by FDR
61. FDR to Bullitt, 3 Personal Letters 417.
62. For the impact of Long and Coughlin, see especially Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression (New York: Knopf, 1982).
63. Quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Upheaval 24 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960).
64. Leuchtenburg, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal 103–104.
65. Quoted ibid. 105.
66. Garner to FDR, October 1, 1934, FDRL.
67. Farley, Jim Farley’s Story 47–48.
68. Ten members of the House belonged to minor parties, as did two senators (Shipstead and La Follette).
69. The New York Times, November 7, 11, 1934; Time, November 19, 1934, quoted in Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal 507.
70. Lois Gordon and Alan Gordon, eds., American Chronicle: Year by Year Through the Twentieth Century 315, 324 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999).
71. Leuchtenburg, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal 93.
72. Gordon and Gordon, American Chronicle 324–332. It Happened One Night also won an Oscar for best picture.
73. FDR, “Message to Congress Reviewing the Broad Objectives and Accomplishments of the Administration,” June 8, 1934. 3 Public Papers and Addresses 287–292.
74. Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew 282–283.
75. “A Greater Future Economic Security for the American People,” Message to Congress, January 17, 1935, 4 Public Papers and Addresses 43–56.
76. Ibid. 296.
77. Ibid. 294.
78. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear 266.
79. Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal 308–309.
80. Ibid. 311.
81. 119 Literary Digest (June 29, 1935), quoted in Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 131.
82. 4 Public Papers and Addresses 324–326.
83. Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew 301.
84. In 1936, combined federal-state payments to the indigent elderly varied from $3.92 monthly in Mississippi to $31.36 in California. Aid for dependent children ranged from $8.10 in Arkansas to $61.07 in Massachusetts. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear 272. (To convert 1936 dollars, multiply by 13.)
85. 3 Public Papers and Addresses 291.
86. Annual Message to Congress, January 4, 1935, 4 ibid. 20–22.
87. Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Joint Resolution 11, 74th Congress.
88. Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal 346–347.
89. Donald Richberg, My Hero 241 (New York: Putnam, 1954).
90. Executive Order 7034, May 6, 1935, 4 Public Papers and Addresses 163–168.
91. Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay: An American Life 62–63 (New York: Henry Holt, 1990). Also see Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins 75–76.
92. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear 252–253.
93. Quoted in Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 128.
94. Ibid. 127.
95. Alfred Kazin, On Native Ground 378–379 (New York: Doubleday, 1942).
96. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins 68. Also see Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal 355.
97. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear 253.
98. The Nation, February 13, 1935.
99. The Davies comparison is reported in Schlesinger, Politics of Upheaval 357.
100. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins 84.
101. Executive Order 7037, 4 Public Papers and Addresses 172–174. In May 1936 the REA was given a statutory basis when Congress adopted the Norris-Rankin Act. Public Law 605, 74th Congress; 49 Stat. 1363.
102. For a still useful general survey, see Morris Cooke, “Early Days of Rural Electrification,” 42 American Political Science Review 431–444 (1948). Cooke, whom FDR had placed on the board of the New York Power Authority in 1931, was the first head of the Rural Electrification Administration.
103. Walter Lippmann, Interpretations: 1933–1935 154, Allan Nevins, ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1936).
104. Roper to FDR, May 22, 1935, FDRL.
105. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935).
106. Public Law 198, 74th Congress; 49 Stat. 449. For FDR’s statement upon signing the bill, see 4 Public Papers and Addresses 294–295.
107. Ibid. 470–478. Governor George Earle of Pennsylvania later regaled FDR with the story of four wealthy Philadelphians sipping their whiskey in the posh Rittenhouse Club and damning the president and the New Deal with considerable gusto. At that point a member turned on the club radio and out came Roosevelt’s voice ridiculing “gentlemen in well-warmed and well-stocked clubs.”
“My God,” exclaimed one of the men. “Do you suppose that sonofabitch could have overheard us?” James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox 235 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956).
