Gerry McGeer
Encyclopedia
Gerald Grattan McGeer was a lawyer, populist politician, and monetary reform advocate in the Canadian
province of British Columbia
. He served as the 22nd Mayor of Vancouver, a Member of the Legislative Assembly in BC, Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party of Canada, and was appointed to the Canadian Senate.
, Manitoba
, Gerry McGeer moved with his family as a young child to Vancouver. He grew up in the Mount Pleasant
neighbourhood. As a young adult, he worked in an iron foundry and was an active member in his union. Eventually he went to Dalhousie University
to study law. Back in Vancouver, he married Charlotte Spencer of the Spencer family dynasty, which owned a chain of department store
s in western Canada.
by rail. He worked for years on this case and achieved considerable success. The outcome proved a windfall for the BC economy, earning McGeer a reputation as "the man who flattened the Rockies." Reductions in discriminatory freight rates made it economically feasible for prairie grain to come west and be exported through Vancouver's port
rather than seaports in eastern Canada and the United States
.
in 1933. He was soon considered a maverick in his own party after McGeer became critical of the government because Pattullo did not appoint him to cabinet. According to McGeer, Pattullo led him to believe he would become the province's Attorney-General.
with the biggest margin of victory in Vancouver's civic history. He established himself in his campaign as a populist reformer, painting his opponent as outdated and corrupt, with police and monetary reform
the two main pillars of his campaign. As mayor, he would not have power to implement his monetary policies, which he believed could end the depression. He was, however, able to reform the police department
and the civic government, but it was his battles against communism that garnered him the most publicity, at least in his first year in office. Unemployed men in the federal relief camps had been organized by Communist
agitators into the Relief Camp Workers' Union
. They struck on 4 April 1935 and arrived in Vancouver on boxcars shortly thereafter. The men stayed in Vancouver for two months, marching daily in protest of relief camp conditions.
On one occasion, they entered the Hudson's Bay Company
Department Store
to publicize their grievances to shoppers. The police came to evict the men, and a bloody clash ensued. After that incident, the unemployed congregated at Victory Square Park, where McGeer came and read the Riot Act
. The camp strikers left the city after two months to begin the On-to-Ottawa Trek
. They felt they accomplished all they could in Vancouver and voted to take their grievances directly to Prime Minister
R. B. Bennett
. Shortly before the trekkers left, another Communist-led strike broke out on the waterfront, culminating with another bloody clash that became known as the Battle of Ballantyne Pier
. Gerry McGeer treated these protests not as strikes, but as an attempted Bolshevik
uprising. Although he came from a background as an iron molder and union representative, he came to be seen as an enemy of organized labour because of these events.
McGeer organized elaborate celebrations to mark Vancouver's golden jubilee in 1936, which was controversial in the midst of the depression. While some applauded his efforts to boost civic pride as a positive step towards bringing back prosperity, others denounced extravagances such as a $35,000 fountain for Stanley Park
's Lost Lagoon
while the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. McGeer is also credited with the construction of Vancouver City Hall
, a landmark Art Deco
building funded in part by a baby bond scheme conceived by McGeer.
, McGeer became a zealous student of economics and soon became obsessed with monetary reform as the answer to the economic crisis. He eventually came up with his own theories, which he cobbled together from the work of John Maynard Keynes
, Abraham Lincoln
, and the Bible
. (Williams, 312) On one occasion, he hypothesized that international "money power" was financing Communists activities in Vancouver. Another time he testified before the government that Abraham Lincoln
was assassinated by international bankers opposed to the introduction of "Greenbacks
." McGeer's lifelong mission was to attain a position where he could implement his reform ideas, but his flamboyant, aggressive, and eccentric style and theories alienated the powerbrokers in his own party.
candidate in the 1935 federal election
and won in the riding
of Vancouver—Burrard
by a thin margin. In previous attempts, McGeer suffered defeats in the federal elections of 1925
, 1926
, and 1930
. He was re-elected in 1940
and appointed to the Senate
by Prime Minister
Mackenzie King
on 9 June 1945.
