The Ham and Eggs movement was an

old-age pension A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a "Defined benefit pension pla ...

movement in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

during the

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Owens Thompson, Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central Uni ...

. It was founded by Robert Noble, a controversial radio personality, and Willis Allen. It grew out of a

pension A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a " defined benefit plan", wh ...

movement similar to the one advocated by

Francis Townsend Francis Everett Townsend (; January 13, 1867 – September 1, 1960) was an American physician and political activist in California. In 1933, he devised an old-age pension scheme to help alleviate the Great Depression. Known as the "Townsend Pl ...

. The Ham and Eggs lobby wanted a massive state pension apparatus and inundated the State Legislature with mail. At one time, their movement had almost one million members. However, their proposal was defeated in an

initiative Popular initiative A popular initiative (also citizens' initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put direct ...

election on November 7, 1939. Willis Allen

Robert Noble was later arrested on charges of pro-

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

during World War II. Willis and Lawrence Allen, brothers who owned a radio station south of the Mexican border, took over the movement. The brothers' adviser and spokeswoman was Gertrude Coogan, an investment counselor. They were proponents of Proposition 25, 1938, which was the idea of

Irving Fisher Irving Fisher (February 27, 1867 – April 29, 1947) was an American economist, statistician, inventor, eugenicist and progressive social campaigner. He was one of the earliest American neoclassical economists, though his later work on debt de ...

... anyone qualified to vote in California and aged fifty or older without a job would receive $30 of "warrants" every week. Each $1 warrant would require a two-cent tax paid weekly to keep the note valid until redeemed. The warrants would be legal tender for payment of state taxes.

It was assumed that to avoid paying the weekly taxes on the money, the tender would be spent immediately, thus boosting the depressed economy. A cited example was the opportunity to trade up in foodstuffs from breakfast

oatmeal Oatmeal is a preparation of oats that have been dehusked, steamed, and flattened, or a coarse flour of hulled oat grains ( groats) that have either been milled (ground), rolled, or steel-cut. Ground oats are also called white oats. Steel- ...

to ham and eggs, hence the name 'Ham and Eggs Movement'. While it may not have had an effect on the economy, similar plans gave

Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

a more moderate face.Robert Whaples.
Review of Daniel J. B. Mitchell, Pensions, Politics, and the Elderly: Historic Social Movements and Their Lessons for Our Aging Society

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ham And Eggs Movement Political history of California Utopian movements Social history of California Retirement plans in the United States 1930s in California

See also

References