SEVENTEEN | Hubris
The epigraph is from FDR’s Fireside Chat on Reorganization of the Judiciary, March 9, 1937. 6 Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt 122–133, Samuel I. Rosenman, ed. (New York: Random House, 1941).
1. James A. Farley, Jim Farley’s Story 58 (New York: Whittlesey House, 1948).
2. Ibid. 59.
3. Raymond Moley, After Seven Years 343 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939).
4. Harold L. Ickes, 1 The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes 465 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953).
5. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical History of the United States 70, 143, 283 (Stamford, Conn.: Fairfield Publishers, 1965). Also see Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Upheaval 571 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960); James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox 266–267 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956).
6. Conrad Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt 381–382 (New York: PublicAffairs, 2003).
7. Thomas L. Stokes, Chip off My Shoulder 404 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1940). The “Second Louisiana Purchase” phrase was coined by journalist Westbrook Pegler following the government’s quashing of indictments against a number of Long’s lieutenants for income tax evasion.
8. Alfred B. Rollins, Jr., Roosevelt and Howe 447 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962).
9. 5 Public Papers and Addresses 8–18.
10. Roosevelt spoke to the dinner in Washington on January 8, 1936, but his remarks were broadcast to three thousand similar dinners throughout the nation. Ibid. 38–44.
11. The New York Times, January 26, 1936.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. James A. Farley, Behind the Ballots 293 (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1938).
15. The New York Times, January 29, 1936.
16. The visitor was Fannie Hurst. Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt 376.
17. Blanche Wiesen Cook, 2 Eleanor Roosevelt 353 (New York: Viking, 1999).
18. Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember 145 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949).
19. Rollins, Roosevelt and Howe 448.
20. New York Times, April 23, 1936.
21. Byrd to FDR, November 16, 1940, September 9, 1944, FDRL.
22. Rollins, Roosevelt and Howe 453. For a loving portrait of Howe during his illness, see James Farley, Behind the Ballots 296–303. “The only tribute I can pay him,” wrote Farley, “is to say that, as long as I live, I shall never ask for a better friend than Louis Howe.”
23. Samuel I. Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt 99 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952).
24. Quoted in Schlesinger, Politics of Upheaval 533–534.
25. 1 Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes 648–649.
26. The 1936 Republican platform proclaimed, “America is in peril. The welfare of American men and women and the future of our youth are at stake. We dedicate ourselves to the preservation of their political liberty, their individual opportunity and their character as free citizens, which today for the first time is threatened by the Government itself.” Landon, by contrast, was generally sympathetic to the New Deal. “From the very first, I advocated granting of u
nusual powers to the President because of the national emergency.” He also found little to object to in New Deal economics. “I do not think there is anything new or revolutionary about the redistribution of wealth theory. Every wise statesman in every period of history has been concerned with the equitable distribution of property in his country.” Landon to Raymond Clapper, quoted in Olive Ewing Clapper, Washington Tapestry 119 (New York: Whittlesey House, 1946).
27. Schlesinger, Politics of Upheaval 529.
28. Ibid. 560.
29. Farley, Jim Farley’s Story 57.
30. In 1912, House Speaker Champ Clark led the voting for twenty-eight ballots and commanded a majority for eight but ultimately lost the nomination to Woodrow Wilson.
31. James F. Byrnes, All in One Lifetime 95 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958).
32. Alben Barkley, That Reminds Me 152 (New York: Doubleday, 1954).
33. Raymond Clapper, Watching the World 86–87 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1944); The New York Times, June 28, 1936.
34. Schlesinger, Politics of Upheaval 583.
35. Ibid. 584.
36. “Acceptance of the Renomination for the Presidency,” June 27, 1936, 5 Public Papers and Addresses 230–236.
37. Schlesinger, Politics of Upheaval 585.
38. Charles W. Hurd, “Roosevelt Starts Cruise as Skipper,” The New York Times, July 15, 1936.
39. Robert F. Cross, Sailor in the White House 97 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2003).
40. The New York Times, July 25, 1936.
41. James Roosevelt and Sidney Shalett, Affectionately, F.D.R. 284 (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1959).
