From New Deal to World Constitution: Rexford G. Tugwell

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Rexford Tugwell (third from right) meeting with FDR and his advisors

Rexford Guy Tugwell [1] was born in the far western tip of New York in 1891. Though his odd name may not be familiar to many, he would go on to be a prominent economist and social theorist in the early 20th century. His life was unique in its way; he had studied and worked at a number of universities (including Columbia and Chicago), worked closely on Roosevelt’s first New Deal, was appointed by the same Roosevelt to be governor of Puerto Rico, and contributed to the writing of a hypothetical constitution for a world government. He had proudly supported World War I, saying that “the ordeal of war brings out the magnificent resources of youth.” [2] He was a Progressive par excellence, believing one of America’s biggest problems to be “the dead hand of free enterprise.” [3] Instead, he favored central state planning akin to that of Benito Mussolini, of whom Tugwell was a big fan. [4] Tugwell spent his life not only theorizing, but attempting to implement a Progressive, technocratic Utopia in the United States of America and, indeed, across the globe.

Tugwell was influenced by many of the classical progressive thinkers, [5-7] one of whom was Edward Bellamy, author of the utopian novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887 and cousin of Socialist Francis Bellamy, who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. Another beacon of the Progressive Era, Frederick Winslow Taylor, left an imprint on Mr. Tugwell. Taylor, after whom the hyper-efficient philosophy of Taylorism is named, believed firmly that, in this industrial era, humans must be made to work as if they themselves were machines. To Taylor, Bellamy, and Tugwell, scientific management of society was one of the highest ideals humankind could strive for. Important as all of these philosophical influences might have been, Tugwell was, after all, an economist. In this regard, his two biggest influences seem to have been Scott Nearing and Simon Patten. Both of these men advocated for an entirely new, centrally and scientifically planned economy, focusing primarily on the efficient functioning of the social machine rather than on the individual. Running parallel to this philosophy was the fact that both men – as was so with many Progressives of the day – were committed eugenicists. [8]

After the Great War, Tugwell wrote that the Armistice had singlehandedly upset the realization of his Utopia. [9] Peace, he thought, makes people soft. During a war it is much easier to get the public to fall lock-step into the ideology of the regime. Fortunately for him the world fell into an economic depression ten years after the peace, and a man who felt very similarly to him was elected president just a few years later. Tugwell was invited to come work for a think-tank running out of Columbia University called the “Brain Trust.” The group answered to newly-elected President Franklin Roosevelt, and was tasked with devising a set of social policies that would essentially maximize state control over the economy on the back of the Great Depression. [10] Throughout the Depression, Roosevelt spoke like a wartime president, assuming “unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.” [11] Dozens of state agencies and bureaucracies were established in the name of “restoring” the American economy, though in reality it was less of a restoration and more of a re-creation. It is worth mentioning at this point that some of the biggest fans of Roosevelt’s New Deal were in the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. [12] The Nazis hailed the New Deal as a perfect example of an authoritarian economic takeover, and both Hitler and Mussolini enacted very similar policies within their own regimes. [13] This is appropriate, considering that Tugwell was equally fond of German-style social management and of Benito Mussolini. He once compared Mussolini to FDR, lamenting only that Roosevelt couldn’t take as complete control over the media in the US as Mussolini had in his country. [14] Eventually, one of Roosevelt’s and Tugwell’s programs, the Resettlement Administration, was declared unconstitutional, [15] and Tugwell left FDR’s administration five years before US entry into World War II.

In the wake of the shocking finish to the Second World War, people across the globe were wringing their hands over what to do about the new problem of atomic power. These questions that arose at the dawn of the nuclear age echoed through the halls of Chicago University; a university that had participated in the development of these weapons to no small degree. [16] In response to the new fear, a group was formed at the college with its chancellor, Robert Maynard Hutchins, as chairman. Other Chicago University members included Mortimer J. Adler and Stringfellow Barr (these three men would go on to compose The Great Books of the Western World collection), as well as dejected New Deal administrator, failed New York City Planning Commissioner, and then-governor of Puerto Rico, Rexford G. Tugwell. This group had decided that the only way to prevent total nuclear annihilation of the world was to formulate a world government, modeled on Enlightenment ideals of reason and social contract. [17] The main legacy of the so-called “Committee to Frame a World Constitution” was the Preliminary Draft of a World Constitution, published in 1948. [18] In the preamble of this new constitution, the Committee declares that justice can only be achieved once nations give up their sovereignty to a new global organization, as well as their arms. Once this justice is realized, they say, peace is possible. Once there is peace, we could pursue “the common goal of mankind,” which is “the advancement of man in spiritual excellence and physical welfare.” This document posits only two possible outcomes for the future of humanity: world government or extinction. However, these new founding fathers don’t present their world state begrudgingly as the lesser of two evils, but as a bona fide Utopia in which “war can and must be outlawed and peace can and must be enacted and enforced.” [19] A question to ask here might be: What do you do when some rogue group eventually either commits an act of terrorism, refuses to comply with your terms, or breaks your “peace law” and starts a war? Do you, I don’t know, go to war with them? For my part, I’ll stick with the more sophisticated philosophy of George Carlin, who said that fighting for (or in this case, enforcing) peace is like screwing for virginity.

