History: re-writing or just ignoring?

Growing up on the farm, we had no TV and precious little radio, our rural address was beyond the delivery limits of a daily newspaper - which my parents could not afford anyway. So my early education in current affairs came from listening to adult conversation and observing firsthand the grinding poverty of the depression.

Dollar bills were so rare that when we did get our hands on one, we read it! A fun riddle was "How many ones are on a $1 bill?" If you got hold of one, you counted the ones... both the numerical version and the spelled-out version.

I also remember that those old $1 bills did not say "Federal Reserve Note". Instead, they said it would be exchanged for a silver dollar, on demand!


Can you count the 14 "ones" on the Silver Certificate above? (Sorry - I could find no picture of the greenback side)

One thing I did learn from the $1 bill of my childhood was that Henry Morgenthau was Secretary Of The Treasury. His signature was there on the front of every $1 bill. Morgenthau was appointed by FDR in 1934 - the year I turned six years of age and entered the first grade of school. He served until 1945, the year I turned 17 and entered the U.S. Army. $1 bills with his signature lasted a lot longer. (The $1. bill on the bottom (above) was printed when Andrew Mellon was Secretary of The Treasury. Mellon was appointed by Warren Harding and served through most of the Hoover Administration.)

I knew his name, but I didn't know anything about Morgenthau. I realize he must have been an important part of the FDR New Deal, by simple virtue of the fact that FDR kept him in the cabinet until his (FDR's) death.

In the ensuing years, I have learned a lot about the New Deal, details I did not hear or understand as a kid when I listened to adults complaining that the policy was a total failure.

One gem came from the heart of the New Deal, from the mouth of that man whose signature was on the front of every $1 bill: Henry Morgenthau. Reflecting on the New Deal in 1939, Henry Morgenthau said:

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!"

So, how do today's progressives view that fact? They say Roosevelt should have spent more. Can any intelligent person believe that? Agree with that? Morgenthau said "It does not work." Do today's experts know more than the guy who was at the heart of it?

Apparently, if history does not support your point of view, the history must be wrong!