Roosevelt (92 page)

The Politics of the Empire State.
Moscow (B) is an informed, balanced treatment of the subject; I have relied on it heavily and borrowed from its title. Belle Zeller,
Pressure Politics in New York
(Prentice-Hall, 1937) treats in detail the complex strands of influence in the legislature. Gunther
¹
has a brief but suggestive section on the state. FDRL has on permanent loan from the Office of the Governor of New York State, Albany, files on the controversy over the executive budget, containing mainly official reports and some correspondence, including a number of interesting letters between Roosevelt and his counsel. A. E. Buck, “The Budget Fight in New York,”
National Municipal Review
, Vol. XVIII, No. 5, May 1929, pp. 352-354, is a succinct review that indicates Roosevelt did not monopolize virtue in the fight. PPAFDR includes a statement and a speech on the subject. One of the most fruitful sources for the gubernatorial period is Roosevelt’s voluminous “Personal Correspondence, 1928-32,” Group 12, organized alphabetically. Most of the invaluable correspondence with Howe is found separately in the Howe Papers, Group 36. A small fraction of the personal correspondence is available in PLFDR.

The Anatomy of Stalemate.
Useful secondary material on the gubernatorial years is limited, partly because this period pales next to the succeeding one, partly because Roosevelt’s own activities during the latter period
shade off into the presidential contests. Lindley
¹
(B) is the fullest source; while it was written midway through Roosevelt’s governorship, it gains from the fact that the author was a reporter in Albany during these years and had a shrewd journalistic eye. While the book is favorable to Roosevelt, letters in FDRL and PLFDR indicate that Lindley could be critical. The four volumes of gubernatorial papers of FDR (Albany: J. B. Lyon Co., 1930-39) are the fullest source and contain messages to the legislature, speeches, etc. PPAFDR, Vol. I, offers numerous messages, reports, and speeches on the St. Lawrence; it covers to a lesser or greater extent all the main policies of the administration, with revealing introductory notes by Roosevelt. The New York State files on loan to FDRL contain filing drawers of legislative matter, departmental reports, and other documents, and occasional letters, in each of the major subject areas. A full description of Roosevelt’s major projects and programs is found in Bernard Bellush, “Apprenticeship for the Presidency: Franklin D. Roosevelt as Governor of New York” (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1950), published as
Franklin D. Roosevelt as Governor of New York
(Columbia University Press, 1955), which makes use of both the official documents and the personal correspondence.

The Power of Party.
Farley was careful to send the watchful Howe copies of his form letters to party officials, so these are found in the Howe Papers. Also in these papers (Campaign Material 1930, Box 37) is the analysis of the weaknesses of the Democratic party upstate; unfortunately, the report is undated and unsigned, but internal evidence suggests Farley’s authorship, probably in late 1929 or early 1930. FDRL has a volume of typewritten transcripts of virtually all Roosevelt’s 1930 campaign talks. Lindley
¹
(B) has an extensive account of the campaign, with particular stress on events leading to the raising of the corruption issue. Gosnell
²
(B), chap 11, presents a balanced picture, although his analysis of the election results is slight compared to Lindley’s. The New York
Times
is, as usual, indispensable for the day-to-day development of the campaign. The papers of Louis McHenry Howe, 1913-1936, FDRL, are useful throughout the gubernatorial as well as earlier years.

For general developments during the 1929-1932 phase of the Depression, I have relied mainly on Broadus Mitchell,
Depression Decade
(Rinehart, 1947), a volume in the excellent series, “The Economic History of the United States”; William Starr Myers and Walter H. Newton,
The Hoover Administration
(Scribner, 1936), useful for documentary information; and Frederick L. Allen,
Since Yesterday
(Harper, 1940). Bellush [chap. 6] has a critical chapter on Roosevelt’s state economic program. The observation that prosperity was the GOP’s major issue of 1928 is based on Peel and Donnelly [chap. 5]. The source for the account of the Farley announcement is Farley’s own memoirs of Rooseveltian politics through 1936 (Farley
¹
, B), and for the remark to Flynn, the Bronx leader’s account, Edward J. Flynn (B). Roosevelt’s exchange on economic situation is in Bellush, chap. 8, p. 3; letter to Howe in PLFDR, Vol. I, p. 92; letter
to Baruch,
ibid.
, p. 244; letter from White in FDRL, Pr. Corr., 1928-32, Box 104.