Although he attained his goal of becoming elected to the federal government, McGeer was once again relegated to the back benches, this time in Mackenzie King's government. He had a warm relationship with King through much of his political career, but King did not embrace McGeer's monetary schemes and sought to keep his outlandish behaviour on the margins of the government. Despite the reservations of the political elite, McGeer was immensely popular outside those circles because of his fiery oration skills. His tirades against bankers and the banking system proved especially popular during the Great Depression
, and he regularly lectured to packed houses across the country.
slate. Again he ran on a campaign to rid the city of vice and police corruption. Ill-health made him less exuberant than his earlier mayoral term, but he nonetheless persisted with his reforms. Twenty-six men on the police force were demoted or dismissed and the chief constable
was replaced by Walter Mulligan, who was the youngest chief in Vancouver to date. McGeer died in office in 1947 and therefore did not see the fruits of his latest reform drive. In 1955, revelations surfaced that McGeer's chosen police chief had instituted a pay-off system in Vancouver, resulting in an extensive police inquiry. Mulligan fled the country, one high ranking member of the force committed suicide, and another attempted suicide. Meanwhile, a Superintendent from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
took over as the new chief.
and the Social Credit
movement of William Aberhart
, which formed the government in Alberta
and later in BC under an admirer of McGeer, W. A. C. Bennett. Although McGeer was critical of Aberhart's version of Social Credit, he did flirt with the British Columbia Social Credit Party
before his death, leading his biographer to speculate that McGeer likely would have been a player in the Bennett government, which enjoyed a twenty-year reign of the province.
McGeer's nephew, Pat McGeer
was elected as an MLA for the opposition Liberals in a byelection in 1962, and reelected in the 1963
. Gerry McGeer's economic ideas are most fully elaborated in his 1935 book, Conquest of Poverty, or Money, Humanity and Christianity, in which the last part is in the form of an imaginary radio broadcast featuring President
Roosevelt
interviewing Abraham Lincoln.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. He served as the 22nd Mayor of Vancouver, a Member of the Legislative Assembly in BC, Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party of Canada, and was appointed to the Canadian Senate.
Early life
Born in WinnipegWinnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Gerry McGeer moved with his family as a young child to Vancouver. He grew up in the Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant (Vancouver)
Mount Pleasant is a neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, stretching from Cambie Street to Clark Drive and from Great Northern Way and 2nd, to 16th and Kingsway...
neighbourhood. As a young adult, he worked in an iron foundry and was an active member in his union. Eventually he went to Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
to study law. Back in Vancouver, he married Charlotte Spencer of the Spencer family dynasty, which owned a chain of department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s in western Canada.
Freight rate fight
Gerry McGeer first attained notoriety in the 1920s as a lawyer representing the British Columbia government in its case to reduce freight rate differentials on goods shipped through the Rocky MountainsRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
by rail. He worked for years on this case and achieved considerable success. The outcome proved a windfall for the BC economy, earning McGeer a reputation as "the man who flattened the Rockies." Reductions in discriminatory freight rates made it economically feasible for prairie grain to come west and be exported through Vancouver's port
Port of Vancouver
The Port of Vancouver was the name of the largest port in Canada, the largest in the Pacific Northwest, and the largest port on the West Coast of North America by metric tons of total cargo, with 76.5 million metric tons...
rather than seaports in eastern Canada and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
MLA
McGeer was elected to the British Columbia Legislature as candidate for the Liberal government of Duff PattulloThomas Dufferin Pattullo
Thomas Dufferin Pattullo was the 22nd Premier of British Columbia, Canada from 1933 to 1941. The Pattullo Bridge is named in his honour as well as Prince Rupert's Pattullo Park....
in 1933. He was soon considered a maverick in his own party after McGeer became critical of the government because Pattullo did not appoint him to cabinet. According to McGeer, Pattullo led him to believe he would become the province's Attorney-General.
Mayor Gerry
McGeer's most indelible mark in BC was made during his time as Mayor of Vancouver. He won the 1934 election against incumbent L. D. TaylorL. D. Taylor
Louis Denison Taylor was elected the 14th mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, he was elected seven times between 1910 and 1934, serving a total of 11 years....
with the biggest margin of victory in Vancouver's civic history. He established himself in his campaign as a populist reformer, painting his opponent as outdated and corrupt, with police and monetary reform
Monetary reform
Monetary reform describes any movement or theory that proposes a different system of supplying money and financing the economy from the current system.Monetary reformers may advocate any of the following, among other proposals:...
the two main pillars of his campaign. As mayor, he would not have power to implement his monetary policies, which he believed could end the depression. He was, however, able to reform the police department
Vancouver Police Department
The Vancouver Police Department is the police force for the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several police departments within the Metro Vancouver Area and is the second largest police force in the province after RCMP "E" Division.VPD was the first Canadian police force...
and the civic government, but it was his battles against communism that garnered him the most publicity, at least in his first year in office. Unemployed men in the federal relief camps had been organized by Communist
Workers' Unity League
The Workers' Unity League was created in 1929 as a labour central operated by the Communist Party of Canada on the instructions of the Communist International....
agitators into the Relief Camp Workers' Union
Relief Camp Workers' Union
The Relief Camp Workers' Union was the union into which the inmates of the Canadian government relief camps were organized in the early 1930s. It was affiliated with the Workers' Unity League, the trade union umbrella of the Communist Party of Canada...