42. Lord Tweedsmuir was the celebrated novelist John Buchan. In his chatty opening remarks, Roosevelt playfully demurred being addressed as a foreign ruler. “I say this because, when I have been in Canada, I have never heard a Canadian refer to an American as a ‘foreigner.’ He is just an ‘American.’ And, the same way across the border in the United States, Canadians are not ‘foreigners,’ they are ‘Canadians.’ ” FDR interlaced his speech with several paragraphs of flawless French, paying homage to the valor and heroism of the Quebecois. (Roosevelt was the only president, Mr. Jefferson and J. Q. Adams included, who spoke French fluently.) 5 Public Papers and Addresses 276–279.
43. Roosevelt’s 1936 campaign speeches are in ibid. 285–581.
44. Nathan Miller, FDR: An Intimate History 384–385 (New York: Doubleday, 1983).
45. Farley, Behind the Ballots 305–306.
46. Ibid.
47. Quoted in Schlesinger, Politics of Upheaval 603.
48. Ibid. 627. Union party publicists originally touted Lemke as “Liberty Bell” Lemke. Democrats whooped with delight. “Both are cracked,” said a party spokesman.
49. The New York Times, September 26, 1936.
50. Ibid., November 1, 1936.
51. Campaign Address, October 31, 1936. 5 Public Papers and Addresses 566–573.
52. Farley, Behind the Ballots 324–325. Farley was correct about New Hampshire, which FDR carried with a razor-thin margin of 3,818 votes, 49.7 percent to Landon’s 48.0 percent. But Kansas went for Roosevelt 54–46 percent; Connecticut 55–40; and Michigan 56–39. Congressional Quarterly, Guide to U.S. Elections 290 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1975).
53. Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt 137.
54. Other minor-party candidates included Earl Browder (Communist) 79,211; David Leigh Colvin (Prohibition) 37,668; and John W. Aiken (Socialist Labor) 12,790. Congressional Quarterly, Guide to U.S. Elections 304.
55. Quoted in Kenneth S. Davis, FDR: The New Deal Years 647 (New York: Random House, 1979).
56. Monroe received 231 of 235 electoral votes in 1820. One elector each in Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee did not vote, and one Democratic elector in New Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams rather than the party’s nominee.
57. Farley, Jim Farley’s Story 66. Farley spoke with FDR a dozen times on election night. There was never any doubt about the outcome, but it was not until 3:36 A.M. that Roosevelt pulled ahead in New Hampshire.
58. Quoted in Schlesinger, Politics of Upheaval 642. The week before the election, FDR wrote Senator Hiram Johnson of California, “I am frankly a little worried about George Norris’s chances in Nebraska. It would be a tragedy if he did not come back.” 3 The Roosevelt Letters 189, Elliott Roosevelt, ed. (London: George G. Harrap, 1952). The 1936 vote count in Nebraska gave Norris 258,700; Robert G. Simmons, his Republican opponent, 223,276; and Democrat Terry Carpenter, 108,391.
59. William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 187–190 (New York: Harper & Row, 1963).
60. In 1932 African-American precincts in Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh went down the line for Hoover. FDR carried Chicago handily but won only 23 percent of the black vote. In Cincinnati’s heavily black Ward 16, Roosevelt got less than 29 percent. In 1936, every black ward in each of the cities went Democratic; in Cincinnati’s Ward 16, FDR took 65 percent, and Pittsburgh’s black Third Ward went for Roosevelt 10 to 1. According to a July 1938 Fortune poll, 84.7 percent of African Americans considered themselves pro-Roosevelt. Ernest Collins, “Cincinnati Negroes and Presidential Politics,” 41 Journal of Negro History 132–133 (1956). Also see Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt 185–187.
61. 6 Public Papers and Addresses 1–6 (emphasis added).
62. At the direction of the Secret Service, the tribune from which the president was to review the parade had been enclosed with bullet-proof glass. When FDR learned that, he ordered the glass removed. Life, February 1, 1937.
