chairman. This commission was to negotiate with other New England states a means of sharing costs in a system of flood-control dams.
In 1940, the New England Council elected Flanders president. The governors of the New England states had established this council to study industry and commerce in their states. Flanders’s role increased his awareness of the labor and business assets in New England. He also tried to alert his peers to the prospect of U.S. involvement in the expanding
Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In 1942, Flanders became involved in the Committee for Economic Development (CED), an offshoot of the
Business Advisory Council, whose purpose was to help re-align the nation to a peacetime economy after the war. Flanders reported helping to shape the CED’s recommendations to Congress on roles for the
World BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans to poorer countries for capital programs, tied to neoliberal market restructurings...
and
International Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in particular those with an impact on exchange rates and the balance of payments...
.
Banking and investment
Starting in the 1930s, Flanders held directorships on the boards of the Shawmut Bank (1938–41), Federal Reserve Bank (1941–44)
Boston and Maine Railroad, National Life Insurance Company,
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
, and
Norwich UniversityNorwich University is a private university located in Northfield, Vermont. There is a Corps of Cadets and a smaller traditional student population. The University was founded in 1819 at Norwich, Vermont, as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy...
.
In 1944, he was elected to a two-year term as president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, the bank helped establish the
Boston Port Authority to revitalize the capacity for cargo from New England.
In 1946,
Georges DoriotGeorges F. Doriot was one of the first American venture capitalists. In 1946, he founded American Research and Development Corporation, the first publicly owned venture capital firm...
, Flanders,
Karl ComptonKarl Taylor Compton was a prominent American physicist and president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1930 to 1948.- The Early Years :...
and others organized
American Research & DevelopmentAmerican Research and Development Corporation was a venture capital and private equity firm founded in 1946 by Georges Doriot, the "father of venture capitalism" , with Ralph Flanders and Karl Compton .ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story when its 1957 investment of...
(AR&D). This was the first
venture capitalVenture capital is a type of private equity capital typically provided for early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale of the company...
company to invest—according to a set of investment rules and goals—in a pool of fledgling companies. Flanders served as a director of AR&D.
U.S. Senate career
In 1940, Flanders ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U. S. Senate. His
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
primary opponent was
George AikenGeorge David Aiken was an American politician from Vermont. A Republican Party, he served as governor of Vermont from 1937 to 1941 and as a U.S. Senator from 1941 to 1975...
, the popular two-term Governor of Vermont. Although Flanders admired and liked Aiken, he felt that Aiken's "liberal" ideas would not help the nation’s economic recovery. In 1990, one of Vermont’s major newspapers, The
Rutland HeraldThe Rutland Herald is the second largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Vermont . It is published in Rutland. With a daily circulation of about 17,000, it is the main source of news geared towards the southern part of the state, along with the Brattleboro Reformer and the Bennington Banner...
described the 1940 Republican primary campaign as dirty and mean. Aiken’s side accused Flanders of selling arms to the Nazis, and Flanders’s side suggested that "Aiken was unduly influenced by his administrative assistant, a pretty 24-year-old with a fondness for power." In retrospect, Flanders felt that he had allowed his campaign advisers to make too many of the decisions. For example, a campaign brochure showed the candidate wearing a three-piece suit and holding a piglet in his arms. Although he had grown up on a subsistence farm and had an active interest in Vermont agriculture—especially in the type of hog shown in the picture—this had the effect of making him appear to be a phony. The
Rutland Herald observed that, “In Vermont in 1940, pigs were common to many households. But so was common sense. There were many people, most in fact, who did not want as their representative someone who would wear his best clothes if he intended to be handling pigs.” Aiken won by 7,000 votes, having spent $3,219.50 to Flanders’s $18,698.45. This campaign taught Flanders that “I had to be myself.”
On November 1, 1946, Vermont Governor
Mortimer R. ProctorMortimer Robinson Proctor , known as Mortimer R. Proctor, was an American politician from Vermont. He served as Governor of Vermont from 1945 to 1947, and as lieutenant governor of Vermont from 1941 to 1945....
appointed Flanders to the U.S. Senate as a Republican to complete the term of Republican Senator
Warren AustinWarren Robinson Austin was an American politician and statesman; among other roles, he served as Senator from Vermont....