. They struck on 4 April 1935 and arrived in Vancouver on boxcars shortly thereafter. The men stayed in Vancouver for two months, marching daily in protest of relief camp conditions.
On one occasion, they entered the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
Department Store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
to publicize their grievances to shoppers. The police came to evict the men, and a bloody clash ensued. After that incident, the unemployed congregated at Victory Square Park, where McGeer came and read the Riot Act
Riot Act
The Riot Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that authorised local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action...
. The camp strikers left the city after two months to begin the On-to-Ottawa Trek
On-to-Ottawa Trek
The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a long journey where thousands of people had unemployed men protesting the dismal conditions in federal relief camps scattered in remote areas across Western Canada. The men lived and worked in these camps at a rate of twenty cents per day before walking out on strike in...
. They felt they accomplished all they could in Vancouver and voted to take their grievances directly to Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
R. B. Bennett
R. B. Bennett
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years...
. Shortly before the trekkers left, another Communist-led strike broke out on the waterfront, culminating with another bloody clash that became known as the Battle of Ballantyne Pier
Battle of Ballantyne Pier
Ballantyne Pier was the site of a docker's strike in Vancouver, BC, in June 1935. It was a federally owned dock built by the National Harbours Board In 1923, and named for the head of the Harbours Board. There were ongoing strikes on the West Coast of North America in the Depression and it led to...
. Gerry McGeer treated these protests not as strikes, but as an attempted Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
uprising. Although he came from a background as an iron molder and union representative, he came to be seen as an enemy of organized labour because of these events.
McGeer organized elaborate celebrations to mark Vancouver's golden jubilee in 1936, which was controversial in the midst of the depression. While some applauded his efforts to boost civic pride as a positive step towards bringing back prosperity, others denounced extravagances such as a $35,000 fountain for Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
's Lost Lagoon
Lost Lagoon
Lost Lagoon is an artificial, captive 16.6-hectare body of water, west of Georgia Street, near the entrance to Stanley Park in Vancouver, Canada. Surrounding the lake is a trail, and it features a lit fountain that was erected by Robert Harold Williams to commemorate the city's golden jubilee...
while the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. McGeer is also credited with the construction of Vancouver City Hall
Vancouver City Hall
Vancouver City Hall is home to Vancouver City Council in Vancouver, British Columbia. Located at 453 West 12th Avenue, the building was ordered by the Vancouver Civic Building Committee, designed by architect Fred Townley and Matheson, and built by Carter, Halls, Aldinger and Company...
, a landmark Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
building funded in part by a baby bond scheme conceived by McGeer.
Monetary reform
In the early part of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, McGeer became a zealous student of economics and soon became obsessed with monetary reform as the answer to the economic crisis. He eventually came up with his own theories, which he cobbled together from the work of John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, and the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. (Williams, 312) On one occasion, he hypothesized that international "money power" was financing Communists activities in Vancouver. Another time he testified before the government that Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
was assassinated by international bankers opposed to the introduction of "Greenbacks
Demand Note
A Demand Note is a type of United States paper money that was issued between August 1861 and April 1862 during the American Civil War in denominations of 5, 10, and 20 US$...
." McGeer's lifelong mission was to attain a position where he could implement his reform ideas, but his flamboyant, aggressive, and eccentric style and theories alienated the powerbrokers in his own party.
Federal politics
While still mayor, McGeer ran as a Liberal PartyLiberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
candidate in the 1935 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1935
The Canadian federal election of 1935 was held on October 14, 1935 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 18th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King won a majority government, defeating Prime Minister R.B. Bennett's Conservative Party.The central...
and won in the riding
Electoral district (Canada)
An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...
of Vancouver—Burrard
Vancouver—Burrard
Vancouver—Burrard was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1925 to 1968.This riding was created in 1924 from parts of Burrard riding...
by a thin margin. In previous attempts, McGeer suffered defeats in the federal elections of 1925
Canadian federal election, 1925
The Canadian federal election of 1925 was held on October 29 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 15th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party formed a minority government. This precipitated the "King-Byng Affair".The Liberals under...
