My Own Story: From Private and Public Papers 1412842417, 9781412842419

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hly Own Story

hly Own Story árom Private and (Public Papers

franklin Delano î{posGwelt (

Selected with a Prologue and Epilogue by Donald í)ay

¡ 3 Routledge ¡¡¡^^

Taylor & Francis C r o u p

L O N D O N A N D NEW YORK

Originally published in 1951 by Little, Brown and Company. Published 2011 by Transaction Publishers Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4 R N 711 Third Avenue, New York, N Y 10017, U S A Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 1951 by Donald Day. A l l rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2011003342 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945. [Franklin D. Roosevelt's own story] M y own story : from private and public papers / Franklin Delano Roosevelt ; selected with a prologue and epilogue by Donald Day. p. cm. Originally published: Boston : Little, Brown, 1951. I S B N 978-1-4128-4241-9 (acid-free paper) 1. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945. 2. Roosevelt, Franklin D . (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945--Archives. 3. Presidents-United States--Biography. 4. Presidents--United States--Archives. 5. United States--Politics and government--1933-1945. 6. United States—Politics and government--19331945--Sources. 7. Political leadership--United States--Case studies. I. Day, Donald, 1899- II. Title. E807.A3 2011 973.917092--dc22 [B] 2011003342 ISBN-13: 978-1-4128-4241-9 (pbk)

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own ranks in different sections of the United States, but there are great principles of Government which are common to all our coun­ try and these I feel have been of late years forgotten in an attempt to make some minor point the real vital question of the campaign. Our next candidate will be, I hope, the man who during the next four years has most unselfishly and with least thought of personal advantage devoted himself to the task of bringing the party back to a realization of what are the real things that make it better to be a Democrat than to be of some other political faith. Unless our party is reunited, our principles are clearly defined so that the voter may feel there is a real difference between our party and any other party, the nomination for presidency will be purely an empty honor. JANUARY 27,

1925

For my own part I feel that the place for Progressives to get to­ gether is in the Democratic Party and that we should enter into no kind of overtures or negotiations with the La Follette Party or any other party looking to a consolidation. The Democratic Party is the Progressive Party of the country, but it is not the ultra-radical party of the country, which is a very different thing. We cannot surely progress unless each advancing footstep is placed on firm and tried ground. To rush blindly along the paths proclaimed as highways to Utopia by some of our friends would be to find ourselves hope­ lessly mired in the quicksand of untried political theories of Gov­ ernment. This would not be progression — it would be only de­ moralization and the only result would be such suffering and unhappiness to our country as we have witnessed in some of those countries abroad which have tried purely theoretical schemes of Government before they tested their soundness or practicability in small ways. I believe there is a place for the most optimistic dreamers in our party, because our party in its very foundation principles is com­ mitted to the doctrine of adopting every new thing that makes for the comfort and happiness and well-being of all the people of our

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country just as soon as it is certain that such new ideas are sound and will have that effect. FEBRUARY 28,

1925

In December I wrote personally to every delegate to the recent Democratic Convention, asking their counsel as to the best means of making the Democracy stronger and more militant nationally. MARCH 7,

1925

The 18th amendment is the only portion of the Constitution which is solely prohibitive and does not at the same time confer a right of some kind. We must guard against further amendments which merely prohibit and do not confer a right. Every effort is of value which makes it clear that the Constitu­ tion should accomplish only 2 purposes. First, the conferring of definite rights and liberties upon the individual citizen and the safeguarding of them; 2ndly, the defining of the powers and meth­ ods of administration of the federal government. . . . What we need most in this country is die fundamental teaching of our form of government, in the public schools and colleges. As things are now the average boy and girl learns merely that there is a Constitution together with a hazy idea of what it says, but does not learn the principles on which Our federal and state governments are based, especially in their relation to present-day questions. APRIL 8,

1925

History shows that the conservatives find it easy to control gov­ ernment at least two-thirds of the time because they are united on the perfectly simple proposition of "doing nothing" and of "letting well enough alone." Progressives and liberals on the other hand have necessarily a constructive program, and on the details of this program they insist on dividing among themselves. I am convinced that a majority of the voters in this country are really progressives but are generally unable to control the govern­ ment because of their unwillingness to agree as to method and ma­ chinery. They are inclined, also, to generalizations which are not borne out by facts.

"GOOD APRIL 8,

NEIGHBORMAN"

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1925

Opportunism will never bring us victory. It is bad gospel to preach that we should wait with our hands folded until the Re­ publicans once more, in their administration or in their Congress, lay themselves open to attack through some new scandal or family row. The issue recurs in every act of those who control the Repub­ lican Party. They, flushed with success, openly admit their sole ideal to be that of prosperity — the prosperity of money and yet more money — a materialism for the immediate benefit of a privileged few, but colored with the deliberate objective of deceiving the average citi­ zen into the erroneous belief that it will benefit the many. With the old American fundamental thought of honest govern­ ment for the benefit of the many, the Republican leaders have no sympathy. Through the elimination of personalities, through the laying aside of personal ambitions, through an honest effort on the part of every section in the nation to talk things over and get together, the Democracy can, today, lay the foundations for a successful ap­ peal to the confidence of the electorate. The Democratic party must, for the good of the nation, be ever viewed as a national party. Sectional blindness or personal selfish­ ness can delay but never permanently crush our ultimate national success! A few ounces of unselfishness and of common counsel at this time will be worth many tons of speech-making and costly effort at a later date. In the same way that he was trying to spread the word about what the Democratic Tarty needed, FDR very soon began to pro­ claim the wonders of Warm Springs. This was something that was good for him and hence should be good for all others with similar ailments. He later described one of those early days: One day Mr. Loyless and some of the neighbors were sitting around when a messenger came up the hill to Mr. Loyless and said: "Two people have been carried off the train down to the station. What shall we do with them? Neither of them can walk."

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M Y OWN STORY

Well, we held a consultation. It was long before anything was done here in the way of a hotel or cottages. We decided that we could take care of them in the village overnight, and then, in a couple of days, we could fix up what is now "The Wreck," and put them in it. Well, before we could put that cottage in order, eight others had arrived. They came like Topsy and got there be­ fore we knew it. We did not know what to do with them so I sent for Dr. Johnson. He came and looked them over and guaranteed that they did not have heart trouble or something from which they would die sud­ denly. And then I undertook to be doctor and physiotherapist, all rolled into one. I remember there were two quite large ladies; and when I was trying to teach them an exercise I had invented, which was the elevating exercise in the medium of water, one of these ladies found great difficulty in getting both feet down to the bottom of the pool. Well, I would take one large knee and I would force this large knee and leg down until the foot restedfirmlyon the bottom. And then I would say, "Have you got it?" and she would say, "Yes," and then I would say, "Hold it, hold it." Then I would reach up and get hold of the other knee very quickly and start to put it down then number one knee would pop up. This used to go on for half an hour at a time; but before I left in the spring, I would get both knees down at the same time. APRIL 14, 1925

Tom Loyless, the man running a down-at-the-heel resort when FDR came to Warm Springs, was a great old newspaperman who had himself gone there for his health. He toas also doing a column for the Macon Daily Telegraph to help eke out an existence. This announcement appeared in Loyless s column, April 14,1925: 9

The other night I was over at a neighbor's house "visiting* right across our Cherokee rose fence, just sitting around talk­ ing, when my neighbor said I looked "tired' and "all rundown and that I ought to take a "rest." He said that if I would turn a part of our working force over 99

"GOOD

89

NEIGHBORMAN"

to him he would get in his car and look after the road work for me and, by the way of self-recommendation, he admitted that ' he toas a "shark" at road-building; that he had built a lot of roads, in his youth and since, whenever the notion struck him, on the family estate, at Hyde Park, up on the Hudson. All of which touched me deeply. So, I told this good neigh­ borman that if he wanted to take a much bigger load off of me, do my stuff on the Macon Telegraph for me for a few days. "But why not the road work, instead? he countered. I told him I had to be just a bit particular with our roads around Warm Springs, but that it didnt matter so much what goes on in my column —as my readers of the Telegraph will attest. "That being the case, he replied, "I will agree to write your column for you for a few times assuming that the editor will allow me as much latitude as he does you — which is a lot more than I would allow either of us if I were in his place However, I wish to have this distinctly understood in ad­ vance — particularly with the business office — that no matter who "whitewashes my fences for me, I draw the pay for it, such as it is. This being particularly understood and agreed upon in writ­ ing in advance, I may pull down my sign for a few days and put in its place, "As Roosevelt Sees It —for of course, you knew who I was talking about all the time. 9

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16, 1925 [FROM THE Macon Daily Telegraph] Here am I over at Warm Springs, an expert road builder, all ready, with my coat off, to lay out and construct miles of beautifully graded guaranteed not-to-wash-out, paths through the azalea-cov­ ered woods off Pine Mountain, while Tom Loyless sits with his feet up in his cottage, across the street, writing diatribes for The Telegraph. But I knew I would be double-crossed — I always am by these newspaper men. He now is out picking wildflowersand I have returned to my former profession —I used to edit the college paper in the old days. Honestly, you people in Georgia have no conception of the odds APRIL

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under which the Northern Democrats labor. Take, for instance, upsfate New York —i.e., all the State outside of New York City. Over 90 percent of the daily papers and over 90 percent of the local weekly papers are Republican through and through. It isn't even an intelligent Republicanism. Politically they form one vast com­ bine. There is practically no individual editorship, practically no independent comment tor thought. They are organized almost 100 percent to keep harping on and disseminating the carefully pre­ pared propaganda of the Republican organization. APRIL 16,1925

Here is a practical dilemma: People of all parties believe we should have less governing from Washington with a decrease in the existing functions of the national government, and a decrease in the amount of legislation ground out by Congress each year. On the other hand, the complexities of modern civilization and the breaking down of state boundaries by public utilities, interstate commerce and through country-wide large corporations, seem in many cases to demand government to prevent abuses or extortion. 18, 1925 [FROM THE Macon Daily Telegraph] Things are running more smoothly now — T. W. L. is still picking wildflowersand sticking them in pots 'round the "OLD SWIMMIN' HOLE," and in a few days more will forget that he was ever in the newspaper game. That leaves me free to exploit some of my own particular hobbies. What I want to boil over about today is the matter of woods and trees and lumber in general. Yesterday afternoon I went up to the top of Pine Mountain. There in front of me, in the middle distance, two thick columns of smoke were rising in the quiet air. "Burning off the woods," somebody said. The same thing is happening by accident or design in every state in thé Union. . . . Who pays? Why, you do — every reader of this paper, and of every other paper. An adequate timber supply is wealth to a nation. To burn it up before it is used is precisely the same as burning down a house, or throwing dollar bills into the fire. APRIL

"GOOD

NEIGHBORMAN"

91

I suppose some of my Republican friends would call me a social­ ist for asserting that the owner of land owes it to the community, and to the State, and to the nation, to use that land in the best possible way for humanity. It isfinetalk and very soothing to think of the individual as complete master in his own home, at perfect liberty to do any old thing he wants with his own property. A man has the legal right to go to his bank, draw his balance, in paper money, go home and put it in the stove. If he does it, however, he is apt to land in the lunatic asylum. We have not yet reached the common-sense stage which will, in like manner, send the farmer who burns off his wood lot to the home for incurables. APRIL 25,

1925

I sometimes wish I could find some spot on the globe where it was not essential and necessary for me to start something new — a sand bar in the ocean might answer, but I would probably start building a sea wall around it and digging for private treasure in the middle. 26,1925 [FROM THE Macon Daily Telegraph] Government employment should be and will be some day a real career. Today it is not. Private business of all kinds offers so many greater inducements that it is only natural that the best govern­ ment employees so often leave. Is the government doing a fair thing? It seems to me that a great nation like the United States should pay adequate salaries. As a broad principle there is.no reason why the United States should not pay approximately the salaries which are paid on the average by private employers. I shudder to think what would happen if the government of the United States were to reorganize the salaries of its departmental employees from the top down. A new career and a real career would be opened to American boys and girls. They would no longer treat government service as a mere stepping stone to something better. They would strive to make good within the service itself. They would know that if they would make good they could reach the

APRIL

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M Y OWN STORY

top and with the attainment of the goal be assured of enough in­ come to support their families in the right way, to lay up some­ thing for a rainy day, and to make their own departments models of efficiency. There would be a new note of pride which, I am sorry to say, is today woefully lacking. Would it not give us a wonderful feeling if we knew that our government, for efficiency of service and for fairness to its work­ ers, was the best government in the world instead of one of the worst? APRIL SO, 1925

Often I have thought that those materialists who assert that all wars are caused by economic and traderivalriesought to be put in the insane asylum. History shows us many wars in which trade rivalry had but little part. History shows us, on the other hand, countless wars which were brought about by prejudice, by a mis­ statement of facts—by religious fanaticism — by hastily spoken words. Since the World War ended great discoveries have been made in the use of fatal gases, it being claimed that whole city popula­ tions could be destroyed by a single enemy plane. If that be true, the world faces a problem far greater than the mere limitation of armaments. Largely as a result of the writings of the great Dutchman Grotius, 300 years ago, the treatment of enemy civilian populations in time of war became more humane and more civilized throughout Europe. With few exceptions the so-called "rules of war" then laid down were maintained fairly well until the World War. Then, largely be­ cause of the German doctrines of terrorism, civilian populations were treated as combatants. If in the next war nations feel themselves at liberty to destroy and injure the enemy civilian populations outside of the actual fighting zone, we shall go back to the unlimited and horrible conditions of warfare in the Dark and Middle Ages. It would seem to be more important that this tremendous subject be discussed fully and frankly by the civilized nations now, in time

"GOOD

NEIGHBORMAN"

93

of peace, than that there should be a mere international conference to plan for the scrapping of a few more battleships. To spread the good work of Warm Springs further, "Dr." Roose­ velt in April, 1926, acquired the property, which consisted of the springs, the hotel, and the cottages. He brought in Dr. Leroy W. Hubbard, an eminent physician of the New York State Health De­ partment, and set about making experiments to find out the extent of the curative value of the warm waters. In doing this, FDR risked a sizable chunk of his own personal fortune. In January of the following year the Warm Springs Foundation was established as a nonstock, nonprofit institution. The incorpo­ rators were George Foster Peabody, Basil O'Connor, Herbert N. Strauss, Louis M. Howe and FDR. At this moment he wired ailing Tom Loyless, who was soon to die, "We will see our dreams carried out! 9

JUNE 15,1925

The fundamental Democratic idea that a political party is a piece of machinery by which the ideals of its principles can be put into actual practice in government should be carried into the financial side by refusing to permit large contributions and make instead almost every Democratic voter an equal partner through his sub­ scription in our enterprise. If we believe in granting special favors to none, should we not be equallyfirmin refusing to accept special favors from none? JUNE 24,

1925

What, after all, does the country want? It wants more real debate and less long-winded speaking. The Senate itself could enforce 2 perfectly simple rules; 1st, that the speaker be obliged to speak to the question at issue, and 2nd, that after a Senator has delivered a "main" speech, he be limited thereafter to rebuttal or counterrebuttal speeches of a short length — say not to exceed 10 minutes. JULY 22,

1925

The stone wall which we all face at the present moment is, of course, the complacency of the multitude of voters. Since the war

