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MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the William J. Clinton
Presidential Library Staff.
Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
Subgroup/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting
Series/Staff Member:
Michael Waldman
Subseries:
OA/ID Number:
14456
FolderlD:
Folder Title:
[Roosevelt Information]: Descriptions of FDR [Franklin D. Roosevelt] [1]
Stack:
Row:
Section:
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Position:
S
92
4
4
2
�i . Prologue: The Hundred Days
4, 1933. "This nation asks for action, and action
now. . . . We must act, and act quickly." The great mass before
the Capitol, huddling in the mist and wind under the sullen
March sky, responded with a burst of applause. The new President moved on to his conclusion. "In this dedication of a Nation
we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and
every one of us. May He guide me in tlie days to come." Then
the flourish of cavalry bugles, and the call to the inaugural
parade, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his face still set and
grim, entered his car to review the marchers from the stand in
front of the White House.
Through the country people listened to their radios with a
quickening hope. Nearly half a million of them wrote letters
to the Wliite House in the next few days. People said: "It was
the finest thing this side of heaven"; and "Your human feeling
for all of us in your address is just wonderful"; and " I t seemed
to give the people, as well as myself, a new hold upon life." "Yours
is the first opportunity to carve a name in the halls of immortals
beside Jesus," wrote one. "People are looking to you almost as
they look to God," wrote another.
But others could not suppress anxiety. Eleanor Roosevelt
called the inauguration "very, very solemn and a little terrifying"
— terrifying "because when Franklin got to that part of his
speech when he said it might become necessary for him to assume
powers ordinarily granted to a President in war time, he received
his biggest demonstration." What could this mean for the baffled
SATURDAY, MARCH
�PROLOGUE:
THE HUNDRED
DAYI
and despairing nation? "One has a feeling of going it blindly,!
she said, "because we're in a tremendous stream, and none of
knows where we're going to land."
1
II
In the morning the members of his cabinet had prayed wit!
Roosevelt at St. John's Episcopal Church across from the Whitejl
House, Endicott Peabody of Groton conducting the services. Late
in the afternoon, as the streets of Washington fell silent after
the excitements of the day, the cabinet foregathered with him one
again, now in the Oval Room of the White House. There the
stood, a quiet, serious group, inexplicably brought together by the!
crisis: — Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, grave, pale and fragile}:
William Woodin, Secretary of the Treasury, dark with anxiet
over the banking collapse; Harold Ickes, the Secretary of th^
Interior, with his square, stubborn face, and Henry Wallace,
Secretary of Agriculture, earnest and intent, and Frances PerkinsS
the Secretary of Labor, with her brisk, womanly determinatioril
and, beside them, the political professionals, ready for anything
Attorney-General Homer Cummings, Secretary of Commerc
Daniel C. Roper, Postmaster-General James A. Farley, and
service secretaries Claude Swanson and George Dern. As Justic
Benjamin N. Cardozo administered the oaths, precedents fell|
never before had a cabinet been sworn at a single stroke, neve
before had the swearing-in occurred at the White House. RooseS
velt, with a smile, called it a "little family party" and handeq
each his commission of office.
So the first day ended in suspense. And on the next, the ne|
President (as he later recalled i t ) , wakening with a pressing ser
of work to be done, ate an early breakfast and had himself wheels
over to his new office. There, seated for the first time in
presidential chair, he found himself suddenly alone in an emptjj
room. The desk was empty, the drawers were empty, the Pr"
dent could not even find pencil and pad to make a note,
looked for buzzers on the desk, but found no button to p i
no way to signal the outside world. He sat for a moment,
great chamber echoing and silent, the center of action cut :|
ft*
PROLOGUE:
THE H U M
from the nation at the moir)<
self and gave a mighty shou
Marvin Mclntyre running
the story, as he used to te
helplessness. For himself —
surmised — the predicament
lessness, extending for a dn
had called "the vital place of
It was hard to understate
income was less than half o
before. Nearly thirteen mil
of the labor force — were des
fpr sheltering and feeding i
everywhere under the growii
in the early morning befoi
America had locked its dooi
staving off hunger. It was a i
tive democracy could conque
of staving off violence, even (
Whether revolution was a
free system was plainly wani
had spent its force; democra
The only hope lay in gover
Will which representative inst
Some looked enviously on M
abroad there seemed fervor,
Could America match this s
does a democracy do in a war!
Of New York, who had been
President in 1928. " I t becom.
I n the World War we took <
laid it on the shelf and left
jthe iron hand of a national
"•Kansas, "is in preference to a
way in which a member of 1
extinct, a Republican goven
{the-President] in the fight, J
1
�DRED
DAYSf
ig it blindly," j
id none of us]
d prayed with
om the White i
services. Latej
z\\ silent after]
wilh him oncej
e. There they|
cogether by the
de and fragile;!
< with anxiety}
.
:cretary of thej
ry Wallace, the!
'ranees PerkinsJ
determination;!
y for anything,!
of Commerce]}
^arley, and thej
ern. As Justic
precedents fell:!
le stroke, nevf
House. Roose
y" and hande
; next, the ne
a pressing sense
himself wheeled
rst time in thd
•ne in an empt
mpty, the Presi|
ike a note. He
button to push
a moment, th(S
f action cut ofl
PROLOGUE:
THE HUNDRED
DAYS
3
from the nation at the moment of crisis. At last he bestirred himself and gave a mighty shout, which brought Missy LeHand and
Marvin Mclntyre running from adjacent rooms. For others,
the story, as he used to tell it, seemed a skit on his physical
helplessness. For himself — or so at least Rexford G. Tugwell
surmised — the predicament was a parable of the national helplessness, extending for a dreadful moment even to what Wilson
had called "the vital place of action in the system."
It was hard to understate the need for action. The national
income was less than half of what it had been lour short years
hef2jy, M r ^ r l j tliirn'cn millinn Americans — about one quarter
'of the lalforforce — were desperately seeking jobs. The machinery
for sheltering and feeding the unemployed was breaking down
everywhere under the growing burden. And a few hours before,
in the early morning__befor£ the inauguration, pypry
'I?
America had locked its doors. I t was now not just a matter of
staving off hunger. It was a matter of seeing whether a representative democracy could conquer economic collapse. It was a matter
of staving off violence, even (at least some so thought) revolution.
Whether revolution was a real possibility or not, faith in a
free system was plainly waning. Capitalism, it seemed to many,
had spent its force; democracy could not rise to economic crisis.
The only hope lay in governmental leadership of a power and
will which representative institutions seemed impotent to produce.
Some looked enviously on Moscow, others on Berlin and Rome;
abroad there seemed fervor, dedication, a steel determination.
Could America match this spirit of sacrifice and unity? "What
does a democracy do in a war?" said Al Smith, the former governor
of New York, who had been the Democratic party's candidate for
President in 1928. " I t becomes a tyrant, a despot, a real monarch.
In the World War we took our Constitution, wrapped it up and
laid it on the shelf and left it there until it was over." "Even
the iron hand of a national dictator," said Alfred M. Landon of
Kansas, "is in preference to a paralytic stroke. . . . If there is any
Way in which a member of that species, thought by many to be
extinct, a Republican governor of a mid-western state, can aid
[the President] in the fight, I now enlist for the duration of the
n a n l f
War." 2
�PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
The first priority was the banking system. Before anything
else could be done, it seemed imperative to clear the financial
arteries of the economy. The outgoing President had asked the
President-elect in February to join with him in meeting the banking
crisis. But Herbert Hoover had stipulated that cooperation was
to be on his own terms; this meant, as he privately confided to a
friend, the ratification by Roosevelt ol "the whole major prograin
of the Republican Admiuisti HI ion" and "the abandonment of
90% of the so-called new deal." Roosevelt, angered at the proposal that he renounce the policies on which he had won the
election, broke off negotiations. Last-minute attempts to bring
the two men together just before the inauguration [ailed. Avoiding
responsibility without power, now, on March 5, Franklin Roosevelt
had both.
He had already settled on the main lines of his attack. Before
arriving in Washington, he had rough drafts of two presidential
proclamations: one calling a special session of Congress; the other
declaring a bank holiday and controlling the export of gold by
invoking forgotten provisions of the wartime T r a d i n g with the
Enemy Act. On Saturday night, a few hours after the inauguration,
Secretary of the Treasury Woodin agreed to have emergency banking legislation ready for Congress when it convened on Thursday,
March 9. After lunch on Sunday, Roosevelt called the cabinet'
together to complete the program of action. Woodin, after a
morning of conferences, reported that the bankers, hastily summoned from across the country, had no plan of their own. A t
torney-General Cummings then gave his official assent to the use
of the Trading with the Enemy Act. T h i s prepared the way for"
the two proclamations, and they were issued i n the next four hours.?
W i t h the declaration of the bank holiday, the administration
bought time — eighty hours u n t i l Congress reconvened — to work';
out a plan for reviving the banks. O l d officials and new labored]
together day and night in the Treasury. Ogden Mills, Hoover's'
Secretary of the Treasury, exhorted the group to produce a p n n
gram; if they couldn't, let "the President and M r . Woodin tell
us to get the devil out of here and get some men who can." We had!
PROLOGUE:
THE
HUN
"forgotten to be Republic
Moley, the chief of Roo.sc\
Assistant Secretary of Stale.
10 save the banking system."
The decision to save the
come about almost by inat
President saw it, was to ban is
jn the system, he had to oil
would support. And he had
ol the existing structure. J
another member of the camj
tary of Agriculture, had a
system would lake over the
banks, while separate corpoi
meicial credit; but Tugwell''
ing crisis. Indeed, as T u g v
and the orthodox economists
area. America had no one <
Maynard Keynes in Britain,
reform.
There was restiveness in Co
" I think back to the events
Cutting of New Mexico la
then . . . the nationalizatic
could have been accomplislu
President Roosevelt's great m
convened, Senators Robert A
Edward P. Costigan of Coloi
at the White House to urge 1
banking system. But they fou
isn't necessary at a l l , " La Fo
"I've just had every assuram
The very moneychangers, w
the temple the President had
inaugural address, were now
the Treasury.
8
�DRED
DAYS"
lore anything j
the financial
nad asked the
ig the banking
operation was
confided to a
najor program
indonment of
d at the prohad won the
npts to bring
Aed. Avoiding
klin Roosevelt
attack. Before
0 presidential
ress; the otherj
.rt of gold by,
Jing with the^
inauguration,
icrgency bank-|
on Thursday,!
d the cabinet]
)Oclin, after aj
., hastily sumlicir own. A t - j
mt to the use|
cl the way f o r ]
;xt four hours.,!
administration'!
ied — to work!
1 new labored]
tills, Hoover'sf
noducc a pro-?
. Woodin tell]
can." We hadj
j> R O 1. O G U E :
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
5
"forgotten to be Republicans or Democrats," wrote Raymond
Moley, the chief of Roosevelt's campaign brain trust, now an
Assistant Secretaiy of State. "We were just a bunch of men trying
to save the banking system."
The decision to save the system laihcr than to change it had
conic about almost by inadvertence. The first problem, as the
President saw it, was to banish fear. II he was to restore confidence
in the system, he had to offer policies which bankers themselves
would support. And lie had no real alternative lo the restoration
ol the existing structure. I t is true that Rexford G. Tugwell,
another member of the campaign brain trust, now Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, had a scheme by which the postal savings
system would take over the deposit and checking transactions of
banks, while separate corporations would assume the job of commcrcial credit; but Tugwell's advice was not sought i n the banking crisis. Indeed, as Tugwell later acknowledged, Wall Street
and the orthodox economists had a monopoly of expertise in this
area. America had no one outside the charmed circle, like John
Maynard Keynes in Britain, who might have conceived a genuine
reform.
There was restiveness in Congress about the President's approach.
" I think back to the events of March 4, 1933," Senator Bronson
Cutting of New Mexico later wrote, "with a sick heart. For
then . . . the nationalization of banks by President Roosevelt
could have been accomplished without a word of protest. I t was
President Roosevelt's great mistake." On the night before Congress
convened, Senators Robert M . La Follette, Jr., of Wisconsin and
Edward P. Costigan of Colorado, two leading progressives, called
at the White House to urge Roosevelt to establish a truly national
banking system. But they found Roosevelt's mind made up. "That
isn't necessary at a l l , " La Follette later recalled Roosevelt saying.
"I've just had every assurance of cooperation from the bankers."
The very moneychangers, whose flight from their high seats i n
the temple the President had so grandiloquently proclaimed in his
inaugural address, were now swarming through the corridors of
the Treasury.
3
�PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
IV
For the country, tlie proclamation of the holiday ushered in
almost a springtime mood. The closing of the banks seemed to
give the long economic descent the punctuation of a full stop, as
if this were the bottom and hereafter things could only turn
upward. Anything was better than nagging uncertainty. Now
everyone knew where he stood. People enjoyed the sense of a
common plight. They made jokes and wrote out checks and
accepted scrip and adjusted themselves with good cheer to the
bankless economy.
j
But Washington, where the banking system was to be saved,
could not be so philosophical. The ever approaching deadline
stretched already taut nerves to the breaking point. Phones rang .
incessantly with excited calls from distant cities. The corridors \
of the Treasury echoed with rumor, fear, and fantasy. Bankers j
went to pieces under the pressure, and brain trusters showed the]
strain. Yet the old Treasury team, led by Mills and his Under-1
secretary, Arthur A. Ballantine, remained cool; and the new]
Treasury chief was displaying unexpected qualities of poise and!
endurance.
Woodin, whose pointed chin and delicate triangular face in-1
evitably provoked the adjective "elfin," hid strength beneath hisj
guileless surface. The stories about him were disarming but not|
particularly relevant to the banking crisis: he was addicted t o j
bad puns; he liked to strum the zither or the guitar; he was the|
composer of "Raggedy Ann's Sunny Songs." Sixty-four years old.J
in poor health, soft-spoken and self-effacing, he seemed hardlyi
the man to dominate a melee of panic-stricken bankers. Still the
crisis found him clearheaded. He demanded what he called "swiii
and staccato action"; he was ready to accept responsibility anc
enforce decision; and he moved through turbulence with serenity!
By Monday a variety of proposals were under discussion at thd
Treasury. Many bankers demanded that the government issu<
scrip as it had during the panic of 1907. This idea assumed thai
the banks had too little currency on hand to meet national need
on reopening. The Hoover administration, in one of its last actsj
had actually prepared a joint resolution to provide for the issuanc'
PROLOGUE:
THE HU
of currency by clearingh.
group, now reinforced by
Federal Reserve Bank ai
Hanover Bank, turned a
stead a plan devised by
Reserve Board whereby cu
Reserve Act against bank ;
confidence, then Federal R
than clearinghouse scrip. A
so it was said, dozing and si
weiser idea.
For the rest, the bank,
frenzied days, gave the S <
e
gold hoarding and to ta
exchange for paper; and ii
of the closed banks under
In the Treasury, men wo
broad plan into legislatn
shower, or a snatch of sleej
to the White House. That
tion to a conference of <
A newspaperman asked A
"Yes, it's finished," said W
finished too."
On Thursday, March
the inauguration, Congres
a message from the Presic
the Congress the clear ner
Henry B. Steagall of die
aloud the only available 0
Debate was limited to fo
expired members began c
o'clock, the House passed
the bill few of its membei
Senate, which had been a
stitute die House version
of Louisiana, trying to am<
Carter Glass of Virginia,
�PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
^
of currency by clearinghouses. But, on rellcction, the Treasury
group, now reinforced by George L. Harrison of the New York
Federal Reserve Bank and George W. Davison of the Central
Hanover Bank, turned against this proposal. They favored instead a plan devised by Dr. E. A. Goldenweiscr of the Federal
Reserve Board whereby currency could be issued under the Federal
Reserve Act against bank assets. If the first essential was to restore
confidence, then Federal Reserve notes would be far less disturbing
tban clearinghouse scrip. Woodin, alter spending Monday evening,
so it was said, dozing and strumming his guitar, adopted the Goldenweiscr idea.
For the rest, the banking bill, as it took shape in the next
frenzied days, gave the Secretary of the Treasury power to prevent
gold hoarding and to take over gold bullion and currency in
exchange for paper; and it provided for the review and reopening
of the closed banks under a system of licenses and "conservators."
In the Treasury, men worked around the clock to translate the
broad plan into legislative language, pausing only for coffee, a
shower, or a snatch of sleep. On Wednesday afternoon a draft went
to the White House. That evening Roosevelt presented the legislation to a conference of congressional leaders from both parties.
A newspaperman asked Woodin whether the bill was finished.
"Yes, it's finished," said Woodin wryly. "My name is Bill and I'm
finished too."
On Thursday, March 9, at noon, a breathless five days after
the inauguration, Congress convened. Almost at once it received
a message from the President: " I cannot too strongly urge upon
the Congress the clear necessity for immediate action." Chairman
Henry B. Steagall of the Banking and Currency Committee read
aloud the only available copy of the proposed banking legislation.
Debate was limited to forty minutes, and even before this time
expired members began calling "Votel Vote!" Shortly after four
o'clock, the House passed unanimously and without a roll call
the bill few of its members had ever seen. In the meantime, the
Senate, which had been awaiting printed copies, decided to substitute the House version and open its own debate. Huey Long
of Louisiana, trying to amend the bill, succeeded only in provoking
Carter Glass of Virginia, once Secretary of the Treasury under
�8
PROLOGUE:
THE HUNDRED
DAYS
Woodrow Wilson, into whitc-laccd rage; Long's amendment was
shouted down. Just before seven-thirty, the Senate passed the b i l l
73 to 7. A n hour later, it was at the White House. The whole
affair, from the first introdurtion to the final signature, had taken
less than eight horns.
Not for years had Congress acted with such speed and decision.
And already, before the passage of the b i l l , the Secretary of the
Treasury had issued regulations permitting urgent transactions
to go ahead. Though technical hitches prevented banks from
reopening on Friday, March io, as Roosevelt wished, the basic
procedures were nonetheless now established. Gold and deposits
were flowing back into the system. After the weekend, the people j
could look forward with assurance to orderly reopening.
4
Roosevelt had first thought of putting through the emergency]
banking legislation and sending Congress home. But the mo-|
mentum generated by the banking bill now seemed too valuable!
to waste. On Wednesday night Henry Wallace and Rex TugwellJ
raised the possibility of keeping Congress in session long enough!
to enact a farm progiam. A n d , even more insistently, Roosevelt'sl
budget director, Lewis W. Douglas, argued that the President
should seize the opportunity to do something about government
economy.
