Democratic roots: Davey Lewis and the Social Security Act of 1935

In the wake of the Big Blue Backlash, I think it’s good to remind the Democratic Party of its roots in the New Deal of the 20th Century. It would be worthwhile for Republicans to consider it, too. (See my Substack column on that subject.) It was an inspiring period of American history and it demonstrated how uncompromising political leaders could act fast and rally for the common good.

For Marylanders, I like to point to a Democratic congressman from Cumberland who was a real progressive, a champion of ideas that were novel at the time: Establishing the parcel post system for package deliveries by the U.S. Postal Service; a workmen’s compensation system for coal miners and, eventually, everyone; unemployment insurance, and a system of federal old-age benefits that we know today as Social Security. His name was David J. “Little Davey” Lewis and he lived in the house pictured with this post, on Greene Street in Cumberland. He was a passionate advocate of Social Security and part of the Democratic-dominated Congress that made it law early in Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency (1935). Lewis received a standing ovation on the House floor for his work on the bill. Below (for non-subscribers, sorry about the small print) is a column I wrote about Lewis in The Baltimore Sun. Here’s another piece about him from Ray Hill’s series on political figures in The Knoxville Focus.