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ended, with its compelling activity and its heights of emotions, American voters everywhere have been passing through a period of preference for the quiet of reaction and material things. They have chosen what is, for the time being, "the easiest way." Such an atti­ tude does not, of course, endure. Whether the change back to the well tried principles of the Re­ public's founders will come slowly and normally, or whether it will be caused by some sudden happening, which exposes the falsity of the existing economic system, no one can tell. All I can do is to preach the elimination of issues of religion, of prohibition, and bolshevism and the ambitions of individuals from politics, and try to get principles of government to the fore. NOVEMBER 4,1925

We Democrats must make ourselves, by definite policy, the Party of constructive progress, before we can attract a larger following. The Democracy did this when it captured the House of Representa­ tives in 1910 and it was followed by the definite constructive and liberal policies of Woodrow Wilson in 1912. DECEMBER 17, 1925 [TO CLAUDE G . BOWERS]

I want to talk to you about a thought which has come to me from your book. Jefferson organized by disseminating facts — how can the good work be reincarnated today when the Republicans own all the campaign chests and most of the newspapers? MAY 25, 1926 [TO HENRY G . LEACH]

Much as I should love to break into print via "The Forum," I think it is better for me not to do so for some time to come. The Democratic Party has a very great issue — the same old issue which existed between Jefferson and Hamilton; but it is best to give the other party a little more rope on the specific application of this issue to current fact. 1

JUNE 9, 1926 [TO JAMES J. MONTAGUE]

Tell your misguided confrere that I have learned the only thing from Mr. Coolidge which is worth learning and that is the gift of

"GOOD

NEIGHBORMAN"

95

silence, and that I expect to remain incommunicado until the in­ evitable pendulum takes the inevitable swing back to an inevitable Democracy. JULY 28, 1926

Whenever a party that depends on its well oiled machinery, rather than its attitude on great public questions for its success, com­ mences to be troubled with a grinding in its gears and a clattering of loose and broken parts in its internal mechanism, it is almost sure to run into a ditch and to make some stupendous blunder, just as a driver of a high-powered automobile will suddenly head into a telegraph pole through sheer fright at the unexpected back-firing of his engine. The Lord only knows at present what particular form of political insanity the chauffeurs of the Republican machine will be smitten with. Just at present their frenzied attempts to maintain exorbitant profits for the protected manufacturing interests of the East who contribute so largely to their national campaign funds and at the same time find some soothing formula of empty words that will keep the impoverished and neglected agriculturists of the West and South from open revolt seem to be the outstanding symptoms of their demoralization but some new glaring mistake in a totally dif­ ferent direction may be made at any moment and our battle lines cannot be staked out with any assurance so long ahead of 1928. SEPTEMBER 17,1926 [TO A L SMITH]

I have hesitated to make suggestions and, particularly, to criti­ cize the strategy of others among your friends, but it is only right for me to tell you my own personal thoughts and even if you don't agree with them, I know that you will understand that they come from my heart. First of all, I continue to disagree with the suggestion that you, as a private citizen, during the next two years could go around the country making speeches to Chambers of Commerce, etc., without being regarded as an open and out candidate for 1928. You can do this as Governor without being called a candidate especially if you cut out political meetings and go instead to non-political

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M Y OWN STORY

gatherings, where you can speak on non-political subjects such as child-welfare, prison reform, state organizations, etc. Secondly, I am convinced that some of your friends are, without your knowledge or consent, giving you aggressive publicity in the south and west, where such publicity is at the present time harmful. You will have noticed from the papers that these people who are pushing you to the front as individuals, are stirring up the opposition and giving the old McAdoo crowd a reason for organizing against you. In every letter I have written I have taken the stand that no one can tell at this early date who the right man will be and that we should devote ourselves to building up a strong National Organization. More work along this line would have resulted in all the little booms for little candidates picking up courage and gathering a certain amount of local headway in all the McAdoo or similar delegates. In other words, it is much better to encourage local candidates who would have delegates not unfriendly to you as second choice than to build up any strong Anti-Smith feeling at this time. OCTOBER, 1926 [A PARABLE OÑ WAR DEBTS]

Once upon a time there was a little country bank surrounded by prosperous farms. Between the Bank and the Farmers there existed the closest and most sympathetic cooperation. The President of the Bank, a man of sympathetic understanding, moved by a real ideal to make his bank of use in the little World of which it was the center, had grown to be regarded as a sort of father confessor and disinterested and wise counselor for all the neighborhood. Upon this community there suddenly descended a terrible series of calamities — cyclones and sickness, death and famine. In their hour of need the community came to the old Banker for help and encouragement. Freely, almost to a point of straining the Bank's credit, loans were advanced or extended, and what was far more important words of cheer and hope and encouragement were given to every frightened Farmer who came to the Bank in his hour of need.

"GOOD

NEIGHBORMAN"

Unfortunately, when the tide of misfortune turned, when calm skies replaced the tempest and encouraged by the wonderful faith and optimism of their Banker friend, the Farmers set about to build their farms and their fortunes anew, an inscrutable Providence called the then friend and counselor to his reward. In his place the Directors selected a man of far different type. A typical small-town lawyer, of unquestioned honesty but without vision, and construc­ tive capacity, that lacked sympathy and deep understanding of human nature which had made his predecessor so successful. A narrow practical, unimaginative sort of man, who believed that a penny saved was a dollar earned and who had no clear understand­ ing that there were any moral precepts other than personal honesty, regard of the ten commandments — and thrift. To this new Bank President came a delegation of Farmers from their stricken lands. The money that had been given them during the dark days that were just over was falling due. Loans had to be extended until the new crops came, arrangements for winter had to be made. The task of rehabilitation.of their farm sites seemed almost impossible — and most of all they needed the words of sym­ pathy, of encouragement, of hope, of cooperation which they had always gotten from the Banker who had gone. Patiently they ex­ plained their troubles, their discouragements, their needs and then waited for the Banker to reply. But, having no real breadth of vision or understanding that the Farmers' notes were not worth the paper they were written on unless the morale of the Farmers themselves could be strengthened, that unless heartened by the feeling that the Bank was behind them and would see them through, unless they could be so fired with hope as to work with superhuman energy to repair the damage done, the Bank itself in the long run would be involved in the general financial ruin that would follow. He met them with no words of hope, no assurance of support or com­ passion, nothing but a demand to know what was the utmost that could be realized on their possessions and announced to them that he would send some one to investigate and make sure that by no possible chance could one cent more of immediate cash be applied on their notes.

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Bewildered, angered, dumbfounded, at this sudden reversal of the policy of the Bank that they had grown to regard as their friend in need, the Farmers protested. With a wave of cold dismissal the Banker swung around to the papers on his desk with no reply but this snarling question, "Well, you hired the money didn't you?" Now Gentlemen, I want to ask you what you think of the wisdom of that Banker?! want to ask you if you are surprised to learn that that one phrase won him the undying hostility of every man in the community? I wonder, too, if you also realize that that last stinging question happens to be, word for word, the published reply from the President of these United States when asked about the settle­ ments of debts owing to us from our late associates in the cyclone of the World War? Shall we place alongside the old words "With malice towards none, with charity to all" the newer saying, "Well, you hired the money, didn't you?" APRIL 4, 1927 [RECOMMENDATION FOR A TEACHER WHO COULD NOT STAY AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY AT ANNAPOLIS WHEN IT STOPPED USING CIVILIAN TEACHERS ]

He was too liberal for the Naval Academy authorities, but he had a fine teaching record and stood well with the Midshipmen. His mentality is not confined to the mere teaching of history or English. OCTOBER, 1927

I have read Jefferson's Bible many times. He had a versatile mindl And incidentally while a gentleman he had a better insight into the Republican form of government than did G. Washington or A. Ham­ ilton. A century and a quarter has proved this! DECEMBER 21, 1927 [TO W. EARLY HOPPER]

You have asked me a very large question when you say "how can the youth of this generation best contribute toward constructive and durable peace." Undoubtedly, the principal cause of our not being further ahead as a world civilization in the interests of peace is a lack of educa­ tion and understanding on the part of a majority of our inhabitants.

"GOOD

NEIGHBORMAN"

99

Prejudice, narrow-mindedness and lack of understanding of world conditions all come primarily from a lack of education and knowl­ edge. Therefore, my answer to you would be that this generation can best advance the cause of durable peace by learning more about world conditions and the relation of the United States to them. JANUARY 9, 1928

[TO E. M. HOUSE]

I have been urged to go to the dinner in Washington this week, but havefinallydecided not to. My feeling is that if everything is harmonious, I might just as well stay away and if somebody starts a catfight,it is equally advisable not to reply; and if I were there I might be called on or be moved to say too much. JANUARY 18,

1928

Mr. Hilles said that the Federal Reserve Act passed by the Dem­ ocratic Congress under President Wilson was really a Republican measure which the previous Taft administration had not been able at the last minute to pass. The true facts of this case furnish a splen­ did example as to the different methods of approach to a common subject. In the purposes to be accomplished by a Federal Reserve System, the Democrats and the Republicans in 1911, 1912, and 1913 were united, but the Republican bill provided for a central control of the entire Reserve System, which control would obviously, within a short period of time, center in the hands of half a dozen individ­ uals in thefinancialcenter of the country. The Democratic measure from the beginning was different in its basic outlook towards accomplishing the same desired purpose. Each Federal Reserve District throughout the country was autonomous insofar as the banking needs and policy were concerned and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, as originally constituted by President Wilson, was dominated by non-partisan economists, rather than by active bankers. FEBRUARY 21,

1928

The situation this year may be summed up in the need of nom­ inating as candidate a man who can get the greatest number of

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votes in the electoral college. It will serve little purpose for us to nominate some excellent progressive Democrat who cannot get the votes. MARCH 27, 1928

My own feeling is that the following are the most vital of the many arguments for changing the party in control of the Federal Govern­ ment: First, place agriculture on a parity with industry in making and carrying out our laws. Second, restore the tariff to an honest basis, so as to eliminate the present favoritism. Third, honest and effective enforcement of all laws, equally in­ cluding whatever law the people decide on as a means of carrying out the eighteenth amendment. Fourth, honesty in conducting the public affairs of the United States together with a reorganization of Governmental machinery so as to prevent duplication, waste and favoritism. Fifth, a definite policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations and cooperation with other nations for the elimina­ tion of war and for the settlement of international problems and dis­ putes; and a definite effort to end the hate and dislike of America, now shared by every other civilized nation in the world. Sixth, preservation of national resources, particularly water power, in the ultimate ownership of the people. Seventh, the substitution of a Democratic Government of prac­ tical idealism in the place of an Oligarchy of gross materialism. JUNE 6,1928

This nation had no real leader between the death of Lincoln in 1865 to the rise of Theodore Roosevelt in 1901. Wilson, the last leader, has only been gone for eight or nine years, and the present gray period may last another ten years. But there is just the possi­ bility that if Smith is elected, he will prove equal to the task of new leadership. In my judgment, it is at least a gamble worth taking! JUNE 27, 1928

At the Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas, FDR

"GOOD

NEIGHBORMAN"

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made another memorable speech putting Smith's name in nomina­ tion, this time successfully. He said: We must, first of all, make sure that our nominee possesses the unusual qualifications called for by the high office of President of these United States. Mere party expediency must be subservient to National good. We are Americans even before we are Democrats. What sort of President do we need today? A man who has four great characteristics, every one of them an essential to the office. First of all, leadership, articulate, virile, willing to bear responsi­ bility, needing no official spokesman to interpret the oracle. Next, experience, that does not guess but knows from long prac­ tice the science of governing, which is a very different thing from mere technical bureau organizing. Then honesty — the honesty that hates hypocrisy and cannot Uve with concealment and deceit. Last, and in this time, most vital, that rare ability to make popu­ lar government function as it was intended to by the Fathers, to reverse the present trend towards apathy and arouse in the citizen­ ship an active interest — a willingness to reassume its share of re­ sponsibility for the nation's progress. So only can we have once more a government not just for the people, but by the people also. History gives us confident assurance that a man who has dis­ played these qualities as a great Governor of a State, has invariably carried them with him to become a great President. . . . New York gave us Grover Cleveland teaching in Albany that public office is a public trust; Theodore Roosevelt preaching the doctrine of the square deal for all; Virginia and New Jersey gave us that pioneer of fellowship between nations, our great leader, Woodrow Wilson. I have described so far qualities entirely of the mind — the mental and moral equipment without which no President can successfully meet the administrative and material problems of his office. It is possible with only these qualities for a man to be a reasonably effi­ cient President, but there is one thing more needed to make him a great President.

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It is that quality of soul which makes a man loved by little chil­ dren, by dumb animals, that quality of soul which makes him a strong help to all those in sorrow or in trouble, that quality which makes him not merely admired, but loved by all people — the qual­ ity of sympathetic understanding of the human heart, of real inter­ est in one's fellowman. Instinctively he senses the popular need be­ cause he himself has lived through the hardship, the labor and the sacrifice which must be endured by every man of heroic mould who struggles up to eminence from obscurity and low estate. Be­ tween him and the people is that subtle bond which makes him their champion and makes them enthusiastically trust him with their loyalty and their love. Our two greatest Presidents of modern times possessed this qual­ ity to an unusual degree. It was, indeed, what above all made them great. It was Lincoln's human heart, and Woodrow Wilsons pas­ sionate desire to bring about the happiness of the whole world which will be the best remembered by the historian of a hundred years from now. If the vision of real world peace, of the abolishment of war, ever comes true, it will not be through the mere mathematical calcula­ tions of a reduction of armament program nor the platitudes of multi-lateral treaties piously deprecating armed conflict. It will be because this nation will select as its head, a leader who understands the human side of life, who has the force of character and the keenness of brain to take, instinctively, the right course and the real course toward a prosperity that will be more than material, a leader also who grasps and understands not only large affairs of business and government, but in an equal degree the aspirations and the needs of the individual, the farmer, the wage-earner — and the great mass of average citizens who make up the backbone of our nation. America needs not only an administrator but a leader — a path­ finder, a blazer of the trail to the high road that will avoid the bottomless morass of crass materialism that has engulfed so many of the great civilizations of the past. To stand upon the ramparts

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and die for our principles is heroic. To sally forth to battle and win for our principles is something more than heroic. JULY 5, 1928 [TO CHARLES C. BURLINGHAM]

It is because of my three years in the state senate that I have already twice declined to be the party nominee for United States Senator — once six years ago when Copeland became the nominee and the other time two years ago when Bob Wagner was finally chosen. I am not temperamentally fitted to serve in the United States Senate. I do not think that I could endure the atmosphere of that verbose and eminently respectable social club. JULY 20, 1928

I understand that the National Committee is going to send out my nominating speech in pamphlet form and I often wonder whether literature of this kind is ever read. Sometimes I think that we are driving so wholly into a radio future that we shall get even our detective stories over the air instead of through the printed page. JULY 20, 1928

The principal danger in the Kellogg treaties is that this country will get the idea that we have accomplished a real andfinalstep in the prevention of future wars. Fiats against war and other human ills have been tried hundreds of times in the past and have failed because the causes of trouble have not been understood or eradi­ cated in the beginning before they got serious. In this work of getting to the root of things and killing the germs before the patient gets a high fever, the United States has been a laggard nation. It is true that the Kellogg treaties will help psy­ chologically. I only wish my old friend, Mr. Kellogg, had also done something to help practically. JULY 20, 1928 [TO JOSEPHUS DANIELS]

Í am glad to see your editorial on Raskob. Your hunch was right. The appointment was a bold stroke to try to end the 99$ of busi­ ness (big and little) preference for the Republican Party. I told

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Smith quite plainly that it would make the whole situation far more difficult for the Democracy of the south, but Smith felt that we should take our chance on this as we would lose any way if we did not carry the big industrial states. Furthermore, I told the Governor that if he decided on Raskob, he should make it clear that it was a purely personal appointment of an old friend and that Raskob would be merely a business man­ ager and have nothing to say about issues. Smith would not agree to this last as he thought it would be disloyal to Raskob to tie his hands. The result has been that Raskob has talked too much and now Smith has had to make it clear that he (Smith) is responsible for the issues and policies, and not Raskob or any one else. I am still doing my best to line up the campaign issues on some­ thing other than this Wet and Dry question. Frankly, I am disturbed, but as you know, the campaign is very young yet and past history shows that the true issues are apt to come out during September, and the false issues relegated to the background. I pray this may be so this year. Frankly, I am more and more disgusted and bored with the thought that in this great nation, the principal issue may be drawn into what we do or do not put into our stomachs. Are there no great fundamentals of the science and practice of government left? I do wish that the time may come when there will be less of the unnecessary and stupid mud-slinging between the two major politi­ cal parties. JULY 23,1928

In preparing my speech, I did so with the definite purpose of addressing the 15,000,000 radio listeners rather than the 15,000 in the Convention Hall. JULY 25, 1928 [TO CURTIS P. BAILE]

Did you know that my oldest boy was taken into the Fly Club last spring and almost immediately thereafter the Club caught fire and almost burned to the ground? You know that we Roosevelts always start something.