I n these early weeks, Lew Douglas was emerging as an increas
ingly influential figure. He was thirty-eight years old, lean a n d j
friendly, with an easy grin, candid brown eyes, an open manner|
and a facile tongue. A member of the Arizona copper-mining
family, he had gone lo Amherst (where his class yearbook de
scribed him as "Dirly Doug, the slippery sleuth from the desolate
wastes of Arizona"), served with distinction i n the Argonne and
Flanders during the First World War, and, after mining and citru
ranching i n his native state, had entered politics. From the
Arizona legislature he moved on i n 1927 to the House of Repre
sentatives i n Washington. There he won national attention by his
fight for government economy, even daring to stand up against!
the veterans' lobby — a deed considered by politicians almosj
PROLOGUE:
THE
Hu Nn
as heroic as the one for wl
General Pershing in Fiance.
Douglas's passion for ecoi
that economic order—indev
cal credit. "The country's Im
" — upon a balanced budgei
Under the spendthrift Hoov.
America had been going "th
in tlie years just after the v
reversal in government Use:
economy, i f we do not balai
created a malevolent wheel •
adverse direction and which
nomic collapse of the United
the whole world into darknes
Nor did Douglas want to
taxes. A larger tax burden, I
almost as deplorable as defici
to cut government spending^
business, to public works, to
"To those who say, 'You mu
Douglas declared, " I say, wh,
defense which is perfectly f m
collapses, or an unimpaired <
self, I say *An unimpaired ered
that, that all human values o
For Douglas, the essence <
pledge, rashly made in a spe
campaign, to reduce the cost 01
toward what Roosevelt had th.
of permanent economic recovc
ing of the Federal budget." O
las believed, confidence wouh
out, credit would expand, an
his experience i n the House
could never bring itself to ct.
way to effect genuine retrencl
through the delegation of po
�)RED
DAYS
endment was
assed the b i l l
. T h e whole
re, had taken
and decision,
retary of the
. transactions
banks from
ed, the basic
and deposits
id, the people
ng4
he emergency
But the mo1 too valuable
Rex Tugwell
i long enough]
ly, Roosevelt's i
the President'
it government.'
as an increas-j
old, lean a n d j
open manner, j
copper-mining
yearbook de-!
n the desolate
Argonne a n d j
ung and citrus!
cs. From thej
suse of Reprettention by his]
nd up against,
ticians almost!
PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
as heroic as the one for which he had earned a citation from
General Pershing in France.
Douglas's passion for economy was part of his larger belief
tliat economic order — indeed, civilization itself — rested on fiscal credit. "The country's future depends upon i t , " he exclaimed,
" — upon a balanced budget and an end to wild extravagance."
Under the spendthrift Hoover administration, Douglas declared,
America had been going "the identical way that Germany went
in the years just after the war." The only hope was a drastic
reversal in government fiscal policy. " I f we fail to practice
economy, if we do not balance the budget, then we shall have
created a malevolent wheel which is revolving constantly i n an
adverse direction and which inevitably means the complete economic collapse of the United States. . . . I t would mean plunging
the whole world into darkness."
Nor did Douglas want to balance the budget by increasing
taxes. A larger tax burden, he felt, would have economic effects
almost as deplorable as deficit spending itself. The solution was
to cut government spending—taper off subsidies to farmers, to
business, to public works, to veterans, even to national defense.
"To those who say, 'You must not cut the army, for instance,' "
Douglas declared, " I say, which is more important? A national
defense which is perfectly futile, if the credit of the government
collapses, or an unimpaired credit of your government? For myself, I say 'An unimpaired credit of the government.' For i t is upon
that, that all human values of our people ultimately rest."
For Douglas, the essence of the Roosevelt program was the
pledge, rashly made in a speech at Pittsburgh during the 1932
campaign, to reduce the cost of government 25 per cent — to move
toward what Roosevelt had then called "the one sound foundation
of permanent economic recovery — a complete and honest balancing of the Federal budget." Once the budget was balanced, Douglas believed, confidence would return, frozen loans would thaw
out, credit would expand, and recovery would be assured. But
his experience in the House had convinced him that Congress
could never bring itself to cut government spending. The only
way io effect genuine retrenchment, he had come to think, was
through the delegation of power to the Executive. During the
�PROLOGUE:
10
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS,
interregnum, Roosevelt and Douglas had discussed the wartime
grants of authority which Congress had made to Woodrow Wilson, j
Now in the first week, of power, with Congress in a mood of unwonted acquiescence, it seemed the right time to request such;
delegations again.
On Thursday night, March c), only an hour after he had signed i
the Emergency Banking Act, Roosevelt outlined an economy pro- j
gram to congressional leaders. With bland amiability, Roosevelt j
presented his proposals: reorganization of the veterans' pension\
system and reduction of pensions, to be accomplished through >
delegation of authority to the President; a reduction of congres-]
sional salaries; a reduction of Federal salaries — all designed to a
save the budget half a billion dollars. The politicians listened w i t h |
incredulity. Undeterred, Roosevelt drove his argument home i n i
his special message to Congress the next day. "For three l o n g j
years," he said, "the Federal Government has been on the roadf
toward bankruptcy." The existence of the staggering deficit offl
five billion dollars had increased economic stagnation, multipliedl
the unemployed, and contributed to the banking collapse. Em-J
ployment and economic health could only rest on national credits
"Too often in recent history," the President warned sententiouslyj]
"liberal governments have been wrecked on rocks of loose fisca^
policy."
6
VI
Roosevelt spoke with deep sincerity. His fiscal notions wera
wholly orthodox. He saw little difference so far as budgets wera
concerned between a household or a state government on the one
hand and the federal government on the other. In either case|
Micawber was right: more income than expenditure — happiness*
more expenditure than income — misery. Moreover, Roosevel
was much impressed by his new Budget Director. Early in Aprji
he told Colonel Edward M. House, the onetime friend of Wilson'^
still active behind the scenes in the party, that Lewis Douglas wa
"in many ways the greatest 'find' of the administration." To MoI«
Roosevelt observed, " I n twelve years he would be a good Demo
cratic candidate for President." In May, Arthur Krock of
PROLOGUE:
THE HI
New York Times could i
head of the Roosevelt C;
diary that the President '
adding, "it is so easy to
forgotten."
For a moment, howevc
presidential spell. In the
to support the President,
vated by old obJigations
of its retaliatory power,
believed that it made no
the overriding economic i
in the economy. A numbe
ing of Tennessee, Wright
sissippi, Fred Vinson of Ke
McCormack of Massachus
ever, the conservative Denw
maintained parliamentary
of an economy-minded R
McDuffie was able to get i
by a vote of 266-138, two
after the inauguration.
The second Sunday of
day of rest for the Presid<
Roosevelt remarked, " I tl
beer." Louis Howe produc
and, late in the evening, ]
on the platform calling foi
in order to legalize beer ai
Congress received the new 1
bill passed its first test in
ignoring the Anti-Saloon
Temperance Union, voted I
voted 62 to 13 for econom j
the two most powerful lobb
the prohibitionists —were 1
on March ,3 was oversubs,
securities markets, close
�r R O I . OO U F. :
T M F. I I U N D R E D D A Y S
11
Sew York Tiines could refer to the Budget Director as "the real
head of the Roosevelt Cabinet." Rex Tugwell complained in his
diary that the President "had got far too dependent on Douglas,"
adding, " i t is so easy to like Douglas that his biases tend to be
forgotten."
Yo\ a moment, however, the economy bill seemed to break the
presidential spell. In the House, the Democraiic caucus declined
to support the President. Some Democrats were doubtless motivated by old obligations to the veterans' lobby or by oltl fears
of its retaliatory power. Yet others honestly — and plausibly —
believed that it made no sense to cut government spending when
the overriding economic need was for more spending everywhere
in the economy. A number of liberal Democrats — Gordon Browning of Tennessee, Wright Patman of Texas, John Rankin of Mississippi, Fred Vinson of Kentucky, James Mead of New York, John
McCormack of Massachusetts — abandoned the President. However, the conservative Democrats, led by John McDuffie of Alabama,
maintained parliamentary control; and, with the expert assistance
of an economy-minded Republican, John Taber of New York,
McDuffie was able to get the bill through the House on Saturday
by a vote of afiG-ijjS, two days after the banking b i l l , one week
after the inauguration.
The second Sunday of the Roosevelt administration was no
day of rest for the President. Over supper at the While House
Roosevelt remarked, " I think this would be a good lime for
beer." Louis Howe produced a copy of the Democratic platform;
and, late in the evening, Roosevelt wrote a brief message based
on the platform calling lor the modification of the Volstead Act
in order to legalize beer and light wines. On Monday the 13th,
Congress received the new message; on the same day, the economy
bill passed its first test i n the Senate. On Tuesday the House,
ignoring the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian
Temperance Union, voted for 3.2 beer. On Wednesday the Senate
voted 62 to 13 for economy and on Thursday 43 to 30 for beer:
the two most powerful lobbies in Washington — the veterans and
the prohibitionists — were now in rout. A Treasury bond issue
on March 13 was oversubscribed in a single day. On the 15th,
the securities markets, closed during the bank holiday, reopened
�12
•i
PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS'
in a bullish mood. In the meantime, banks were reopening, and]
deposits were exceeding withdrawals. T h e acute panic was evi-i
dently at an end."
vn
PROLOGUE:
I H E I
about?" I n plain langt
and forecast the steps w
fear," he concluded. ".
mine. Together we cam
subject like banking, sai
stand it, even the banket
The fireside chat was
"America hasn't been so
banks, no work, no n.
viewing the first week,
who is wise to Congress,
country is with him, jusi
the capitol we would d
started anyhow.' We ha
and sink i f you want to.
are."
And the President during these days spoke not only to Congress
He also addressed himself directly to the people. The day beforej
Congress convened, he held his lirst presidential press conference
Over a hunched skeptical reporters crowded into the executive]
office. They found, not tlie dour irritability to which White Housfij
correspondents were accustomed, but a gay and apparently ope
friendliness. The President hoped, he told the press, that these
meetings could be enlarged additions of the "very delightful familv
conferences I have been holding in Albany." "No more writte
questions," he said; no more "presidential spokesmen." Instea
he proposed a free exchange between the Executive and the new
Even conservatives joii
men, to be made the more elfective by defining some informatio
had saved the old bankin
as "background," not for attribution to the White House, an
at prohibition, and dispj;
by putting other remarks "off the record" entirely. " I am told thai
Stimson, Hoover's Secreta
what I am about to clo will become impossible," Roosevelt said
address with much suspn
" but 1 am going to try i t . " A.s he launched into a frank discussio;
lighted with the progress .
of the banking crisis, his enjoyment of the give-and-take with th
est congratulations." W i
press was obvious. When the conference ended, the newspaper
your next election we w
men broke into spontaneous applause.
proudly pronounced the
On Sunday evening, March 12, at the conclusion of the fin
based on the consent of th
week, Roosevelt made even more direct contact with the nati
vtdual liberty or human ri
in the first of what came to be called his "fireside chats." His pu:
velt as "a providential pet
pose was to reassure people that their savings in closed banks w
O'Connell called h i m "a
secure. Charles Michelson wrote a draft, which he submitted fo
The sense of motion in
technical vetting to Ballantine and others in the Treasury. T h '
gloom was reawakening t)
he gave it to Roosevelt, who read it over, "lay on a couch" ( i
as Walter Lippmann sum
Michclson's words) "and dictated his own speech." W i t h Gra'
state of confused desperat
any leader anywhere he cl
T u l l y taking his words down, the President looked at the bla
which had lost confidence
wall, trying to visualize the individuals he was seeking to help:
gained confidence i n the g.
mason at work on a new building, a girl behind a counter, a maj
repairing an automobile, a farmer in his field, all of them saying*
"Our money is in the Poughkeepsie bank, and what is this
�INDRED
DAYSj
• reopening, and!
2
e panic was evi-|
only to Congress.!
T h e day before]
press conference!
no the exccuiive|
uch White House
apparently oper
press, that thesejj
delightful famil}
No more writter
kesmcn." Instead
ive and the ne\
some infovmatiot
Vhite House, and
y. "1 am told t h a |
:," Roosevelt said
a frank discussior
-and-take with thej
d, the newspaper
lusion of the firs|
it with the natioa
le chats." His pu^
, closed banks wer|
i he submitted fo
ic Treasury. The
y on a couch" ( i i
•cch." W i t h Grac
)oked at the blar
seeking to help:
d a counter, a mafi
all of them saying
id what is this
PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
D A YS
13
about?" In plain language Roosevelt analyzed the banking crisis
and forecast the steps which lay ahead. "Let us unite in banishing
fear," he concluded. ". . . I t is your problem no less than it is
mine. Together we cannoi fail." The I'resideiit look a complicated
subject like banking, said W i l l Rogers, and made everybody understand it, even the bankers.
The fireside chat was the climax of a week ol resurgent hope.
"America hasn't been so happy in three years as they are today, no
banks, no work, no nothing." Again it was W i l l Rogers, reviewing the first week. ". . . They know they got a man in there
who is wise to Congress, wise to our so-called big men. T h e whole
country is with him, just so he does something. I f he burned down
the capitol we would cheer and say 'well, we at least got a fire
started anyhow.' We have had years of 'Don't rock the boat,' go
and sink if you want to, we just as well be swimming as like we
are."
Even conservatives joined in the applause. After all, Roosevelt
had saved the old banking system, cut government spending, struck
at prohibition, and displayed no evidence of radicalism. Henry L .
Stimson, Hoover's Secretary of State, who had heard the inaugural
address with much suspicion, now wrote the President, " I am delighted with the progress of your first week and send you my heartiest congratulations." W i l l i a m Randolph Hearst said, "1 guess at
your next election we will make it unanimous." Hamilton Fish
proudly pronounced the new regime "an American dictatorship
based on the consent of the governed witliout any violation of individual liberty or human rights." Newton D. Raker described Roosevelt as "a providential person at a providential moment." Cardinal
O'Connell called him "a God-sent man."
The sense of motion in a capital too long sunk in apathy and
gloom was reawakening the nation. "At the beginning of March,"
as Walter Lippmann summed it up, "the country was in such a
state of confused desperation that it would have followed almost
any leader anywhere he chose to go. . . . In one week, the nation,
which had lost confidence in everything and everybody, has regained confidence in the government and in itself."
7
�1
4
PROLOGUE:
THE HUNDRED DAY:
VIII
Above all, the presidential mansion itself embodied the nev
spirit. Colonel Stalling, head of the President's Secret Service dei
tail, took the Hoovers to the railroad station on Inauguratior
Day. When he returned a few hours later, he found the White
House, he said, "transformed during my absence into a gay places
full of people who oozed confidence." Rudolph Forster, the digni|
fied and self-contained Executive Clerk who had served every PresiJ
dent since McKinley, later said, " I would not have believed that
twenty-four hours could make the dilference that those did when
the last people moved out of here and these new ones moved in.'3
Where once glumncss and formality had ruled, there was now
mixture of levity and high seriousness, of solemnity and exhilaraj
tion; the public business went on, but one seemed to hear in tha
distance barking dogs and voices of children. "There is no mor
resemblance between the citadel of aloofness wliich Mr. Hoovei
built," wrote a New York Times reporter, "and the friendly, welj
coming air of the Executive Offices now than there would be
tween a formal embassy tea and old-home week at Hyde Park.jj
"The President reigned," wrote Tugwell, "in an informal splendc
which shed its glow over all Washington."
The day before inauguration, Roosevelt, making a ccremonia|
visit at the White House, had suggested that the outgoing Pre
, dent need not return his call. Hoover had coldly replied, " M i
Roosevelt, when you are in Washington as long as I have been, yc
will learn that the President of the United States calls on nobodySfl
But Hoover's Washington vanished in the new informality. Or
five days after Hoover made his remark, Felix Frankfurter
minded Roosevelt that it was Oliver Wendell Holmes's ninet:
second birthday. Before March 8 was over, the President had taktj
enough time from the banking crisis to negotiate the steep sta0
at I Street and pay his personal respects. "We face grave time
Roosevelt said to the old Justice. "What is your advice?" The C i |
War veteran replied without hesitation: "Form your ranks
fight!" ("A second-class intellect," Holmes said of Roosev|j
later, " — but a first-class temperament!")
An even more striking contrast wilh his predecessor came in
PROLOGUE:
THE
nur-
whe:n a second installmen
descended on Washington,
stinctive, was to kill by kind
and the hostility of police ai
an Army camp, three meals
a large convention tent, w
hearts' content. 'Fhe Navy
doctors ministered to theii
President con I erred with i
Roosevelt and Louis Howe
blue convertible. While H.
walked through ankle-deep n
a long, long trail a-winding
veteran; "Roosevelt sent hi
veterans went affably into i
the Second B.E.F. had met
The White House staff, co
atmosphere of informality ai
and sardonic, his clothes moi
tary. Two other veterans of
and efficient Steve Early anc
press relations and appointn
Tully headed his stenograpi
pattern of his day was soon s
c
of half a dozen morning nei
conference to discuss the d.
secretaries would lead off; bi
questions at this period were
Then the day widened oui
conferences, phone calls, Ien
studied, decisions made, acco
of chaos. Only the sense oi
groups of men, their mandai
•cure, their composition oftc
insecure and fluctuating, draf
proposed bills, and worked u,
tngs or in cramped Georgetov
Somehow Roosevelt kept a
�HUNDRED
DAY!
jmbodied the ne
s Secret Service dej
a on Inauguratior
j [ound the White'
;e into a gay placeS
i Forster, the dignil
1 served every Presil
have believed thaf
iat those d i d wher
:w ones moved i n . ' j
1, there was now ^
unity and exhilara
med to hear i n th«
"There is no monj
which M r . Hoove
d the [riendly, well
there would be be
;ek at Hyde Park.|
u informal splendofi
aking a ccremonia
the outgoing PresM
oldly replied, "Mt
as 1 have been, yc
es calls on nobody .J
v informality. O n l
•lix Frankfurter
:11 Holmes's ninet|
President had t a k |
liate the steep stail
e face grave timesj
r advice?" The C i ^
,rm your ranks
said of Rooseve
leccssor came in
Ml
PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
15
v/hen a second installment of the Bonus Expeditionary Force
descended on Washington. The Roosevelt lactic, instant and instinctive, was to k i l l by kindness. Instead of the shacks at Anacostia
and the hosiility of police and Army, Roosevelt offered the veterans
an Army camp, three meals a day, endless supplies of colfee, and
a large convention tent, where the leaders cotdd orate to their
hearts' content. The Navy Hand played (or the veterans; Army
doctors ministered to their ills; dentists pulled their teeth; the
President conferred with their leaders; and, as a climax, Mrs.