. Austin had just been appointed by U.S. President
Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
as
AmbassadorThis article contains several lists of Ambassadors from the United States. There are also individual articles listing the holders of many of the ambassadorial offices, for which see :Category:Lists of United States ambassadors....
to the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
. Flanders's appointment gave him seniority over the freshman Senators who would be elected four days later on November 5. Flanders ran for the office then, as well, and was elected to a full term. He was overwhelmingly reelected in 1952. He declined to seek a third term in 1958.
Senate record and committee assignments
Flanders's voting record in the Senate was more conservative than his senior colleague, George Aiken, and reflected Flanders's business orientation. In his second term, a Republican majority allowed Flanders to obtain seats on the
Joint Economic CommitteeThe Joint Economic Committee is one of four standing joint committees of the U.S. Congress. The committee was established as a part of the Employment Act of 1946, which deemed the committee responsible for reporting the current economic condition of the United States and for making suggestions...
—this committee acted in an investigatory and advisory capacity to both Houses of the Congress—the
Finance CommitteeThe U.S. Senate Committee on Finance is a standing committee of the United States Senate. The Committee concerns itself with matters relating to taxation and other revenue measures generally, and those relating to the insular possessions; bonded debt of the United States; customs, collection...
and the
Committee on Armed ServicesThe Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy , benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and...
. These assignments reflected his interests as a senator.
Political philosophy
Flanders, although himself a conservative, espoused a constructive competition between conservatism and liberalism. He felt that liberalism represented the welfare of individual people, as opposed to organizations—governments, businesses, etc.—preserving freedom of thought and action. For him, conservatism was concerned with preserving institutions that serve the interests of people, collectively. Conservatives, according to Flanders, could find themselves offering "reasoned objections to foolish proposals" by emotionally motivated liberals. He observed that, “Even in the established democracies,… the voters are easily seduced into leaving politics to skillful politicians who are themselves without a sense of general, social responsibility.”
On moral law in policy formulation
Flanders had a strict
CongregationalistCongregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
religious beginning, which evolved with his experience into a belief in “moral law.” He felt that “recognition of moral law is as much a necessary requirement of social achievement as physical law is of material advancement.” In Flanders’s view, moral law required honesty, compassion, responsibility, cooperation, humility, and wisdom—values that all cultures hold in common.. For him it was an absolute standard. He spoke of a “Presence” or “daimon” that “renewed his courage” and “indicated direction” in everything he did.
Flanders referred to the
Marshall PlanThe Marshall Plan was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and repelling communism after World War II...
as an important application of moral law to public policy. He said that the plan’s true purpose was to fend off Communism through the economic restoration of Europe—not to provide relief to Europe (something beyond the powers of the U.S.), nor to enhance gratitude towards the U.S., its prestige or power.
On labor and business
In testifying on the
Employment ActThe Employment Act, Act of Feb. 20, 1946, ch. 33, section 2, 60 Stat. 23, codified as , is a United States federal law. Its main purpose was to lay the responsibility of economic stability onto the federal government.-Impetus:...
(of 1946) before the Banking and Currency Committee of the Senate in 1945, Flanders defined the “right to a job,” as implying a responsibility shared among individuals, organized labor, businesses, and governments, as follows:
- Each individual should be “productive, self-reliant and energetically in search of employment, when out of a job.”
- Organized Labor should avoid wage demands that upset costs of production in a manner that decreases the total volume of employment.
- Business should operate efficiently to allow for expansion of production and employment.
- State and local governments can help preserve human rights and property rights that foster investment, while the Federal Government should “encourage business to expand and investors to undertake new ventures.”
Flanders felt that, to quell inflation, wage increases should be tied to productivity increases, rather than the cost of living. He recommended splitting gains in productivity three ways: to the worker for higher wages, to the company for higher profits and to the consumer for lower prices. He felt that with this approach everyone would benefit at the company level and in the national economy. Such an approach would require mutual respect and understanding between labor and management.