"GOOD

NEIGHBORMAN"

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JULY 25,1928

The campaign is working out in a way which I, personally, should not have followed ^tnd Smith has burned his bridges behind him. It is altogether too early to guess what the result will be. My own particular role will be that of the elder statesman who will not be one of the "yes men" at headquarters. In this way I think I can be distinctly helpful and it is better than taking an office job and be­ ing merely one of the gang. AUGUST 18, 1928

Once upon a time when I was in Cambridge [at Harvard] I had serious thoughts of marrying a Boston girl and settling down in the Back Bay to spend the rest of my days. Such was the influence of four years of that kind of association. By the Grace of God I took a trip at that time, meeting numbers of real Americans, i.e., those from the west and south. I was saved, but it was an awfully narrow escape. OCTOBER 11, 1928

I want to lay down the hypothesis which I believe to be true that an executive post such as that of Governor or President calls for more than mere executive ability. For instance, I know dozens of supremely successful corporation executives —Presidents of great railroad systems, of nationwide industrial corporations, of huge banks, and I can frankly say that very few of them would have successful careers as State Governors or in the Presidency. The administration of a governmental chief executive calls for an added quality or to be more correct, two qualities. First, the rare ability to coordinate an executive branch of gov­ ernment with the legislation thereof. Secondly, equally rare ability to present great public issues in such simple terms to the voting public that without heat or passion, that voting public can act fairly and honestly on those issues. I have long been a friend of Governor Smith. I have long been a friend of Sec. Hoover. I have tried to picture to myself without partisanship what kind of President each of them would make. I am proud as an American citizen of thefineand able way in which Sec.

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Hoover has carried out his relief work in Belgium and later in Poland, his Flood control, his help to the victims of the Mississippi Flood, his aid to industry through the Dept. of Commerce. But Mr. Hoover as President would have a very different task to perform. His previous tasks have been directed, first one then the other, towards one definite aim. He has been sole dictator of each of these tasks. He has had no colleagues with equal authority in performing them. In a sense each of these tasks has been an ampli­ fication of a specific engineering job, the building of a great bridge, the tunneling of a mountain or the building of the Panama Canal. The task of the Presidency is far different. The President of the United States must have a mind not single-tracked, but like a great railroad yard. During the course of each and every day in the White House he is confronting tasks with ten wholly uncoordinate prob­ lems, presented by ten uncoordinated government departments. He concerns himself with the broad field of foreign affairs, then with the Aftny and Navy, then with agriculture, then with Foreign com­ merce, then with Home industries, then with difficult legal problems, then with conservation, then with the Mails and Express service, then with the business of separate commissions, like the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission and then with grave problems of finance. Somehow, though I admire him greatly as an administrator for a single task, I cannot picture a President Hoover successful in jumping at half hour intervals from problem to problem from point to point in the administration of the vast array of business affairs of the Federal Government and keeping his equilibrium. Then there is the other point. Weaving in and out of every part of these multifarious problems is the inevitable, constant and per­ tinacious "involvement," as President Harding would have said, with the Legislative branch of the Government. History says that some of thefinestexecutive Presidents have made complete failures of their relationship with the Congress of the United States. Frankly, I do not for one minute believe that my friend, Mr. Hoover, if elected President, will succeed in having anything but a four years' struggle with our friends, the Senators and Representatives on

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Capitol Hill. His is not the type of mind to meet the legislative mind. He has not the patience to work with them to settle differ­ ences to achieve results. On the other side of the picture^ stands my other friend, the Governor of the State of New York. You know his record of accom­ plishment in the State of New York. It covers Social legislation, Financial legislation, Conservation, the aim of education and the bettering of the health of the State. The singular thing is that during all these years the Governor has been faced by a hostile Legislature, a Legislature belonging to his political opponents and I may say a Legislature which has tried on every possible occasion to trip him. Yet not one appointment of Gov. Smith has been denied con­ firmation by the Republican State Senate. Not a single bill has been passed by this Republican Legislature and vetoed by Gov. Smith — and there have been many of them — has been passed by the Legis­ lature over his veto. In all of his daily work he reminds me more of Theodore Roose­ velt than of any other executive in our generation. Gov. Smith's mind is a mind of intense concentration but he is able, like Theodore Roosevelt, to leave one subject and become in sixty seconds as deeply interested in another wholly different subject. Smith's is not a singletracked mind. It is a whole railroad yard full of them. He has proved his ability to coordinate the Executive branch with the Legislative branch. Many of the great measures of progressive reform which he has obtained approval for by our Republican Legislature have been put through by direct personal contact between himself and the mem­ bers of the State Senate and House. But in other cases where that Legislature has stoodfirmand been unwilling to meet him at least half way, Gov. Smith has had that second great quality in an Executive, the ability to go before the people of his State and state the case so clearly to them that in the succeeding election they have in every case given him a popular mandate of their approval. It is rare to find Governors of States who are able in one term, or even in two terms, to obtain applause and

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approval, but it is very rare to find a Governor who is stronger and more recognized for ability at the end of four terms than at the beginning. In thefinalanalysis the problems at Washington are not different in principle from the problems at Albany; they differ only in degree. OCTOBER, 1928

Civilization really began with the establishment of the family and —my Soviet friends to the contrary —it will end when the family ends. The birds still thrust thefledgelingsfrom their nests, the lioness drives the young cub from her lair, but when human be­ ingsfirstbegan to sacrifice the present to the future and feel a sense of responsibility for the coming generation, they stepped on the first rung of the ladder which leads tQ our complex civilization of today. The happiness of the nation depends on the happiness and the contentment of each family circle, the relations of its members with each other, the relations of each family to other families, the relations which great assemblages of families, which we call cities, bear to the still greater organizations called States, and in turn, on the rela­ tions of these States to what we call the Nation; and still higher, as we are only just beginning to know, on the relations of nations to each other. Happiness is, after all, the adjustment of our individual lives to our surroundings, the willingness of each individual to give as well as to take, and to consider the happiness and comfort of others as something which duty and our own conscience requires, if we are to be really happy ourselves. The Democratic State Committee of New York drafted FDR to run for Governor. At the urgent plea of Al Smith, who told him that his running toas necessary to carry the state for the Presidency, FDR yielded.

P A R T

III

Good Neighborman to New York

CHATTER

SEVEN

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OCTOBER 16,

1928

I accept the nomination for Governor because I am a disciple in a great cause. I have been enlisted as a private in the ranks for many years and I cannot fail to heed a call to more active service in a time when so much is at stake. Our state is committed to the principle of progressive govern­ ment. Under magnificent leadership we have first aroused public interest, and have then obtained public approval for a program of governmental improvement which has few parallels in any similar period of time. It is a program which has caught public imagination because of its own inherent soundness and humanity. Let it be remembered, however, that the ground won was fought for, inch by inch. This State is headed in the right direction. Beyond the need of preserving what we have gained is the equal need of improving our governing methods each year as rapidly as civilization itself expands and improves. Progress means change. A perfect system of 1918 may be out­ worn ten years later. The strides of science and invention, the shifting of economic balance, the growing feeling of responsibility toward those who need the protection of the State, call for ceaseless improvement to keep up to date those personal relationships of the individual to other individuals and to the whole body politic which we call Government

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In the campaign that followed FDR tellingly set forth the funda­ mental issues, as he saw them, and promised, if elected, to come to grips with them. Excerpts from his "promises" indicate that his being a "good neighborman" was being extended to the state horizon, in relation to the elements both within and loithout. OCTOBER 17,

1928

You go to any State, and you will find that the religious bigotry in this campaign is more glaring in the out-of-the-way farms and hills and valleys and small towns, where there is no contact with the outside world. It was in upstate New York that a young Irishman was running for office. One evening he went to ask a farmer to support him. The farmer said to the young Irishman, "Yes, I will be glad to sup­ port you. You are afineyoung fellow, you are a good influence in the community." This young man said to the farmer, "I greatly appre­ ciate your support. But I am a little surprised because I understood that you were opposed to Catholics." The farmer put his hand on the young man's shoulders and said, "My boy, you have got it all wrong. I am not opposed to Irish Catholics. What I am opposed to is those Roman Catholics." I believe that the day will come in this country when education in our own State and in every other State, in the cities and the hamlets and the farms, in the back alleys and up on the mountains, will be so widespread, so clean, so American, that this vile thing that is hanging over our heads in this Presidential election will not be able to survive. OCTOBER 19,

1928

Every day that goes by — between sunrise this morning and sun­ rise tomorrow morning — one thousand farm families will have left their farms in the United States. That sounds almost incredible, does it not? Not farm population, but farm families. Nearly a thou­ sand abandoned farms every single day in the yearl It is a simple matter of record that the Republican Party in

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Albany and in Washington has been devoting most of its energies to building up an industrial development in the country. They have failed utterly to give anything to the rural population butfinewords. I want our agricultural population to be put on the same level of earning capacity as their fellow Americans who live in the cities. I can tell you quite frankly that I shall have a program. I believe in programs, because I believe in moving ahead. OCTOBER 20,

1928

Somewhere in a pigeon-hole in a desk of the Republican leaders of New York State is a large envelope, soiled, worn, bearing a date that goes back twenty-five or thirty years. Printed in large letters on this old envelope are the words, "Promises to labor." Inside the envelope are a series of sheets dated two years apart and repre­ senting the best thought of the best minds of the Republican leaders over a succession of years. Each sheet of promises is practically the duplicate of every other sheet in the envelope. But nowhere in that envelope is a single page bearing the title "Promises kept." I had the good fortune to be a member of the State Senate in that famous year of 1911, when the Democratic Party came into control of the State Government for the first time in a generation and started on its way a program — not of promises, but of accom­ plishments. Arrayed against us on the other side was the silent, powerful pressure of the old school of thought, which held the theory that when an employer hired a working man or a working woman, he became the master of the fate of his employees; that when a worker entered the factory door it was nobody's business as to how he worked, how long he worked, or how much he was paid. It is very difficult, seventeen years later, for this generation to understand the attitude of the old conservative element toward employment back in 1911. But it is a fact that this attitude was subscribed to, sometimes silently, sometimes openly, but always definitely, by the Republican leaders of this State at that time. During the years 1911 to 1915, the splendid record of definite accomplishment made by the Democratic Party of this State was

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fought and blocked and criticized at every turn by the Republican legislative leaders. OCTOBER 26, 1928

I understand that after the Rochester Convention took the action that it did, there was a good deal of what might be called sob stuff among the Republican editorial writers in the State of New York. They said, "Isn't it too bad that that unfortunate man has had to be drafted for the Governorship? Isn't it too bad that his health won't stand it?" We started off nearly two weeks ago from the City of New York — a wholeflockof people, candidates, the press, the stenographic force, etc. We started in Orange County and we went on through Sullivan, Delaware, Broome, Steuben, out through the Southern tier, all the way to Jamestown. One day we covered 190 miles by automobile and made seven speeches. Then we worked our way up to Buffalo and back to Rochester and Syracuse; because we were getting into our stride, we took a little side trip up to Oswego and Watertown, and then we dropped back to Utica. We left Utica this morning, intending to have an easy day of it. We got to Herkimer, where we all made speeches; then we expected to come through to Schenectady, but when we got to Fonda, there were forty or fifty automobiles in line blocking the road, and we were literally kid­ napped. It threw the whole schedule out. We were told that up in that neck of the woods, Gloversville, where in the past there had been occasionally two Democrats, and sometimes three, that had gone to the polls, there were two thousand people waiting for us on the street, and that all the talk of the owners of the glove fac­ tories there could not keep them off the streets. So we changed our plans a little and went up to Gloversville. There they were, all of them going to vote the Democratic ticket. When we came on down, we were kidnapped again. We got to Amsterdam. We expected to go through Amsterdam just as fast as the traffic cops would let us, but there were sixteen hundred people in the theatre in Amsterdam, waiting. They had been waiting there two hours. And then, for good measure, we just dropped into Schenectady

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and spoke there earlier in the evening and now here we are in Troy; Too bad about this unfortunate sick man, isn't it? OCTOBER 29,

1928

Last Monday night Hoover got up in Madison Square Garden, looking for an issue, and he said, "He is a socialist." Smith knows just what to do when he is called a socialist. If his program for the public park system of the State is socialistic, then we are all socialists; and if his program for the reduction of hours of women and children is socialistic, we are all socialists. If his pro­ gram for public improvements for the hospitals of the State and the prisons of the State is socialistic, we are all socialists. And if his program for bettering public health in this State and for aid to the educational program of this State are socialistic, we are socialists. Yes, anybody in public life who goes ahead and advocates im­ provements is called a radical. The Democratic Party has gone on and advocated improvements and it has been called radical. But the Democratic Party in this State will keep on winning as long as it goes ahead with a program of progress. NOVEMBER 1,

1928

I want to say something about the theory of Government. You know, campaign speeches are very different nowadays from what they were when I was young. I go back far enough to remember the Fourth of July orator. There are few of them left, thank God. But I believe that people are interested in the philosophy of poli­ tics, in the theory of our government. More and more the oldfashioned "pull the eagle's tail to make him scream," or "twist the lion's tail to get a howl out of the mob" has gone by. That day is gone, and we have come down with our better education all over this country to a willingness to talk about the philosophy of politics and about the theory of Government, provided it can be made at all interesting. This morning I happened to pick up the November number of one of the leading magazines and there on page one was an article with the following caption: "Is Hoover Human?" That title implies something. It implies the suggestion in the