Roosevelt and Louis Howe drove out one rainy spring day in a
blue convertible. While Howe do/.ed in the car, Mrs. Roosevelt
walked through ankle-deep mud and led the vets in singing "There's
a long, long trail a-winding." "Hoover sent the Army," said one
veteran; "Roosevelt sent his wile." I n two weeks, most of the
veterans went affably into the Civilian Conservation Corps, and
the Second B.E.F. had met a painless Waterloo.
The White House stall, composed of old friends, heightened the
atmosphere of informality and high spirits. Louis Howe, shrewish
and sardonic, his clothes more rumpled than ever, was chief secretary. T w o other veterans of the 1920 campaign — the hard-boiled
and efficient Steve Early and gentle Marvin Mclntyre — handled
press relations and appointments. Marguerite LeHand and Grace
Tully headed his stenographic corps. As for the President, the
pattern of his day was soon set: breakfast in bed; a quick skimming
of half a dozen morning newspapers; then a nine o'clock bedside
conference to discuss the day's urgencies. Howe, and the other
secretaries would lead off; but the most influential mcn on policy
questions at this period were Moley and Douglas.
Then the day widened out into a vast variety of appointments,
conferences, phone calls, letters read and answered, memoranda
studied, decisions made, accomplishments miraculously pulled out
of chaos. Only the sense of pressure remained constant. Small
groups of men, their mandates vague, their lines of authority obscure, their composition often accidental, even their ollice space
insecure and lluctuating, drafted, tore up, redrafted, wrangled over
proposed bills, and worked until dawn in silent government buildings or in cramped Georgetown houses.
Somehow Roosevelt kept all the reins in his hand. He seemed
�ROI. O G U E :
]6
THE
H U N D R E D D A Y SI
to thrive on crisis. Reporters took from his press conferences;
images of urbane mastery, wilh the President sitting easily behind]
his desk, his great head thrown back, his smile Hashing or hisj
laugh booming out in the pleasure of thrust and riposte. He sawl
agitated congressmen, panicky businessmen, jealous bureaucrats;
he kidded the solemn, soothed the egotistical, and inspired thej
downhearted. There remained too a sense of ambiguity an
craftiness. He could be hard and frightening when he wanted toi
be, and he played the political game with cold skill. Charm, humori
power, persuasion, menace, idealism — all were weapons in hi:
armory.
8
ix
The first explosive week, which saw the Emergency Banking Ac
the economy drive, the attack on prohibition, and the dramatii
display of presidential leadership, was only the beginning. As ye
Roosevelt had done nothing to carry out the New Deal he hai
proclaimed during the campaign. On Thursday, March 16, th
administration took a new turn. On that day Roosevelt sent Co
gress a message calling for the national planning of agricultun
This was the first of a scries of proposals designed to reorgani:
one after another the basic aspects of American economic life. Ij
the next weeks the New Deal proper began to unfold.
And, with the New Deal came the New Dealers. The old capi
did not know what to make of the invasion. "A plague of you
lawyers settled on Washington," wrote George Peek, the veter:
farm leader, sourly. "They all claimed to be friends of somebo
or other and mostly of Felix Frankfurter and Jerome Frank. T h
floated airily into offices, took desks, asked for papers and found
end of things to be busy about. I never found out why they ca
what they did or why they left."
This was one view, and certainly the change was startling,
pression, by cutting ofi normal outlets in law practice or in
universities, had made mcn of intellectual ability available
never before; and government had never been so eager to
them. Like circles beyond circles, both the legal network and
academic network were limitless. With each prominent New Dealj
PROLOGUE:
THE HUN
acting as his own employm,
with an endless stream of br
measured in a tin bucket," M
of the United States Chamh
say that the Roosevelt adn
of ability than any of its rece
them an alertness, an exciieni<
for crisis and a dedication to
the thirties the essence of Was
said Arthur Krock, "has ever I
stupid, headstrong, pliable, co
in money matters, more ruthie
their bravado, their sense of a.
inexhaustible activism were in
but they always were alive. "
sick at my stomach," Judge
"they are so conceited, so in
whole the Old Tories are intel
and emit such dreary,'hollow
The sounds of the New Dc
They altered tlte whole tempo
munity. The capital had nev,
at last, said Anne O'Hare McC
United States. "They have tra
in Collier's, "from a placid. Itfaces and customs, into a gay :
tan center." Everything was no
relaxation," said Krock, "they a
They like singing and dancing a
are hearty eaters and colossal
Henry James had called Washi.
quarter-century before—"one ,
ably one of the most natural
'ective self-consciousness that 01
conversed so fiercely,
j
members of the brain trust " •,
noted in his diary with admirath
" -expression. . . . One and
s o
Self
h
i
a
n
�U N I) R F n
DAY!
R
O
L
OGUE: THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
^
acting as his own employment agency, Washington was deluged
with an endless stream of bright young men. " I f ability could be
measured in a tin bucket," W i l l a r d Kiplinger wrote in the journal
ol the United Stales Chamber of Commerce in 1934, " I should
say tliat the Rooscvell administration contained more gallons
of ability than any of its recent predecessors." They brought with
them an alertness, an excitement, an appetite for power, an instinct
for crisis and a dedication to public service which became during
die thin ies the essence of Washington. "No group in government,"
said Arthur Krock, "has ever been more interesting, dull, brilliant,
stupid, headstrong, pliable, competent, iiiefhciem; more honorable
in money matters, more ruthless in material methods." Their elan,
their bravado, their sense of adventure, their cocky assurance, their
inexhaustible activism were infectious. They often were irritating,
but they always were alive. "The F i l i i Aurorae make me actively
^ency Banking Ac
sick at my stomach," Judge Learned Hand said early in 1934;
\ n < i the dramatifl
"they are so conceited, so insensitive, so arrogant. But on the
beginning. As yelj
whole the O l d Tories are intellectually so moribund . . . so stupid
New Ucal he had
and emit such dreary, hollow sounds."
lay, March iG, tb
The sounds of the New Dealers were rarely dreary or hollow.
hoosevelt sent Cor
Tliey altered the whole tempo and tone of Washington as a comling of agriculturt
igned to reorganiz^ immity. The capital had never seemed so much like a real city;
i economic life. I | al last, said Anne O'Hare McCormick, it had been annexed to the
United States. "They have transformed i t , " Ray Tucker reported
unfold.
in Collier's, "from a placid, leisurely Southern town, with frozen
•rs. T h e old capit
faces and customs, into a gay, breezy, sophisticated and metropoli'A plague of your
tan center." Everything was now lively and informal. " I n times of
i Peek, the vetera|
relaxation," said Krock, "they are a merry group, the New Dealers.
friends of somet
They like singing and dancing and a fair amount of drinking. They
erome Frank. T h ^
are hearty eaters and colossal workers." Above all, they talked.
.apers and found
Henry James had called Washington "the City of Conversation" a
out why they car
(luarter-century before — "one of the most thorough, even if probably one of the most natural and of the happiest cases of cole was startling,
lective self-consciousness that one knows." But never had the city
v practice or in
conversed so fiercely, so hilariously and so recklessly. " A l l the
ability available ^
members of the brain trust," a veteran Slale Department oflicial
en so eager to hi
noted in his diary with admiration, "have got an exceptional fluency
gal network and *
m self-expression. . . . One and all can present a case with the utomincnt New Dea
press conferences
ling easily beliinc"
le Hashing or h i i
J riposie. He sa\
dons biireai\crats;|
and inspired thei
,1 anibiguity anc"
hen lie wanted tc
U. Charm, lnimorj|
e weapons in his
�i8
PROLOGUE:
THE HUNDRED
DAYI
most convincingness." "The common characteristic of all u
lifters," said Peek, "is an unquenchable thirst for conversatioi
They were all chain talkers." Chat after dinner no longer consist
of tedious anecdotes about quail shooting and golf. Instead,
dealt in issues and ideas and went on till early in the mornin
"It's exciting and educational," said Ray Tucker, "to be alive a
asked out in Washington these days."
Who were the New Dealers? They represented all classes
from the wellborn, like Franklin Roosevelt, Averell Harrima:
Francis Biddle, to the sons of poverty, like Harry Hopkins — h
they were predominantly middle class. They represented a varie
of occupations; but they were mostly lawyers, college professo:
economists, or social workers.' They came from all parts of
land and from both city and country, though most of them h;
been educated in state universities or in Ivy League colleges, a;
many had their first political experience in the fight for decent ci]
government. They were all ages, though most of them were boil
between 1895 and 1905. But the common bond which held thi
together, as Herman Kahn has acutely noted, was that they wi
all at home in the world of ideas. They were accustomed to ana]
sis and dialectic; and they were prepared to use intelligence as j
instrument of government. They were more than specialists, 'j
Kahn has further pointed out, they were — or considered thi
selves — generalists, capable of bringing logic to bear on any soi
problem. They delighted in the play of the free mind.
They were by no means of a single school. Indeed, they repj
sented divergent and often clashing philosophies. The laii
faire liberalism of the Democratic party, dedicated, in the trai
tion of Grover Cleveland, to sound money, fiscal orthodoxy,
tariff reduction, found its voices in Lewis Douglas and Cordell Hj
and its first victory in the Economy Act. The agrarian traditii
stronger in the Congress than in the administration, harking b;
to William Jennings Bryan and demanding monetary inflatiorij
a means of turning the terms of trade more favorably to
farmer, soon expressed itself in the Thomas amendment to i
Agricultural Adjustment Act and in the devaluation policy,
trust-busting liberalism of the Brandeis-Wilson school, seeking]
liberate the economy from business bigness, spoke especia
PROLOGUE:
THE I
through Professor Fel
achieved the Securities
traditional Democratic s
the Theodore Roosevelt
ing advocates from Rayi
well on the left, and seel
by government-business
What Roosevelt gave
put ideas to work. Moi
was a job, or a passing
But for the best of diem,
put it,
in some deep sense of
face pleasure of work
escaping the loneliness
reality of personal am
sinking individual effon
goal and the common ei
realization of self.
They often suffered frust
the edge of collapse. Th<
ington and government ai
was the happiest time and
know, " i t
Thomas L. Stokes as a ne
tn Washington. "We came
well in retrospect, a "renai*
courage beyond natural ji
expectation, with a belief i
good deal of betrayal to
a dark age." The memori,
able meetings, the litter 0!
desk or (if there was ti
Jwrves by the Potomac, th
"J caU from the White Ho
the office lights burnn
w a s
a
o
n
e
o [
t h e
�HUNDRED DAY!
PROLOGUE:
cteristic of all u j
st for conversatioi
no longer consiste
id golf. Instead,
rly in the morning
.er, "to be alive arifl
through Professor Felix Frankfurter of Harvard and shortly
achieved the Securities and Glass-Steagall Acts. And to these
traditional Democratic strains there was now added an infusion of
the Theodore Roosevelt-Herbert Croly Progressivism of 1912, finding advocates from Raymond Moley on the right to Rexford Tugwell on the left, and seeking to counter tlie anarchy of competition
government-business collaboration.
What Roosevelt gave the New Dealers was an opportunity to
put ideas to work. Motives, of course, were mixed. For some, it
was a job, or a passing enthusiasm, or a road to personal power.
But for the best of them, the satisfaction lay, as Francis Biddle once
put it,
sented all classes
Averell Harrimat
arry Hopkins — h i
epresented a variet,
s, college pvofessorS
om all parts of tb
h most of them ha
League colleges, ar
: fight for decent cijj
t of them were boij
nd which held the
, was that they we
accustomed to ana\|
ise intelligence as
than specialists,
or considered the
to bear on any socil
free mind.
Indeed, they repf,
ophies. The laisse
licated, in the trad
fiscal orthodoxy, al
'las and Cordell Hi)
ie agrarian traditic
tration, harking bal
monetary inflation';
ore favorably to
s amendment to
aluation policy,
on school, seeking ,;
ess, spoke especia'
THE HUNDRED
DAYS
19
in some deep sense of giving and sharing, far below any surface pleasure of work well done, but rooted in the relief of
escaping the loneliness and boredom of oneself, and the unreality of personal ambition. The satisfaction derived from
sinking individual elfort into the community itself, the common
goal and the common end. This is no escape from self; it is die
realization of self.
They often suffered frustration and disillusion. They worked to
the edge of collapse. They had moments when they hated Washington and government and Roosevelt. Yet for most of them this
was the happiest time and the deepest fulfillment ihey would ever
know. " I t was one of the most joyous periods in my life," wrote
Thomas L. Stokes as a newspaperman covering Roosevelt's arrival
j in Washington. "We came alive, we were eager." It was, said Tugwell in retrospect, a "renaissance spring" when men were filled with
j courage beyond natural instincts, with hopes beyond reasonable
j expectation, with a belief in human possibility which i l would take
a good deal of betrayal to break down — "a time of rebirth after
ia dark age." The memories would not soon fade — the intermin| able meetings, the litter of cigarette stubs, the hasty sandwich at
die desk or (if there was time) the lazy lunch along sun-drenched
wharves by the Poiomac, the ominous rumor passed on with relish,
the call from the White House, the postponed dinner, the neglected
Wife, the office lights burning into the night, the lilacs hanging in
�PROLOGUE:
20
T H E HUNDRED DAY!
fragrance above Georgetown gardens while men rebuilt the
tion over long drinks, the selflessness, the vanity, the mistake
the achievement. At his worst, the New Dealer became an arrar
sentimentalist or a cynical operator. At his best, he was the ablesjj
most intelligent, and most disinterested public servant the Unite
States ever had.
9
In the three months after Roosevelt's inauguration, Congress ar
the country were subjected to a presidential barrage of ideas ar
programs unlike anything known to American history. On afl
journment on June 15, 1933, the President and the exhausted 73/
Congress left the following record:
March 9
the Emergency Banking Act
PROLOGUE:
THE H I
June 13 _ the Hon
refinanci
June 16 _ the Nati.
both for
under fe.
public w.
June 16 _ the Glas<
mercial a
ing bank
June 16 _ the Farm
nation of
June 16 — the Railn
eral Coon
This was the Hundred D
velt sent fifteen messages t
to enactment, delivered ten
establishment of the Civilian Conservation Cor
March 31
cabinet meetings twice a wee
April 19 — abandonment of the gold standard
state, sponsored an internal
decisions in domestic and
- the Federal Emergency Relief Act, setting upjjj fright or panic and rarely ev
May 12
national relief system
many who thought they ha.
man Davis, encountering Ra<
May 12 —the Agrictdtural Adjustment Act, establishing
office, expressed the incredul
national agricultural policy, with the Thor
durmg the Wilson administ
amendment conferring on the President powersj
not the fellow we used to 1
monetary expansion
"Many of us who have knov
May 12 —the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, providiji Garrison Villard, the editor
is the same man."
for the refinancing of farm mortgages
March 20
the Economy Act
Roosevelt had moved into
Possessing a family estate. He
I'gmty and ease and evident
May 27 — the Truth-in-Securitics Act, requiring full < noted in his diary, "F.D. real;
He savors completely the rou
closure in the issue of new securities
Fee. He works hard and J
June 5 — the abrogation of the gold clause in public a! r** get such a kick out of
private contracts
"ehght was irresistible to pt
May 18
— the Tennessee Valley Audiority Act, providing j
the unified development of the Tennessee ValJ
�THE
HUNDRED
DA'
vhile men rebuilt the nj|
the vanity, the mistake
v Dealer became an arrat
his best, he was the able
public servant the Unite
PROLOGUE:
HUNDRED
DAYS
21
June 13 — the Home Owners' Loan Act, providing for the
refinancing of home mortgages
June 16 — the National Industrial Recovery Act, providing
both for a system of industrial self-government
under federal supervision and for a $3.3 billion
public works program
j
inauguration, Congress ar
mtial barrage of ideas an|
American history. On a|
ent and the exhausted 7 1
3?
THE
u n
e 16 — the Glass-Steagall Banking Act, divorcing commercial and investment banking and guaranteeing bank deposits
June 16 — the Farm Credit Act, providing for the reorganization of agricultural credit activities
June 16 — the Railroad Coordination Act, setting up a federal Coordinator of Transportation.
.ng Act
This was the Hundred Days; and in this period Franklin Roosevelt sent fifteen messages to Congress, guided fifteen major laws
to enactment, delivered ten speeches, held press conferences and
;ivilian Conservation Cor
cabinet meetings twice a week, conducted talks with foreign heads of
state, sponsored an international conference, made all the major
^old standard
decisions in domestic and foreign policy, and never displayed
:y Relief Act, setting upj fright or panic and rarely even bad temper. His mastery astonished
many who thought they had long since taken his measure. Nor1
i
man Davis, encountering Raymond Fosdick outside the presidential
tstmcnt Act, establishing]
oflice, expressed the incredulity of those who had worked with him
policy, with the Thor
during the Wilson administration: "Ray, that fellow in there is
r on the President powers
not the fellow we used to know. There's been a miracle here."
"Many of us who have known him long and well," wrote Oswald
Garrison Villard, the editor of the Nalion, "ask ourselves if this
1 Mortgage Act, providir
is the same man."
[ farm mortgages
Roosevelt had moved into the White House as if he were reAuthority Act, providing fc| 1 possessing a family estate. He now spoke for and to the nation with
ent of the Tennessee Valle dignity and ease and evident enjoyment. "The truth is," Tugwell
noted in his diary, "F.D. really loves the appurtenances of the job.
cs Act, requiring full
1 He savors completely the romance and significance of each experi,1 new securities
ence. He works hard and honestly, though, and I am glad he
: gold clause in public at does get such a kick out of it." The combination of power and
[delight was irresistible to people used to neither in the White
�22
PROLOGUE:
THE HUNDRED DAY!
House; it gave Americans new confidence in themselves. Roos
velt pressed home the recovery of morale. "When Andrew Jacksoi
'Old Hickory,' died," he said in July, "someone asked, 'will he go
Heaven?' and the answer was, 'He will if he wants to.' If I
asked whether the American people will pull themselves out
this depression, I answer, 'They will if they want to.'"
Before March 4, America was in a state of extreme shock. N<
one would ever know, General Hugh S. Johnson later said, "ho;
close were we to collapse and revolution. We could have got
dictator a lot easier than Germany got Hitler." " I do not thii
it is too much to say," wrote Tugwell, "that on March 4 we wei
confronted with a choice between an orderly revolution —a peac^
ful and rapid departure from past concepts — and a violent ai
disorderly overthrow of the whole capitalist structure." "At tti
end of February," wrote Walter Lippmann, "we were a congerii
of disorderly panic-stricken mobs and factions. In the hundrt
days from March to June wc became again an organized natic
confident of our power lo provide for our own security and to co
trol our own destiny."