Flanders’s relations with organized labor were amicable. He welcomed the United Electrical Workers Union into Jones & Lamson Machine Company. J&L became the first company in Springfield, Vermont to be unionized.
On Franklin D. Roosevelt
Flanders met with
President RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
on several occasions. He felt that Roosevelt and his advisors did not heed Secretary of the Navy,
Frank Knox’sWilliam Franklin "Frank" Knox was the Secretary of the Navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt during most of World War II. He was also the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1936.-Biography:...
warning that it was “easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the fleet or the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor.” He further faulted the president for failing to recognize the growing threat of
CommunismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
in China. In Flanders’s opinion, he sold out on Mongolia, Nationalist China and Central Europe to Communist powers at the 1943
Tehran ConferenceThe Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference among the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
. Flanders recognized the president’s political genius and leadership skills, but deplored his advocacy of raising taxes. He characterized the Roosevelt philosophy as one where re-employment “must come from Government—not private—action.” Flanders felt that large social programs were an ineffective approach to solve national problems.
Cold War policies
National policy relating to the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
interested Flanders greatly. He was concerned about the world-wide encroachment of Communism even without force of arms. He felt that President
TrumanHarry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
was generally a good president, but was hampered by the Roosevelt legacy of appeasing the Soviets. He also felt that Truman's commitment to bringing the Nationalist and Communist Chinese factions together into an alliance was mistaken. He endorsed the
Marshall PlanThe Marshall Plan was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and repelling communism after World War II...
as a way to avoid Communist influence in Western Europe. However, he was critical of
John Foster DullesJohn Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism around the world...
, Secretary of State, for mishandling opportunities to create friendly alignment with
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
and India, countries which instead sided with the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
.
Flanders felt that spending 62% of federal income on defense was irrational, when the Soviet government claimed it wished to avoid nuclear conflict. He advocated that the development of “A[tomic]- and H[ydrogen]-bombs be paralleled with equally intense negotiations towards disarmament.” For him, “gaining the co-operation of the Soviet government on an effective armament control,” was most important.
The censure of Joseph McCarthy
Flanders was an early and strong critic of fellow Republican Senator
Joseph McCarthy’sJoseph Raymond McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
"misdirection of our efforts at fighting communism” and his role in “the loss of respect for us in the world at large.” He felt that rather than looking inward for communists within U.S. borders, the nation should look outward at the “alarming world-wide advance of Communist power” that would leave the United States and Canada as “the last remnants of the free world.” On March 9, 1954 he
addressed Senator McCarthy on the Senate floor, expressing these concerns. (McCarthy had been advised of the speech, but was absent at the time.) Apart from a brief note of encouragement after this speech, Flanders was grateful that the president stayed out of the McCarthy controversy. Members of President Eisenhower’s cabinet passed along the message that Flanders should “lay off.”
The
Times-Argus newspaper of
Randolph, VermontRandolph is a town in Orange County, Vermont, United States. Created by Vermont charter on June 29, 1781. The population was 4,853 at the 2000 census, making Randolph the largest town in Orange County....
reported:
The speech was a sensation, and the next day Vonda Bergman reported to the Herald that Flanders was unable to appear on the Senate floor because of the flood of telephone calls and telegrams, said to run 6-1 in his support. One message called his speech "a fine example of Vermont courage, humor and decency," while another told him, "Your remarks brought a breath of fresh clean air from the Green Mountains."
Two Senate colleagues, John Sherman Cooper, R-Kentucky, and Herbert Lehman, D-New York, were among those who heaped praise on the Vermont senator. The editor of a national publication said: "It was one of the few recent indications that the Republican Party on Capitol Hill is not wholly devoid of courageous moral leadership." And an editorial in the Rutland Herald stated, "the effect of the speech was to hearten that vast majority of Americans who hate communism but who also revere the Constitution."
.
Other reactions were not so favorable. People who wrote the
Rutland Herald “hinted at retribution for McCarthy’s foes” and called McCarthy “a demigod above the law of the U.S.A. … If you disagree, you are RED.” William Loeb, owner of the
Burlington Daily News, wrote, “It would take somebody as stupid as Senator Flanders to finally swallow the Democratic bait on the subject of Senator McCarthy.”