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minds of a great many citizens that Mr. Hoover is not human. Through seven long pages the author of the article labored to prove that the Republican candidate has the human qualities which the title of the article puts in question. In this article there was a quotation from a book written by Hoover. Here is what Mr. Hoover writes in his own book called American Individualism: Acts and deeds leading to progress are born out of the indi­ vidual mind, not out of the mind of the crowd. The crowd only feels, it has no mind of its own which can plan. The crowd is credulous, it destroys, it hates and it dreams, but it never builds. It is one of the most profound of exact psychological truths that man in the mass does not think, but only feels. That, in my judgment, is the best insight that you can possibly find into the personality of Herbert Hoover, into his approach to every public and private question. It is characteristic of the man. That question gives the reason why the author of the article asked, "Is Hoover Human?" Now, Mr. Hoovers theory that the crowd is credulous, that it destroys, that it hates, that it dreams, but that it never builds, that it does not think but only feels, is in line with the training, the rec­ ord and the method of accomplishment of the Republican candidate for the Presidency. It is another way of saying that there exists at the top of our social system in this country a very limited group of highly able, highly educated people, through whom all progress must originate. Furthermore, that this small group, after doing all the thinking and all the originating, is fully responsible for all progress in civilization and Government. I deny, and the Democratic Party denies, that the average man and woman are incapable of thought or of constructive ability. I know that the electorate does think, that it does originate, and that it does build, and it is on that fundamental belief that I base my campaign for the Governorship. It is the same belief which has brought to us the great program of the past few years; the same

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belief that must carry us forward during the coming years to an even greater progress. Although Al Smith lost in the Presidential election, FDR was elected Governor of New York. NOVEMBER 26,

1928

I believe that public sentiment within the next few years will crystallize into a demand for the return to power of the party of Woodrow Wilson. DECEMBER 8,1928 [TO GERTRUDE ATHERTON]

Just because you are at the pinnacle of success as a novelist is no reason why you cannot also give extremely sound advice on the American political situation! One trouble with our politics is that we people in public life count altogether too much on advice from the professional politicians. FDR was now back in the main channel "It was," as Donald Carmichael wrote, "as if the quiet voice over a Dutchess County fence had been picked up unaware by a battery of microphones. In a few short years that same quiet, reassuring voice would be heard at the firesides of an entire nation, from end to end, in those words with which it came to be identified: 'My Friends. It would soon speak to a world, bringing courage and hope of deliverance, but essentially the same message which it had brought to Dutchess County: that we are neighbors." 9

CHAPTER

EIGHT

"The Objectives Were the Same'

9

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JANUARY 1,

1942

Twenty-six nations signed a joint declaration pledging coopera­ tion for victory in a ceremony at the White House on New Yea/s Day: The Governments signatory thereto, Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dated August 14,1941, known as the Atlantic Charter, Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence, and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world, DECLARE: 1. Each Government pledges itself to employ its full re­ sources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such Government is at war. 2. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate ar­ mistice or peace with the enemies. The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other Na­ tions which are, or which may be, rendering material assist­ ance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.

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JANUARY 2,1942

I am deeply concerned over the increasing number of reports of employers discharging workers who happen to be aliens or even foreign-born citizens. This is a very serious matter. It is one thing to safeguard American industry, and particularly defense industry, against sabotage; but it is very much another to throw out of work honest and loyal people who, except for the accident of birth, are sincerely patriotic. Remember the Nazi technique* "Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer!" We must not let that happen here. We must not forget what we are defending: liberty, decency, justice. We cannot afford the eco­ nomic waste of services of all loyal and patriotic citizens and non-citizens in defending our land and our liberties. JANUARY 6,

1942

This is probably the biggest Budget in the history of any Nation, any time. I have no information about the Roman budgets. They were said to have been very high. JANUARY 6, 1942

[STATE O F T H E UNION M E S S A G E ]

The spirit of the American people was never higher than it is today — the Union was never more closely knit together — this coun­ try was never more deeply determined to face the solemn tasks be­ fore it. The response of the American people has been instantaneous and it will be sustained until our security is assured. The act of Japan at Pearl Harbor was intended to stun us — to terrify us to such an extent that we would divert our industrial and military strength to the Pacific area, or even to our own continental defense. The plan has failed in its purpose. We have not been stunned. We have not been terrified or confused. This very reassembling of the Seventy-seventh Congress today is proof of that; for the mood of quiet, grim resolution which here prevails bodes ill for those who conspired and collaborated to murder world peace. That mood is stronger than any mere desire for revenge. It

" A N G E R E D

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expresses the will of the American people to make very certain that the world will never so suffer again. Admittedly, we have been faced with hard choices. It was bitter, for example, not to be able to relieve the heroic and historic de­ fenders of Wake Island. It was bitter for us not to be able to land a million men in a thousand ships in the Philippine Islands. But this adds only to our determination to see that the Stars and Stripes will fly again over Wake and Guam. Yes, see to it that the brave people of the Philippines will be rid of Japanese imperialism; and will live in freedom, security, and independence. Powerful and offensive actions must and will be taken in proper time. The militarists of Berlin and Tokyo started this war. But the masses, angered forces of common humanity willfinishit. We cannot wage this war in a defensive spirit. As our power and our resources are fully mobilized, we shall carry the attack against the enemy —we shall hit him and hit him again wherever and whenever we can reach him. 30,1942 [ E M E R G E N C Y PRICE C O N T R O L ] Nothing could better serve the purposes of our enemies than that we should become the victims of inflation. It is an important weapon in our armory. The enactment of price control legislation does not mean that the battle against inflation has been won. Price control legislation alone cannot successfully combat inflation. To do that, an adequate tax andfiscalprogram, a broad savings program, and an effective priorities and rationing program, are all needed. Finally, all bulkwarks against inflation must fail, unless all of us — the businessman, the worker, the farmer, and the consumer — are determined to make those bulkwarks hold fast. In the last analy­ sis, as Woodrow Wilson said, "The best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people." JANUARY

FEBRUARY 23,

1942

Your Government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, withoutflinchingor losing heart. You must, in turn,

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have complete confidence that your Government is keeping noth­ ing from you except information that will help the enemy in his attempt to destroy us. In a democracy there is always a solemn pact of truth between Government and the people; but there must also always be a full use of discretion — and that word "discretion" applies to the critics of Government as well. This is war. The American people want to know, and will be told, the general trend of how the war is going. But they do not wish to help the enemy any more than ourfightingforces do; and they will pay little attention to the rumor-mongers and the poison peddlers in our midst. APRIL 14,

1942

[PRESS

CONFERENCE]

FDR: The USO, the Red Cross, and the American Library Asso­ ciation have sponsored a campaign to provide ten million books for soldiers, sailors and marines wherever they may be. Q: Mr. President, do you have any suggestions as to what sort of books should be contributed: FDR: Anything — except algebras. The kind of book that you would read in your own family. APRIL 28,

1942

["FIRESIDE C H A T " O N T O T A L W A R ]

Yesterday I submitted to the Congress of the United States a seven-point program of general principles which taken together could be called the national economic policy for attaining the great objectives of keeping the cost of living down. I repeat them now to you in substance: First. We must, through heavier taxes, keep personal and corpo­ rate profits at a low reasonable rate. Second. We mustfixceilings on prices and rents. Third. We must stabilize wages. Fourth. We must stabilize farm prices. Fifth. We must put more billions into war bonds. Sixth. We must ration all essential commodities which are scarce. Seventh. We must discourage installment buying, and encourage paying off debts and mortgages. Some people are already taking the position that every one of the

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seven points is correct except the one point which steps on their own individual toes. A few seem very willing to approve selfdenial — on the part of their neighbors.

The only effective course of action is a simultaneous attack on all of the factors which increase the cost of living, in one compre­ hensive, all-embracing program covering prices, and profits, and wages, and taxes and debts. The blunt fact is that every single person in the United States is going to be affected by this program. As I told the Congress yesterday, "sacrifice," is not exactly the proper word with which to describe this program of self-denial. When, at the end of this great struggle, we shall have saved our free way of life, we shall have made no "sacrifice." The price for civilization must be paid in hard work and sorrow and blood. The price is not too high. If you doubt it, ask those millions who live today under the tyranny of Hitlerism. Ask the workers of France and Norway and the Netherlands, whipped to labor by the lash, whether the stabilization of wages is too great a "sacrifice." Ask the farmers of Poland and Denmark, of Czechoslovakia and France, looted of their livestock, starving while their own crops are stolen from their land, ask them whether "parity" prices are too great a "sacrifice." Ask the businessmen of Europe, whose enterprises have been stolen from their owners, whether the limitation of profits and personal income is too great a "sacrifice." Ask the women and children whom Hitler is starving whether the rationing of tires and gasoline and sugar is too great a "sacrifice." We do not have to ask them. They have already given us their agonized answers. M A Y 28,1942

In Yank you have established a publication which cannot be understood by your enemies. It is inconceivable to them that a soldier should be allowed to express his own thoughts, his ideas, and his opinions.

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AUGUST 21,1942

Mr. Wendell Willkie is going out to the Near East and Russia. He is going as Special Representative of the President. He will carry letters to the various Americans, and so forth, out there, and to some of the other people too. He will be back by the fifteenth of October. His principal task would be to tell the truth to them, represent­ ing the leadership of the minority party of this country. What he says will carry a very great weight on what the United States is doing to win the war. In other words, that we have unity, and that we are going all out. I have asked him to mention when he gets to these different places the comparison between an Axis victory and a United Nations victory in what would happen to them. One side or the other is going to win. Therefore those Nations which are not actively at war at the present time ought to begin to think about what is going to happen to them in case of either victory. In one case being reduced to the status of a puppet state, totally controlled by Germany and Italy, and in the other case a reasonable opportunity for autonomy and independence and the principles of the Atlantic Charter. SEPTEMBER 7, 1942

[ M E S S A G E T O CONGRESS O N E C O N O M I C C O N T R O L S ]

We are carrying out, by executive action, the parts of the sevenpoint program which did not require Congressional action. In the event that Congress should fail to act, and act adequately, I shall accept the responsibility, and I will act. The President has the powers, under the Constitution and under Congressional Acts, to take measures necessary to avert a disaster which would interfere with the winning of the war. OCTOBER 1,1942 [PRESS C O N F E R E N C E : R E P O R T O N A T O U R O F D E F E N S E PLANTS]

We started two weeks ago tonight and went out to Detroit and saw first, the Chrysler tank plant, which I thought was a very amazing example of what can be done with proper organization,

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with the right spirit of carrying it through, and proper planning» Shortly before we got there they shifted over the whole plant to making a different model, and they didn't stop the output one single hour in doing it. I think we have to remember that most of the plants that I saw were authorized and started a great many months before Pearl Harbor. They are the result of the program of preparedness, which turned out to be so much needed after the Japanese struck us. This took a great deal of time by the forelock. Then we went on, that Friday night, to the Great Lakes Training Station and we got there Saturday morning in a drizzle. We saw what is today the largest naval training center we have. It is al­ ready larger than the same training station in the World War, and it still has about 15,000 trainees to go. Then we went on to Milwaukee — the Allis-Chalmers plant — and saw some work there. They are doing a great deal of work for the Navy, and for the Army, running from very large, heavy muni­ tions down to the smaller things. Then we went up to a cartridge plant between the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We hit the night shift, getting there at 11 P . M . The tiling that struck all of us most was tie large number of women that were employed in machine work — even some of the largest and heaviest machines, which require great skill and great accuracy, and at the same time do not require heavy manual labor. We left shortly after midnight and went right on to a place called Prend Oreille. It's a great lake out there. That and the Coeur d'Alene are the two largest lakes in northern Idaho. Because we have tried to disseminate the congestion on the east and west coast we put this naval training station inland. Then we went on to a place just outside Tacoma — Fort Lewis — which is one of the principal Army posts on the west coast. It is the main Army post of the whole northwest Pacific. Then from there we motored to the Bremerton Navy Yard, and saw wounded ships and wounded men. There was a little old golf course up on the side of the hill that I used to play on, in the World

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War, now covered with buildings and machinery for repairing and building ships. And we went across by ferry to Seattle, and saw the Army em­ barkation unit, consisting of a number of piers, and a great amount of storage. And then we went to the Boeing plant in Seattle and went through that. Then I went and had supper with Anna and John Boettiger, took the train again that night at ten, and went on down the next morn­ ing to Vancouver, which is opposite to Portland, and saw the Alcoa aluminum plant, because although I knew it was working well, I had to find out something about how aluminum is made. I came away still not knowing how you make aluminum. Then we went across to the Henry J. Kaiser yards and saw a ship launched, and saw the method of building those merchant ships. Of course you understand that when you read about launching a ship in ten days, it does not mean that the whole ship has been built in ten days. A very large number of sections of the ship are built in the plant, and are then taken to the ways and put together. It was launched with steam up, blowing its whistle and then taken around to a pier on the other side of the plant and will be turned over complete for actual use in, I think it was, four days more. That particular ship we actually turned over to a crew that was going to take it to sea. From there we went down to the Mare Island Navy Yard, and saw again a Yard just about three times as big as it ever had been before. We saw the Jap two-man submarine which had been captured at Pearl Harbor, and we saw one of our own submarines with nine Japaneseflagspainted on the conning tower. From there we went down to the Army embarkation port at Oak­ land, from which a large portion of our supplies of men and mate­ rials go out to the many parts of the Pacific. Then from there down to Los Angeles, and we saw the Douglas plant at Long Beach, on Friday morning, I guess. And then by train down to San Juan Capistrano, which is the place where the old mission is, and where the swallows come to every spring on the same date.

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Right back of that was this famous old Spanish land-grant ranch that belonged to the Pio Pico family in the old days, and that we purchased a short time ago. And the marines are already in there, using it as their main training center for the whole of the west coast. Then, from there down to San Diego, we saw the naval hospital, and a lot more wounded men from actions in the Pacific. Then to the naval training center. Then to the old Marine Corps base, Camp Pendleton, and from there to the Consolidated plant; and dined with another son and his wife and family, and left that same night. Mind you, we spent fourteen nights on the train, and not one night ashore. . . . We went to San Antonio, to Kelly Field and Randolph Field. We also stopped at Fort Sam Houston, which is an old post which has not been greatly enlarged, but where I had the pleasure of seeing, for sentimental reasons, the old Second Division, which I saw on the other side in the summer of 1918. Then next was Fort Worth. We got there in the morning, and went to see my daughter-in-law and her family. And in the after­ noon we went to the Consolidated bomber assembly plant, which is just getting into production. Then from there, overnight, to the Higgins yard in New Orleans, where I saw a great many small boats being built. And yesterday we turned up at Fort Jackson, just outside of Columbia, South Carolina, and reviewed a Division which was in a different stage of training from any that we had seen before. And well, here we are! First, I want to express my thanks to the press and the radio people, and the newsreel people, and the photographers, because of the fine way in which they have cooperated in delaying publica­ tion of the news until I got back to Washington. In the main FDR found an amazing understanding of war prob­ lems over the country. Then he commented: I would say that there is less understanding in just one place in the country — Washington, D. C.

