For nearly two centuries, Feb. 22 was known as President George Washington’s birthday. In the late 20th century, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which gave federal employees additional three-day weekends, one of which was created when moving Washington’s observance day to the third Monday in February.
The Act also included a provision to combine the celebration of Washington’s birthday with that of Abraham Lincoln, which falls on Feb. 12, and rename the holiday Presidents Day. This proved to be a point of contention and the proposed provision was dropped.
Nevertheless, the main piece of the Act passed, and although never officially renamed, the day of observance has become known as Presidents Day for various reasons — most notably appliance, mattress, and furniture promotional sales.
Regardless of the politics behind the Feb. 22 day of observance and our personal beliefs concerning current and past occupants of the Oval Office, transformative leadership is worthy of honor and remembrance.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s role in transforming rural America is worthy of our accolades this Presidents Day as his vision for rural America continues to be a work in progress.
In 1935 almost 90% of farm families in the nation were still without power. Keep in mind that five years prior — in 1930 — nearly nine in 10 urban and nonfarm rural homes could access electricity. This “electrical divide” exposed the difference in standards of living between urban and rural. The lack of electricity impeded rural Americans from the modernization benefits available to their city neighbors.
Rural Electrification Administration in 1935. photo from Records of the Rural Electrification Administration, Record Group 221; National Archives at College Park, MD.
On May 11, 1935, FDR signed Executive Order 7037 establishing “an agency within the Government to be known as the Rural Electrification Administration …”
FDR and the REA (now known as the Rural Utilities Service), with its federal funds available to provide rural electric service, paved the way for improving the social and economic status of rural Americans. The modernization of our rural areas profoundly changed lives and livelihoods with farm production vastly increased and new industries locating to rural areas.
Today, we continue a similar fight in the arena of broadband high-speed internet. I extend a sincere thank you to our readers who participated in the broadband map challenge published in the January issue, with some reporting back to us their experiences with internet, or lack thereof. Correct national broadband maps are essential in guiding policymakers in determining where billions of dollars will be spent on rural broadband deployment.
In 2023, the words of FDR remain relevant:
“The forward march of electric cooperatives has an even more profound significance in terms of our fight to preserve democracy.”