In a speech that Flanders did not mention in his autobiography, the
Times-Argus article reported that on June 1, 1954 Flanders
…addressed the Senate on "the colossal innocence of the junior Senator from Wisconsin." Comparing McCarthy to "Dennis the Menace" of cartoon fame, the Vermonter delivered a scathing address in which he lambasted the Wisconsin man for dividing the nation. "In every country in which communism has taken over, " he reminded the Senate, "the beginning has been a successful campaign of division and confusion." He marveled at the way the Soviet Union was winning military successes in Asia without risking its own resources or men, and said this nation was witnessing "another example of economy of effort...in the conquest of this country for communism. He added, "One of the characteristic elements of communist and fascist tyranny is at hand as citizens are set to spy upon each other." "Were the junior Senator from Wisconsin in the pay of the communists, he could not have done a better job for them." "This is a colossal innocence, indeed."
On June 11, 1954, Flanders introduced a resolution charging McCarthy “with unbecoming conduct and calling for his removal from his committee membership.” Upon the advice of Senators Cooper and
FulbrightJames William Fulbright was a United States Senator representing Arkansas from 1945 to 1975.Fulbright was a Southern Democrat and a staunch multilateralist, supported the creation of the United Nations and opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee...
and legal assistance from the Committee for a More Effective Congress he modified his resolution to “bring it in line with previous actions of censure.” The text of the resolution of censure condemns the senator for “obstructing the constitutional processes of the Senate” when he “failed to cooperate with the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and acting “contrary to senatorial ethics” when he described the Select Committee to Study Censure Charges and its chairman in slanderous terms.
Time reported that a “group of 23 top businessmen, labor leaders and educators… wired every U.S. Senator (except McCarthy himself) urging a favorable vote ‘to curb the flagrant abuse of power by Senator McCarthy.’" The Senate censured McCarthy in December 2, 1954 by a vote of 65 to 22. The Senate Republicans were split 22 to 22. For a further treatment of this episode, refer to Joseph McCarthy—Censure and the Watkins Committee.
A 1990 article in the
Rutland Herald characterized the reaction in Vermont to Flanders’s role in the McCarthy censure as “sour.” It concludes that Flanders’s convictions did not necessarily reflect the priorities of his constituency, which regarded the issue as “not our problem.”
Legacy
Flanders was the author or coauthor of eight books, including his
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
,
Senator from Vermont. He wrote about many issues: the problems of unemployment, inflation, ways for achieving a cooperative relationship between management and labor, and his belief that “moral law is natural law” and should be an integral part of everyone’s education. His papers are located at the
Special Collections Research Center at
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded as a university in 1870, but its roots can be traced back to a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College...
Library and at the
http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/getCollection.xql?title=Congressional%20Papers/Special Collections of the
University of VermontThe University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, more commonly known as the University of Vermont, is a national public research university and the state of Vermont's land-grant university. Known to many as "UVM," the university has also been named a Public Ivy...
’s Bailey-Howe Library].
During his lifetime, Flanders received more than sixteen honorary degrees from institutions that included
Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private, coeducational university located in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Incorporated as "Trustees of Dartmouth College," it is a member of the Ivy League and one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution...
,
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
(LL.D.),
Middlebury CollegeMiddlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Middlebury was the first American institution of higher education to grant a bachelor's degree to an...
(D. Sc.) and the
University of VermontThe University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, more commonly known as the University of Vermont, is a national public research university and the state of Vermont's land-grant university. Known to many as "UVM," the university has also been named a Public Ivy...
(D. Eng.).
His wife,
Helen Hartness FlandersHelen Hartness Flanders , a native of the U.S. state of Vermont, was an internationally recognized ballad collector and an authority on the folk music found in New England and the British Isles...
, was a folk song collector and author of several books on New England ballads.
Flanders died in 1970 and he is buried in the Summer Hill Cemetery in Springfield, Vermont, alongside his wife Helen, and members of the Hartness family.
External links
Further reading