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I would say, in regard to Washington, D. C , that there are three situations which are not good. And I will put the two most impor­ tant onesfirst,and the less important one third. Thefirstis that in Congress you have a great many people who want to justify their help to the war effort. Its a tendency that isn't new at all. It started with the Continental Congress in 1775, and it has been going on ever since. A perfectly obvious, understandable and human effort to take part in the war by looking into this, that, and the other thing, about which they can't possibly have opinions that are of any great validity, because there are so many facts in a war which either are based on military information or which cannot be explained to the lay mind. They are essentially facts for trained military and naval officers, who are responsible primarily for the conduct of the strategy and operation of the war. Then the other factor is the press, which doesn't seem to know the country, and like the Congressman is very apt to think in the local terms of the papers that they represent, giving out sententious views — perfectly honest views, which are nevertheless sententious — because of the fact that they don't know. There's the radio too, the radio announcers. Not all, but unfortunately a minority of news stories which just "ain't" so. They just are not based on fact. And, more than that, they tell people in the country things that are not in existence. Some of them are honestly written. Some of them are written for other reasons, which perhaps we need not go into. They represent a minority, but at present they are doing infinite harm to the country. The greatest offense of course is among the com­ mentators, the columnists, in both the press and the radio. The third point relates to a great many people in the Adminis­ tration itself, who are very apt to rush into print or hand out stuff. Well, they may be the fourth orfifthman down the line, or they may be seeking publicity. If they are the fourth orfifthman down the line, probably they don't know the whole story, except their own version of the little individual piece of work which they themselves are doing for the Government. They haven't got a rounded view. Sometimes it's with the perfectly honest belief that their particular

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specialty is not being properly handled. We have that type of per­ son in the Administration. Q: Mr. President, in that connection, we have had four speeches here in the last week by high Government officials, all along ex­ actly the same theme, that we are losing this war, largely by reason of our failure to produce as rapidly as we should. FDR: I have seen two or three, and let me put it this way: If I had been in their place, I would not have said it. 3,1942 By executive order FDR created the Office of Economic Stabiliza­ tion. In his order he also provided that no one should receive a salary of more than $25,000 net (for a single person). He said: OCTOBER

This Government is determined to use all of its powers to pre­ vent any avoidable rise in the cost of living. 7,1942 FDR announced the plan for trying Nazi war criminals as soon as the war ended. OCTOBER

OCTOBER 27,

1942

In reply to statements made by Wendell WiUkie that some courir tries in the East were concerned over the Atlantic Charter not ap­ plying to the Pacific, FDR told his press conference: If you look back in the record, you will find that I twice last spring, and Mr. Hull on one or two occasions, have already made it perfectly clear that we believed that the Atlantic Charter applied to all humanity. OCTOBER 30,

1942

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

I hope very much that the press and the radio will tell all of the citizens of the United States that the President hopes they will go to the polls next Tuesday and vote. We are engaged in an all-out war to keep democracy alive. Democracy survives through the courage, fortitude and wisdom of many generations of fighting Americans. And that includes using not only bullets but ballots. I ask that employers all over the country will so arrange the work-day that they and their employees can go to the polls, and

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that there will be no deductions in pay for reasonable time neces­ sarily taken to vote. NOVEMBER 6,1942 [PRESS C O N F E R E N C E F O R EDITORS O F BUSINESS P U B ­ LICATIONS]

I am getting the best brains of business that I can get down here. My God, the people down here that are Roosevelt-hating, died-inthe-wool, old-fashioned Republicans! They have come to me and said, "Would you mind very much if I got so and so?" I have said, "No, go ahead. I am not telling you whom to employ." Now we have got WPB (War Production Board) which is — Oh, let's put it this way —it's 100 percent Republican. That's right. That'sfine.And the people there are hiring their own choice. Now that's an interesting fact. And I haven't said "No" yet. I think you know the story about Knudsen, who came in one day. He was submitting lists to me from time to time, and he brought in a list of 20 names of big business men, important business men. And I looked it over; I knew pretty well who they were. And I said, "Bill, look! Something got by you. There's a Democrat there." And he said, "Oh, no, Mr. President, There's no Demograt there." I said, "Well, what about that fellow there? He comes from Atlanta, Georgia." "Oh," says Bill, 'lie galls himself a Demograt but —he voted for Villkie!" So you —you business people, are running the show now. That is literally true. And there hasn't been a name in the WPB, or any of these organizations, where there is one man put in for political reasons, not one. I challenge you to point one out. Now that is pretty good. NOVEMBER 7,

1942

On the opening of the invasion of North Africa, FDR broadcast to the French people (in French) that we were coming not as en­ slavers but as liberators. NOVEMBER 13,

1942

[ T H E GI

BILL O F RIGHTS]

I am causing a study to be made by a committee of educators, un­ der the auspices of the War and Navy Departments, for the taking

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of steps to enable the young men whose education has been inter­ rupted to resume their schooling and afford equal opportunity for the training and education of other young men of ability after their service in the armed forces has come to an end. Some useful action along this Une was improvised at the end of the last war. This time we are planning in advance. NOVEMBER 19,1942 [ T O BRECKINRIDGE LONG]

What is the status of the transfer of American built ships to the Norwegianflag?They ask for ten of them. They have idle men - w e have the ships — why not marry them? DECEMBER 18,1942

Major General Patton commanded the Cavalry at Fort Myer soon after I came to Washington. He was one of the earliest Cavalry Officers to shift to tanks. He came to see me at the White House two weeks before the American expedition started for Casablanca and I asked him whether he had his old Cavalry saddle to mount on the turret of a tank and if he went into action with his saber drawn. Patton is a joy. DECEMBER 28,

1942

[ T O FRED A N D PORTLAND ALLEN U P O N R E C E I V I N G

F R O M T H E M O N E C O F F E E B E A N I N A J E W E L CASE]

You and your wife, more than all others, must be held responsible for my continuance in the White House. During the past anguished months, with their coffeeless breakfasts, I had decided to resign as Commander-in-Chief and had been offered an appointment as Ser­ geant Major in the Army with the promise that I would be stationed at one of the bases in Brazil where I could have coffee six times a day. Today all is changed. Your coffee bean has made the sun come out. Under my new patented process I find that I can grind it and percolate it twice a day for at least three months. If you really want to accomplish the heart's objective of some of your fellow radio commentators, you can force me out of the White House in ninety days by not sending me another coffee bean! On the other hand, if you do not think I am as big a bad wolf as they paint me, send me another bean the end of March.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

"Hit Him and Hit Him Again" - » X « - - » X « - -»X«(• - » X « - -»X»«(• - » X « - - » X « - - » X « - » X « -

1943

One year ago, 26 Nations signed at Washington the Declaration by United Nations. The unity thus achieved amidst dire danger has borne ripe fruit. The United Nations are passing from the defensive to the offensive. The unity achieved on the battle line is being earnestly sought in the not less complex problems on a different front. In this as in no previous war men are conscious of the supreme necessity of plan­ ning what is to come after — and of carrying forward into peace the common effort which will have brought them victory in the war. They have come to see that the maintenance and safeguarding of peace is the most vital single necessity in the lives of each and all of us. Our task on this New Years Day is threefold: first, to press on with the massed forces of free humanity till the present bandit assault upon civilization is completely crushed; second, so to organ­ ize relations among Nations that forces of barbarism can never again break loose; third, to cooperate to the end that mankind may enjoy in peace and in freedom the unprecedented blessings which Divine Providence through the progress of civilization has put within our reach. JANUARY 6,

1943

I am transmitting herewith a War Budget exceeding 100 billion dollars for thefiscalyear beginning July 1, 1943. Last year I called the Budget an instrument for transforming a peace economy into a war economy. This Budget presents the maximum program for waging war.

" H I T JANUARY 7,

1943

H I M A N D H I T H I M [STATE O F T H E UNION

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MESSAGE]

The Axis powers knew that they must win the war in 1942 — or eventually lose everything. I do not need to tell you that our enemies did not win in 1942. In the Pacific area, our most important victory in 1942 was the air and naval battle off Midway Island. The action is historically important because it secured for our use communication Unes stretching thousands of miles in every direction. During this period we inflicted steady losses upon the enemy — great losses of Japanese planes and naval vessels, transports and cargo ships. As early as one year ago, we set as a primary task in the war of the Pacific a day-by-day and week-by-week task of the destruction of more Japanese war materials than Japanese industry could replace. We know that as each day goes by, Japanese strength in ships and planes is going down and down, and American strength in ships and planes is going up and up. The period of our defense attrition in the Pacific is drawing to a close. Now our aim is to force the Japanese tofight.Last year, we stopped them. This year we intend to advance. I cannot tell you when or where the United Nations are going to strike next in Europe. We are going to strike — and strike hard. I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike by land, we will hit them from the air heavily and relentlessly. Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports. Yes, the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it — and they are going to get it. Our forward progress in this war has depended upon our prog­ ress on the production front. A year ago we set certain production goals for 1942 and for 1943. Some people, including some experts, thought that we had pulled some bigfiguresout of a hat just to frighten the Axis. But we had confidence in the ability of our people to establish new records. And that confidence has been justified. The arsenal of democracy is making good.

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While we have been achieving this miracle of production, during the past year our armed forces have grown from a little over 2,000,¬ 000 to 7,000,000. In other words, we have withdrawn from the labor force and the farms some 5,000,000 of our younger workers. And in spite of this, our farmers have contributed their share to the common effort by producing the greatest quantity of food ever made available during a single year in all our history. We all know that there have been mistakes — mistakes due to the inevitable process of trial and error inherent in doing big things for thefirsttime. But we are determined to see to it that our supplies of food and other essential civilian goods are distributed on a fair and just basis — to rich and poor, management and labor, farmer and city dweller alike. We are determined to keep the cost of living at a stable level. Our experience will enable us during the coming year to improve the necessary mechanisms of wartime economic controls, and to sim­ plify administrative procedures. But we do not intend to leave things so lax that loopholes will be left for cheaters, for chiselers, or for the manipulators of the black market. It is often amusing, and it is sometimes politically profitable, to picture the city of Washington as a madhouse, with the Con­ gress and the Administration disrupted with confusion and indeci­ sion and general incompetence. Washington may be a madhouse — but only in the sense that it is the Capital City of a Nation which isfightingmad. And I think that Berlin and Rome and Tokyo, which had such contempt for the obsolete methods of democracy, would now gladly use all they could get of that same brand of madness. We and all the United Nations, want a decent peace and a durable peace. In the years between the end of thefirstWorld War and the beginning of the second World War, we were not living under a decent or a durable peace. I have reason to know that our boys at the front are concerned with two broad aims beyond the winning of the war; and their thinking and their opinion coincide with what most Americans here back home are mulling over.

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The men in our armed forces want a lasting peace, and equally, they want permanent employment for themselves, their families, and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war. Two years ago I spoke in my Annual Message of four freedoms. The blessings of two of them —freedom of speech and freedom of religion — are an essential part of the very life of the Nation; and we hope that these blessings will be granted to all men everywhere. The people at home, and the people at the front, are wondering a little about the third freedom — freedom from want. To them it means that when they are mustered out, when war production is converted to the economy of peace, they will have therightto expect full employment — full employment for themselves and for all ablebodied men and women in America who want to work. They expect the opportunity to work, to run their farms, their stores, to earn decent wages. They are eager to face the risks in­ herent in our system of free enterprise. They do not want a postwar America which suffers from under­ nourishment or slums, or the dole. They want no get-rich-quick era of bogus "prosperity" which will end for them in selling apples on a street corner, as happened after the bursting of the boom in 1929. I have been told that this is not the time to speak of a better America after the war. I am told it is a grave error on my part. » I dissent. And if the security of the individual citizen, or the family, should become a subject of national debate, the country knows where I stand. In this war of survival wé must keep before our minds not only the evil things wefightagainst but the good things we are fighting for. We fight to retain a great past — and we fight to gain a greater future. Let us remember, too, that economic safety for the America of the future is threatened unless a greater economic stability comes to the rest of the world. We cannot make America an island in

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either a military or an economic sense. Hitlerism, like any other form of crime or disease, can grow from the evil seeds of economic as well as military feudalism. Victory in this war is thefirstand greatest goal before us. Victory in the peace is the next. That means striving toward the enlargement of the security of man here and throughout the world — and,finally,striving for the fourth freedom — freedom from fear. It is of little account for any of us to talk of essential human needs, of attaining security, if we run the risk of another World War in ten or twenty orfiftyyears. That is just plain common sense. Wars grow in size, in death and destruction, and in the inevitability of engulfing all Nations, in inverse ratio to the shrinking size of the world as a result of the conquest of the air. I shudder to think of what will happen to humanity, including ourselves, if this war ends in an inconclusive peace, and another war breaks out when the babies of today have grown tofightingage. Undoubtedly a few Americans, even now, think that this Nation can end this war comfortably and then climb back into an American hole and pull the hole in after them. But we have learned that we can never dig a hole so deep that it would be safe against predatory animals. We have also learned that if we do not pull the fangs of the predatory animals of this world, they will multiply and grow in strength — and they will be at our throats again once more in a short generation. After thefirstWorld War we tried to achieve a formula for per­ manent peace, based on a magnificent idealism. We failed. But by our failure we have learned that we cannot maintain peace at this stage of human development by good intentions alone. Today the United Nations are the mightiest military coalition in all history. They represent an overwhelming majority of the popu­ lation of the world. Bound together in solemn agreement that they themselves'will not commit acts of aggression or conquest against any of their neighbors, the United Nations can and must remain united for the maintenance of peace by preventing any attempt

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to rearm in Germany, in Japan, in Italy, or in any other Nation which seeks to violate the Tenth Commandment — "Thou shalt not covet." There are cynics, there are skeptics who say it cannot be done. The issue of this war is the basic issue between those who believe in mankind and those who do not — the ancient issue between those who put their faith in the people and those who put their faith in dictators and tyrants. There have always been those who did not believe in the people, who attempted to block their forward move­ ment across history, to force them back to servility and suffering and silence. JANUARY 24,

1943

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E A T CASABLANCA]

Peace can only come to the world by the total elimination of German and Japanese war power. We had a General, Ulysses S. Grant, but in my, and the Prime Ministers [ChurchiWs], early days he was called "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. The elimination of German, Japanese and Italian war power means the unconditional surrender by Germany, Italy and Japan. It does not mean the destruction of the population but it does mean the destruction of the philosophies of those countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other people. FEBRUARY 12,

1943

I have seen our men —and some of our American women —in North Africa. Because of the necessary secrecy of my trip, the men of our armed forces in every place I visited were completely sur­ prised. And the expression on their faces certainly proved that. In every battalion, and in every ship's crew, you will find every kind of American citizen representing every occupation, every sec­ tion, every origin, every religion, and every political viewpoint. Ask them what they arefightingfor, and every one of them will say, "I amfightingfor my country/' Ask them what they really mean by that, and you will get what on the surface may seem to be a wide variety of answers. One will say that he isfightingfor the right to say what he pleases, and to read and listen to what he likes.