By bringing to Washington a government determined to govei
Roosevelt unlocked new energies in a people who had lost fait
not just in government's ability to meet the economic crisis, bv
almost in the ability of anyone to do anything. The feeling
movement was irresistible. Washington, Arthur Krock reporte
was experiencing the sensation of a man traveling on a life-atij
death errand thousands of miles away who suddenly found hr'~
self switched from an ox cart to an airplane. "Never was th
such a change in the transfer of government." Justice Harls
Stone of the Supreme Court wrote his old friend Herbert Hoo'
two mondts after the shift in administration, "To judge by
rapidity of changing events, as many decades might have pass*
And there could be no question, Krock added, who was responsi
"The President is the boss, the dynamo, the works."
For a deceptive moment in 1933, clouds of inertia and sell
ness seemed to lift. A despairing land had a vision of Amerffl
as it might some day be. "For the first time since we can i
member," said Frances Perkins, "we are trying to be a unif""
people." Anne O'Hare McCormick described the response as "j
PROLOGUE:
THE
HUND
rising of a nation." "it's nu
Ickes. "It's a new world Peoi
naturally. It's like quitting a
have had our revolution," sa
clouds would come back, as
travail of history. But, in th
people threw off a sick convic
in themselves again. And, as
where in the world. "The co
[Roosevelt's] effort," wrote an
ardent sympathy of every cou,
to lift the whole world forwan
more genial age." Like Roos,
t h e
e
^
P »Pe«i
Winston Churchill, "Roosevelt
on a voyage as uncertain as th
which might conceivably be as
New World." M
7
�INDRED
DAY!
PROLOGUE:
THE
HUNDRED
DAYS
23
rising of a nation." "It's more than a New Deal," said Harold
cmselvcs. Roosi
Ickes. "It's a new world. People feel free again. They can breathe
Andrew Jackso
naturally. It's like quitting a morgue for the open woods." "We
ed, 'will he go t
have had our revolution," said Collier's, "and we like it." The
nits to.' If 1 a
clouds would come back, as they always had through the long
hemsclves out
travail of history. But, in this moment of clarity, the American
to.' "
people threw off a sick conviction of defeat and began to believe
treme shock. N
in themselves again. And, as they did, they rekindled hope elsei later said, "ho'
where in the world. "The courage, the power and the scale of
could have got
[Roosevelt's] effort," wrote an English observer, "must enlist the
" I do not thi
ardent sympathy of every country, and his success could not fail
March 4 we we:
to lift the whole world forward into the sunlight of an easier and
ilution — a pea
more genial age." Like Roosevelt himself, die Englishman saw
Liid a violent an |
tlie effort in the long perspective of history. "For in truth," said
ucture." "At t l
Winston Churchill, "Roosevelt is an explorer who has embarked
: were a congerii
on a voyage as uncertain as that of Columbus, and upon a quest
In the hundre
which might conceivably be as important as die discovery of die
organized natio
New World."
xurity and to co:
1 0
:rmined to govei
;ho had lost fait
onomic crisis, bi
g. The feeling ^
it Krock reporte
ling on a life-an|
Jdenly found hit
"Never was the
." Justice Harli
K! Herbert Hoo\
"To judge by t
night have passe<
ho was responsib
/orks."
inertia and selft
vision of Ameri
e since we can
ng to be a uni!
he response as "
�i.
Prologue to Stalemate
" H E HAS BEEN ALL BUT CROWNED BY THE PEOPLE," wrote William
Allen White, the dean of American editors, after the congressional elections of 1934. "There has been no such popular
endorsement since the days of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew
Jackson," said William Randolph Hearst, the most powerful of
American newspaper publishers. The New Deal, wrote Arthur
Krock, the veteran political reporter of the Neiu York Times,
had won "the most overwhelming victory in the history of American politics." As a matter of course, midterm elections are supposed to go against the party in power. But in 1934, the second
year of the New Deal, the party of Franklin Roosevelt made
astonishing gains in every category: in senators, in congressmen,
in state governors, in popular vote. It all seemed to constitute
an unprecedented national endorsement. The Roosevelt administration might well have entered the year 1935 with high hopes.
1
Still, thoughtful New Dealers knew that all was not so well
as it looked. The accomplishments so far were no doubt impressive — the laws enacted, the agencies set up, the programs
launched. At the end of 1934, national income was up $9 billion
— nearly 25 per cent — over 1933. Employment had increased by
over 2.5 million; unemployment was down by over 2 million.
The national government had moved in a variety of ways to
reduce the disorder and cruelty of the economy: floors now existed
under wages, ceilings over hours, child labor was abolished, collec-
�PROLOGUE
tive bargaining enjoyed federal sponsorship, the unemployed were
receiving emergency relief, provision was being made for more
permanent security against unemployment and old age, mortgagors
were helped to retain their homes and farms, federal public
works were under way across the country, the government was
assuming control of the national monetary policy, the financial
community was renouncing cherished practices of manipulation
and speculation, the farmers were collaborating cheerfully in
measures to adjust agricultural production and increase farm income, new conservation policies were preserving the nation's basis
in water and land and natural resources.
The downward grind had been stopped; the panic of 1933
had vanished. Businessmen were recovering confidence in themselves and their system. Working people were filled with new
vigor and hope. Mobs of farmers no longer gathered along country roads to stop produce from going to market or to demonstrate
against the foreclosure of mortgages. The American republic
and the democratic system were showing unexpected resources of
vitality and purpose. Two years earlier, no one could have anticipated such a sweeping revision either of the political mood or
of the economic structure. From the perspective of the winter
of 1932-33, it was a record of prodigious achievement.
Prodigious, yes, but was it enough? The 1934 national income
of $48.6 billion, however much better than 1933, was still $10
billion under that of the depression year 1931 and nearly $40
billion below that of 1929, the last year of prosperity. In January
1935 the income of urban consumers was running about 13 per
cent below what it had been in the same month in 1929; cash
income of farmers, in spite of the great improvement since 1933,
was about 28 per cent under the 1929 figure. Most ominous of
all, while the number of unemployed had declined fairly steadily
from 1933, nearly 10 million persons — almost one-fifth of the
labor force — were still out of jobs. " I t seems to .me," Henry
Morgenthau, Jr., the Secretary of the Treasury, said in 1935, "that
we are not making any headway and the number of unemployed is
staying more or less static." No one knew this better than
Franklin Roosevelt. "The unemployment problem," he wrote an
English friend in February 1935, "is solved no more here than it
is with you."
T O ST
In the meantime, tl
and moral revival se
years the New Deal
Hundred Days. Now
be running their coui
had been industrial ]
tional Recovery Adr
be canied out throu;
tion. By early 1935 t
ization; reforms were
still the criticism fro
less precarious cond
attack. These agenc
in the assault on ec
as if they had gone al
In their day NRA
if they had failed to
commanded public <
now that a modicu
1933 and reviving op
Recovery had pr.
far enough to rest,
things were wrong,
days of 1933, that th
and hold their pea.
apathy to action,
as well as its frien
among businessmei
winter, to open IK
among the .consen
stirrings among th
prophets, some of v
The new political
turned in the fall
had come to Wash
for unity under p
�I ATE
1 were
more
gagors
public
it was
lancial
jlation
illy in
rm in's basis
i themth new
g counjnstrate
epublic
urces of
e anticnood or
: winter
PROLOGUE
I
1
1
i
TO S T A L E M A T E
3
In the meantime, the policies which had produced the economic
and moral revival seemed themselves to be faltering. For two
•years the New Deal had been living off the momentum of the
Hundred Days. Now the grand initiatives of 1933 appeared to
be running their course. The central ideas of the early New Deal
had been industrial planning, to be carried out through the National Recovery Administration, and agricultural planning, to
be carried out through the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. By early 1935 NRA was in a state of turmoil and demoralization; reforms were at last coming from within, but too late to
still the criticism from without. As for AAA, while it was in a
less precarious condition, it was nevertheless under increasing
attack. These agencies had been the chief New Deal weapons
in the assault on economic stagnation. Now it looked to some
as if they had gone about as far as they could go.
In their day NRA and AAA had done remarkable things. But
if they had failed to break the back of the depression when they
commanded public enthusiasm, what could be expected of them
now that a modicum of recovery was destroying the unity of
1933 and reviving opposition from both left and right?
2
in
Recovery had proceeded far enough to end despair, but not
far enough to restore satisfaction. People still felt that many
things were wrong, but no longer felt, as they had in the terrible
days of 1933, that their single duty was to trust Franklin Roosevelt
and hold their peace. By transforming the national mood from
apathy to action, the New Deal was invigorating its enemies
as well as its friends. Through 1934 apprehension had spread
among businessmen; by fall it had turned to resentment, by
winter, to open hostility. And the emergence of dissatisfaction
among the .conservatives was paralleled by restless and erratic
stirrings among the masses, incited by a new set of political
prophets, some of whose banners bore exceedingly strange devices.
The new political moods infected the new Congress, freshly returned in the fall elections. In March 1933 the 73rd Congress
had come to Washington expressing the desperate national desire
for unity under presidential leadership. Now, in January 1935,
�4
I ' U < I . O G U I".
>
TO
S T A L E M A T F.
(lit' 74(11 Congress arrived as llu: carrier of an inchoaie national
wish lor new departures.
The latent discontent piesemcd a challenge to the President.
He. too, sensed the national mood; worse, he evidently shared
the national balllement. Indeed, he had probably anticipated i t .
In the fall of 1934 he had systematically called in businessmen
as well as New Dealers in a search I'or new ideas in economic and
sodal policy. His interviews had not been productive. As Congress reconvened, it appealed (hat the President had no bold new
proposals to send to the H i l l . Certain things were imperative, of
course. Roosevelt knew he had to do something about reorganizing
the relief and public-works programs. He was already committed to bring in a program on social security. His state-of-theUnion message on January 4, 1935, concentrated on these two
issues. For the rest, it expressed a mild and dignified optimism,
looking forward to "a genuine period of good feeling, sustained
by a sense of purposeful progress." His budget message was equally
conciliatory in tone and unenterprising in content. Neither paper
displayed any intention of breaking new ground. His hope for
recovery seemed to depend on more of the same. Yet more of the
same would hardly be enough.^
IV
As the 74th Congress gathered for its first session in January
1935, the Roosevelt administration apparently controlled both
houses by overwhelming margins. I k i t was this control as reliable
as il looked? Too large a majority, by encouraging indiscipline
and irresponsibility, might be almost as dangerous as one too
small. The new session had barely begun when Roosevelt found
himself in trouble. On January i(), 1935, he sent the Senate a
special message advocating American adherence to the World
Court. This innocuous thought roused the dormant isolationism
of the progressive bloc. Hiram Johnson, a Roosevelt Republican
from California, took the lead in denouncing the proposal as an
attempt to entangle the United States in the affairs of the bad
old wor Id. Huey Long of Louisiana, W i l l i a m E. Borah of Idaho,
and other members ol the Senate's capricious progressive group
joined enthusiastically in the attack. T h e controversy quickly
PROLOGUE
TO
s
spread from the Sen:
Charles E. Coughlin,
the popular coinedi:
isolationists. Letters
ton in unprecedenii
tration — over fifty t
which the majority
Arkansas, had deem
pressure Roosevelt
January, the Presidei
adherence which he
too late. On Janu:
fifty-two votes — sevi
W o r l d Court was los
Several members
N . Garner, James ,
Ickes, the Secretary
political error. A m
impression that the
to his laughter an
of willingness to Inn
The Senate, stir
mediately to assert
issues. The workRebellious Democi
amendment, spons<
opposed by the W
public-works proje
23, the Ncrv Yorl
tive program was
chaos."
Meantime in the
item in the annu;
Everything seemec
about this time a
in quite such a s
to lack fighting vii
him." For the I
Congress was del
�A T F.
onal
dent,
nired
d it.
sinen
: and
Con' new
ve, of
lizing
com>f-thc.' two
mism,
ained
.]ually
paper
oe for
of the
muary
both
eliable
cijiline
ne too
found
:nate a
World
lionism
ublican
1 as an
he bad
Idaho,
• group
quickly
PROLOGUE
TO
ST A L E M A TE
5
spread from (he .Senate to the nation. The Hearst papers, Father
Charles E. Coughlin, the radio priest of Detroit, and W i l l Rogers,
the popular comedian, all rushed to the support of the Senate
isolationists. Letters and telegrams began to pour into Washington in unprecedented number, even for the Roosevelt administ r a t i o n — over fifty thousand in all. The administration's margin,
which the majority leader, Senator Joseph T . Robinson of
Arkansas, had deemed quite safe, began to crumble. Under the
pressure Roosevelt was forced to give ground. By the end of
January, the President was ready to accept formulas for conditional
adherence which he had rejected two weeks earlier. But it was
too late. On January 29 the administration could muster only
fifty-two votes — seven less than the two-thirds required — anti the
World Court was lost. ("Thank God!" said Borah.)
Several members of the administration — Vice-President John
N . Garner, James A. Farley, the Postmaster General, Harold L.
Ickes, the Secretary of the I n t e r i o r — t h o u g h t the fight a grievous
political error. And Ickes, watching Roosevelt's reaction, had the
impression that the defeat cut deeply. "There seemed a bitter tinge
to his laughter and good humor and perhaps a little showing
of willingness to hurt those who brought about his defeat."
T h e Senate, stimulated by its success, proceeded almost immediately to assert its independence of the President on other
issues. The works relief bill provided the next opportunity.
Rebellious Democrats, Huey Long in the lead, tacked on an
amendment, sponsored by Senator Pal McCarran of Nevada and
opposed by the White House, providing for prevailing wages on
public-works projects. When the Senate adopted it on February
23, the New York Times commented that Roosevelt's "legislative program was thrown into a state of confusion bordering on
chaos."
Meantime in the House, the social-security bill, the other priority
item in the annual message, was encountering unexpected snags.
Everything seemed to be going badly. Ickes reported Roosevelt
about this time as "distinctly dispirited. I have never seen him
in quite such a state of mind. He looked lired and he seemed
to lack fighting vigor or the buoyancy that has always characterized
him."
For the first time since he had come to Washington,
Congress was defying him — and getting away with it. " I f the
�PROLOGUE
TO
STALEMATE
President wants control of that body," Arthur Krock wrote on
February 27, 1935, "he must begin to exercise it at once. . . .
The legend of invulnerability fades fast."
4
The outlook for 1935 was increasingly troubling. The country
already seemed in a condition of economic stalemate. A political
stalemate was threatening in the new Congress. On top ol all
this, the administration was increasingly faced by the possibility
of a constitutional stalemate.
For two years the New Deal had managed to avoid judicial
tests of its legislative and administrative innovations. Now cases
were steadily working their way through lower courts up to the
Supreme Court itself. In December 1934 the justices heard arguments on a suit challenging the oil provisions of the National
Industrial Recovery Act. On the first Monday after the President's annual message in 1935, the Court decided against the
government by an 8-1 vote. The damage to the administration's
oil policy could quickly be repaired by the passage of a new law.
But the next New Deal case — a suit against the congressional
joint resolution of 1933, voiding the clauses in public and
private bonds pledging redemption in gold — placed the government's entire monetary policy in jeopardy. And close behind
were a swarm of other cases — challenges to additional sections
of the National Industrial Recovery Act, including the section
assuring workers of the right to organize in unions of their own
choosing and the section providing for wage regulation in the
coal industry; challenges to the act establishing the Tennessee
Valley Authority; challenges to the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
By March 2, it was reported, 389 cases involving New Deal laws
were pending in the courts.
In the few short weeks from November 1934 to February 1935,
euphoria had given way to anxiety. At the end of February, Ernest
Gruening, Director of the Division of Territories and Island Possessions in the Department of the Interior, expressed to Harold
Ickes his concern over the decline in the popularity of the President. Ickes suggested that Gruening talk the situation over with
Colonel Edward M. House, a surviving sage from the Wilson
PROLOGUE
TO
administration. C
the Secretary of :
and Daniel Rope
of House's from
similar worries. ' I
"was drifting and
time Oscar Chapi
the Interior, dec!
the administratio
to change the o
not be re-elected
that he had not
Congress: no sooout somewhere 1
the Senate Forei
vivid picture of tl
said Pittman, wa
United States Set
publican" group:
ing far to the le
with the progrcs
conservative Den:
ing you by destro
Well, of course
in the success
There is disco 1
plaint . . . tha
Administration
interested in
strange and pels no leadershi
inevitable; and
The desponde
country. Thoma
sin, reported in I
home: "the peo]
discouragement
�L E MATE
PROLOGUE
wrote on
)nce. . . .
administration. Gruening learned from House that Cordell Hull,
the Secretary of State, Homer Cummings, the Attorney General,
and Daniel Roper, the Secretary of Commerce —all old friends
of House's from Wilson days — had already waited on him with
similar worries. The expert consensus was that the administration
"was drifting and was losing popular strcngih." About the same
lime Oscar Chapman, the politically astute Assistant Secretary of
the Interior, declared that the tide was running strongly against
the administration and that "unless the President did something
to change the current during the next thirty days," he could
not be re-clecied in 1936. Vice-President Garner said in cabinet
that he had not seen so much trouble since he had been in
Congress: no sooner did he put out one fire than another broke
out somewhere else. Key Pittman of Nevada, the chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent the President a
vivid picture of the situation in the upper house. The basic trouble,
said Pittman, was that there was "no Democratic Party in the
United States Senate." There was an "unscrupulous, regular Republican" group; there were the Progressive Republicans, roaming far to the left; there were Democrats who sympathized more
wilh the progressives than with the administration; there were
conservative Democrats who "conscientiously believe they are saving you by destroying you." Why this state ol confusion?
he country
A political
top of all
possibility
'id judicial
Now cases
up to the
heard arguie National
the Presiagainst the
dnistration's
a new law.
ongressional
public and
the governlose behind
>nal sections
the section
")f their own
ation in the
ie Tennessee
ustmcnt Act.
:w Deal laws
:bruary 1935,
>ruary, Ernest
d Island Pos:d to Harold
o£ the Presiion over with
t the Wilson
TO S T A L E M A T E
7
Well, of course, the fault is that there is a lack of confidence
in lhe success of the Administration. There is cowardice.
There is discontent with regard to patronage. There is complaint . . . that the Congress is not considered a part of the
Administration; that they are supposed to pass bills and not be
interested in the result of the administration of act; that
strange and peculiar persons have become advisors; that there
is no leadership; that thinking is farmed out; that defeat i?
inevitable; and every man must take care of himself.
