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About this Story
Forgotten Valor
Back from two years, drafted into USMC, I finished college at Western Reserve. Downtown Cleveland was familiar and a grand office building , the Bulkley Building. On the door was one of those signs that it was an air raid shelter. Eisenhower was president, and the war in Korea was at a truce. Only recently did I discover who the man was. A Cleveland attorney and business man who entered politics as a Democrat. He served in the US House for two terms (1911-1915) in Cleveland's East Side, the 21st. Theodore Burton was US Senator. When he died Bulkley was elected to take the seat-- This was l930. The country in a depression. He helped FDR before the election of l932 and won reelection to the full term . He was a New Deal Democrat tried and true. But Ohio had elected a Democrat to be governor in l935,Martin L. Davey. . He served two terms (they were two-year terms then) He was no liberal. In l937 he used the state militia to put down strikes sin Mahoning & Trumbill counties. He exploited the Aid for the Aged rolls with promises he had no legal right to make. FDR's Administration warned him to stop; it went on and sanctions were set up. Davey would not relent. He lost the primary. FDR had won his second term in l936. But he cut spending and help set up a relapse of economic depression. The pundits I have read attribute the losses of l938 to FDR's failed court packing scheme. Bulkley did support him in that. Robert Taft won the election in l938 to enter the US Senate. "Mr. Republican" who opposed FDR as Dr. New Deal and Dr. Win the War. John W. Bricker was elected as governor of Ohio. We seem to have forgotten Robert Bulkley who died in l965. If I get back to my home town I may pay a visit to his grave in Lakeview Cemetery.
About the Artist
Tom ( @tdieds1945 )
Tom Diederich
Reformed journalist. Reluctant Texan. Part-time shepherd. Online community builder. Social media whisperer and storyteller.