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The Business Plot or the The Plot Against FDR is a historically conjectured conspiracy of moneyed interests intended to strip President Franklin D. Roosevelt of his political power during the early years of the Great Depression. Proponents of the theory point to the year 1933 as the origin of the affair, citing the widespread dismay of U.S. business interests toward President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program, which proposed sweeping new government intervention and redistributionist policies to combat the Great Depression. In response, these men allegedly plotted to overthrow Roosevelt in a fascist military coup.

Alleged Conspirators

Those who propose the existence of the Business Plot hold a group of wealthy business interests, led by the Du Pont and J. P. Morgan industrial empires, to have been the conspirators. Among the individuuals cited:

• Irénée du Pont - Chemical industrialist and founder of the American Liberty League, the right-wing organization assigned to execute the plot.
• Grayson Murphy - Director of Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel and a group of J. P. Morgan banks.
• William Doyle - Former high-ranking member of the American Legion and a central plotter of the coup.
• John Davis - Former Democratic presidential candidate and a senior attorney for J. P. Morgan.
• Al Smith - Roosevelt's bitter political foe from New York. Smith was a former governor of New York and a codirector of the American Liberty League.
• John J. Raskob - A high-ranking DuPont officer and a former chairman of the Democratic Party.
• Robert Clark - One of Wall Street's richest bankers and stockbrokers.
• Gerald MacGuire - Bond salesman for Clark, and a former commander of the Connecticut American Legion. MacGuire was the key recruiter to General Butler.

The Butler Affair

The alleged conspirators supposedly tried to recruit United States Marine Corps General Smedley Butler to lead the coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men for a march on Washington, D.C., unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. Despite Butler's sworn loyalty to Roosevelt, the plotters are held to have felt his good reputation and popularity were vital to attract support among the general public. He was also supposedly seen as easier to manipulate than other candidates.

In attempting to recruit Butler to the conspirators' cause, MacGuire is said to have played on the general's passionate loyalty toward his fellow veterans and soldiers. Knowing of an upcoming bonus in 1945 for World War I Veterans, MacGuire allegedly told Butler, "We want to see the soldiers' bonus paid in gold. We do not want the soldier to have rubber money or paper money." The conjectural conspirators also are held to have cited as a goal a desire to protect president Roosevelt from other plotters.

Given a successful coup, Butler would have supposedly held near-absolute power in the newly created position of "Secretary of General Affairs", while Roosevelt would have assumed a figurehead role. Butler would then have implemented fascist measures to correct the economy, as such steps were deemed by some at the time to be the most efficient way to fight communism while preserving socio-economic status quo.

Butler is held to have seen through the plotters' false concern for the President. His subsequent testimony before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee (which would later become the House Committee on Un-American Activities) was largely ignored. The persons claimed by Butler to have been associated with the plot all claimed innocence. Only MacGuire was called for questioning by the Committee.

Public reaction

Reaction to Butler's tesitimony by the public was lukewarm. Those who hold with the existence of the conspiracy cite many theories as to why the affair did not become a cause celebre, amomg which are:

1. The story was an embarassment to people of influence, and it was best to sweep it under the rug as quickly as possible for the sake of order.
2. In 1934, newspapers were controlled by a relatively small elite. (82% of all dailies had monopolies in their communities.) Critics of such centralized power suggest they were serving the interests of their advertisers and bank accounts, rather than good journalism.
3. The story simply fizzled due to a lack of evidence.
4. Some of Roosevelt's advisors were in on the plot, and downplayed it when it was exposed to prevent their dirty laundry from being aired in public.
5. Roosevelt's first term was characterized by a political tug of war between conservatives and progressives. Roosevelt and his advisors fabricated the plot and fed it through Butler, as a way to create animosity towards conservatives, thus pushing the country to the left.

Denouement

The supposed conspiracy against Roosevelt is held by its advocates to have been foiled in 1933 when Butler informed the Congress of a "business plot" to replace the constitutional government of the United States. However, outside of Butler's personal testimony to Congress scant evidence of such a plot exists. In the absence of such verifiable historical documentary evidence the reality and genesis of the supposed "Business Plot" remain unclear. While it is known that many New Deal spending and tax measures created alarm among some members of the business establishment, it is less certain that those who saw FDR's programs as a redistribution of their wealth to the poor were willing to propose an extraconstitutional coup to prevent the "creeping communism" of the New Deal and guarantee the future of American capitalism. The question of whether or not the Business Plot historically existed remains open.

Sources

• History Today article examines Butler's testimony from both sides
• House Committee on Un-American Activities report part 1
• House Committee on Un-American Activities report part 2
• House Committee on Un-American Activities report part 3
• John L. Spivak's two articles in socialist magazine New Masses