The despondency was spreading fast from Washington to the
country. Thomas Ainlie, the Progressive congressman from Wisconsin, reported in March "a very distinct change" in his letters from
home: "the people who write to me express the most profound
discouragement about the national administration." Herbert
�8
1
!.
PROLOGUE
TO
STALEMATE
Bayard Swope told Jim Farley about New York: "things ain't
loo good. . . . 1 am referring to a sense of fear that is beginning
at the top, growing downward and spreading as it goes, which,
lacking realization, takes the form of misgiving about the President." "We have come," said Waller Lippmann in March, "to a
period of discouragement after a few months of buoyant hope.
Pollyanna is silenced and Cassandra is doing all the talking. . . .
Within the Administration itself there is a notable loss of selfconfidence which is reflected in leadership that is hesitant and
confused." "The air has been filled of late," commented the
Washington Star, "wilh the noise of things breaking up." On
April 4, as the 74th Congress began its fourth month, no important administration measure had yet gone to the President for his
signature.
5
vi
These were hard days for the President. He knew that things
were going badly. On every side he was assailed with demands
lor action. Yet he felt that he must bide his time. On March 13
he deplored to the National Emergency Council the "jittery feeling" that Congress was not going to accomplish anything. "That,
I ihink, is positively childish. . . . Give them a chance! After
all, they love to talk. Let them talk." " I am saying very little,
keeping my temper and letting them literally stew in their own
juice," he wrote Josephus Daniels. " I think it is the best policy
for a while." He told Colonel House that the rest of the session
would no doubt be more or less of a madhouse, "every Senator
a law unto himself and every one seeking the spotlight." Still,
out of it might come "such disgust on the part of the average
voter that some well-timed, common sense campaigning on my
part this spring or summer will bring people to their senses."
Among those expressing alarm was Molly Dewson of the Democratic National Committee. The President tried to relieve her
mind by a special message transmitted through his wife. This
message set forth wilh unusual clarity his instinct on the timing
question. "The fact that people are feeling a lack of leadership
in him at present and are worried is perfectly natural," Eleanor
Roosevelt told Miss Dewson at her husband's behest.
PROLOGUE
These thingand we arcthat Congre
fact thai il
done. . . . T l
to go slowh
tried to fon
give them t
more difficui
Please sa\
noi giving
and that lu
after all, ai
way immed
dictatorship
any better 1
The ups
libera] side
discouraged
ested in ge
have had 1
provement,
they never 1
Franklin
calm down
in satisfyini
But confid
not enough v
new voices, 1
seizing the h
any sort fron
to the wai tin
Hugh S. Joh
to Colonel 1
this free sidewhen the ma
to Ray Stan
"People tire
�A LEM AT E
"things ain't
is beginning
goes, which,
•ut the PresiMarch, "to a
uoyant hope,
talking. . . .
loss oi scllhesitant and
mmentcd the
ing up." O n
th, no imporisident lor his
ew that things
w i l h demands
On March 13
ie "jittery fcelything. "That,
chance! After
ing very little,
v in their own
the best policy
t of the session
"every Senator
potlight." Still,
of the average
»aigning on my
icir senses."
>n of the DcmoI to relieve her
his wife. This
t on the timing
<:k of leadci ship
latural," Eleanor
,t.
r R o 1. or; H E
ro
STALEMATE
9
These things go in cycles. We have been through it in Albany
and we arc going through it here. . . . He says to tell you
lhat Congress is accomplishing a great deal in spite of the
fact that there is very little publicity on what they have
done. . . . The relief bill and the [social] security bill are bound
to go slowly because they arc a new type of legislation. I f he
tried to force them down (he committee's throat and did not
give them time to argue them out, he would have an even
more dillieult congress to work with. . . .
Please say to everyone who tells you that the President is
not giving leadership that he is seeing the men constantly,
and that he is working with them, but this is a democracy
after all, and if he once started insisting on having his own
way immediately, we should shortly find ourselves with a
dictatorship and I hardly think the country would like that
any better than they do the delay.
The ups and clowns in peoples' feelings, particularly on the
liberal side, are an old, old story. The liberals always get
discouraged when they do not see the measures they are interested in go through immediately. Considering the time we
have had to work in the past for almost every slight improvement, I should think they might get over with it, but
they never do.
Franklin says for Heaven's sake, all you Democraiic leaders
calm down and feel sure of ultimate success. I t will do a lot
in satisfying other people.
But confidential presidential injunctions to calm down were
not enough when Congress seemed oui of control, when clamorous
new voices, like those of Huey Long and Father Coughlin, were
seizing the headlines, and when days went by without a lead of
any sort from the While House. Still, Roosevelt stuck obstinately
to the waiting game. I n March, as Long, Coughlin, and General
Hugh S. johnson engaged in a radio free-for-all, he commented
to Colonel House that the fracas was overdue — "better to have
this free side show presented to the public at this time than later on
when the main performance starts!" Late in March he explained
to Ray Stannard Baker, the friend and biographer of Wilson.
"People tire of seeing the same name day alter day in the impor-
�PROLOGUE
10
PROLOGUE
TO
TO
S
STALEMATE
tant headlines of the papers, and the same voice night after
night over the radio. For example, if since last November I had
tried to keep up the pace of 1933 and 1934, the inevitable histrionics of the new actors, Long and Coughlin and Johnson, would
have turned the eye of the audience away from the main drama
itselfl . . . Individual psychology cannot, because of human
weakness, be attuned for long periods of time to a constant repetition of the highest note in the scale."
Yet the longer the unprecedented presidential silence lasted,
the more disquiet it caused. When would the "main performance"
begin? As Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger of Harvard wrote
Roosevelt in May, his constant communication with the people
during his first months in office "marked an epoch in the history
of democratic leadership." It made people a part of government
as never before. It brought "that cold abstraction, civic responsibility, down from the clouds" and transformed public affairs into
personal affairs. "What troubles me, Mr. President," Schlesinger
said, "is that since those early months of your leadership something has happened to drive us apart. . . . I find it more and
more difficult to stand by you and your program because I know
less and less about what is going on. That is true of a lot of
other people I know and it must be true of people all over
the country." Roosevelt replied, " I agree with you about the
value of regular reporting. My difficulty is a strange and weird
sense known as 'public psychology.' "
There is no question that Roosevelt felt a sense of intense
frustration over his unaccustomed impotence. Thus in February
he planned a speech defying a possible adverse Supreme Court
decision in the gold-clause cases; when this defiance turned out
to be unnecessary, "his only regret," said Joseph P. Kennedy, the
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, "was his
inability to deliver the speech." The Court had deprived him of
a chance to regain the initiative. Later in the winter he underwent a minor humiliation when Congress passed a bonus bill
over administration protests. Opposition to the bonus was one of
the virtuous issues of the day: it was considered to show both
an enlightened concern for the public welfare as against selfish
special interests and a true dedication to economy in government.
Roosevelt had resolved to veto the bill. But he wavered as to
whether he should
passage over his vei<
Hill and fight to ha
ment at the White
in front of the Presid
as Morgenthau descri
he raised his two fis
God! if I win I wouh
He badly needed
not only the "stran^
ogy' " which held h
was that he was sir
February and March
up for a more prop
the nation. It was 1
moving all too slow
where he wanted t<
hanging threat of t
Congress, the threeof opinion in the
own effort to feel h
the performance for
�PROLOGUE
after
I had
e hisivould
Irama
uman
repeti'asted,
lance"
wrote
people
listory
nment
ponsis into
:singer
somee and
know
lot of
I over
Jt the
weird
ntense
bruary
Court
id out
ly, the
/as his
him of
underJS bill
one of
/ both
selfish
nment.
as to
TO
STALEMATE
11
whether he should do this for the record and acquiesce in its
passage over his veto, or whether he should go personally to the
H i l l and fight to have the veto sustained. I n a late night argument at the White House, Morgenthau, striding up and down
in front of the President, urged him to make a fight of it. Finally,
as Morgenthau described it, Roosevelt's face l i t up in a great smile,
he raised his two fists in the air and shook them and said, " M y
C.od! if I win I would be on the crest of the wave."
He badly needed to be on the crest of the wave. But it was
not only the "strange and weird sense known as 'public psychology' " which held him back. The basic reason for his inaction
was that he was simply unprepared to act. I t was not that in
February and March he had things in mind which he was saving
up for a more propitious moment to spring upon Congress and
the nation. I t was that the inscrutable processes of decision were
moving all too slowly within. He could not lead until he knew
where he wanted to go. The wrangles of the winter, the overhanging threat of the Supreme Court, the play of pressures in
Congress, the three-cornered brawl on the radio, the turbulence
of opinion in the country, all formed the background for his
own effort to feel his way through to "the main performance" —
the performance for which he, as well as the nation, was waiting.
0
��TWELVE
YEARS
By Henry
OF
Steele
ROOSEVELT
Comtnager
N o w T H A T T H E controversies over Roosevelt's domestic and foreign policies have been silenced by his sudden and
•tragic death, it is possible to evaluate those policies in some
historical perspective. Those policies, domestic and foreign,
were four times decisively endorsed by large popular majorities: so fully have they been translated into accomplished
and irrevocable facts that controversy about them is almost
irrelevant. It should be possible to fix, if not with finality,
at least with some degree of accuracy, the place occupied by
Roosevelt in American history.
• That this place still seems clouded by controversy cannot
be denied. Yet this, too, is part of the picture and has its own
significance. The Washington, the JefTerson, the Jackson, the
Lincoln, the Wilson administrations, too, 'were characterized
by controversy and bitterness; it is only the administrations
of mediocre men like Monroe, Arthur, Harrison, that are
memorable for placidity. The explanation of the controversy and especially of the bitterness is, however, less ra• tional. It is a two-fold one: contemporaries tended to see in
both "the domestic and foreign policies of Roosevelt an
abrupt and even revolutionary break with the past; they
tended to personalize those policies, to regard them as
M4
TWELVE YEARS-OF ROOSEVELT
215
largely an expression of Roosevelt's character, to focus all
their attention—both their devotion and their hatred—on
the man in the White House rather than on the groundswell of opinion to which he gave expression.
We can see now that the "Roosevelt revolution" was no
revolution, but rather the culmination of half a century of
historical development, and that Roosevelt himself, though'
indubitably a leader, was an instrument of the popular will
rather than a creator of, or a dictator to, that will. Indeed,
the two major issues of the Roosevelt administration—the
domestic issue of the extension of government control for
democratic purposes, and the international issue of the role
of America as a world power—emerged in the 1890's, and
a longer perspective will see the half-century from the 1890's
to the present as an historical unit. The roots of the New
Deal, the origins of our participation in this war, go deep
down into our past, and neither development is comprehensible except in terms of that past.
W^hat was really but a new deal of the old cards looked, to
startled and dismayed contemporaries, like a revolution for
two-reasons: because it was carried through with- such
breathless rapidity, and because in spirit at least it contrasted
so sharply with what immediately preceded. But had the
comparison been made not with the Coolidge-Hooyer era,
but with the Wilson, the Theodore Roosevelt, even the
Bryan era the contrast would have been less striking than
the similarities. Actually, precedents for the major part of
New Deal legislation was to be found in these earlier periods. Regulation of railroads and of business dated back to
the Interstate Gommerce Act of 18S7 and thf Sherman Act
of 1890, and was continuous from that time forward. The
farm relief program of-the-Populists, and of Wilson anticipated much that the Roosevelt administrations enacted. The
beginnings of conservation can. be traced, to-the Cafeyr Act
of 1894 and the Reclamation-Act of 1902, and the first Roose-
�216
HE ENTERS INTO HISTORY
TWELVE YEARS OF ROOSEVELT
velt did as much as the second to dramatize—though less
to solve—the problem of conserving natural resources.
Power regulation began with the Water Power Act of
1920; supervision over securities exchanges with grain and
commodities exchange acts of the Harding and Coolidge
administrations; while regulation of money is as old as the
Union, and the fight which Bryan and Wilson waged
against the "Money Power" and Wall Street was more bitter than anything that came during the New Deal. The
policy of reciprocity can be traced to the Republicans, Blaine
and McKinley. Labor legislation had its beginnings in such
states as Massachusetts and New York over half a century
ago, while much of the program of social security was
worked out in Wisconsin and other states during the second and the third decades of the new century.
There is nothing remarkable about this, nor does it detract in any way from the significance of President Roosevelt's achievements and contributions. The pendulum of
American history swings gently from right to left, but there
are no sharp breaks in the rhythm of our historical development; and it is to the credit of Roosevelt that he worked
within the framework of American history and tradition.
in democracy, after a long decade of materialism and cynicism, will be associated with Franklin Roosevelt.
More, a strong case can be made out for the propriety of
that association. "The only thing we need to fear," said Mr.
Roosevelt on assuming the Presidency, "is fear itself. . . .
We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm
courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of
seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean sadsfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty."
And during twelve years of office, Mr. Roosevelt did not
abate his confidence in "the future of essential democracy"
or in the capacity of the American people to rise to any
challenge, to meet any crisis, domestic or foreign. Those
who lived through the electric spring of 1933 will remember the change from depression and discouragement to excitement and hope; those able to compare the last decade
with previous decades will agree that interest in public
affairs has rarely been as widespread, as alert, or as responsive.
,
All this may be in the realm of the intangible. If we
look to more tangible things, what does the record show?
Of primary importance has been the physical rehabilitadon
of the country. Notwithstanding the splendid achievements
of the Theodore Roosevelt administrations, it became clear,
during the twenties and thirties, that the natural resources
of the country—its soil, forests, water power—were being
destroyed at a dangerous rate. The development of the Dust
Bowl, and the migration of the Oakies to tfre Promised
Land of California, the tragicfloodson the Mississippi and
the Ohio, dramatized to the American people the urgency
of this problem.
Roosevelt tackled it with energy and boldness. The Civiliari'Gonservatibri Corps enlisted almost three million young
men who planted seventeen million acres in riew forests,
•built over six million check dams to halt soil erosion, fought
11
What, then, are the major achievements, the lasting contributions, of the Roosevelt administrations? First, perhaps,
comes the restoration of self-confidence, the revivification
of the national spirit, the reassertion of faith in democracy.
It is irrelevant to argue whether these things were achieved
by Roosevelt, pr whether they came, rather, as a result of
extraneous forces—as needless as to argue whether Jackson
really was concerned with the rise of the common man, or
Lincoln with abolition, or the first Roosevelt with reform.
These things are irrevocably associated with their administradons, and it is safe to prophesy that the revival of faith
217
�HE ENTERS INTO HISTORY
TWELVE YEARS OF ROOSEVELT
forest fires and plant and animal diseases. To check erosion
the government organized a co-operative program which
enlisted the help of over one-fourth the farmers of the country and embraced 270 million acres of land, provided for the
construction of a series of huge dams and reservoirs, and
planned the creation of a hundred-mile-wide shelter belt of
trees on the high plains. The Resettlement Administration
moved farmers off marginal lands and undertook to restore
these to usefulness. More important than all this, was the
TVA, a gigantic laboratory for regional reconstruction.
Though much of this program owes its inspiration to the
past, the contrast between the New Deal and what immediately preceded it cannot be better illustrated than by reference to Hoover's characterization of the Muscles Shoals
bill of 1931 as not "liberalism" but "degeneration."
Equally important was the New Deal achievement in
the realm of human rehabilitation. Coming into office at a
time when unemployment had reached perhaps fourteen
million, and when private panaceas had ostentatiously failed,
it was perhaps inevitable that Roosevelt should have sponsored a broad program of government aid. More important
than bare relief, was the acceptance of the principle of the
responsibility of the state for the welfare and security of its
people—for employment, health and general welfare.
That this principle was aggressively and bitterly opposed
now seems hard to believe: its establishment must stand as
one of Roosevelt's cardinal achievements. Beginning with
emergency legislation for relief, the Roosevelt program in
the end embraced the whole field of social security—unemployment assistance, old age pensions,' aid to- women afld
children, and public health. Nor did it stop with formal "social security" legislation. It entered the domains of agriculture and labor, embraced elaborate programs of rural rehabilitation, the establishment of maximum hours and minimum wages, the prohibition of child labor; housing rts-
form, and, eventually, enlarged aid to education. Under the
New Deal the noble term "commonwealth" was given a
more realistic meaning than ever before in our history.
That to Roosevelt the preservation of democracy was
closely associated with this program for social and economic security is inescapably clear. He had learned well the
moral of recent continental European history: that given a
choice between liberty and bread, men are sorely tempted
to choose bread. The task of democracy, as he conceived it,
was to assure both. In afiresidechat of 1938 he said:
2l8
219
Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people oj those nations disliked democracy, but because
they had grown tired of unemployment
and insecurity,* of seeing
their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and government weakness through lack of leadership in govemment. Finally, in desperation, they chose to sacrifice
liberty in the hope of getting something to eat. We in America know
that our democratic institutions can be preserved and made to workBut in order to preserve them we need . . . to prove that the practical operation of democratic government is equal to the task f protecting the security of the people. . . . The people of America are in
agreement in defending their liberties at any cost, and the first line
of that defense lies in the protection of economic security.
0
I l l
In the political realm the achievements of the New Deal
were equally notable. First we must note the steady trend
towards the strengthening of government and the expansion
o£ government activities. Though this trend has caused
grave concern as yet, no better method of dealing with the
crowding problems of modern economy and society has
revealed itself, and it can be said that though government
to^ay has, quantitatively, far greater responsibilities than
�220
HE ENTERS INTO HISTORY
it had a generation or even a decade ago, it has, qualitatively, no greater power. For our Constitutional system is
intact, and all power still resides in the people and their representatives in Congress, who can at any moment deprive
their government of any power.
But we seem to have solved, in this country, the ancient
problem of the reconciliation of liberty and order; we seem
to have overcome our traditional distrust of the state and
come to a realization that a strong state could be used to
benefit and advance the commonwealth. That is by no
means a New Deal achievement, but it is a development
which has gained much from the experience of the American people with their government during the Roosevelt
administrations.
It cannot be said that this Federal centralization has
weakened the states or local communities. What we are
witnessing is a general increase in governmental activities—
an increase in which the states share—witness any state budget at present. And it can be argued, too, that political centralization strengthens rather than weakens local government and the health of local communities. For if we look
below forms to realities we can see that during the last
decade Federal aid to farmers, to home-owners, to labor,
Federal assistance in road-building, education and public
health, has actually restored many communities to financial
and economic health. It is by no means certain that community sentiment is weaker today than it was a generation
ago.
