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Revision as of 09:25, 20 November 2005 by Rjensen (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The American Liberty League was a U.S. organization formed in 1934 by conservative Democrats such as Al Smith (the 1928 Democratic nominee), Jowett Shouse (former high party official), and John Jacob Raskob (former Democratic national chairman and the foremost opponent of prohibition), Dean Acheson(future Secretary of State under Harry Truman), along with many industrialists. They were alarmed that the the Roosevelt administration was leading the U.S. toward socialism, bankruptcy and dictatorship. The League was supported by millions of dollars in donations from the DuPont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. It reached over 125,000 members and supported the Republicans in 1936
The League labeled Roosevelt's Agricultural Adjustment Administration "a trend toward Fascist control of agriculture." Social Security was said to "mark the end of democracy." Lawyers for the American Liberty League challenged the validity of the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act), but in 1937, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the statute. The League faded away and disbanded in 1940.
References
- George Wolfskill. The Revolt of the Conservatives: A. History of the American Liberty League, 1934-1940. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962) is the standard scholarly history.