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Another will say he isfightingbecause he never wants to see the Nazi Swastikaflyingover the old First Baptist Church on Elm Street. Another soldier will say that he isfightingfor the right to work, and to earn three square meals a day for himself and his folks. And another one will say that he isfightingso that his children and his grandchildren will not have to go back to Europe, or Africa, or Asia, or the Solomon Islands, to do this ugly job all over again. But all these answers really add up to the same thing: every American isfightingfor freedom. And today the personal freedom of every American and his family depends, and in the future will increasingly depend, upon the freedom of his neighbors in other lands. For today the more you travel, the more you realize that the whole world is one neighborhood. That is why this war that had its beginnings in seemingly remote areas — China — Poland — has spread to every continent, and most of the islands of the sea, involving the lives and liberties of the whole human race. And unless the peace that follows recognizes that the whole world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of another world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind. FEBRUARY 12,1943 [PRESS C O N F E R E N C E F O R N E W S P A P E R EDITORS]

Mr. Early: Josephus Daniels is present, sir. Mr. Daniels: Mr. President, would you mind telling them the story you told me about the Rumanian priest? FDR: Oh, yes. Its rather a nice motto, and I believe it is true. The Orthodox Church in Rumania has a proverb, and the proverb runs something like this. Mind you, it has the blessing of the Church. It says, "It is permitted to you, my children, in time of danger to walk with the Devil until you have crossed the bridge." FEBRUARY 15,1943

FDR asked Congress not to pass an act repealing his right to set a limitation of $25,000 on salaries. He pointed out:

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This desire to limit personal profits during wartime is no new thought. Its origin is neither alien nor obscure. It is in accord with the solemn pledges of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. In 1924, just after our soldiers had returned from thefirstWorld War and the leaders of both parties were conscious of the views of the returning soldiers as to war profiteering, the Republican Party declared in its platform: We believe that in time of war the Nation should draft for its defense not only its citizens but also every resource which may contribute to success. The country demands that should the United States ever again be called upon to defend itself by arms the President be empowered to draft such material re­ sources and such services as may be required and to stabilize the prices of services and essential commodities, whether uti­ lized in actual warfare or private activity. The Democratic Party Platform the same year solemnly pledged: In the event of war in which the manpower of the Nation is drafted, all other resources should likewise be drafted. This will tend to discourage war by depriving it of its profits. I repeat, this was in 1924, not 1928, and that these were the platforms of the Republican and Democratic Parties. I agree with those who say that the limitation of salaries does not deal adequately with the problem of excessive personal profits and that the limitation should extend to all income. My Executive Order endeavored to correct the inequity to the extent of the power granted me. The Congress can make the limitation adequate by ex­ tending it to the coupon clipper as well as the man who earns the salary. Therefore, I urge the Congress to levy a special war supertax on net income from whatever source derived (including income from tax-exempt securities), which, after payment of regular income taxes, exceeds $25,000 in the case of a single person and $50,000 in the case of a married couple.

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16,1943 [PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ] To hit back at FDR on his efforts to limit salaries Senator Kenneth McKellar introduced a bill that would have, if passed, required all Federal employees getting $4500 or above to have Senate confirma­ tion. This would have returned the Federal government back to the old theory that "to the victor belong the spoils"

FEBRUARY

Q: Have you familiarized yourself with Senator McKellar s bill which would take 70,000 Government employees out of civil service and require their confirmation by the Senate? FDR: Only what I read in the papers. Q: Well, Ifiguredout that if there was a debate in the Senate on one out of a hundred and they limited the debate tofiveminutes to each side, which is pretty short for the Senate . . . FDR: You are right. Q: . . . it would take 45 minutes a day for an entire year to pass those one out of a hundred. Don't you think the Senate in war­ time could be better employed? FDR: There's a line in the Bible that says, "Thou hast said it." Q: The real idea is that the two Senators from each State would pass on the nominations. The State of New York will get about 7,000 nominations. If the two Senators took ten minutes apiece to consider them, it would take them six hours per day, six days a week, for an entire year to pass on them. FDR: I saw the other day that they voted in committee to abolish the National Resources Planning Board. The board has been working on all kinds of things that can't be put through just by legis­ lation. What are we going to do at the end of the war? I think that keeping on getting ready for the postwar period is going to save the Nation several billion dollars in time, in lack of employment, in the uncertainty of employees. I am in a role that I am not often played up in, I am the great saver of money, the watchdog on the pockets of the people of this country; and the spendthrifts, in the last analysis, if we don't plan

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ahead, are those people in the legislative branch of the Govern­ ment who vote to end planning. MARCH 10,1943

FDR transmitted to Congress the report of the National Re¬ sources Planning Board for postwar plans, security, work and relief policies. MARCH 10,

1943

[ A T A R E C E P T I O N F O R N E W SENATORS A N D REPRE­

SENTATIVES]

During the last Congress things were pretty busy at the White House, and I honestly believe there were thirty to forty of the new Congressmen whom I never met at all. The amount of literature that I get from the General Staff, the needs of the Army, and manpower, and Navy, take an awful lot of time. It limits my schedule in the morning — when I see people — tofiveor six people instead of ten or fifteen. I am doing the best I can. I do wish to goodness that I had more time, as I did before, to see personally the members of the House and Senate. I think that part of it is my fault, so my secretaries tell me. When somebody comes in on a ten-minute appointment I start to do the talking. I get enthusiastic, and the result is that my visitor hasn't had a chance to get a word in edgewise. And that is something I am trying to school myself on — to try to let the other fellow talk, instead of my doing it. And that is about the hardest thing I have to do in this life, because as some of you who have been here before know, I love to talk. It is an unfortunate characteristic. MARCH 23,1943 [ T O CORDELL HULL]

Apropos of our conversation the other afternoon, I wish you would explore, with the British, the question of what our plan is to be in Germany and Italy during thefirstfew months after Germany's collapse. I think you had better confer with Stimson about it too. My thought is if we get a substantial meeting of the minds with the British that we should, then, take it up with the Russians.

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APRIL 8,1943

In a hold-the-line order FDR followed through on the authority given him by Congress that "insofar as is practicable, wages, salaries and prices should be stabilized as of the level of September 15, 1942." OPA immediately began a program to roll back the cost of living. Within two months the prices of thirty-nine commodities had been rolled back and aggressive steps had been taken to check blackmarket operations. Until the killing of OPA by a coalition of Re­ publicans and conservative Democrats in the summer of 1946, prices remained fairly stable. APRIL 11,1943

Congress, in a rider to the Public Debt Act of 1943, specifically took away the President's power to limit net salaries to $25,000. FDR did not veto the act because it was necessary to financing the war activities. But he did say: Congress has chosen to rescind my action limiting excessive salaries without even attempting to offer a substitute. The result is that Congress has authorized the drafting of men into the Army for $600 a year regardless of whether they are earning $1,000 or $100,000 a year, but has refused to authorize the reduction in the salary of any man not drafted into the Army no matter how high his income may be. At the same time the stabilization program requires wage in­ creases to be denied to workers earning $1,500 a year even when their employers are willing to pay those wage increases. The essence of stabilization is that each should sacrifice for the benefit of all. This principle the Congress has failed to recognize. Some two or three thousand persons who on September 15, 1942, were receiving salaries in excess of $67,000 may continue to re­ ceive them. About 750 persons will be able to receive salaries in excess of $100,000; about 30 persons, salaries in excess of $250,000; and 3 or 4 persons, salaries in excess of $500,000. One hundred and thirty million Americans can make the stabiliza­ tion program work even though a relative handful of persons are

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not obliged to cooperate as they should. The exemption accorded these excessively high salaries does not help morale, but American morale is too strong to be permanently injured by this ill-considered action. The Act of October 2, 1942, could be revised or repealed by Congress but subject, under the Constitution, to the approval or veto of the President. But Congress did not adopt this constitutional method. It chose to take away the authority of the President to adjust salaries which were grossly inequitable, not by a separate law, but by attaching a rider to a bill increasing the debt limit. The system of attaching riders to bills relating to wholly different subjects has been protested by many former Presidents, and the practice has been condemned by sound opinion. Thus the Congress has successfully and effectively circumvented my power to veto. I still hope and trust that the Congress, at the earliest possible moment, will give consideration to imposing a special war supertax on net income, from whatever source derived, which after the payment of all taxes exceeds $25,000. I still believe that the Nation has a common purpose — equality of sacrifice in wartime. 21,1943 It is with a feeling of deepest horror, which I know will be shared by all civilized peoples, that I have to announce the bar­ barous execution by the Japanese Government of some of this country's armed forces who fell into Japanese hands as an incident of warfare. This Government has vigorously condemned this act of barbarity in a formal communication to the Japanese Government. In that communication this Government has informed the Japanese Gov­ ernment that the American Government will hold personally and officially responsible for these diabolical crimes all of those officers of the Japanese Government who have participated therein and will in due course bring those officers to justice. APRIL

392

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STORY

MAY 2,1943

I want to make it clear that every American coal miner who has stopped mining coal — no matter how sincere his motives, no matter how legitimate he may believe his grievance to be — every idle miner directly and individually is obstructing our war effort. We have not yet won this war. We will win this war only as we produce and deliver our total American effort on the high seas and on the battle front. And that requires unrelenting, uninter­ rupted effort here on the home front. A stopping of the coal supply, even for a short time, would in­ volve a gamble with the lives of American soldiers and sailors and the future security of the whole people. It would involve an un­ warranted, unnecessary, and terribly dangerous gamble with our chances for victory. Therefore I say to all miners —and to all Americans everywhere, at home and abroad — the production of coal will not be stopped. At ten o clock yesterday morning the Government took over the mines. I called upon the miners to work for their Government. The Government needs their services just as surely as it needs the services of our soldiers, and sailors, and marines —the services of the millions who are turning out the munitions of war. There can be no one among us —no one faction — powerful enough to interrupt the forward march of our people to victory. FDR teas on his way to the Oval Room to make this address when he received news that John L. Lewis had concluded an agreement with Secretary of the Interior Ickes for the miners to return to work. He decided to proceed with the address anyhow. M A Y 7,1943 [PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

FDR: Mr. Joseph E . Davies is leaving, almost at once, on a Mission to Moscow. He will not be gone very long; he is coming right back. He is carrying with him a letter from me, of which he himself does not know the contents. After it is opened over there, he will learn what is in it, and they may talk about it, and he will come back. And what is in the letter —I will forestall somebody who is

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about to say something — he doesn't know and you don't know. And nuniber three, your guesses were nearly always wrong in the past. Q: Do we understand you told him to whom the letter is ad­ dressed? FDR: It is addressed to Mr. Joseph Stalin. MAY 17,

1943

[TO CONGRESS]

I am eager, as I am sure the whole country is eager, to see our taxes put on a pay-as-you-go basis at the earliest possible moment. The Senate bill, however, provides for the cancellation of a whole year's taxes. This cancellation would result in a highly inequitable distribution of the cost of the war and in an unjust and discrimina­ tory enrichment of thousands of taxpayers in the upper income groups. Such groups would be enriched by the cancellation of taxes already owing by them. The Senate bill would give to a man with an income of $2,000 a year a cancellation of taxes equalling less than four weeks income after taxes; a man with an income of $100,000 would receive a cancellation equalling twenty months income after taxes. The latter would have cancelled more than all war tax increases since 1939, and would thus escape financial contribution to the war effort. The fact that the upper income groups may pay just as many dollars into the Treasury in 1943 on account of their liability for 1943 does not detract from their enrichment nor change the result that they would have permanently escaped tax on the 1942 income. In spite of FDR's recommendation the bill as passed provided for a three-fourths cancellation of one year's tax. MAY 25,1943 At a conference with Winston Churchill the target date for the in­ vasion of France (Operation Overlord) was set at May 1, 1944. 11,1943 [PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ] I said to one of the old West Pointers where they had a lot of WAACs, "How are you getting on with all these gals around here?"

JUNE

394

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And he said, "We have put in 750 more. We not only need them, we can use them very usefully to release manpower for the various fronts. Incidentally, we old West Pointers, they have taught us something. We were sloppy. They salute better than we do. They are snappier in every way. They have improved the morale of this Postfiftypercent." Then I went into one of the plane factories, I think it was in Omaha, and I said to one of the old-type foremen — machinist foreman, "How do you like having all these gals around here?" "Well," he said, "it has done something to us. I dont know what it is," he says, patting his chin. "Look at my face?" I said, "What s the matter?" He said, "I used to shave twice or three times a week, but I have to shave every day now. My wife is kicking about it." I said, "Why? Because there are so many girls around?" He said, "No, not that, but I wear a clean shirt every day, and it means more wash back home." Well, all sorts of little human touches and things like that, and a great many other things, go to show that we are solving things in ways that we hadn't planned for. JUNE 25,

1943

[ON T H E C O A L M I N E R S GOING O U T A G A I N ]

The action of the leaders of the United Mine Workers coal miners has been intolerable — and has rightly stirred up the anger and disapproval of the overwhelming mass of the American people. JUNE 25,

1943

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

FDR teas holding out for subsidies to farmers to prevent the price of foods going higjrier. Others were for raising parity. Still others demanded the appointment of a "food czar." Supposing we had the Angel Gabriel as food czar, with full powers. Is he going to get more food to the people at the present cost? The real thing is, Are you for inflation or aren't you? There are a lot of people on the Hill that say the easiest way to use up the surplus in earning power, in income, is to let the whole of prices shoot sky-high. Sure, the richer people will be able to pay the higher prices for

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food. Well, automatically rents would go up and clothing would go up too. And in effect, they say, of course the poorer people will suffer, but what difference does that make? It will get rid of the surplus purchasing power. So it comes right down to that one thing: The issue before the Congress and the people is whether we are going to go into the inflationary spiral or not. Now if Congress wants to do it, 100 per cent of the responsibility is going to be in the Congress. They have the right to adopt an inflationary out-of-hand rise in the cost of living policy, and if they do the country ought to know who does it. JUNE 25,

1943

FDR vetoed the Smith-Connally Bill on the grounds that it toas discriminatory to labor. He pointed out that for the entire year of 1942, with the exception of the coal miners, the time lost by strikes averaged only %oo of 1% of the total man-hours worked. On the other hand, requiring, as the act did, a thirty-day cooling period before a strike could be called, it might "well become a boil­ ing period instead of a cooling period and then the strike would be legalized. It was passed over his veto. In practice the act worked out as he prophesied. 9

1,1943 Congress lopped off the National Resources Planning Board by the simple process of not appropriating money to pay its expenses.

JULY

JULY 27,

1943

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

T^iere are too many people in this country who go after a slogan, who simplify things down, who are not mature enough to realize that you cant take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle of it and put the war abroad— or the war front —on one side of the line, and put the home front — so-called — on another side of the line, because it all ties together. When we send an expedition into Sicily, where does it begin? Well, it begins at two places, practically, on the farms and in the mines of this country.