Along with Federal centralizatiort has gone a great increase in the power o the executive. The charge that Roose^
velt Was a dictator can be dismissed, along with those hoaty
charges that Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln; Theodore" Roosevelt, and Wilson were dictators. American politics-••'Simply
doesn't run to dictators. But Roosevelt was a "strong" executive—as every great democratic President has beefl aistrohg
:
TWELVE YEARS OF ROOSEVELT
221
executive. There is little doubt that the growing complexity of government plays into the hands of the executive;
there is little doubt that Roosevelt accepted this situation
cheerfully. Eventually Roosevelt came to exercise powers
far vaster than those contemplated by the Fathers of the
Constitution, as vast, indeed, as those exercised by the head
of any democratic state in the world. Yet it cannot fairly be
asserted that any of these powers was exercised arbitrarily,
or that the liberties of Americans are not so safe today as
at any other time.
Two other political developments under the New Deal
should be noted. The first is the revitalization of political
parties; the second the return of the Supreme Court to the
great tradition of Marshall, Story, Miller and Holmes. Four
observations about political parties during the last decade
are in order. First, the danger that our parties might come
to represent a particular class or section or interest was
avoided: both major parties retained—after the election of
1936—a broad national basis. Second, minor parties all but
disappeared: in the elections of 1940 and 1944 the minor
parties cast less than 1 per cent of the total vote—the first
time this happened since 1872. Third, legislation such as
the Hatch Act diminished the possibility that any party
might come to be controlled by powerful vested interests
or by patronage. And finally, with the organization of the
PAC in the campaign of 1944, labor for the first time in
our history became an important factor in elections; and
labor chose to work within the framework of existing parties rather than, as elsewhere, to organize its own party.
The New Deal, as far as can be foreseen, is here to stay:
, there seems no likelihood of a reversal of any of the major
developments in politics in the last twelve years. This was
recognized by the Republicans in 1940 and again in 1944,
for both platforms endorsed all the essentials of 'the New
Deal and confined criticism to details and adrifcnistration.
�HE ENTERS INTO HISTORY
TWELVE YEARS OF ROOSEVELT
How far the reforms and experiments of the Roosevelt era
will be carried is a hazardous question. That the program
of conservation will be continued and enlarged seems obvious. Social security, too, will be maintained and possibly
enlarged: whether it will come to embrace socialized medicine or a broad rehousing program is more dubious.
There may be a reaction against some of the labor legislation of the New Deal, but labor's newly discovered political
power would seem to make that unlikely. It is improbable
that there will be any relaxation of governmental peacetime
controls over business, banking, securities, power, though
here a change in taxation policies may do much to stimulate private enterprise and create an appearance of a shift
away from New Deal practices. Federal centralization,
which has been under way so long, is doubtless here to
stay; planning, imperatively required by war, will in all
probability wear off its faintly pink tinge, and flourish as a
peacetime technique. And, finally, it seems probable that
the restoration of the dignity of politics and statecraft, which
came with 1933, will survive.
Today it is foreign affairs rather than domestic policy
that commands our most agitated attention. Here, too, the
large outlines of the Roosevelt achievements are clear,
though the details are blurred and the future projection
uncertain.
isolation, but for two out of three centuries of our history
we have been inextricably entangled in world affairs. In the
iSgo's we aggressively assumed a position as a world power,
and the roots of our present involvement trace back to that
decade. It is unnecessary to rehearse the details of that emergence as a world power: the Spanish War, the acquisition of
Hawaii and of the Philippines, the Open Door policy, the
reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine and the addition of
corollaries; the construction of a powerful navy, indirect
participation in the Algeciras Conference and intervention
to end the Russo-Japanese War. All these and other indications dramatized the fact that the United States was a
world power, with world-wide interests.
Since that time isolation has been a delusion. How futile
that delusion was, was revealed by our participation in the
first World War; how profound and widespread it was, was
confessed in the retreat of the twenties—the refusal to join
the League or the World Court, the withdrawal from the
Far East, the gestures towards economic self-sufficiency, the
adolescent disillusionment with the world.
Reflected on the background of a half-century of experience, Roosevelt's understanding of the responsibility of
America as a world power seems logical and obvious; contrasted with the half-baked and half-witted isolationism of
the twenties it becomes not only creditable but impressive.
The international problems of the thirties were at once more
complex and more urgent than those of any previous decade.
Future generations may indeed wonder that Americans
of the thirties could have been paralyzed by hesitation and
doubt, and may find in the neutrality legislation of 1935-37
one of the most intriguing enigmas of history; the historian
can but record that opinion was divided, that the majority
seemed to approve of this legislation, and that this majority
included its share of the intelligent and the sincere.
We know now that from the dme Japan struck in Man
222
1v
The problem of America's role in world affairs has been
with us in one form or another since Colonial days. Then,
we are sometimes inclined to forget, we were heavily involved in the affairs of the Western world—but as victims,
one might say, rather than as.independent participants. Our
War for Independence was a world war;, our War of 1812
was part of another world war. Between 1815 and the 1890's
wc achicvsi, or fancied that we achieved, some degree of
223
�H
224
E
ENTERS
1 X T C >
HISTORY
TWELVE YEARS OF ROOSEVELT
churia and Hitler entered the Rhineland the issue confronting the United States was one of ultimate survival. It is to
the credit of President Roosevelt that he sensed this from
the beginning, that his record of hostility to what Hitler represented is clear and consistent, and that from 1937 on he
sought ceaselessly to rally American opinion against totalitarianism and to prepare America for the test that finally
came.
And those who think that America was unready for war
in December 1941 should compare our readiness then with
our pitiful state of unreadiness in April 1917—after almost
three years of warning.
a veritable arsenal of democracy and which may eventually
be regarded as the decisive turning point of the war. There
was the acqmsmon of bases m Greenland and Iceland, and
1
0 r d e r
a g a i n S t
:
1
G
c
r
m
a
n
U
b o a t s
was t t T l
•
- There
ww£
P ^ t i m e conscription-the continuation of
which was sayed by a single vote in the lower House. Thcrl
was the development of a vast and marvelously organized
program of industrial mobilization-shipbuildV munt
t ons manufacture, airplane production. Without all thi
it ^ safe to say, the war would have been lost
a c h i e v e m e n t
rJ ^ K T
Probably be better apprectated by future generanons than by our own. Like W i l l ,
Roosevelt put the issues at once upon a moral plane, and
L d fund"
U T
' ^^"ence, Roo evek
Samentalr'T
^ ^
P
P y - Philosophy fundamentally religious and moral. If the Atlantic Charter
3
1
t h O U C
Roosevelt's foreign policy had, indeed, over a period of
twelve years, a remarkable consistency—a consistency sometimes concealed from us by specific and minor aberrations.
From the beginning he worked within the framework of
the American system and respected the limitations of American politics. He did not attempt to reopen the issue of the
League; he conceded defeat on the issue of the World
Court; he accepted—though as we now know reluctantly
—neutrality legislation. With reference to the European and
Pacific problem he did what he could. He kept the record
straight, insisted upon the validity of the principles involved, educated the American people to the underlying
issues, set our domestic house in order, and pushed forward
a naval building program. When the test came, there \vas
much still lo be done; there was nothing to retract.
Froni 1939' oh,' both the "material and the moral achievements were bf inestimable importance. On the material side"
the achievement was spectacular^ There was the destroyer-"
bases deal which at once strengthened Britain in her heroic
struggle against the Nazis and America ih her self-defense;There was the Lend-Lease program which made America-
325
W i l S O n
y
S
h i I o s o
m 0 m e n t
W e
h
m U S t
a
r
e
m
e
m
b
e
r
FomrVrP
^
'
^at the
Fourteen Potnts, too, came to seem tarnished. The tarnish
rubs off. Roosevelt made clear, from the beginning th thh
was more than a war for self-defense, a task which the Ge mans and Japanese made relatively easy for him. In a war
message remimscent of Wilson's he declared that
The tru goal L ^
e
/ a r a b o p e
a
„
d b c y o n d / A
,
,
^
that th, force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as
S
Zidtr
mediate evil W e Americans arc not d r
t
«
°y™-«>< «*
And in the dar hours of this day-and through dark days that
may be yet to comc~wc wrll know that the vast majority of the
members of the human race are on our side. Many of them are fight'ng with us. All of then, are praying for us. For, in representing our
k
H e!1
0Ur
Tnd^cT"^ ^ " ' ~ ^ ^ ^
^
�226
HE ENTERS INTO HISTORY
When war finally came, the nation was.united—united as
it had never been for any previous war. That the war has
been fought with effectiveness and efficiency cannot be
doubted: compared with any previous war in which our unmilitary people have been involved, compared even with
World War I , this has been a very miracle of efficiency. The
details need not detain us; the results are sufficient.
Yet one more observation needs to be made with respect
to Roosevelt's foreign policy, and that has to do with his
comprehension of the problems of the future. Like Wilson,
Roosevelt envisioned a postwar international organization
empowered to maintain peace. He managed to avoid most
of the errors which helped defeat Wilson's plans. Instead of
keeping aloof from our Allies, he associated with them, thus
laying the groundwork now for a group of united nations.
Instead of postponing the practical details of international
cooperation, he sponsored a series o£ conferences—relief,
currency, aviation, Dumbarton Oaks—looking to the creation, now, of machinery competent to the solution of the
most pressing problems. Instead of regarding Russia as a
menace or a broken reed, he actively and enthusiastically
co-operated with her. Instead of antagonizing the Senate,
he took the Senate and the American people^into his confidence. Many problems still confront us and plague us, but
that the outlook for an effective international order is more
auspicious now than at any previous time in our history can
scarcely Be denied.
VI
And what, finally, of Roosevelt himself ? It may seem too
early to fix his position in our history, yet that position is
reasonably dear. He takes his place, in the great tradition of
American liberalism, along with Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson. Coming, to office at
a time when the very foundations of the republic seemed
TWELVE YEARS OF ROOSEVELT
227
threatened and when men were beginning to despair of
the ability of a constitutional democracy to meet a crisis, he
restored confidence and proved that democracy could act
as effectively in crisis as could totalitarian governments. A
liberal, he put government clearly at the service of th?
people; a conservative, he pushed through reforms designed
to strengthen the natural and- human resources of the nation, restore agriculture and business to its former prosperity, and save capitalism. He saw that problems of government were primarily political, not economic; that politics
should control economy—not economy, politics; and that
politics was an art as well as a science. He repudiated isolationism, demanded for America once more her proper station and responsibility in world affairs, and, after unifying
the American people on the major issues of aid to the democracies and war, furnished a war leadership bold, energetic and successful.
In all this Roosevelt was an opportunist—but an opportunist with a philosophy. He was the same kirid of oppor"tunist that Jefferson—that earlier "traitor to his class"—had
been. The close view of Roosevelt has discovered numerous inconsistencies. But if we look back over Roosevelt's
long career in politics—beginning with his fight on the
Tammany machine in 1910, we can see that amidst the
hurly-burly of politics he was unfalteringly consistent in
his fundamental social and political philosophy. He sought
ends, and cheerfully adopted the "quarterback" technique
with respect to means. And as the bitterness of particular
controversies dies away, the larger outlines of his achievements during the past twelve years emerge with striking
clarity. We can see that the promises of the New Deal platform of 1932 were carried out, more fully perhaps than
those of any party platform. We can see that the promises
of the inaugural address were fulfilled. We can see that the
democratic philosophy which Roosevelt asserted was ap-
�228
HE ENTERS INTO HISTORY
plied and implemented. Under his leadership the American
people withstood the buffetings of depression and the fearful trial of war, and emerged strong and respected, refreshed
in their faith in democracy and in the ultimate triumph
of justice in human affairs.
"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty," Roosevelt
said, "is a government strong enough to protect the interests
of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough
informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government."
The Roosevelt administration proved once more that it
was possible for such a government to exist and such a
people to flourish, and restored to the United States its position as "the hope of the human race."
T H t AMERICAN MERCURY
6. Garlanded with Verse . . .
Poems Selected by William Rose Benet
TUESDAY,
NOVEMBER
5th,
1940
Written by the late Stephen Vincent Benet and printed in •
"•The Conning Tower" oj the New York Post on November
5, /9./0. Read oecr WQXR in memory oj the President by
William Rose Benet on April 14, 1945.
We remember, F. D. R.
We remember the bitter faces of the apple-sellers
And their red cracked hands.
We'remember the grey, cold wind of '32
When the job stopped, and the bank stopped,
And the merry-go-round broke down,
And, finally,
Everything seemed to stop.
The whole big works of America,
Bogged down with a creeping panic,
And nobody knew how to fix it, while the wise guys sold
the country short,
Till one man said (and we listened)
"The one thing we have to fear is feir."
Well, it's quite £ long while since then and the wise guys
t
may not remember,
But wc do, F. D. R.
229
�-if, •
"
Preamble
Franldin Roosevelt was not a simple man. That quality of si
plicity which we delight to think marks the great and noi
•was not his. He was the most complicated human being I ever
knew; and out of this complicated nature there sprang much
of the drive which brought achievement, much of the sympathy which made him like, and liked by, such oddly different
types of people, much of the detachment which enabled him
to forget his problems in play or rest, and much of the apparent contradiction which so exasperated those associates of
his who expected "crystal clear" and unwavering decisions.
But this very complication of his nature made it possible for
him to have insight and imagination into the most varied human
experiences, and this he applied to the physical, social, geographical, economic, and strategic circumstances thrust upon
him as responsibilities by his times.
, He was capable of almost childish vanity about his skill in
catching fish, his seamanship in small boats, his exploits in teasing
Winston Churchill and in making Stalin laugh and unbend; and
at the same time he could be unself-consciously humble and ask
the advice of a most casual visitor about some problem he
could not solve. He enjoyed the gay, boisterous, and sometimes
silly fellows with whom he went on fishing trips. The reason
was not only "no mental strain," as a keen columnist discerned;
he really liked the banter and teasing. He used the same coin of
personal funmaking when he sat down to talk with a group of
labor leaders. Some of them are deadly serious men, or humorless, and were bothered by it. Many loved it and felt warm
and included by it.
3
a^e Sconces
�4
,
w
1
PREAMBLE
Many books will be written about Franklin Roosevelt, but no
two will give the same picture. For no two people saw the same
thing in him. The variety and conflict of the pictures will be
startling. It will be many years before a definitive biography
and true appraisal of Franklin Roosevelt is written. People who
knew him and lived in his times are too close to him, and too
partisan about him, either for or against, to have the necessary
objectivity. Those who knew him and his times will write what
they knew, saw, felt, and understood about him. It will be
source material for future historians. It will surely encourage
people to continue their own efforts to overcome handicaps and
to develop themselves as individuals; but even more important,
it will encourage them to seek greater social justice and higher
standards of living in the corporate life of our country.
This book about Roosevelt is not a biography. It is biased in
his favor. I agreed with most of his positions and policies and
worked for many years to help develop, spread, and establish them
in action. I am bound to him by ties of affection, common
purpose, and joint undertakings. All doubts have been resolved
in.his favor. Despite his shortcomings, I , on the whole, respect
the methods he used to handle his problems and develop his
strength.
He was many things—not clear, not simple, with drives and
compulsions in a dozen different directions, with curiosity sending him from one field and experience to another, with imagination making it possible for him to identify himself, at least pardy
and temporarily, with widely different phenomena and people.
There was undoubted conflict within him. He was all these
things—the rich man's friend, thie poor man's brother, the stern
puritan conscience, the easygoing, indulgent, and forgiving
friend of the irregulars. These conflicts, however, did not result
in neurotic stagnation, but in life and movement in many directions; and shrewd planning kept them from ruining one another.
Without these conflicts in Roosevelt's thinking and feeling
there would have been less action. He responded to one impulse, was checked by another. By diverting two conflicting
liies came the dyn
�i Roosevelt, but
eople saw the
ie pictures will
efinitive biograph;
'ritten. People wh;
se to him, and
have the nec
nes will write wha
jt him. It will
1 surely encoura^
:ome handicaps an
sn more important]
1 justice and high
jr country,
iphy. It is biased
ns and policies an'(
1, and establish th
affection, commo:
have been resolve<
the whole, resp
ns and develop hi
)le, with drives ani
with curiosity send;
other, with imagina
mself, at least pardj
nomena and peopl
. He was all thes
•'s brother, the st
;ent, and forgivin
vever, did not resul]
ment in many direc
ruining one anothe
hinking and feelin
sponded to one im:ing two conflictinj
PREAMBLE
5
impulses and starting something new, he compounded or made
compromises out of both. In this way opposition dropped off
and progress was made. This was never wholly conscious on
his part. Out of these impulses, interests, curiosities, and sympathies came the dynamic quality which made movement, action,
and creative living possible for him.
The core of Roosevelt's character was viability—a capacity
for living and growing that remained to his dying day. It accounts for his rise from a rather unpromising young man to a
great man—not merely a President, but a man who so impressed
himself upon his time that he can never be forgotten and will
be loved as a symbol of hope and social justice long after his
generation and his works have passed away.
One cannot predict what Roosevelt would have said or done
in the postwar world. It is unfortunate that already there may be
growing a rigid "Roosevelt legend." Some are expressing quite
personal ideas as if they were definitely what Roosevelt wanted,
and urging them as a guide for the present and future in political
and international action. I wonder if they know what he would
have done. He was essentially adaptable to new circumstances,
always quick to understand the changing needs and hopes of the
people and to vary his action to meet changing situations.
Methods which he pursued in the past are not necessarily what
he would have used today.
He made an indelible impression on his own country and on
the world, changing the direction of political thought through
knowledge of human needs and suffering and emphasis upon the
provision of the good life for the common man. He grew to greatness by a full utilization of all of his talent and personality; he
began where he was and used what he had. He ignored his handicaps, both physical and intellectual, and let nothing hinder him
from doing the work he had to do in the world. He was not bom
great but he became great. The words most often on his lips to
describe what he regarded as the good democratic society were:
"free," "fair," and "decent." To his dying day he held the phUosophy that "If you treat people right they will treat you right—
�<5
,
PREAMBLE
ninety per cent of the time." He left nb political system, no
for x cult. Some of his personal rules of Ufe remain and they
offer guidance and inspiration to many. Never let fear rise;
constructive action with whatever capacities are available;
flexible in all dealings with human beings; overcome unnec
discouragement and gloom by laughter and by faith. "Move fcii!
ward with a strong and active faith," he wrote on his last day^ ja
on his first day in office as President he had said: "The onl
thing we have to fear is fear itself."
