Remember When?

80 YEARS AGO • NOVEMBER, 1940

FIRST THREE-TERMER

This precedent shaking campaign has finally resulted in the WILL of the people speaking, and thus ROOSEVELT continues on as President of the United States of America.

Let us stand UNITED as the name of our country implies, the United States of America, and determinedly with FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT at the helm face the perils of a war torn, desolate and disorganized world. Hail! Franklin Delano Roosevelt, first President of the United States ever to be elected for a third term.

This is our patriotic duty, our obligation, and our moral responsibility. For above all we are one people, Democrats and Republicans, saints and sinners and UNITED we stand DIVIDED we fall.

The vote in Thompson Falls was 300 for Roosevelt and 200 for his Republican opponent Wilkie.

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a third term. He also won a fourth term in 1944. Roosevelt was president through the Great Depression of the 1930s and almost all of World War II. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 1945, just months after the start of his fourth term. Soon after, Republicans in Congress began the work of creating Amendment XXII. Roosevelt was the first and only president to serve more than two terms.

The amendment was passed by Congress in 1947, and was ratified by the states on February 27, 1951. The Twenty-Second Amendment states that a person can only be elected to be president two times for a total of eight years. It does make it possible for a person to serve up to ten years as president. This can happen if a person (most likely the vice-president) takes over for a president who can no longer serve their term. If this person serves two years or less of the preceding president’s term, they may serve for two more four-year terms. If they served more than two years of the last president’s term, the new president can serve only one full four-year term. Under the language of the amendment, the president at the time of its ratification (Harry S. Truman) was exempt from the two-term limitation. Truman served nearly all of Roosevelt’s unexpired fourth term and then was elected president once, serving his own four year term.

40 YEARS AGO

NOVEMBER 13, 1980

LEDGER LINES by K.A.E.

President Carter has been an honorable man. It will not be necessary as that court jester Bob Hope has jokingly suggested “Reagan to pardon Jimmy.”

Reagan’s greatest asset likely will not be his conservative philosophy, his great victory, his republican leadership in the Senate, nor his desire to strengthen this nation’s defense, but rather his ability as a communicator.

All of the nations great leaders have had that ability.

President Franklin Roosevelt was one. People listened and were inspired by his talks.

To a lesser degree President Truman had the ability to communicate, albeit a salty type of communication.

President Kennedy had the same quality. People were inspired to react and follow his leadership.

Reagan appears to have that same ability, although he will undoubtedly lead in a different direction than either Roosevelt or Kennedy.

We hope Reagan will carry this nation forward, not backward. We hope he won’t attempt to wipe out the victories achieved in civil rights, environmental controls, wilderness designations and sound social programs.

We hope he tightens things up, hews and hones, such as cutting off the welfare chiselers, stamping out graft, pruning waste.

We hope he can lead this nation in the restoration of morality, help us curb the growing use of drugs and revive and return some of the standards that made this nation great in the past.

May God bless our nation and guide our new president, Ronald Reagan.