63. Republicans held the governorships in only six states in 1937: California, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Vermont. Three states were held by independents: Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The remaining governors were Democrats. FDR’s speechwriters had prepared a draft of the inaugural address critical of the Court, but Roosevelt chose not to use it. “I’m not quite ready yet,” he told Sam Rosenman. Working with Roosevelt 141–144.
64. In Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935) a unanimous Court, speaking through Justice George Sutherland, held that the president’s blanket removal authority (see Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52 [1926]) did not extend to members of independent regulatory commissions, in this case the Federal Trade Commission.
65. The New York minimum-wage law was overturned in Morehead v. New York ex rel Tipaldo, 298 U.S. 587 (1936). Justice Butler, for the Court, held that the freedom of an individual to contract for wages in return for work “is part of the liberty protected by the due process clause [of the Fourteenth Amendment]” (at page 610).
66. The decisions in Schechter, Radford, and Humphrey’s Executor were unanimous. That in Panama Refining was 8–1.
67. In Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398 (1934), the Court (5–4) upheld the 1933 Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Act, authorizing state courts to delay foreclosure proceedings. Said Chief Justice Hughes for the Court, “while emergency does not create power, emergency may furnish the occasion for the exercise of power” (at page 426).
In Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502 (1934), the Court (5–4) upheld that state’s Milk Control Act. Justice Roberts (for the Court) said, “a state is free to adopt whatever economic policy may reasonably be deemed to promote public welfare, and to enforce that policy by legislation adapted to its purpose” (at page 537).
68. Gold Clause Cases, 294 U.S. 240 (1935). Chief Justice Hughes for the Court (5–4).
69. Ashwander v. TVA, 297 U.S. 288 (1936). Hughes for the Court (8–1). Ashwander is noteworthy for the concurring opinion of Justice Brandeis laying out the rules for constitutional adjudication.
70. United States v. Curtiss-Wright, 299 U.S. 304 (1936). The decision (7–1) was authored by Justice Sutherland, the intellectual powerhouse of the Court’s conservatives. As he described the president’s powers: “He makes treaties with t
he advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude; and Congress itself is powerless to invade it. As [Chief Justice John] Marshall said in his great argument of March 7, 1800 to the House of Representatives, ‘The President is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations’ ” (Sutherland’s emphasis). Marshall was a representative from Virginia at the time and spokesman for the Adams Federalists in the House.
71. The rule that the Bill of Rights applied only to the national government, not to the states, was first articulated by John Marshall in Barron v. Baltimore, 7 Peters (32 U.S.) 243 (1833), and reaffirmed after adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516 (1884). That was the law when the Court (5–4) changed course in Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931), and overturned Minnesota’s statute, which permitted a trial court judge to enjoin publication of a newspaper he found “obscene, lewd, and lascivious” or “malicious, scandalous, and defamatory.” Said Chief Justice Hughes for the Court, “It is no longer open to doubt that the liberty of the press … is within the liberty safeguarded by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from invasion by State action” (at page 706).
72. In Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932), the Court (7–2), speaking through Justice Sutherland, held that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment required fairness in criminal trials and that the right to counsel was an integral part of the process, particularly in capital cases. This too was a groundbreaking decision, expanded in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, in 1963 to include all criminal cases.
73. Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587 (1935). “For this long-continued, unvarying, and wholesale exclusion of negroes from jury service we find no justification consistent with the constitutional mandate [of the due process clause],” said Hughes for the Court.
74. During the Red Scare after World War I, California enacted legislation prohibiting the public use or display of a red flag. Yetta Stromberg was convicted for violating the statute at a youth camp in 1929, and the Supreme Court (7–2) reversed. Chief Justice Hughes, for the Court, held the flag to be a symbol of political protest protected by the First Amendment and applicable to the states under the due process clause of the Fourteenth. Stromberg is doubly important for its extension of the concept of speech to include symbolic statements as well as those made orally and in writing. Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359 (1931).