He learned to love people, and they returned it. Seldom has'}
man been so beloved within his own generation. On the night.!
died, a young soldier stood in the silent group which cluster^
for comfort around the White House where he had lived,
young soldier sighed as I nodded to him and, still looking at
house, he said: " I felt as if I knew him." (A pause.) " I felt as^
he knew me—and I felt as if he liked me."
This man cannot be made into the founder of a cult, the suf
porter of a group. He belonged to everyone. If this book can heji
to establish the real rather than the legendary leader by get
closer to the man himself, I shall feel that I have done him sorij
service.
"This book about Roosevelt is b
of affection, common purpose, and
(Miss Perkins greets the President aft
�s
V
�THE PRINTED WORD FOLLOWED
EDITORIALS
believe in the right of men to live free and unfettered lives
are grieving today. His untimely passing robs humankind
of its greatest champion.
our confidence, but there is always a new President to take
over the helm. There is always confidence in our constitutional system.
Today we may well ponder the wisdom of Mr. Roosevelt
himself on this point. Speaking in Madison Square Garden
at the close of his 1932 campaign, he said:
"The genius of America is greater than any candidate or
any party. This campaign, hard as it has been, has not shattered my sense of humor or my sense of proportion. I still
know that the fate of America cannot depend on any one
man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles
and not on any single personality. I , for one, shall remember that, even as President. Unless by victory we can accomplish a greater unity toward liberal effort, we shall have
.done little indeed."
Those words are golden now. Many people who have
known only dictatorship in recent years may sincerely believe that the United States has been crippled. But every
American with the feel of freedom and democracy in his
bones knows otherwise. The best way, in our opinion, to
overcome fear of the new situation by which we are confronted is to redouble our support of the new Administration to attain our truly national objectives.
^4
Orson Welles, writing in the NEW YORK POST said:
Desperately we need his courage and his skill and wisdom
and his great heart. He moved ahead of us showing a way
into the future. If we lose that way, or fall beside it, we
have lost him indeed. Our tears would mock him who
never wept except when he could do no more than weep.
If we despair because he's gone—he who stood against
despair—he had as well never have lived, he who lived so
greatly.
The
SPOKANE
CHRONICLE
Said:
Franklin D. Roosevelt has gone the way of mortals, but
the cause in which he wrought so long and at so great a
price is a living cause. It will survive and unto the unborn
generations will go the story of the man who died working,
contriving, sacrificing in its defense.
The tragedy could have been worse, as the WASHINGTON POST
pointed out:
The
Tragic as the President's passing' is, it might easily have
been worse. He might have died before the Yalta Conference at a time when the Big Three were tending to pull
. apart rather than together. Or he might have lived on helplessly after suffering a stroke, as did President Wilson at a
time of crisis a generation ago. His sudden passing, will
force us to meet many new problems: But that is the way of
democracy. Under our system the success of great national i f
projects is not contingent upon the fate of any one individual. The loss of a great leader may temporarily shake
LOS ANGELES TIMES
85
said:
•It is for us to pick up where he left off and continue on,
not only to the goal he had set in the war, but also for the
sound reconstruction of the nation in the post-war years.
A
TRIBUTE
By Walter Winchell
The President of the United States is dead. A l l that is
mortal of Franklin D. Roosevelt will soon pass from the
sight of man.
�86
THE
PRINTED WORD FOLLOWED
EDITORIALS
But the things for which he lived, fought and died, will
live forever, while there are free men left to draw breath.
In its deepest sense, Franklin D. Roosevelt understood
the spirnual s^nificance of being the Chief Magistrate of
t 0 0 k
0 f f i c e
i n
i t s
r e a t e s c
F
y
has
™
As a citizen, one must stand in awe before the accomplishments of his single great soul.
One can also weep—as a friend!
NFW YOFK MIRROR
and King Features, Inc.
c r i s i s
him
^
>
to
him, as Commander in Chief, came the duty of defending
it in its greatest of wars.
*
He was given the widest of powers. But he used them
only as trustee for the people. He received a bill of rights
.mact. And he left a bill of rights not only intact, but deep
ened and strengthened.
In its truest sense, the world does not lose its great spirit
Nor does this Republic lose its great war President. On the
contrary, whenever and wherever tyranny and dictatorship
shall again strike at the soul of mankind, free men will call
to each other to rally-to stand and fight like Roosevelt.
The President sa.d often that democracy could not live in
sa ety while the Nazis existed. To the destruction of that
criminal conspiracy he gave his last efforts
That group of men who would have destroyed the civilized world are themselves destroyed . . . and in the court
of eternal justice, it will re-echo-that the one man they
named as the implacable foe of their injustice, intolerance
and infamy was Franklin D. Roosevelt
And somewhere in the hidden plans of the universe it
must be marked that this man's work was done and that
for his war for eternal justice he had earned eternal peace
can be no accident that Franklin Roosevelt enters the
hall of the immortals as the victorious armies of democraev
are about to enter Berlin
P ™Jdt»Lme":
87
, 0 M m
£ h
° '<
There need be no great monument for F.D.R, ever His
monument ,s forever in the hearts of the common people.
A
M A N OF
THE
THE
WORLD
AND
WO/RLD'S M A N
By Anne O'Hare MeCormiek
The greatness of Franklin Roosevelt was indefinable
while he lived because it was a compound of many qualities, including the. qualities of smaller men—and also because he did not make a point of it. No one was more aware
that among the leaders of his time he occupied a great position as President of the United States, a role so fused with
his own personality after twelve years that people in other
countries spoke of him simply as "The President," as if he
were President of the world. But he did not pose as a great
man. If he posed at all, it was not as somebody on an eminence, but as one who lived comfortably on all levels, a
human being to whom nothing human was alien. He did
not stoop and he did not clirrib; he was one of those completely poised persons who felt no need to play up or down
to anybody.
In his death this is the element of his greatness that comes
out most clearly. In the streets of New York yesterday, in
the streets of every American town, strangers stopped to
commiserate one another. Over and over again one heard
the same lament: "We have lost our friend." The old man
at the newsstand cried as he handed out the papers with the
unbelievable headlines. The sad-eyed taxi driver sighed: " I
suppose we couldn't escape sacrificing the best we had in
this war." The mother who wore black for a boy killed on
�WW*
EDITORIALS
THE PRINTED WORD FOLLOWED
the Rhine expressed the same thought. "The soldiers that
went before would be sorry they couldn't save this greatest
soldier of all," she said.
The crowds ih the streets felt close to the President. They
felt they knew him intimately. He had the rare faculty of
communicating himself to masses of people, so that millions who had never approached him knew he was approachable, and his relationships to these unknown friends
was as personal as his ties with the friends he knew.
This is true of critics as well as friends. Everybody felt
personal about Roosevelt. It is true abroad as well as at
home. There is a great loneliness in many parts of the world
because he is gone. Perhaps other nations expected too much
of him; in missing the victory he did so much to win, he
may have saved himself from disappointing exaggerated
hopes. But while he lived these hopes lived too. Poles,
Greeks, Italians, Serbs', Belgians, Syrians, Zionists, the hungry, the dispossessed and the oppressed of Europe looked to
him for support, and this burden of hope weighed on him
a little. " I am working to keep the doors open," he said after
Yalta. "It takes time and patience, for I am only one of
three."
The President sometimes spoke of himself as "a man of
the world." He did not use this term in the conventional
sense. What he meant was that he was at home in the world,
that he did not feel strange with strange people or in strange
circumstances. To the end he clung to his fixed belief that
people are alike if you can "get through" to them. No disappointment or misunderstanding shopk his faith that with
patience and good-will any difficulty could be settled around
a table.
He was at ease with Stalin, though the background and
experience of the two leaders were as far apart as if they
lived on different planets. He was on the most familiar
terms with Churchill. Neither of these leaders—indeed, few
people in the whirling world he has eft-was as much^at
ease everywhere as President Roosevelt. He translates into
every language," said a Frenchman in Pans last December.
"What he does and says matters so much to us over here,
7 * % v. [ |S:
1
press
Association
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill,
jriends as well as allies.
because he is the 'world's man,' and we have to follow the
people that he leads."
R oosevelt was a very great man in the eyes of Europeans
The liberated peoples felt closer to him than to many o
their own statesmen. Yet his genius and h.s temperament
were so American that he could not have grown m any
other soil. At the front, the American observer was always
P
P
�9°
THE PRINTED WORD FOLLOWED
ROOSEVELT
0 f
m O S t
a r m i e s
wounHe'/A
f
^ry; but
wounded Amencans laugh. Franklin Roosevelt possessed
A« serene courage in a high degree. If he fel T r e e nt
months that Jus strength was failing,
^
ab e to carry out the g.gantic task he set himself, he would
no ndnrn ,t to anyone, even to himself. Becau e hi iron
vdl triumphed over infirmity in his earlier years, probaWy
he danger s.gnals meant less to hinVthan to ordi^a^y men
t h a l
Wa m p
S
j
r i n
w a s
h e
m
i
g
t h e
The role he dreamed of, that he accepted the fourth term rn
P%, was not that of war leader, though according
S
^ry men he was a bold and successful strategist buT of
peace
,
^
coition nd
« the great projects of world reorganization. Thi i s ^ y
despairing people in every country placed their last 1 1 ^
» his leadership-and why they wilffeel l o i nd bereaved
make
H
e
t h e
are called upon to prove that the will and purpose he em
bodied are the will and purpose of the United Stat s f the"
Presents death unites us in a common sorrow t shoild
unite us more firmly in carrying on the
workZ's^tI
NEW
YORK TIMES
By Walter
IS G O N E
Lippmann
The nation has received the news of Roosevelt's death
with profound sorrow but without dismay. Surely he would
have wanted it to be that way. For the final test of a leader
is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction
and the will to carry on.
The man must die in his appointed time. He must carry
away with him the magic of his presence and that personal
mastery of affairs which no man, however gifted by nature,
can acquire except in the relentless struggle with evil and
blind chance.
Then comes the proof of whether his work will endure,
and the test of how well he led his people: whether when
he is no longer able to give voice in their hopes, they still
have the same hopes, whether the course which he laid out
when he was in power fixes the place where the broad highways will run over which the nation will continue to move.
If not, then a man is great only in his own moment, a spectacular accident, like a comet which does not alter the course
of things.
. But if others can finish what he began, can decide what
he had not yet decided, can plan what he did not have time
to plan, can do what needs doing beyond the things he actually'did, then his work is founded in reality and endures.
In the first hours after the President was dead, men took
consolation in gratitude, and in their confidence that the
nation itself now knows where it is going, and why, and
how, felt relief from the shock and loss.
This noble mood can pass away as it did after Lincoln
and Wilson were dead, and high resolve be squandered and
dissipated in the quarrels of the pygmies. A wise but sad9i
�92
THE PRINTED WORD FOLLOWED
dened man once said: "the tragedy of wars is that peace is
made by the survivors."
No people has greater reason to know this than we have:
we who know what came after Lincoln and after Wilson.
Only by bearing it ever in mind can we make sure that all
our highest hopes and purposes do not disintegrate under
the harsh factionalism of our public life, the pitiless pressures which are the price of our freedom, and the indiscipline which accompanies our individualism.
Yet, though we cannot and must not hide from ourselves
the risk which is imposed upon us by the death of the
leader, who personified so much of what we can hope for
and most need to do, there is good reason to think that we
shall not repeat the disasters which followed our other wars.
For the experience of the past has become part of us, and if
we are no better men, we are forewarned and therefore
wiser.
The nation has sufTered. In almost every home there is an
anxious vigil, in so many sorrow and irreparable loss. We
have learned much and learned it in the hard way; few
men living today but have had their whole lives bent and
misshapen by the wars and convulsions of our epoch. This,
then, has been no more excursion, no triumphant adventure
to be celebrated and forgotten. Our people have repurchased
very dearly the freedom which they had inherited so easily
and were beginning to hold too lightly.
"Whose feet they hurt in the stocks: the iron entered into
his soul."
Roosevelt lived to see the nation make the crucial decisions upon which its future depends: to face evil and to rise
up and destroy it, to know that America must find throughout the world allies who will be its friends, to understand
that the nation is too strong, too rich in resources and in
skill, ever to accept again as irremediable the wastage of
men who cannot find work and of the means of wealth
EDITORIALS
93
which lie idle and cannot be used. Under h.s leadership, the
debate on these fundamental purposes has been concluded,
and the decision has been rendered, and the argument .s not
over the ends to be sought but only over the ways and
means bv which they can be achieved.
Thus he led the nation not only out of mortal danger
from abroad but out of the bewilderment over unsettled
purposes which could hnve rent it apart from within. When
he died, the issues which confront us are difficult But they
are not deep and thev are not irreconcilable. Ne.ther
relations with other peoples nor among ourselves are there
divisions within us that cannot be managed with common
^ T h e genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can
deal with successfully. Here lay the politica genius of
Franklin Roosevelt: that in his own time he knew what
were the questions that'had to be answered, even though
he himself did not always find the full answer. It was to
this that our people and the world responded preferring
him instinctively to those who did not know what the real
questions were.
'
,
Here was the secret of the sympathy which never ceased
to flow back to him from the masses of mankind, and the
reason whv they discounted his mistakes For they knew
that he was asking the right questions, and if he did not always find the right answers, someone, who had learned
what to look for, eventually would.
NEW VORK HERALD-TRIBUNE
�EDITORIALS
WHAT
ROOSEVELT MEANT
TO
95
his efforts to. carve out a more decent way of life. They
remembered how the President, for reasons of political expediency, had often remained silent on issues of mob terBy Walter White
rorism, of racial segregation even in an Army and Navy
Exrcutive Secrrtary of ihr National Association
fighting wars against Nazi and Nipponese race theories
for the Advancemrnt of Colored People
Even though they knew his inaction and silence delayed
What did Franklin Roosevelt mean to thirteen million action on such evils, even as he spoke out against similar
Americans of Negro blood? Precisely what he meant to crimes in other lands, they knew that his heart cried out
millions of the people of the earth who hoped for peace to do the things his practical head stopped him from doing.
and decent human relations between men of every nation- They were proud that their votes had helped put him again
ality and creed, of every language and race, of every station into power, although every blandishment and inducement ot
in life throughout the world. In him they saw the hope— his political opponents had been used td persuade them
dimmed at times by the bewildering processes of political to vote against him.
machination and "practical" politics—of a gallant, unafraid,
In brief-and again like all the other men of the eartbskilled, and shrewd architect of a peace which would neither they were grateful that the wheel of good fortune had
evaporate within the lifetime of even the youngest of the
placed power in the hands of a great and generous though
living, nor achieve cessation of war solely by continuation
not infallible, American at the time when mans blindness
of the exploitation of the have-nots by the haves of the world. and greed and petty vanity had created a chaos which had
As long as Roosevelt lived, Negroes, like the rest of the
almost submerged what is termed civilization. The heart
earth's oppressed, could hear with not too great apprehenof a giant had functioned in their own time; they had
sion the somber predictions that the blood lust loosed by war
faith that the forces of decency his great heart had set in
and the post-war struggle for jobs and security would find
motion could not- and would not be stopped for a long
expression and satiation in mob attacks upon minorities.
time to come.
When death took him away, they were not so certain a way
out would be found except that which they themselves
NOT
WITH
TEARS
devised. This, added to bitter sorrow at the President's
death, was the reaction of colored Americans when the unBy Howard Fast
expected news came.
If he were standing among us-and I , for one, believe that
But when the first shock had been somewhat softened
he stands among us, more alive than ever-fully among us,
by the passage of time, Negroes began to take stock of the
in the factories, on the battlefields, on the farms and. in the
changes Roosevelt's twelve years as president had wrought
great cities and the small towns, he would not be mourning.
in the status of man everywhere. They remembered how
He would not be doubtful, for we are his people and he
little men of both the President's party and the opposition
never doubted us. He would not be afraid, for it was never
had used every tactic of chicanery and calumny to block
his way to be afraid, nor is it our way. You would hear no
94
T H E N E G R O
�g6
'EDITORIALS
THE PRINTED WORD FOLLOWED
words from his lips that temporized with the future; it
never was his way to temporize with the future.
If he were standing among us, he would recall how much
he had depended on us. He knew that, although so many
of us believed it was quite the reverse. That belief came to
a head in the first moment after we heard the news, in that
terrible, black moment of total bereavement, when it seemed
that everything had come to an end, and looking ahead we
found nothing to see. But only in that moment—afterwards,
we wept in a different way, because he was part of us and because he belonged to us.
And he always knew that, how much he was a part of us,
how much he depended on us, how much he needed us.
If he were standing among us now, he would recall that,
and he would have great hope and great faith.
HE
HAD GREAT
£ AIT H
I N
THE
PEOPLE
If he were standing among us now, everywhere among
us, he would not tell us what to do; for if he lived by one
single great credo, it was by a rich and unwavering faith in
the American people—and it was from us that he took
sustenance and direction. Standing among us now, he would
watch the core of our determination harden, he would feel
the strength of the people, as he had felt it so often, and he
would not be unhappy.
Standing among us now, he would see a Nation united as
never before in its history; and he would know that leadership does not end because the leader is dead. Even as he took
from the strength and leadership of Washington, JefTerson,
Jackson, and Lincoln—so would he see us take new strength
and determination from the leadership of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt.
Standing among us now, everywhere among us, loving,
us and the country that bore him and nurtured him, he
would raise his hand in salute, and he would lift his voice in
97
a pledge of unequivocal loyalty-and in that he would m t
e V n e ; ,40 million strong we would ,«r1 h i r n ^ n ^
salute and in the pledge to that man who is now our Pres
ident and Commander-in-Chief, Harry S. Truman.
If he were standing among us now, he m.ght recaUthat
no one is born an American Pres.dent, but out of die people
and out of the strength of the people, a Prestdent ts made.
He might recall how it had been with htm ta years ago
when the people gave him a mandate, and when he first
Tntered theVhiteliouse. He might recall how togedrer he
and his people moved forward, against incredible odds, out
of darkness and into light.
He might recall how, when the fate of the world hung
in the balance, he and his people answered, and "vilization
was saved. He might recall how, when the doubters, the
.defeatists, the native fascists called
the people rose in their anger, and gave h,m a mandate once
more He might recall how, so carefully, so surely brick by
S S ; as an expert mason shapes a wall, be had joined wuh
the leaders of our Allies in shaping a structure for a brave
new world and a good and lasting peace.
HE
WOULD
HAVE
NO
DOUBTS
And recalling all this, he would not be afraid. He would
have no doubts How could he, who knew us so well, have
d C
N ^ n o doubts, no hesitation, no slackening, no fear!
If he were standing among us now among the people
one with them, of them and from them he would face
the job, face it squarely and set about the doing of it.