The Political Uses of Corruption.
On the 1931-32 nomination fight FDRL has 1,500 boxes of correspondence between Roosevelt, Howe, and Farley and Roosevelt leaders, delegates, and politicians throughout the country (“Democratic National Comm., Correspondence, 1932”), organized by states and alphabetically within states; I have gone through the material on key states. Many of the files originate in Roosevelt’s 1928 correspondence on the state of the party. The Howe papers (Boxes 42-46) include important material indicating Howe’s views and estimates at various times in the campaign. Farley describes his trip west in
Behind the Ballots
(B); the actual reports are in the Howe Papers, Box 42, FDRL, and make fascinating reading. Gosnell
¹
(B) makes the point about the effect of the Depression on Tammany. Howells’ report on his interview with Smith is in PLFDR, pp. 229-232; for an account of a somewhat similar interview see George S. Van Schaick interview, OHP.

Battle at the Grass Roots.
Data on preconvention campaign costs are found in Democratic National Committee Campaign Correspondence, FDRL, noted above, mainly in Howe’s correspondence with Morgenthau, Bingham, and other contributors; see also Howe papers, Box 43, Farley
¹
(B), and Edward J. Flynn (B). The Democratic National Committee correspondence includes also several boxes on Massachusetts; Howe’s letters to Elizabeth Marbury, from which I have quoted his retrospective comment, are especially useful. I have interviewed La Rue Brown, Boston, on the Massachusetts situation, and borrowed the term “Curley-Burley” from a New York
Times
editorial so entitled. The Villard letter is in PLFDR, p. 282; Roosevelt’s letter to Murphy in Democratic National Committee correspondence, Box 409.

The Magic Two-thirds.
Full and fascinating memoirs are available on the convention fight in Chicago: Farley
¹
, and Edward J. Flynn; Hull (B); Creel (B); Bascom N. Timmons,
Garner of Texas
(Harper, 1948); Connally and Steinberg (B); Roy V. Peel and Thomas C. Donnelly,
The 1932 Campaign
(Farrar & Rinehart, 1935), a full analysis by two scholars who attended the conventions. See also Arthur Krock interview, OHP. On the two-thirds adventure Farley covered up for Roosevelt not only at the time but in his book; I base my judgment that Roosevelt was directly involved on Edward J. Flynn, p. 90, and on PSF, Box 6, which includes two statements evidently prepared by Roosevelt: one in favor of the immediate abrogation of the two-thirds rule, and one favoring eventual abrogation. On this point see also the Democratic National Convention file, and papers recently acquired by FDRL (Group 12) which include a printed statement for issuance by Farley calling for immediate adoption of a straight majority rule; and, in PSF, Box 6, a memo dictated by Cummings June 17, 1932, on balance favoring immediate abrogation of the two-thirds tradition. Otherwise FDRL contains little on the actual convention period. The interview with Garner is from the New York
Times.
For Roosevelt’s actions during the convention see Tully (B) and Rosenman (B), both of whom were with the Governor in Albany. Roosevelt described the basic tactical situation briefly in retrospect in PL, Vol. 1. p. 1090.

The struggle over Roosevelt’s acceptance speech draft is vividly described in Moley (B) and Rosenman.

The Fox and the Elephant.
Directly relating to the 1932 election campaign FDRL has 836 boxes of material, mainly letters received by Roosevelt during the campaign and replies, a few of the latter dictated by himself but most by assistants. I have not tried to winnow through all this immense mass of material. Howe Papers, Box 46, contains Howe’s draft of his somewhat revealing story of the campaign for a newspaper syndicate and documents on the campaign organization, and Box 44 a “Synopsis of Conference of National Committeemen and National Democratic Committee,” 1
^st
session, from which Farley’s remarks on club functions are taken. See also Wehle [chap. 5] on dealings with labor during the campaign. Coughlin’s letter to Roosevelt re Walker is in PLFDR, p. 293. The most notable campaign speeches are in PPA, except for the Poughkeepsie speech, which is included in Moley, Appendix A, and all are in FDRL (“Master File”). The method I followed of reading the speeches themselves before reading any of the contemporary or later comments on them was revealing; I found the Commonwealth Club speech to be not nearly so strong or “progressive” a talk as some commentators later said. Moley’s account of the preparation of speeches—notably the Topeka talk and the tariff references—is indispensable. Herbert Hoover’s third volume of his memoirs, significantly titled
The Great Depression, 1929-1941
(B) presents many excerpts from his speeches, topically arranged. Roosevelt’s letter to Olson is in PLFDR, p. 297. Election results are detailed and discussed in Gosnell
²
and in Peel and Donnelly. Roosevelt’s draft of the reply to Hoover is penciled on the back of Hoover’s wire; he changed the wording somewhat but not the content in dictating the final form of the wire to Moley.