396

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And then the next step in getting that army into Sicily is the processing of the food, and the raw materials into steel, and then the munitions plants that turn the steel into tanks or planes or the aluminum, into whatever it may be. And then, even during that process and long time afterwards, a great many million people in this country are engaged in transporting it from the plant, or from the field, or to the seaboard. And then its put on ships that are made in this country, other­ wise you couldn't get it there at all. And it gets on board ships that you have to escort and convoy with a lot of other ships, and a lot of other planes that are based, most of them, in this country. And finally when they get to the other side, all these goods and men have to go ashore. And during the process of getting ready for an attack these men are putting into effect a training which they received over here before they started. They have been trained in many kinds of camps, they have maneuvers. Well, that is home front work, even when they are doing that. We have over two million men that are overseas and no man has gone over there that hasn't had pretty adequate training. Most of them have had training sufficient to enable them to go into action almost at once after they get there. That did not happen in 1917 and 1918. When the troops went over to France, the first thing they did was to go into a training camp two or three hundred miles behind the lines, before they were sufficiently trained to go up to the front. When an American soldier goes over from here, he is fully equipped, not only his clothing, but also all of the munitions, which includes guns, rifles, machine guns and ammunition, artillery small and large, tanks, planes, trucks, and everything else. When our boys went over in 17 and 18 it's a fact that a very large portion of their equipment was given to us — I shouldn't raise a question of whether it was given or loaned — it was turned over to us by Britain and France. Even many of the articles of personal apparel were turned over to us by Britain or France. A great number of our rifles came from Britain and France, a great majority of our

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artillery on the Western Front came from Britain and France. We built no tanks of our own that got over there. Most of the trucks came from Britain and France. And on the airplane end, in order to say that we hadflownsome of them on the other side, I think there were six or eight planes in France, none of which had beenflownagainst the enemy, which were put into the air during the last few days before the Armistice to save the record. But all through this we have to remember that there is just one front, which includes at home as well as abroad. Now I can t do anything about it because the thing has got started. It always reminds me of an example I use about things getting started. I have a little dog who is called Fala — F-A-L-A. But in the beginning, everybody got into their heads that his name was F - A - L - L - A , and you can't break them of the habit. Same thing goes for "home front." JULY 28, 1943

[ W H E N ITALY F E L L ]

The massed, angered forces of common humanity are on the march. Thefirstcrack in the Axis has come. JULY 30,

1943

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

Q: Mr. President, regarding your report to the nation the other night, there has been some speculation in some quarters as to its political portent, and some of your loyal opposition have released statements on it. FDR: It reminds me of what a member of the family said this morning: "Why in your next speech dont you try it a different way? Suppose a paragraph or two saying, 'The moon is beautiful/ Prob­ ably you will be accused, though, of playing politics because there are a lot of young people that like to sit out under the moon." JULY 30,

1943

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

I think the American people will be interested to know just what we are doing to help the Italians.

398

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O W N STORY

The immediate supply of food for both our troops and the civilian population in Sicily had to be landed across the beaches. Emer­ gency food for the civil population was met from the Army rations, and continues from military stocks. A stock pile of supplies especially for civilians has been established in North Africa, and is now being moved in. It includes sugar, andflour,and milk for children, olive oil, meat, and an Italian favorite called pasta. A generous amount of medical supplies, and also soap and matches, has been furnished, and the supply will continue. Public health doctors went with the assault elements. In addition, sanitary, civil supply, transportation, and agricultural experts were also sent in, for the purposes of organizing the food resources of the island itself for the benefit of the population. So you see we are making good on our promises. And our doing that will pay dividends, and will gain the cooperation of Italians as our troops push forward. SEPTEMBER 16,

1943

[ M E M O R A N D U M F O R T H E SECRETARY O F STATE]

In regard to the publication of the meetings with the Big Four in Paris in 1919, I am still not satisfied that it is advisable at this time. Their publication now would probably result in wholly un­ warranted sensational articles. Such articles would, without doubt, come from hostile sources. They would seek to draw untrue con­ clusions and parallels between 1919 and 1943. I am especially anxious that this wholly preventable result should not occur. I would suggest that if the Congress asks about the matter that they be told that the President has requested that they be not published until after the war, in order to avoid at this time the reopening of international controversy. They cannot go behind that with any success. Incidentally, in those meetings of the Big Four in Paris no notes should have been kept. Four people cannot be conversationally frank with each other if somebody is taking down notes for future publication. I feel very strongly about this and incidentally it is not going to do anybody any harm if we defer publication for a year or two.

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SEPTEMBER 21,1943 [ T O GEORGE W . NOBRIS]

I am inclined to believe that we should have a trial or transition period after thefightingstops — we might call it even a period of trial and error. Peoples all over the world are shell shocked —and they will require a recuperation period before final terms are laid down in regard to boundaries, transfers of population, free intercourse, the lowering of economic barriers, planning for mutual reconstruction, etc. It has long been my thought that the world cannot successfully take up all these things if fear of war hangs over the world. Therefore, I have been visualizing a superimposed — or if you like it, superassumed — obligation by Russia, China, Britain and our­ selves that we will act as sheriffs for the maintenance of order during the transition period. Such a period might last two or even three or four years. And, in the meantime, through the holding of many special conferences the broad ideals which you and I have in mind might be cleared up. OCTOBER 13,1943 [ T O BERNARD M. BARUCH]

That is a grand report showing that even in these times Saratoga Spa is increasing the good it does. There is only one thing that worries me — and that is the cost of going there for treatment. They tell me the Gideon Putnam Hotel is very expensive and that there is no provision for much poorer people except in Saratoga itself — a long way from the baths. Some day you and I must have a talk about this. I would much like to work out a plan for a place where people could get good bpard and lodging for five dollars a day. The treatment, of course, would be extra but on this it might be possible to work out two scales — the lower one for the people who cannot afford the higher prices. I have always favored the Mayo Brothers methods —and they got rich on it. But perhaps this thought if it fell into the hands of the wrong people would be labeled as another example of "Roosevelt soaks the richr

400

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15,1943 [TO SUMNER WELLES] I have talked to Morris Ernst about short books on the Four Freedoms and I would be delighted if you would do one of these books. Personally, I would use a gentle panning of the opponents of the Four Freedoms —but in a light vein. For instance, one could make comparisons between them and the nobility of France at the beginning of the French Revolution; with the small, but noisy minority who opposed the Magna Charta; with the rioters of Athens who drove out many wise men; and with the rambunctious children of Israel who made Moses so angry he smashed the Tablets of Stone. OCTOBER

OCTOBER 27,

1943

[TO CONGRESS]

On November 13, 1942, on signing the bill calling for the induc­ tion by Selective Service of young men eighteen and nineteen years old, I appointed a committee of educators, under the auspices of the War and Navy Departments, to study the problems of education of our service men and women after the war. Every day that the war continues interrupts the schooling and training of more men and women, and deprives them of the educa­ tional skills which they would otherwise acquire for use in later life. Not only the individual welfare of our troops, but the welfare of the Nation itself, requires that we reverse this trend just as quickly as possible after the war. We must replenish our supply of persons qualified to discharge the heavy responsibilities of the postwar world. We have taught our youth how to wage war; we must also teach them how to live useful and happy lives in freedom, justice and decency. Specifically, I agree with the recommendations made by the committee in this regard as follows: 1. The Federal Government should make itfinanciallyfeasible for every man and woman who has served honorably for a minimum period in the armed forces since September 16, 1940, to spend a period up to one calendar year in a school, a college, a technical institution, or in actual training in industry, so that he can further his education, learn a trade, or acquire the necessary knowledge

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and skill for farming, commerce, manufacturing, or other pursuits. 2. In addition, the Federal Government should make it financially possible for a limited number of ex-service men and women selected for their special aptitudes, to carry on their general, technical, or professional education for a further period of one, two, or three years. This assistance from Government should include not only cost of instruction but a certain amount óf money for maintenance. One incidental benefit of permitting discharged veterans to put in a year or more of schooling or training would be to simplify and cushion the return to civilian employment of service personnel. And I might call your attention to the fact that it costs less per year to keep a man at school or college or training on the job, than to main­ tain him on active military duty for a year. While the Federal Government should provide the necessary funds and should have the responsibility of seeing that they are spent providently and under generally accepted standards, the con­ trol of the educational processes and the certification of trainees and students should reside in the States and localities. NOVEMBER

9,

1943

[ T H E UNTIED NATIONS RELIEF A N D REHABILI­

T A T I O N ADMINISTRATION]

Here in the White House seated about a table in the historic East Room are representatives of 44 Nations — United Nations and those with them. The people of these 44 Nations include approximately 80 percent of the human race, now united by a common devotion to the cause of civilization and by a common determination to build for the future a world of decency and security and, above all, peace. Representatives of these 44 Nations — you gentlemen who repre­ sent them — have just signed an agreement creating the United Na­ tions Relief and Rehabilitation Administration — commonly known as UNRRA. This agency will help to put into practical effect some of the high purposes that were set forth in the declaration of the United Nations on January 1, 1942.

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DECEMBER 1, 1943

FDR, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Prime Minister Church¬ ill met at Cairo in November to work out plans for the final defeat of Japan. Later, FDR, Churchill and Stalin met at Teheran. Out of that meeting came a declaration of purposes signed by all three: We, the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and the Premier of the Soviet Union, have met these four days past, in this, the Capital of our ally, Iran, and have shaped and confirmed our common policy. We express our determination that our Nations shall work together in war and in the peace that will follow. As to war — our military staffs have pined in our round-table discussions, and we have concerted our plans for the destruc­ tion of the German forces. We have reached complete agree­ ment as to the scope and timing of the operations to be under­ taken from the east, west, and south. The common understanding which we have here reached guarantees that victory will be ours. And as to the peace — we are sure that our concord will win an enduring peace. We recognized fully the supreme respon­ sibiUty resting upon us and all the United Nations to make a peace which will command the good will of the overwhelming mass of the peoples of the world and banish the scourge and terror of war for many generations. With our diplomatic advisors, we have surveyed the prob­ lems of the future. We shall seek the cooperation and active participation of all Nations, large and small, whose peoples in heart and mind are dedicated, as are our own peoples, to the elimination of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance. We will welcome them, as they may choose to come, into a world family of democratic Nations. Emerging from these cordial conferences we look with con­ fidence to the day when all peoples of the world may live free lives, untouched by tyranny, and according to their varying desires, and their own consciences. We came here with hope and determination. We leave here, friends in fact, in spirit, and in purpose.

"HIT DECEMBER 24,

1943

HIM AND HIT H I M AGAIN"

403

[ O N CAIRO A N D TEHERAN]

On this Christmas Eve there are over 10,000,000 men in the armed forces of the United States alone. One year ago 1,700,000 were serving overseas. Today, this figure has been more than doubled to 3,800,000 on duty overseas. By next July 1, that number overseas will rise to over 5,000,000 men and women. That this is truly a world war was demonstrated to me when arrangements were being made with our overseas broadcasting agencies for the time to speak today to our soldiers, sailors, marines, and merchant seamen in every part of the world. Infixingthe time for this broadcast, we took into consideration that at this moment here in the United States, and in the Caribbean and on the north­ east coast of South America, it is afternoon. In Alaska and in Hawaii and the mid-Pacific, it is still morning. In Iceland, in Great Britain, in North Africa, in Italy, in the Middle East, it is now evening. In the Southwest Pacific, in Australia, in China and Burma and India, it is already Christmas Day. So we can correctly say that at this moment, in those Far Eastern parts where Americans are fight­ ing, today is tomorrow. The Cairo and Teheran conferences gave me my first oppor­ tunity to meet the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and Marshal Stalin — and to sit down at the table with these unconquerable men and talk with them face to face. We had planned to talk to each other across the table at Cairo and Teheran; we soon found that we were all on the same side of the table. We came to the Confer­ ence with faith in each other. But we needed the personal contact. And now we have supplemented faith with definite knowledge. It was well worth traveling thousands of miles over land and sea to bring about this personal meeting, and to gain the hearten­ ing assurance that we are absolutely agreed with one another on all the major objectives — and on the military means of attaining them. After the Cairo conference, Mr. Churchill and I went by airplane to Teheran. There we met with Marshal Stalin. We talked with complete frankness on every conceivable subject connected with the winning of the war and the establishment of a durable peace after the war.

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We agreed on every point concerned with the launching of a gigantic attack upon Germany. The Russian Army will continue its stern offensives on Germany's eastern front, the Allied armies in Italy and Africa will bring relentless pressure on Germany from the south, and now the encirclement will be complete as great American and British forces attack from other points of the com­ pass. The Commander selected to lead the combined attack from these points is General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His performances in Africa, in Sicily, and in Italy have been brilliant. During the last two days at Teheran, Marshal Stalin, Mr. Churchill, and I looked ahead to the days and months and years that will follow Germany's defeat. The United Nations have no intentions to enslave the German people. We wish them to have a normal chance to develop, in peace, as useful and respectable members of the European family. We intend to rid them once and for all of Nazism and Prussian mili­ tarism and the fantastic and disastrous notion that they constitute the "master race." We did discuss international relationships from the point of view of big, broad objectives, rather than details. But on the basis of what we did discuss, I can say even today that I do not think any insoluble differences will arise among Russia, Great Britain and the United States. Britain, Russia, China, and the United States must be united with and cooperate with all the freedom-loving peoples of Europe, and Asia, and Africa, and the Americas. Therightsof every Nation, large and small, must be respected and guarded as jealously as are the rights of every individual within our own Republic. The doctrine that the strong shall dominate the weak is the doc­ trine of our enemies — and we reject it. The overwhelming majority of all the people in the world want peace. Most of them arefightingfor the attainment of peace — not just a truce, not just an armistice — but peace that is as strongly enforced and as durable as mortal man can make it. If we are

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willing to fight for peace now, is it not good logic that we should use force if necessary, in the future, to keep the peace? DECEMBER 28,

1943

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

Q: Mr. President, after our last meeting with you, it appears that someone stayed behind and received word that you no longer like the term "New Deal." Would you care to express any opinion to the rest of us? FDR: Oh, I supposed that somebody would ask that. I will have to be terribly careful in the future how I talk to people after these press conferences. However, what he reported was accurate reporting. I hesitated for a bit as to whether I would say anything. It all comes down, really to a rather puerile and political side of things. The two go together well — puerile and political. This is the net of it. How did the New Deal come into existence? It was because there was an awfully sick patient called the United States of America, and it was suffering from a grave internal disorder — awfully sick — all kinds of things had happened to this patient, all internal things. And they sent for the doctor. And it was a long, long process — took several years before that particular illness of ten years ago was remedied. But after a while it was remedied. Since then the patient has had a very bad accident —not an in­ ternal trouble. Two years ago, on the seventh of December, he was in a pretty bad smashup — broke his hip, broke his leg, in two or three places, broke a wrist and an arm, and some ribs; and they didn't think he would live for a while. And then he began to come to. He has been in the charge of a partner of the old doctor; Old Dr. New Deal didn't know "nothing" about legs and arms. He knew a great deal about internal medicine, but nothing about surgery. So he got his partner, who was an ortho­ pedic surgeon, Dr. Win-the-War, to take care of this fellow who had been in this bad accident. And the result is that the patient is back on his feet. He has given up his crutches. He isn't wholly well yet, and he won't be until he wins the war.

