Word: townsendized
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...tide is definitely turning," said the frail old man. "My crackpot idea is becoming the idea that will save America from economic serfdom and will bring happiness and prosperity." The time was 1937, and Dr. Francis E. Townsend was almost right: his Townsend Plan, a Depression-born pension panacea, had caught the fancy of legions of elderly Americans. At flood tide, more than 4,000,000 members in 10,000 Townsend clubs gave the lanky, mesmeric country doctor immense political power, and their contributions, in a river of nickels and dimes, flowed in at the rate...
Conceived with a Curse. Like so many oddball Utopias, the Townsend Plan began in Southern California.*Because of fragile health, Francis Townsend had given up a horse-and-buggy practice in South Dakota's Black Hills and headed for Long Beach with his wife (his former nurse) at age 50. One morning in the bleak year of 1934, when he was down to his last $500, he happened to see three aged crones pawing through a garbage pail in search of food. The sight outraged Townsend's sensibilities, and he began to curse in such a loud voice...
...Ebenezer Townsend, supercargo of a New England whaler, noted in his diary on Aug. 19, 1798 that Hawaii's King Kamehameha I, had "a Jew cook." If the cook remained in Hawaii, added Townsend, "I think it will be difficult to trace his descendants, for he is nearly as dark as they...
...asked what Medicare would cost. Secretary Flemming's guesstimate: $1.2 billion annually, split fifty-fifty by federal and state governments. What would it cost by 1970? Flemming shrugged, said his staff was still calculating. "This is the worst kind of fiscal irresponsibility," cried Virginia Democrat Burr Harrison. "This Townsend Plan-Rube Goldberg scheme is more socialistic and more unsound than the Forand bill." Quipped another Democrat: "This plan calls for everything except prenatal care for persons over 65." Chairman Wilbur Mills, an Arkansas Democrat who has long supported Ike's crusades for a balanced budget, was boiling...
...Does What. When the Slaytons stepped out under SEC fire, the control of Managed Funds was up for grabs. A New Jersey mutual-fund and investment operator, Morris M. Townsend, moved in quickly, took an option to buy the old Slayton sales firms if he won the proxy battle, hired Slayton salesmen to sell Managed Funds shareholders the Townsend case. The Channing Corp., headed by Kenneth S. Van Strum, which operates eight mutual funds worth $218 million, challenged Townsend. It pointed out to Managed Funds' stockholders that, if Townsend won, the Slaytons would reap another profit through the sale...