Ben Franklin's effort to define America — hundreds of years after his death

Ben Franklin's effort to define America — hundreds of years after his death

Transcript¹

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Michael Meyer, whose latest book, Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet, follows a bequest² Franklin left in his will to two cities.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

We know Benjamin Franklin as a founder³, a diplomat⁴ and an inventor.

MICHAEL MEYER: He invented bifocals. He invented the lightning rod. He proved that lightning is electricity. He coined words we use every day - electrician, battery, conductor, electric shock. He perfected the odometer. He invented a better catheter.

FADEL: That's author Michael Meyer, who adds another invention to the list - microfinance. Meyer's latest book, "Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet: The Favorite Founder's Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife And Blueprint⁵ For American Prosperity," follows a bequest Franklin left in his will to two cities. Our co-host Steve Inskeep asked him why he started the book at the end of Franklin's life with his last will and testament⁶.

MEYER: I was blown away when I read it because I didn't know that his will was essentially⁷ another chapter of his life, that he used his will to settle scores with family, with enemies, and he used his will to pass on his legacy⁸ and his values and to place a large bet on the survival of the working class in the United States.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

What was his concept?

MEYER: His concept was, I'm going to take a thousand pounds and put it in a pot for Boston, the city in which I was born and apprenticed⁹ as a printer. I'm going to take a thousand pounds and put it in a pot for Philadelphia, the city in which I rose to fame and fortune. And I want this money to be lent in small amounts to young married men who had just finished their apprenticeships. And I want them to use this money in order to start their own businesses.

His idea is that you'd pay the loan back over a period of ten years at below-market interest - it was a 5% rate - and then as you paid the money back, the principal would rise. And then, he said - this is the part I love - that after a hundred years, I want Boston and Philadelphia to figure out, what can you build that will benefit the common good with a big chunk¹² of this money? But then he wasn't done. He said, put the rest back in. Loan it out to apprentices¹⁰ and skilled tradespeople for the next hundred years. And then on the bicentennial of my death, you'll have a jackpot. You'll have this enormous windfall. And then you can decide democratically what you want to spend it on to benefit the common good.

INSKEEP: I want to underline he's making a statement here about class, which is a statement that still feels very relevant today, and he's deciding to support apprentices specifically. But what kinds of apprentices in what trades, and why them?

MEYER: Franklin was not a self-made man, contrary to the myth that is passed down over the centuries. You know, in the book I outline how much help he got from his common-law wife, Deborah. Franklin also owned slaves, and so he was benefiting from unpaid¹³ labor¹⁴ in his rise to riches as well. But in his will, what he said was, OK, I want to repay the help that I had been given in Philadelphia. And as far as the trades, you know, it was bricklayers, glaziers, candlers (ph) like his father had been - somebody who made candles - saddlers, shoemakers, jewellers, hairdressers, bakers¹⁵. It's really fun to turn the ledger's pages, and you sort of see a village, you know, assembling before your mind as you turn the pages, because it seemed like one person for every single kind of trade got a bit of the money in the beginning.

INSKEEP: But as time goes on, did people pay the loans back?

MEYER: Things started sliding rather quickly. Franklin did not foresee the demise¹⁶ of the apprenticeship¹¹ system that he so loved. He dies in 1790, and three years later, a man named Eli Whitney applies to Thomas Jefferson for a patent for his cotton gin. Skilled labor is no longer as important as unskilled labor in many ways. And there's a big debate in Boston when they get to the centennial, and they talk about what to do with the money. And one of the men who stands up, who's a union leader, says, you know, nowadays, if you want to hire someone to make shoes or boots, the foreman is going to say, I don't want the cobbler that could do it on their own. I'd rather have someone who's learning this trade for the very first time because they can work the machine, and it's in 17 different steps now, materially different.

INSKEEP: So did Franklin's fund evolve or just decline?

