Building Social Capital: A Lifetime of Civic Engagement

The years between Margaret Chase's birth and the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920 coincided with the most remarkable expansion of social capital institutions in the nation's history. Virtually every aspect of American society participated in the creation of civic associations and organizations. This unprecendented burst of social and civic engagement deeply affected Margaret as she grew to adulthood. In fact, it became an ingrained element of her life. Her efforts to build social capital became the cornerstone of a political career dedicated to public service and civic engagement. Margaret Chase Smith forged a lifetime of dedication to the essence of "building social capital," doing things with people. 

HOW SOCIAL CAPITAL WORKS Robert Putnam, in his work Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, explains the definition and benefits of Social Capital as follows:

Social capital refers to networks of social connections - doing things with people. Doing good for other people, however laudable, is not part of the definition of social capital.

Social networks provide the channels through which we recruit one another for good deeds, and social networks foster norms of reciprocity that encourages attention to other's welfare.

Social capital allows citizens to resolve collective problems more easily.

Social capital greases the wheels that allow communities to advance smoothly. Where people are trusting and trustworthy, and where they are subject to repeated interactions with fellow citizens, everyday business and social transactions are less costly.

Social capital improves our lot by widening our awareness of the many ways in which our fates are linked.

A nineteen year old Margaret Chase 

stands in front of the Red Cross Headquarters in Skowhegan in 1917.

Her volunteer activities held special meaning for her;

seventeen Skowhegan boys died in World War I. 

 

Margaret Chase helped form the Skowhegan Chapter of the BPW in 1924 

and was elected president of the Maine BPW two years later. 

She maintained her association with the BPW throughout her lifetime, 

acting as hostess, speaker, and officer in town and district groups. 

 

Soon after Clyde Smith's election to the U.S. 

House of Representatives in 1936 and their subsquent move to Washington, D.C., 

Margaret joined the Congressional Club, a social group for the wives of Congressmen. 

This club helped her understand the complex social etiquette required of a Congressional wife.

Senator Smith credited the Congressional Club with helping ease her transition into her own congressional office.

 

Margaret Chase Smith recognized her need to polish her approach to societal interactions in Washington. 

On December 27, 1938, she enrolled with Alice Keith, 

director of the National Academy of Broadcasting. Ms. Keith coached her in public speaking and radio delivery, and assisted her in developing her trademark ease in all forms of social interaction. 

 

An extraordinary burst of civic activity occurred during World War II. Carrying aluminum pots and pans, Republican Congresswomen Margaret Chase Smith, Edith Nourse Rogers, and Frances Bolton, assisted by Boy Scouts, participated in the "tea kettles for airships" drive of the Civilian Defense Office in July, 1941. The newspaper caption at the time stated that the women were "giving up part of their kitchen equipment to be made into bigger and better bombers." 

 

Congresswomen Jessie Sumner (R-IL), Clare Booth Luce (R-CT), Frances Bolton (R-OH), and Margaret Chase Smith representing the women members of Congress, gather around House Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas prior to taking part in a spelling bee against their male counterparts at the National Press Club in October, 1943. The women carried off the honors in the old fashioned bee as their eight misspellings fell one shy of the nine committed by their rivals. Margaret Chase Smith easily handled "ichthyology" but had trouble with "Albuquerque." 

 

Founded in 1894 as the Maine State Association, the original purpose of the group was to maintain a home away from home for Mainers in the Capital, keep alive a sense of Maine roots, and to boost the image of the state. Its primary purpose was to provide for and strengthen the social contacts of its members. In 1940, the group was reorganized as The Maine State Society when FDR's New Deal and preparations for war brought many new Maine residents to Washington. At the time of her death in 1995 Margaret Chase Smith was the last charter member of the rejuvenated 1940 Society.

 

Elder statesman Bernard Baruch is the center of attention at a Washington, D.C. dinner party. However, his own center of attention was U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who he said is one of the few Republicans he admires. . ." read the original caption in the Portland Press Herald on January 31, 1950. After her "Declaration of Conscience" speech on June 1, 1950, Baruch stated that if a man had spoken her words "he would be the next President."

Margaret Chase Smith was very successful at converting opportunities for building social capital into political gain. Beginning in the mid-forties she impressed Baruch disciples James Forrestal, Ferdinand Eberstadt, and Maine's Clifford Carver with her insights on domestic and foreign policies. She successfully parlayed these contacts into achievements such as the Armed Services Integration Act that granted women permanent status in the military. Her work on the House Naval Affairs Committee and her support for international organizations such as the United Nations so impressed these leading statesmen of the early Cold War years that she was appointed to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1953

For many men in their twenties and thirties, volunteering often involved coaching Little League, an organization founded in 1939 by Carl E. Stotz. Coaches and players alike engaged in activities beyond the playing field that helped expand social capital, including fund-raising efforts on behalf of the Jimmy Fund. In 1948, the Jimmy Fund was created following a visit by members of the Boston Braves baseball team to a young Maine cancer patient named Einar "Jimmy" Gustafson. Senator Smith is pictured in September 1953 supporting the cause by making a donation to Skowhegan native and current Margaret Chase Smith Library neighbor Colin Quinn. That year the Jimmy Fund became the official charity of the Boston Red Sox after the Braves moved to Milwaukee. 

 

Senator Smith rehearses her reading of "The Three Bears" in preparation for Ernie Tannens "Storytime" radio broadcast on WGAY in July 1951. 

 

It only makes sense that school children who are studying civics and government should be permitted to see and hear their public officials. What they read in textbooks about their government and their public officials takes on more real meaning when they see and hear some of them in person. I never talk partisan politics with the school groups. Instead, I talk about their responsibilities as citizens, how they are going to take over the reigns of government in the future, and how the Senate is run. --Margaret Chase Smith "Washington and You" newspaper column September 11, 1955 

 

On April 10, 1962, some of the one hundred Bangor Daily News carriers whose participation in a circulation contest earned them a trip to Washington, DC, Gettysburg, and Independence Hall in Philadelphia met with Margaret Chase Smith for a tour of the Capitol. Dressed in Bangor Daily News shirts and outfitted with new carrier bags, the Sunrisers, as they were called visited the offices of all Senators and Representatives where they left copies of the Bangor Daily special editions, State of Maine brochures, five-pound packages of Maine potatoes from the State Department of Agriculture, and packages of sardines fomr the Maine Sardine Council. 

 

Senator Smith takes time out from her Congressional duties to christen the symbolic four millionth house built in the United States since World War II. The sign indicates that ninety thousand homes had been established in Washington alone. This house in Bethesda, Maryland was completed in June, 1950. At left is Edward R. Carr, representative of the Home Builder's Association of Metropolitan Washington. 

 

Whether in assisting the American Red Cross by wrapping bandages
during World War I, or by organizing the Skowhegan chapter of the
Maine Federation of Business and Professional Women during the
twenties, or through her active participation in the Congressional Club,
founded in 1908, after she accompanied her husband Clyde to Washington, DC
during the mid-thirties, or through her work on various House and
Senate committees, or by meeting with school groups,
Margaret Chase Smith forged a lifetime of dedication to the
essence of "building social capital," doing things with people.