George David Aiken was an American politician and horticulturist.
46 Facts About George Aiken
2.
George Aiken sponsored the food allotment bill of 1945, which was a forerunner of the food stamp program.
3.
George Aiken promoted federal aid to education, and sought to establish a minimum wage of 65 cents in 1947.
4.
George Aiken was an isolationist in 1941 but supported the Truman Doctrine in 1947 and the Marshall Plan in 1948.
5.
George Aiken had to compromise and the Hope-Aiken act of 1948 introduced a sliding scale of price supports.
6.
George David Aiken was born in Dummerston, Vermont, to Edward Webster and Myra Aiken.
7.
George Aiken received his early education in the public schools of Putney, and graduated from Brattleboro High School in 1909.
8.
George Aiken developed a strong interest in agriculture at an early age, and became a member of the Putney branch of the Grange in 1906.
9.
George Aiken published Pioneering With Wildflowers in 1933 and Pioneering With Fruits and Berries in 1936.
10.
George Aiken served as president of the Vermont Horticultural Society and of the Windham County Farm Bureau.
11.
In 1914, George Aiken married Beatrice Howard, to whom he remained married until her death in 1966.
12.
In 1967 George Aiken married his longtime administrative assistant, Lola Pierotti.
13.
Lola George Aiken remained active in Republican politics until her death in 2014 at age 102.
14.
George Aiken served as a school board member in Putney from 1920 to 1937.
15.
George Aiken was reelected in 1932, and served from 1931 to 1935.
16.
George Aiken was elected as Speaker of the House in 1933, over the opposition of the Republican establishment.
17.
In 1934, George Aiken won election as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont.
18.
In 1936, George Aiken won election as governor, serving from 1937 to 1941.
19.
George Aiken earned a reputation as a moderate to liberal Republican, supporting many aspects of the New Deal, but opposing its flood control and land policies.
20.
When only Vermont and Maine voted Republican in the 1936 presidential election, George Aiken thought he was in a good position to exert national leadership in the GOP.
21.
George Aiken issued manifestos calling for a more liberal approach, and sought national support.
22.
George Aiken wrote an open letter to the Republican National Committee in 1937 criticizing the party, and claimed Abraham Lincoln "would be ashamed of his party's leadership today" during a 1938 Lincoln Day address.
23.
George Aiken broke the monopolies of many major industries, including banks, railroads, marble companies, and granite companies.
24.
George Aiken encouraged suffering farmers in rural Vermont to form co-ops to market their crops and get access to electricity.
25.
George Aiken portrayed himself in populist terms as the defender of farmers and "common folk" against the Proctor family and other members of the conservative Republican establishment, and with Ernest W Gibson and Ernest W Gibson Jr.
26.
George Aiken was an opponent of the policies of Vermont's large utilities and railroads; when George Aiken ran for the US Senate in 1940, the pro-business wing of the party endorsed Ralph Flanders.
27.
George Aiken defeated Flanders in the GOP Senate primary in 1940 and was easily elected that fall to complete the remainder of Gibson's term.
28.
George Aiken served until 1975, and was always reelected by large majorities.
29.
Senator Ernest Willard Gibson died on June 20,1940; on June 24,1940, Aiken appointed Ernest W Gibson Jr.
30.
George Aiken was succeeded by Aiken, who won the special election.
31.
George Aiken was elected on November 5,1940, and took his seat in January, 1941.
32.
George Aiken was re-elected in 1944,1950,1956,1962, and 1968.
33.
George Aiken was a proponent of many spending programs such as Food Stamps and public works projects for rural America, such as rural electrification, flood control and crop insurance.
34.
George Aiken stood midway between the pro-union Democrats and the pro-management Republicans.
35.
George Aiken favored settling labor disputes by negotiation, not in Congress and courts.
36.
George Aiken voted against the stringent Case labor bill promoted by conservative Republicans.
37.
George Aiken spoke out in favor of unions but voted for Taft's Taft Hartley Act of 1947, and for overriding President Truman's veto.
38.
George Aiken argued that it was a lesser evil than the Case bill.
39.
George Aiken voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the US Supreme Court, while George Aiken did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
40.
George Aiken consistently favored civil rights legislation, from the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but usually with important qualifications and amendments.
41.
George Aiken took an ambivalent position on the Vietnam war, changing along with the Vermont mood.
42.
George Aiken is widely quoted as saying that the US should declare victory and bring the troops home.
43.
George Aiken left office in 1975, succeeded by the first Democrat to represent Vermont in the Senate, Patrick Leahy.
44.
Leahy went on to become the Dean of the Senate, the title George Aiken possessed when he left the chamber.
45.
George Aiken resided in Putney until mid-1984, when his health began to fail and he moved to a nursing home in Montpelier.
46.
George Aiken died in Montpelier on November 19,1984, and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Putney.