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And I think that it is almost as simple, that little allegory, as learning again how to spell "eat." The remedies that old Dr. New Deal used were for internal troubles. But at the present time, obviously, the principal emphasis, the overwhelmingfirstemphasis should be on winning the war. And when victory comes, the program of the past has got to be carried on with what is going on in other countries —a postwar program — because it will pay. We can't go into an economic isola­ tionism, any more than it would pay to go into a military isolationism. It is a question of long range which ties human beings with dollars to the benefit of the dollars and the benefit of the human beings. We are still in the generality stage, not in the detail stage, because we are talking about principles. Later on we will come down to the detail stage, and we can take up anything and discuss it then. We don't want to confuse people by talking about it now. But it seems pretty clear that we must plan for, and help bring about, an expanded economy which will result in more security, more employment, more recreation, for our citizens so that the con­ ditions of 1932 and the beginning of 1933 won't come back. Q: Does that all add up to a fourth-term declaration? FDR: Oh, now, we are not talking about things like that now. You are getting picayune. That is another grand word beginning with p. Q: I don't mean to be picayune, but I am not clear about this parable. The New Deal, I thought, was dynamic, and I don't know whether you mean that you had to leave off to win the war and then will take up again the social program, or whether you think the patient is cured. FDR: The 1933 program was a program to meet the problems of 1933. Now, in time, there will have to be a program, whoever runs the Government. We are not talking in terms of 1933's program. We have done nearly all of that. But that doesn't make impossible or unneedful another program when the time comes.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

Through the Mists: One Neighborhood -»X«- »XX«-

JANUARY 11,

1944

[STATE O F T H E UNION M E S S A G E ]

This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner in the world's greatest war against human slavery. We are united in determination that this war shall not be followed by another interim which leads to new disaster — that we shall not repeat the tragic error of ostrich isolationism — that we shall not repeat the excesses of the wild twenties when this Nation went for a joy ride on the roller coaster which ended in a tragic crash. When Mr. Hull went to Moscow in October, and when I went to Cairo and Teheran in November, there were many vital questions concerning the future peace, and they were discussed in an atmosphere of complete candor and harmony. And right here I want to address a word or two to some suspicious souls who are fearful that Mr. Hull or I have made "commitments" for the future which might pledge this Nation to secret treaties, or to enacting the role of Santa Claus. There were no secret treaties or political orfinancialcommitments. The one supreme objective for the future, which we discussed for each Nation individually, and for all the United Nations, can be summed up in one word: Security. And that means not only physical security which provides safety from attacks by aggressors. It means also economic security, social security, moral security — in the family of Nations. There are people who burrow through our Nation like unseeing moles, and attempt to spread the suspicion that if other Nations

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are encouraged to raise their standards of living, our own American standard of living must of necessity be depressed. The fact is the very contrary. It has been shown time and again that if the standard of living of any country goes up, so does its purchasing power — and that such a rise encourages a better stand­ ard of living in neighboring countries with whom it trades. That is just plain common sense — and it is the kind of common sense that provided the basis for our discussions at Moscow, Cairo, and Teheran. Returning from my journeying, I must confess to a sense of 'let­ down' when I found many evidences of faulty perspective here in Washington. The faulty perspective consists in overemphasizing lesser problems and thereby underemphasizing the first and great­ est problem. While the majority goes on about its great work without com­ plaint, a noisy minority maintains an uproar of demands for special favors for special groups. There are pests who swarm through the lobbies of the Congress and the cocktail bars of Washington, repre­ senting these special groups as opposed to the basic interests of the Nation as a whole. They have come to look upon the war primarily as a chance to make profits for themselves at the expense of their neighbors — profits in money or in terms of political or social preferment. If ever there was a time to subordinate individual or group self­ ishness to the national good, that time is now. Disunity at home — bickerings, self-seeking partisanship, stoppages of work, inflation, business as usual, politics as usual, luxury as usual —these are the influences which can undermine the morale of the brave men ready to die at the front for us here. JANUARY 11,

1944

Several alleged reasons have prevented the enactment of legis­ lation which would preserve for our soldiers and sailors and marines the fundamental prerogative of citizenship — the right to vote. No amount of legalistic argument can becloud this issue in the eyes of these ten million American citizens. Surely the signers of the Con-

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stitution did not intend a document which, even in wartime, would be construed to take away the franchise of any of those who are fighting to preserve the Constitution itself. The Army and Navy have reported that it will be impossible effectively to administer forty-eight different soldier-voting laws. It is the duty of Congress to remove this unjustifiable discrimina­ tion against the men and women in our armed forces —and to do it as quickly as possible. FEBRUARY

5,

1944

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E F O R PUBLISHERS O F NEGRO

NEWSPAPERS]

It is perfectly true, there is definite discrimination in the actual treatment of the colored engineer troops and others. And you are up against it as you knojv perfectly well. I have talked about it to the Secretary of War and the Assistant. The trouble lies fundamen­ tally in the attitude of certain white people — officers down the line who haven't got very much more education, many of them, than the colored troops and the Seabees and the engineers. It's a question of the personality of the individual. I always think that it is probably improving. I like to think that mere association helps things along. Two or three years ago I was down in Chattanooga. I drove with Governor Cooper through the southern end of Chattanooga, through the Negro section. And there was tremendous enthusiasm to see the President. And suddenly we came onto this broad avenue that was running south where all the enthusiasm stopped. And there were a good many colored people on the streets but they just stood there completely apathetic. I turned to Governor Cooper and said, "What's the matter with these people?" He said, "You are not in Tennessee any longer, you are in Georgia." That is an interesting thing. In Tennessee the great majority of Negroes in Chattanooga are voting; they can take part in the life of the community. You get across this invisible line, you pop over into the State of Georgia, not even one of them can vote.

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Its an interesting fact. Hands down — no enthusiasm at all; and a block further back everybody saying, "Hello, Mr. President," and so forth and so on. Last year I went to a place called Gambia in Africa, at the mouth of the Gambia River. Bathurst is the capital. I think there are about three million inhabitants, of whom one hundred andfiftyare white. And its the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life. The natives are five thousand years back of us. Disease is rampant, absolutely. And I looked it up, with a little study, and I got to the point of view that for every dollar that the British, who have been there for two hundred years, have put into Gambia, they have taken out ten. It's just plain exploitation of those people. There is no education whatsoever. And then a very interesting thing. They had no religion except the old forms of voodooism, which were tribal and came down through the centuries. The one religion that is gaining today in Gambia and contiguous colonies is Mohammedanism. Now people don't know about that here. Those people, of course, are completely incapable of self-government. You have to give them some educa­ tionfirst.Then you have got to better their health and their eco­ nomic position. The reason the Mohammedans are getting on so well is that the Mohammedan priest comes down to the village, and he has a few tools in his pocket. He has no money. And he goes and lives in a hut with some family. And the next morning he gets a stool and starts his trade, and he makes little silver ornaments or something like that— some little hand trade. And pretty soon the children gather around him, and he talks to them. Pretty soon one or two groups gather around him. Well, in the course of six months he has got a Mohammedan church. And he hasn't got any missionary society back home that pays him a salary. He makes his own way with his little trade. And the result is that Mohammedanism is gaining all through Africa at the present time. The Christian religion is not. The Mohammedan priest is a practical fellow. Now the agriculture there is perfectly pitiful. The one main asset

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is peanuts, and the natives grow a lot of peanuts. They still use a pointed stick. Nobody ever saw a plow in Gambia. The British have never done a thing about it. The only road out of Bathurst, the capital, we built out to the airport. The rest of the travel is up the Gambia River, but not back into the country at all. In a country like Gambia the people have no possibility of selfgovernment for a long time. But we have got to move, the way we did in the Philippines, to teach them self-government. That means education, it means sanitation, it means all those things. And that would be just as good for every white American to know as every colored American. Now, because of your traditional, historic association, it would be a grand thing if your Association could send two or three people out there, as a committee, to write stories about what is needed. I am taking up with Prime Minister Churchill the general thought that the United Nations ought to have an inspection committee of all these colonies that are way down the line that are not ready to have anything to say yet because the owning country has given them no facilities. Well, the Prime Minister doesn't like that idea. And his come­ back was, "All right, the United Nations will send an inspection committee to your own South in America." He thought he had me. I said, "Winston, that's all right with me. Go ahead and do it. Tell the world. We call it freedom of the press, and you also call it pitiless publicity — you can right a lot of wrongs with pitiless publicity!" It would be a grand thing. I wouldn't mind if we had a com­ mittee of the United Nations come here and make a report on us. Why not? We have got some things to be ashamed of, and other things that are not as bad as they are painted. Bring it all out. FEBRUARY 18,

1944

FDR vetoed a bill which, in extending the life of the Commodity Credit Corporation, took away the use of subsidies. He said: This bill is an inflation measure, a high cost of living measure, a food shortage measure.

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While increasing the cost of living, the prohibition of consumers' subsidies will not add one dollar to the income of the farmers. This bill would in effect reverse the policy of the Congress; in effect, it repeals the Stabilization Act of October 2, 1942. It is clear that we cannot hold the wage line if the Congress deprives us of the necessary powers to hold the cost of living line. No major country at war today has been able to stabilize the cost of living without the use of subsidies. Congress, fortunately, did not pass this bill over the veto. This was the last major effort of the "farm bloc" to try to break the line of holding prices down. Congress immediately after the veto passed a bill extending the life of the Commodity Credit Corporation until July 1, 1945, with­ out the crippling amendment. FEBRUARY 22,

1944

FDR vetoed a tax bill because it provided "relief not for the needy but for the greedy." He said: The bill is replete with provisions which not only afford in­ defensible special privileges to favored groups but set dangerous precedents for the future. This tendency toward the embodiment of special privileges in our legislation is in itself sufficiently dan­ gerous to counterbalance the loss of a very inadequate sum in addi­ tional revenues. It has been suggested by some that I would give my approval to this bill on the ground that having asked the Congress for a loaf of bread to take care of this war for the sake of this and succeeding generations, I should be content with a small piece of crust. I might have done so if I had not noted that the small piece of crust con­ tained so many extraneous and inedible materials. In another most important respect this bill would disappoint and fail the American taxpayers. Every one of them, including our­ selves, is disappointed, confused, and bewildered over the practical results of last year's tax bill. The Ruml Plan was not the product of this Administration. It resulted from a widespread campaign based on the attractive slogan of "Pay-as-you-go." But, as was said

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many years ago in New York in regard to the same slogan "You don't pay and you don t go." The Nation will readily understand that it is not the fault of the Treasury Department that the income taxpayers are flooded with forms to fill out which are so complex that even Certified Public Accountants cannot interpret them. No, it is squarely the fault of the Congress of the United States in using language in drafting the law which not even a dictionary or a thesaurus can make clear. The American taxpayer has been promised of late that tax laws and returns will be drastically simplified. This bill does not make good on that promise. It ignores the most obvious step toward sim­ plifying taxes by failing to eliminate the clumsy Victory Tax. For fear of dropping from the tax rolls those taxpayers who are at the bottom of the income scale, the bill retains the Victory Tax — while at the same time it grants concessions to many special interest groups. The suggestion of withholding at graduated rates, which would relieve millions of people of the task of filing declarations of esti­ mated incomes, was not adopted. I trust that the Congress, after all these delays, will act as quickly as possible for simplification of the tax laws which will make possible the simplification of the forms and computations now de­ manded of the individual taxpayers. These taxpayers, now engaged in an effort to win the greatest war this Nation has ever faced, are not in a mood to study higher mathematics. Congress promptly passed the tax hill over FDKs veto. When it comes to taxes, or to reorganization of the government for efficiency, Congress is still looking first at political fences. M A Y 6,

1944

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E A T HOBCAW BARONY, BERNARD M . .

BARUCH'S C O U N T R Y

PLACE]

The matter of a vacation hideout for the President is really a problem. Up until two years ago I used to do a lot of cruising down the Potomac. Then there arose the danger of German subs and of hostile planesflyingover the Potomac. It has no anti-aircraft protection. So the Navy stopped us.

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I looked around for some Government property near Washing­ ton. I tried in vain to go to Sugar Loaf Mountain. There's a place up there that belongs to a man who doesn't like me. He's going to give it to the Government some day but he didn't want the Presi­ dent going there. We found a place up in the Blue Ridge Mountains but it is practically impossible to get to. Then almost up to Gettysburg I found a place. It's up in the Catoctin Mountains. Then last summer a society gossip columnist broke the whole thing. It has no anti-aircraft protection. They are afraid that a certain bunch of crackpots will take some planes — wouldn't take more than two or three — and unload some bombs on the place. Then I learned of this place. I like it. I can do a little fishing and get lots of rest. I would like to come down here again but if it becomes known, it won't hold. M A Y 6, 1944

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

I want to tell you a story about a Marine court-martial case at Guantanamo. You know, a court-martial in any of the services is a very solemn affair. They had appointed down there a major general, a couple of colonels, two or three majors as members, and a judge advocate of the court. They had also assigned another officer to the defense. The accused was a second lieutenant, a youngster who had, I think, been in the service six months or so. He had been sentenced to dismissal. It was approved by the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, the Major General Commandant, and the Secretary of the Navy. It came on down to me. I picked it up to read it. The more I read of it, the more I laughed. This youngster had gone out from Guantanamo — Guantanamo is a U. S. naval reservation surrounded by Cuba —he had taken a party out on patrol around the edges of the eastern side of the reservation. About two miles out they ran across some cows. The cows obvi­ ously were strays. There was a good deal of question as to whether

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the cows were on the Cuban side or the American side. One calf was limping very badly. After a conversation, some members of the patrol felt that this calf was suffering a great deal. That was a perfectly correct assumption. The second lieutenant told the ser­ geant that he would take the responsibility, and that he thought the calf should be put out of its misery. So the sergeant shot the calf. Now, it happened that they had in this patrol the company cook. They butchered the calf. The result was the whole company had veal for about three days, perfectly delicious veal, butchered by the company cook. The story came to the ears of the major general, that one of his officers had shot a calf. The kid got a court-martial and all that a court-martial means in time of war. It was all lined up to ruin this kid's life —to dismiss him from the service. Maybe he did want the veal. So I took the recommendation that had been prepared for my signature — reading "Approved. The Sentence will be carried into effect" and instead of signing it, I wrote thereon, The sentence is approved, but it is mitigated, so that in lieu of being dismissed the accused will be placed on probation for a year, subject to the pleasure of the President. This man must be taught not to shoot calves. FRANKLIN D .

ROOSEVELT

It went back to the Marine Corps Headquarters. And they were wild. They thought I was trying to be funny with the Marine Corps. MAY

26, 1944

FDR called a meeting for early July to meet at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to discuss international monetary matters. This was the beginning of a series of meetings and conferences that led, up to the United Nations meeting at San Francisco. MAY

30,

1944

[PRESS C O N F E R E N C E ]

Q: Are you going to try to revive the League of Nations? F D R : We have an objective today and that is to join with the other Nations for general world peace in setting up some machinery

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of talking things over with other Nations, without taking away the independence of the United States in any shape, manner, or form, or destroying its integrity, so that if some Nation started to run amuck, or some combination of Nations started to run amuck, and seeks to grab territory or invade its neighbors, that there would be a unanimity of opinion that the time to stop them was before they got started. The League of Nations had that very great purpose. It got dread­ fully involved in American politics instead of being regarded as nonpartisan. And that is why, in this particular year, the Secretary of State and I have been working very closely in conference with the duly constituted machinery of Government, which happens to be the Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee — four from each party. So far the conversations have been non-partisan. We have been talking with Britain and Russia about the plan which was evolved over here which is infirstdraft. It will be modi­ fied of course. I also talked with the Generalissimo in Cairo along the same line. Q: Are there points? FDR: Oh, n©, this is an organization. Things like points are prin­ ciples. This is a working organization. Q: Would you submit it to the Senate . . . ? FDR: Now you are waxing political. >Xxxx