3/8. Social Security is Driven by the Townsend Plan and the Rise of Father Coughlin — David Pietrusza — Dr. Francis Townsend's proposal to provide $200 monthly to citizens over age 60 compelled a reluctant FDR to rapidly introduce the Social Security legi

3/8. Social Security is Driven by the Townsend Plan and the Rise of Father Coughlin — David Pietrusza — Dr. Francis Townsend's proposal to provide $200 monthly to citizens over age 60 compelled a reluctant FDR to rapidly introduce the Social Security legislation. Townsend subsequently aligned with the influential radio priest Father Charles Coughlin and Reverend Gerald L.K. Smith to establish a third-party challenge. Coughlin, having turned bitterly against FDR, met with him at Hyde Park the morning following Huey Long's assassination, a meeting that proved to be their final conference.
1936