Edward Rumely

It is said that while he studied in Germany, he lived on nuts, herbs and other uncooked foods and wore sandals and scanty clothes, under the influence of views espoused by Leo Tolstoy.

He used his technological interest to develop the Rumely Oil Pull Farm Tractor,[2] which burned kerosene.

This began his life's work of educating the public on monetary reform, farm credits in agriculture, and the value of the Constitution.

[6] To this end, in 1932 he formed and served as executive secretary of the Committee for the Nation for Rebuilding Purchasing Power and Prices.

This committee sought to lower the gold content of the dollar by fifty percent and, thus, raise commodity prices.

Franklin Roosevelt followed through on this and took the U.S. off of the gold standard adopted the Agricultural Adjustment Act to support farm prices.

Rumely and most members of the Committee for the Nation (as it was soon called) turned against Roosevelt's New Deal policies that they considered anti-business.

According to some accounts, Rumely coined the phrase the "court packing plan" and used the National Committee to lobby against the increase.

Abt predicted that a jury conviction of Rumely for contempt was unlikely and that a trial might make him into an unintended civil liberties martyr.

He spent his remaining years promoting cancer education and helped to spread the word on the effectiveness of the Pap smear test.