READ: Townsend Pamphlet

Head Note: Francis E. Townsend, an unemployed doctor, introduced this plan in 1933 in a California newspaper. He and others soon started an organization called Old Age Revolving Pensions, Inc. to publicize and build support for the plan. By 1935, the organization had more than five million members and presented a petition for the plan to President Roosevelt with 20 million signatures, more than 10% of the entire American population.

The Townsend Plan

...in Brief

Have the National Government enact Legislation to the effect that all citizens of the United States—man or woman—over the age of 60 years may retire on a pension of $200 per month on the following conditions:

1. That they engage in no further labor, business or profession for gain.

2. That their past life is free from habitual criminality.

3. That they take oath to, and actually do spend, within the confines of the United States, the entire amount of their pension within thirty days after receiving same.

Have the National Government create the revolving fund by levying a general sales tax; have the rate just high enough to produce the amount necessary to keep the Old Age Revolving Pensions Fund adequate to pay the monthly Pensions. Have the act so drawn that such sales tax can only be used for the Old Age Revolving Pensions Fund.

OLD AGE REVOLVING PENSIONS, INC.1

148 American Avenue Long Beach, California

COPYRIGHT 1934, F.E. TOWNSEND

1Notice that this plan was created by a citizen who held no political office, yet word of it spread quickly and it gained many other people's support.

Source: Excerpt from a pamphlet published by Old Age Revolving Pensions, Inc., 1934, Long Beach, California.