Month: March 2020
-
Priming the Feminine Voter for the Primaries
1920’s primaries were the first where women could vote in New York state. Henrietta Wells Livermore, Chair of New York’s Republican Women’s State Executive Committee in 1920, insisted it was vital that women vote, or else men may regret allowing suffrage at all: According to the opinion of old-time politicians, it is only about 15 […]
-
Project to Make Great Lakes Another Mediterranean
Should the five Great Lakes be connected for transportation and navigation, like the Panama Canal? In 1920, it was being seriously debated. Pro: the economics. New exports would be developed. Our export of coal is in its infancy. The United States is said to have half of the world’s coal. It will be called for […]
-
Motor Owners Paying High Gasoline Prices
In March 1920, gas prices hovered at 31 to 35 cents a gallon. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $4.07 to $4.59 — or double the current national average of $2.21. Two main factors caused the high 1920 gas prices: demand outstripping supply, and the end of World War I. Gasoline consumption has increased in much greater […]
-
China Chief Problem in Maintaining World Peace
This 1920 article named China as the country most threatening world peace. As the Chinese-originated COVID-19 disease shuts down life and economies across the globe, that prophecy appears prescient. Indeed, President Trump has increasingly and controversially taken to calling it “the Chinese virus.” However, many medical experts including the World Health Organization have called on him […]
-
Will Congress Stop Federal Wastefulness?
There had always been some level of U.S. government waste, but for more than a century, those revenues were almost entirely collected through tariffs. That changed in the early 20th century, with the federal corporate tax created in 1909, income tax in 1913, and estate tax in 1916. People increasingly felt it was their own hard-earned […]
-
Shall Women Practice Party Regularity?
As women gained the right to vote in 1920, should they be partisan or independent? Two women debated the issue in the New York Times: Republican Henrietta Wells Livermore for women’s partisanship vs. Democrat Katrina Ely Tiffany for women’s independence. Livermore: Women are not primarily office seekers. Therein lies their value in a political organization. […]
-
Simplify the Income Tax? — Perhaps, But Not Soon
Federal corporate tax was created in 1909, income tax in 1913, and estate tax in 1916. By 1920, there were already calls for the tax code’s simplification. How quaint. Back then, federal tax law ran less than 500 pages. Now it’s more than 70,000. So why is the tax code so complex? One of the […]
SundayMagazine.org 