Grandpa Anton Janson was born in Germany in 1880, and came to Buckman with his family when he was 3. He was truly a pioneer. He remembered clearing land, building farm buildings, and watching the town of Buckman grow. He knew back-breaking labor, and the struggle to stay afloat when the economy changed over the years.
He spent 65 years thinking about--I want to say politics, but that's only part of it--he thought about how government, and people, worked, saw all the amazing labor-saving inventions, and where they would lead. He eventually believed that a day would come when nobody needed to do physical labor; that it'd all be done by machines...The years after 1929 made him think about old age, and how hard the Depression was on everybody. Then, he heard about this man, Francis Townsend, and his ideas concerning Old Age Pensions. It made so much sense to grandpa! The plan was simple, and would get money circulating in no time. Larry found THIS WEBSITE called Social Security Online. The Townsend story is there, but here's the basic plan:
Even I think it was a good idea, and you can certainly see why a 75 year old pioneer/farmer would be a card carrying member of the Townsend Plan, even years after it was voted down and became Social Security.
Anton Janson's wallet card
No comments:
Post a Comment