MEYER: Franklin's fund went in two separate directions. So in Boston, a person takes over the management of his fund and decides, you know what? If you look closely at the way Franklin wrote this, I think we should be focusing on the bottom line of the money that will be opened at the centennial and then the bicentennial of his death. And so we should focus on accumulation. On the other hand, you have Philadelphia, and there you have a mayor who had apprenticed as a hatter, had a decided¹⁷ distaste for learning. And in Philadelphia, they say, no, we're going to adhere to Benjamin's idea here that this money should keep circulating to fund tradespeople. And over time, the definitions enlarge.

This is a very American story, and what I mean by that is there are lots of lawsuits¹⁸ and court battles that - they try to change the terms of the loan so women are allowed to borrow. They expand the idea of what a trade is. Like, isn't a dentist, isn't a nurse, also a trade of a sort? And so although the final money amounts differ greatly in Boston and Philadelphia, I think one of those cities did a much better job at adhering to Franklin's wishes and his idea of what this money should be used for. In Philadelphia, his money is still being used to fund young people who don't want to go to a four-year college, but instead want to learn a trade or a craft. So this money lives on, and I think that's the happy ending of this story, is that Benjamin Franklin's money still lives on.

INSKEEP: What does that story tell you about America?

MEYER: I think - look, our founders¹⁹ all wrestled²⁰ with the question, what does America mean? But only Franklin seemed to continue that conversation after his death. And he wanted to ensure that his name and his idea was on our minds 100 years, 200 years after his passage. And he felt very strongly, again, that working-class people not only need support, but they also need to be a voice in our government because they see the effect of taxation²¹ and policies at the ground level every day. And I think if Franklin came back today, he'd probably be really happy to see that his money still survives. But I think he'd be really disheartened to find that although over half of Americans identify as working class, less than 2% of Congress people have ever held a working-class job. I think he'd also be disheartened that our apprenticeship system right now has about 600,000 people in it, where over 17 million young people are enrolled²² in four-year degrees. And I say that as an English professor, I should add - that there are other ways to succeed in life than going to a four-year college and taking on debt.

INSKEEP: Michael Meyer is the author of "Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet." Thanks so much.

MEYER: Thanks for having me.

FADEL: And he spoke²³ with our co-host, Steve Inskeep.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 bequest   

n.遗赠；遗产，遗物

参考例句：

• In his will he made a substantial bequest to his wife.在遗嘱里他给妻子留下了一大笔遗产。
• The library has received a generous bequest from a local businessman.图书馆从当地一位商人那里得到了一大笔遗赠。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

5 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

6 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

9 apprenticed   

学徒，徒弟( apprentice的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I was apprenticed to a builder when I was fourteen. 14岁时，我拜一个建筑工人为师当学徒。
• Lucius got apprenticed to a stonemason. 卢修斯成了石匠的学徒。

10 apprentices   

学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They were mere apprentices to piracy. 他们干海盗仅仅是嫩角儿。
• He has two good apprentices working with him. 他身边有两个好徒弟。

11 apprenticeship   

n.学徒身份；学徒期

参考例句：

• She was in the second year of her apprenticeship as a carpenter. 她当木工学徒已是第二年了。
• He served his apprenticeship with Bob. 他跟鲍勃当学徒。

12 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

13 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

14 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

15 bakers   

n.面包师( baker的名词复数 )；面包店；面包店店主；十三

参考例句：

• The Bakers have invited us out for a meal tonight. 贝克一家今晚请我们到外面去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bakers specialize in catering for large parties. 那些面包师专门负责为大型宴会提供食品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 demise   

n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让

参考例句：

• He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标，但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
• The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。

17 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

18 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

19 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

20 wrestled   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• As a boy he had boxed and wrestled. 他小的时候又是打拳又是摔跤。
• Armed guards wrestled with the intruder. 武装警卫和闯入者扭打起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 taxation   

n.征税，税收，税金

参考例句：

• He made a number of simplifications in the taxation system.他在税制上作了一些简化。
• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。

22 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。