The very first section of the World Constitution declares that it is the duty of every citizen of the global state to advance not only with their actions but with their words that so-called “common goal of mankind,” as defined by the world government. Peaceful assembly is explicitly allowed for, but only so long as it remains “within the pluralistic unity and purpose of the World Republic.” As it would essentially be the job of the leaders of this world federation to determine universal and permanent standards of behavior across the globe, the document very quickly takes on a rather imperialistic tone, affording itself the power of “administration of such territories as may still be immature for self-government, and the declaration in due time of their eligibility therefor.” The world state is also afforded a monopoly on armed force, the administration of the World Bank, regulative power over all transportation, and, of course, centralized control over all resources and economies. The ultimate political organization is supposed to be “the Federal Convention,” a freely and directly elected body of representatives from all over the world. However, this body is only to meet for one month every three years. The planet is to be subdivided into nine regions, or “Societies of kindred nations and cultures.” One of these regions, the one comprising of the United States, Britain, and other English speaking peoples, is, of course, to be called Atlantis.

As far as putting your money where your mouth is, Rexford Tugwell was the picture of Progressivism; he is an archetypal early-20th century utopian. Tugwell and his ideological cohorts firmly believed that one central state, composed of experts and technicians, with a mind toward collectivism, efficiency, and economic regulation, could not only create a better society; it could create the best society. Tugwell’s philosophy was truly totalitarian, in that he believed that the ideal state of affairs could be realized by implementing a closed-system style society. Just so long as the right people are on top, the theory goes, it is possible to keep the vile masses from destroying themselves and us. Now, one might read this article, or at least the last section about the World Constitution, and think that this is all just either the innocent or crack-pot (take your pick) musings of some intellectuals on the fringe. One might think that even if these people do believe their wild theories, they must be impossible to implement because they haven’t been implemented yet. But I would like to remind one that new possibilities emerge every time technology advances. I would like to remind one that the men on that committee were not fringe, but very highly respected intellectuals in high and influential positions. I would like to remind one that one of those men, Rexford Tugwell, played a major role in the New Deal – one of, if not the, most important sets of political and economic policy in American history – and therein was allowed to try and realize his utopian goals. Sure, the average man or woman might consider utopian thought “fringe,” but the powers-that-be, quite often, disagree.

References:

  1. “Rexford Guy Tugwell” – Encyclopedia
  2. Leuchtenburg, William E. The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy. New York, 1991, p. 50
  3. Russell, Thaddeus. A Renegade History of the United States. Free Press, 2010, p. 249
  4. Ibid., 250
  5. Namorato, Michael. Rexford G. Tugwell: A Biography. 1988,  pp. 11-18
  6. Schlesinger, Arthur M. The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-1933, The Age of Roosevelt. First Mariner, 2003, p. 210
  7. Russell, 248-249
  8. Ibid., 249
  9. Ibid.
  10. “The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal” – Independent Institute
  11. Goldberg, Jonah. Liberal Fascism. Broadway, 2009, pp. 121-122
  12. Russell, 243
  13. “Three New Deals: Why the Nazis and Fascists Loved FDR” – Mises Institute
  14. Goldberg, 156
  15. “Franklin Township v. Tugwell” – Justia
  16. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. The Great Ideas Today: 1971. William Benton, 1971, p. 329
  17. Ibid., 333
  18. Ibid. (All following quotes from and references to the World Constitution are pulled from this source, which reprints the document on pages 333-345. The document is freely available online here.)
  19. Review of Preliminary Draft of a World Government in “The American Journal of International Law” – Cambridge University Press

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