TOWNSEND CLUBS

In 1933, Dr. Francis E. Townsend, 67, wrote a letter to a Long Beach California newspaper advocating the establishment of a Government sponsored old age pension plan. The response was immediate and overwhelmingly favorable; 1933 was perhaps the worst year of the Depression and times were especially bad for the elderly. This led to the establishment of "Townsend Clubs" all across the country and eventually to the Social Security Act of 1937. These medals are from their first national convention in 1935.

In 1943, Dr. Francis E. Townsend published his autobiography--NEW HORIZONS, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By that time the Townsend movement was a decade old and Social Security had been paying benefits since 1937 (monthly benefits since 1940). Even so, only some of the steam had gone out of the movement by 1943. In those early years of Social Security benefits were still small and beneficiaries were few. Old-Age Assistance was more important, both in terms of the dollar value of the benefits and the size of the eligible population. It was not until the 1950 Social Security Amendments that the value and size of the Social Security program finally outpaced welfare benefits.

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