So it would be with him. And how can it^be different w ^ t
us? What greater monument can we build him, what
greater tribute can we offer him than to fin,* the work
he laid out for us?
.
„
Not with tears can he be honored, but with a San Fran-
�98
THE PRINTED WORD FOLLOWED
Cisco conference which brings forth plans for lasting peace.
Not with tears, but with unconditional surrender of the
rascist enemy.
Not with tears, but with international agreement on the
basis of Bretton Woods.
_ Not with tears, but with jobs, with green farms and shining cities, with children who never again shall know the
curse of war.
5. A President Is Buried
THE C O U N T R Y
SQUIRE
Not with tears, but with the America and the world he
wanted, hved for and died f o r - a world without war, a
WHO
BECAME T H E WORLD
world without fear or hunger.
LEADER
OF D E M O C R A C Y
If he were standing among us, wholly among us, the man
who was our beloved President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
From the
NEW YORK
HERALD-TRIBUNE
he would want no other testament than this, a proud thing
which the people make in his memory, a thing so splendid
RANKLIN
D E L A N O R O O S E V E L T was b o r n at
and lasting that a thousand generations yet unborn will
honor him, a thing for all the people of this earth; for in a -lyde Park on Jan. 30, 1882, the only son of James Roosetrue sense they were all of them his people, and he was velt and his second wife, Sara Delano Roosevelt. The famtheir man.
.
ily, on both sides, was old in American history. The first
loosevelt—Claes Martenszen van Roosevelt—came from
•lolland to New Amsterdam in 1613. Philippe de la Nov
Delano), a Flemish seafarer, settled around New Bedford,
Mass., not long after.
The descendants of these two progenitors married so conistently with English families in New England that the
jlbod of the future President was dominantly English.
James Roosevelt, a vice-president of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, and president of several smaller lines, was a
country gentleman on the broad acres of Hyde Park, sixty
miles above New York City on the east bank of the Hudson. There he raised pure-bred cattle and trotting horses,
and experimented with practical conservation.
- Young Franklin's mother was his first teacher. Latet
tutors and governesses taught him French and German.
r
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
First Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1933
The former Governor of New York rode to the Capitol with
President Hoover. Pressures of the economy faced the
President-elect as he took his oath of office from Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes on the East Portico of the Capitol. He
addressed the nation by radio and announced his plans for a
New Deal. Throughout that day the President met with his
Cabinet designees at the White House.
I AM certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will
/
address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is
preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink
from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has
endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing
we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed
efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of
frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is
essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these
critical days.
In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank
2
God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to
pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of
exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every
side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families
are gone.
More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally 3
great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the
moment.
Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts.
4
Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not
afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have
multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the
supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through
their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated.
Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected
by the hearts and minds of men.
True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced
by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of
profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to
exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation
of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
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The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may
now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to
which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
6
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill
of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad
chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our
true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
7
Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the 8
abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only
by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in
banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and
selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on
honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without
them it cannot live.
Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action 9
now.
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it
10
wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Govemment
itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this
employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our
natural resources.
Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial U
centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of
the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the
values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be
helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small
homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments
act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying
of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by
national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and
other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be
helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.
Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of 12
the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and
investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be
provision for an adequate but sound currency.
There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session
detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several
States.
13
Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order
14
and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in
point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as
a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by
international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that
accomplishment.
The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly
15
nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various
elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important
manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate
way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.
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In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the
16
neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the
neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a
world of neighbors.
If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our 17
interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are
to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a
common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes
effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline,
because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer,
pledging that the arger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty
hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.
With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people
dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.
/*
Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of govemment which we have
19
inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always
to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential
form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political
mechanism the modem world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory,
of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.
It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly
20
adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand
and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public
procedure.
I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in 21
the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress
may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to
bring to speedy adoption.
But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that 22
the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then
confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad
Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to
me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do
no less.
We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the
clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that
comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a
rounded and permanent national life.
23
24
We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not
25
failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They
have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present
instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.
In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every 26
one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.
Inaugural Addresses o f the Presidents o f the United States. 1989
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Second Inaugural Address
Wednesday, January 20, 1937
For the first time the inauguration of the President was held
on January 20, pursuant to the provisions of the 20th
amendment to the Constitution. Having won the election of
1936 by a wide margin, and looking forward to the advantage
of Democratic gains in the House and Senate, the President
confidently outlined the continuation of his programs. The
oath of office was administered on the East Portico of the
Capitol by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
WHEN four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in anxiety,
/
stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision—to speed the time when
there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness. We of
the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the temple of our ancient faith those who had
profaned it; to end by action, tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day. We did
those first things first.
Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—the
2
need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual
the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the
aid of govemment had left us baffled and bewildered. For, without that aid, we had been unable to
create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make science a
useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind. To do this we knew that we must find
practical controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men.
We of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic government has innate capacity to protect its i
people against disasters once considered inevitable, to solve problems once considered unsolvable.
We would not admit that we could not find a way to master economic epidemics just as, after
centuries of fatalistic suffering, we had found a way to master epidemics of disease. We refused to
leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by the winds of chance and the hurricanes
of disaster.
In this we Americans were discovering no wholly new truth; we were writing a new chapter in our 4
book of self-government.
This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Constitutional Convention which 5
made us a nation. At that Convention our forefathers found the way out of the chaos which
followed the Revolutionary War; they created a strong govemment with powers of united action
sufficient then and now to solve problems utterly beyond individual or local solution. A century
and a half ago they established the Federal Government in order to promote the general welfare and
secure the blessings of liberty to the American people.
Today we invoke those same powers of government to achieve the same objectives.
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Four years of new experience have not belied our historic instinct. They hold out the clear hope
that government within communities, government within the separate States, and govemment of
the United States can do the things the times require, without yielding its democracy. Our tasks in
the last four years did not force democracy to take a holiday.
7
Nearly all of us recognize that as intricacies of human relationships increase, so power to govern 8
them also must increase—power to stop evil; power to do good. The essential democracy of our
Nation and the safety of our people depend not upon the absence of power, but upon lodging it with
those whom the people can change or continue at stated intervals through an honest and free system
of elections. The Constitution of 1787 did not make our democracy impotent.
In fact, in these last four years, we have made the exercise of all power more democratic; for we
9
have begun to bring private autocratic powers into their proper subordination to the public's
govemment. The legend that they were invincible—above and beyond the processes of a
democracy—has been shattered. They have been challenged and beaten.
Our progress out of the depression is obvious. But that is not all that you and I mean by the new 10
order of things. Our pledge was not merely to do a patchwork job with secondhand materials. By
using the new materials of social justice we have undertaken to erect on the old foundations a more
enduring structure for the better use of future generations.
In that purpose we have been helped by achievements of mind and spirit. Old truths have been
//
relearned; untruths have been unlearned. We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad
morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders
boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays. We
are beginning to wipe out the line that divides the practical from the ideal; and in so doing we are
fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for the establishment of a morally better world.
This new understanding undermines the old admiration of worldly success as such. We are
12
beginning to abandon our tolerance of the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the
elementary decencies of life.
In this process evil things formerly accepted will not be so easily condoned. Hard-headedness will 13
not so easily excuse hardheartedness. We are moving toward an era ofgood feeling. But we realize
that there can be no era of good feeling save among men of good will.
For these reasons I am justified in believing that the greatest change we have witnessed has been 14
the change in the moral climate of America.
Among men of good will, science and democracy together offer an ever-richer life and ever-larger 15
satisfaction to the individual. With this change in our moral climate and our rediscovered ability to
improve our economic order, we have set our feet upon the road of enduring progress.
Shall we pause now and tum our back upon the road that lies ahead? Shall we call this the
promised land? Or, shall we continue on our way? For "each age is a dream that is dying, or one
that is coming to birth."
16
Many voices are heard as we face a great decision. Comfort says, "Tarry a while." Opportunism 17
says, "This is a good spot." Timidity asks, "How difficult is the road ahead?"
True, we have come far from the days of stagnation and despair. Vitality has been preserved.
/*
Courage and confidence have been restored. Mental and moral horizons have been extended.
But our present gains were won under the pressure of more than ordinary circumstances. Advance 19
became imperative under the goad of fear and suffering. The times were on the side of progress.
To hold to progress today, however, is more difficult. Dulled conscience, irresponsibility, and
20
ruthless self-interest already reappear. Such symptoms of prosperity may become portents of
disaster! Prosperity already tests the persistence of our progressive purpose.
Let us ask again: Have we reached the goal of our vision of that fourth day of March 1933? Have 21
we found our happy valley?
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I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources. Its
hundred and thirty million people are at peace among themselves; they are making their country a
good neighbor among the nations. I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under
democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of
human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the
level of mere subsistence.
22
But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens—a 21
substantial part of its whole population—who at this very moment are denied the greater part of
what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.
I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs 24
over them day by day.
I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by 25
a so-called polite society half a century ago.
I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of
26
their children.
I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty
27
denying work and productiveness to many other millions.
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
28
It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the Nation,
29
seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make
every American citizen the subject of his country's interest and concern; and we will never regard
any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not
whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough
for those who have too little.
If I know aught of the spirit and purpose of our Nation, we will not listen to Comfort,
30
Opportunism, and Timidity. We will carry on.
Overwhelmingly, we of the Republic are men and women of good will; men and women who
31
have more than warm hearts of dedication; men and women who have cool heads and willing hands
of practical purpose as well. They will insist that every agency of popular government use effective
instruments to carry out their will.
Govemment is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the whole people. It can 32
make constant progress when it keeps abreast of all the facts. It can obtain justified support and
legitimate criticism when the people receive true information of all that government does.
If I know aught of the will of our people, they will demand that these conditions of effective
33
govemment shall be created and maintained. They will demand a nation uncorrupted by cancers of
injustice and, therefore, strong among the nations in its example of the will to peace.
Today we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly changed civilization. In 34
every land there are always at work forces that drive men apart and forces that draw men together.
In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political
progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all go down, as one people.
To maintain a democracy of effort requires a vast amount of patience in dealing with differing
35
methods, a vast amount of humility. But out of the confusion of many voices rises an
understanding of dominant public need. Then political leadership can voice common ideals, and aid
in their realization.
In taking again the oath of office as President of the United States, I assume the solemn obligation 36
of leading the American people forward along the road over which they have chosen to advance.
While this duty rests upon me I shall do my utmost to speak their purpose and to do their will,
37
seeking Divine guidance to help us each and every one to give light to them that sit in darkness and
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Third Inaugural Address
Monday, January 20, 1941
The only chief executive to serve more than two terms,
President Roosevelt took office for the third time as Europe
and Asia engaged in war. The oath of office was administered
by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes on the East Portico of
the Capitol. The Roosevelts hosted a reception for several
thousand visitors at the White House later that day.
ON each national day of inauguration since 1789, the people have renewed their sense of
dedication to the United States.
In Washington's day the task of the people was to create and weld together a nation.
In Lincoln's day the task of the people was to preserve that Nation from disruption from within.
In this day the task of the people is to save that Nation and its institutions from disruption from
without.
/
3
4
To us there has come a time, in the midst of swift happenings, to pause for a moment and take
5
stock—to recall what our place in history has been, and to rediscover what we are and what we
may be. If we do not, we risk the real peril of inaction.
Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit. 6
The life of a man is three-score years and ten: a little more, a little less. The life of a nation is the
fullness of the measure of its will to live.
There are men who doubt this. There are men who believe that democracy, as a form of
7
Govemment and a frame of life, is limited or measured by a kind of mystical and artificial fate that,
for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the
future—and that freedom is an ebbing tide.
But we Americans know that this is not true.
8
Eight years ago, when the life of this Republic seemed frozen by a fatalistic terror, we proved that 9
this is not true. We were in the midst of shock—but we acted. We acted quickly, boldly, decisively.
These later years have been living years—fruitful years for the people of this democracy. For they 10
have brought to us greater security and, I hope, a better understanding that life's ideals are to be
measured in other than material things.
Most vital to our present and our future is this experience of a democracy which successfully
survived crisis at home; put away many evil things; built new structures on enduring lines; and,
through it all, maintained the fact of its democracy.
//
For action has been taken within the three-way framework of the Constitution of the United
12
States. The coordinate branches of the Government continue freely to function. The Bill of Rights
remains inviolate. The freedom of elections is wholly maintained. Prophets of the downfall of
American democracy have seen their dire predictions come to naught.
Democracy is not dying.
13
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We know it because we have seen it revive—and grow.
14
We know it cannot die—because it is built on the unhampered initiative of individual men and
women joined together in a common enterprise—an enterprise undertaken and carried through by
the free expression of a free majority.
15
We know it because democracy alone, of all forms of govemment, enlists the full force of men's
enlightened will.
We know it because democracy alone has constructed an unlimited civilization capable of infinite
progress in the improvement of human life.
We know it because, if we look below the surface, we sense it still spreading on every
continent—for it is the most humane, the most Advanced, and in the end the most unconquerable of
all forms of human society.
A nation, like a person, has a body—a body that must be fed and clothed and housed, invigorated
and rested, in a manner that measures up to the objectives of our time.
16
17
/*
19
A nation, like a person, has a mind—a mind that must be kept informed and alert, that must know 20
itself, that understands the hopes and the needs of its neighbors—all the other nations that live
within the narrowing circle of the world.
And a nation, like a person, has something deeper, something more permanent, something larger 21
than the sum of all its parts. It is that something which matters most to its future—which calls forth
the most sacred guarding of its present.
It is a thing for which we find it difficult—even impossible—to hit upon a single, simple word.
22
And yet we all understand what it is—the spirit—the faith of America. It is the product of
23
centuries. It was born in the multitudes of those who came from many lands—some of high degree,
but mostly plain people, who sought here, early and late, to find freedom more freely.
The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history. It
permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the middle ages. It was written in
Magna Charta.
In the Americas its impact has been irresistible. America has been the New World in all tongues,
to all peoples, not because this continent was a new-found land, but because all those who came
here believed they could create upon this continent a new life—a life that should be new in
freedom.
Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower Compact, into the Declaration of Independence,
into the Constitution of the United States, into the Gettysburg Address.
24
25
26
Those who first came here to carry out the longings of their spirit, and the millions who followed, 27
and the stock that sprang from them—all have moved forward constantly and consistently toward
an ideal which in itself has gained stature and clarity with each generation.
The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either undeserved poverty or self-serving
28
wealth.
We know that we still have far to go; that we must more greatly build the security and the
29
opportunity and the knowledge of every citizen, in the measure justified by the resources and the
capacity of the land.
But it is not enough to achieve these purposes alone. It is not enough to clothe and feed the body 30
of this Nation, and instruct and inform its mind. For there is also the spirit. And of the three, the
greatest is the spirit.
Without the body and the mind, as all men know, the Nation could not live.
31
But if the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation's body and mind, constricted in an 32
alien world, lived on, the America we know would have perished.
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^•
That spirit—that faith—speaks to us in our daily lives in ways often unnoticed, because they seem 33
so obvious. It speaks to us here in the Capital of the Nation. It speaks to us through the processes of
governing in the sovereignties of 48 States. It speaks to us in our counties, in our cities, in our
towns, and in our villages. It speaks to us from the other nations of the hemisphere, and from those
across the seas—the enslaved, as well as the free. Sometimes we fail to hear or heed these voices of
freedom because to us the privilege of our freedom is such an old, old story.
The destiny of America was proclaimed in words of prophecy spoken by our first President in his 34
first inaugural in 1789—words almost directed, it would seem, to this year of 1941: "The
preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of govemment are
justly considered ... deeply,... finally, staked on the experiment intmsted to the hands of the
American people."
Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents doubt United States. shall
If we lose that sacred fire—if we let it be smothered with of theand fear—then we1989 reject the 35
destiny which Washington strove so valiantly and so triumphantly to establish. The preservation of
the spirit and faith of the Nation does, and will, furnish the highest justification for every sacrifice
that we may make in the cause of national defense.
In the face of great perils never before encountered, our strong purpose is to protect and to
36
perpetuate the integrity of democracy.
For this we muster the spirit of America, and the faith of America.
37
We do not retreat. We are not content to stand still. As Americans, we go forward, in the service 38
of our country, by the will of God.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Fourth Inaugural Address
Saturday, January 20, 1945
The fourth inauguration was conducted without fanfare.
Because of the expense and impropriety of festivity during the
height of war, the oath of office was taken on the South
Portico of the White House. It was administered by Chief
Justice Harlan Stone. No formal celebrations followed the
address. Instead of renominating Vice President Henry
Wallace in the election of 1944, the Democratic convention
chose the Senator from Missouri, Harry S. Truman.
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MR. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends, you will understand and, I believe, agree with
my wish that the form of this inauguration be simple and its words brief.
1
We, Americans of today, together with our allies, are passing through a period of supreme test. It
is a test of our courage—of our resolve—of our wisdom—our essential democracy.
2
If we meet that test—successfully and honorably—we shall perform a service of historic
importance which men and women and children will honor throughout all time.
3
As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow
countrymen—in the presence of our God—I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not
fail.
4
In the days and in the years that are to come we shall work for a just and honorable peace, a
durable peace, as today we work and fight for total victory in war.
We can and we will achieve such a peace.
We shall strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately—but we still shall strive. We
may make mistakes—but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or
abandonment of moral principle.
5
I remember that my old schoolmaster, Dr. Peabody, said, in days that seemed to us then to be
secure and untroubled: "Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising
toward the heights—then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to
remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the
middle ofthe peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend."
6
7
8
Our Constitution of 1787 was not a perfect instrument; it is not perfect yet. But it provided a firm 9
base upon which all manner of men, of all races and colors and creeds, could build our solid
structure of democracy.
And so today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons—at a fearful cost—and we shall 10
profit by them.
We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the //
well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches,
nor as dogs in the manger.
We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.
12
We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that "The only way to have a friend is to be
one."
13
We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. We can
14
gain it only if we proceed with the understanding, the confidence, and the courage which flow from
conviction.
The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and 15
strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a
faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.
So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly—to see the way that leads to a better 16
life for ourselves and for all our fellow men—to the achievement of His will to peace on earth.
Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. 1989
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�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Michael Waldman
Description
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<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
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Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
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1993-1999
Identifier
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2006-0469-F
Extent
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Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Text
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Original Format
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paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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[Roosevelt Information]: Descriptions of FDR [Franklin D Roosevelt] [1]
Creator
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Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 34
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36404"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 2
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
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Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
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6/3/2015
Source
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7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg2-034-018-2015