The Stage is Set.
Source of Sherwood comment on Roosevelt’s entrance on the stage is
Roosevelt and Hopkins
(B), p. 40; according to Michelson (B), p. 50, Roosevelt expected the banking crisis to reach a climax just about Inauguration Day. Correspondence between Hoover and Roosevelt on foreign debts is in PPF 820, FDRL. Howe Papers, FDRL, include correspondence between Roosevelt and Howe on the same matter during the 1920’s. Hoover gives his version of his negotiations with Roosevelt in his memoirs (B); see also Myers and Newton [chap. 7]. Moley (B) contains a detailed, though highly subjective, account of these proceedings by one who participated in many of them. A full account of the Lame Duck Congress may be found in E. P. Herring, “Second Session of the Seventy-Second Congress,”
The American Political Science Review,
Vol. XXVII, No. 3, June 1933, pp. 404-422. See Myers and Newton, p. 341, for Hoover’s view that if Roosevelt made the statements that Hoover wished him to, Roosevelt would be ratifying the Republican platform. Accounts or remarks on Roosevelt’s cabinet making are in Moley, Farley
¹
_’
²
, Hull, Perkins, Edward J. Flynn, Tully, (all B), and Wehle [chap. 5]. The records of the Democratic National Committee, FDRL, contain several hundred letters written by backers of Cabinet aspirants, and even by aspirants themselves, but Roosevelt apparently did not pay much attention to most of these.

Roosevelt on the Eve.
The text of Roosevelt’s remarks on the presidency is in the New York
Times,
November 13, 1932, Sect. 8, p. 1. Broun’s comment on Roosevelt is quoted by Rexford G. Tugwell, “The Preparation of a President,”
Western Political Quarterly
, Vol. I, 1948; Lippmann’s comment is typical of his evaluation of Roosevelt in a number of his columns in 1932; and Wilson’s is from “Hudson River Progressive,”
The New Republic
, Vol. 74, No. 957, April 5, 1933, pp. 219-220. Moley is important for this period, especially for a contemporary evaluation of Roosevelt as a person, pp. 10-12. On Roosevelt’s hard center see also Tugwell, “Preparation of a President,” cited above. Many of Roosevelt’s friends remembered him from the war years as able but lacking in greatness; see, for example, William Phillips interview, OHP. Medical data on Roosevelt at this time are from Lindley
¹
(B), pp. 35-38. Langdon P. Marvin, Jr., interview, OHP, recounts Roosevelt’s swimming feats. The instructions to Roosevelt’s staff about not mentioning his illness in correspondence is in (unsigned) letter to Mrs. Forbush, Halsted file, Group 12, FDRL. The Democratic Union folder, Group 12, FDRL, includes a wrathful letter that Roosevelt wrote to Roy Howard about attacks on Roosevelt in Howard’s newspapers; this letter, however, appears never to have been sent. A description of Roosevelt’s technique of handling his mail is in PPF 271, FDRL. See Moley, Lindley
¹
, and Tugwell on Roosevelt’s advisers in 1932. Hawthorne’s description of Jackson’s use of men is quoted by Clinton L. Rossiter in a suggestive little article, “The Political Philosophy of F. D. Roosevelt,”
The Review of Politics
, Vol. II, No. 1, p. 92. On the many strands of thought influencing the early New Dealers, see Goldman (B); Richard Hofstadter,
The American Political Tradition
(Knopf, 1948); Richard Hofstadter,
The Age of Reform
(Knopf, 1955); Henry Steele Commager,
The American Mind
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950); Max Lerner,
Ideas Are Weapons
(Viking, 1939). On Roosevelt’s own ideas at the time see, aside from PPA, Vol. I, and PLFDR, Donald Scott Carmichael (ed.),
F. D. R. Columnist
(Chicago: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1947), a collection of Roosevelt’s columns written for the Macon (Georgia)
Daily Telegraph
in 1925 and for the Beacon (New York)
Standard
in 1928. On the failure of the right or the left to produce systematic philosophies to challenge the liberals and progressives see Louis Hartz’s notable study,
The Liberal Tradition in America
(Harcourt, Brace, 1955); and for a related theme, Daniel J. Boorstin,
The Genius of American Politics
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953). Arthur S. Link,
Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era
(Harper, 1954) treats some of Wilson’s withdrawals from pre-1913 progressive ideas. Justice Holmes’s recollection of the earlier Franklin Roosevelt is from his letter to Harold J. Laski, November 23, 1932, in Mark DeWolfe Howe (ed.),
Holmes-Laski Letters
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), Vol. II, p. 1420. My source on Holmes’s comment on Roosevelt (page 157) after their meeting in 1933 is confidential.