, 1926
Canadian federal election, 1926
The Canadian federal election of 1926 was held on September 14 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 16th Parliament of Canada. The election was called following an event known as the King-Byng Affair...
, and 1930
Canadian federal election, 1930
The Canadian federal election of 1930 was held on July 28, 1930 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 17th Parliament of Canada...
. He was re-elected in 1940
Canadian federal election, 1940
The Canadian federal election of 1940 was the 19th general election in Canadian history. It was held March 26, 1940 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 19th Parliament of Canada...
and appointed to the Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
by Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
on 9 June 1945.
Although he attained his goal of becoming elected to the federal government, McGeer was once again relegated to the back benches, this time in Mackenzie King's government. He had a warm relationship with King through much of his political career, but King did not embrace McGeer's monetary schemes and sought to keep his outlandish behaviour on the margins of the government. Despite the reservations of the political elite, McGeer was immensely popular outside those circles because of his fiery oration skills. His tirades against bankers and the banking system proved especially popular during the Great Depression
Great Depression in Canada
Canada was hit hard by the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1939, the gross national product dropped 40% . Unemployment reached 27% at the depth of the Depression in 1933...
, and he regularly lectured to packed houses across the country.
Civic comeback
McGeer returned to civic politics with another landslide election victory in 1946, this time on a Non-Partisan AssociationNon-Partisan Association
The Non-Partisan Association is a civic-level electoral organization in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There are, and have also been in the past, Non-Partisan Association political parties in the nearby municipalities of Burnaby, Richmond and Surrey.The NPA was established in 1937 to...
slate. Again he ran on a campaign to rid the city of vice and police corruption. Ill-health made him less exuberant than his earlier mayoral term, but he nonetheless persisted with his reforms. Twenty-six men on the police force were demoted or dismissed and the chief constable
Chief Constable
Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry...
was replaced by Walter Mulligan, who was the youngest chief in Vancouver to date. McGeer died in office in 1947 and therefore did not see the fruits of his latest reform drive. In 1955, revelations surfaced that McGeer's chosen police chief had instituted a pay-off system in Vancouver, resulting in an extensive police inquiry. Mulligan fled the country, one high ranking member of the force committed suicide, and another attempted suicide. Meanwhile, a Superintendent from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
took over as the new chief.
Legacy
McGeer's monetary reform ideas were certainly his greatest passion. Although his attempts to obtain a position where he could implement his ideas failed, his was one of the most forceful voices in Canada advocating government intervention in the monetary system and nationalizing the credit system. His vision of monetary reform predated the establishment of the Bank of CanadaBank of Canada
The Bank of Canada is Canada's central bank and "lender of last resort". The Bank was created by an Act of Parliament on July 3, 1934 as a privately owned corporation. In 1938, the Bank became a Crown corporation belonging to the Government of Canada...
and the Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
movement of William Aberhart
William Aberhart
William Aberhart , also known as Bible Bill for his outspoken Baptist views, was a Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Alberta between 1935 and 1943. The Social Credit party believed the reason for the depression was that people did not have enough money to spend, so the government...
, which formed the government in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and later in BC under an admirer of McGeer, W. A. C. Bennett. Although McGeer was critical of Aberhart's version of Social Credit, he did flirt with the British Columbia Social Credit Party
British Columbia Social Credit Party
The British Columbia Social Credit Party, whose members are known as Socreds, was the governing political party of British Columbia, Canada, for more than 30 years between the 1952 provincial election and the 1991 election...
before his death, leading his biographer to speculate that McGeer likely would have been a player in the Bennett government, which enjoyed a twenty-year reign of the province.
McGeer's nephew, Pat McGeer
Pat McGeer
Patrick Lucey "Pat" McGeer, OC, OBC, FRSC , is a Canadian physician, professor and medical researcher. He is regarded as a leading authority on the causes and prevention of Alzheimer's disease and is the principal author of the inflammatory hypothesis of the disease, which holds that Alzheimer's...
was elected as an MLA for the opposition Liberals in a byelection in 1962, and reelected in the 1963
British Columbia general election, 1963
The British Columbia general election of 1963 was the 27th general election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on August 22, 1963, and held on September 30, 1963...
. Gerry McGeer's economic ideas are most fully elaborated in his 1935 book, Conquest of Poverty, or Money, Humanity and Christianity, in which the last part is in the form of an imaginary radio broadcast featuring President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
interviewing Abraham Lincoln.