ROOSEVELT-AMERICA'S DEMOCRAT
ROOSEVELT—AMERICA'S DEMOCRAT Emil Ludwig Finds in Him Bulwark Against Fascism THE famous biographer has GIVEN THE editors of the mew leader permission to make a digest of a speech, ON...
...has no intention whatever of wbautung to Communist Infiltration and the French delegate, Leon Jouhaux, General Secretary of the...
...Some years of inner concentration followed...
...I have asked all observant men and women, who have known him for twenty years...
...and Communists are a*, longer on speaking terms and the rtegotisfjons for organic unity between the two pajrtio...
...But in such a cause, which of us would grudge such an increase in his living expenses...
...I liked in Roosevelt his ability and his manner of handling other men...
...But there are other independent, earnest men against him...
...The totalitarian < states have-a swift and effective way of strangling the troth...
...with Germany if Chechoslovakia is attacked...
...Always this kind of man was attacked from both sides...
...To accomplish such an idea, needs a politician like me...
...Roosevelt is entirely philanthropic The dictator rules by inciting fear...
...As an analyst of human characters, it is my business to make dead heroes live and to send living men back through the centuries...
...ROOSEVELT—AMERICA'S DEMOCRAT Emil Ludwig Finds in Him Bulwark Against Fascism THE famous biographer has GIVEN THE editors of the mew leader permission to make a digest of a speech, ON THE president...
...The workman accepts him more readily because even such a son of good luck has had his dark time in life...
...AND I hope the stockholders will show a proper *" spirit and comply liberally with this reasonable request...
...I understand perfectly when a proud nation takes some feeling against the man to whom she con^ ferred in an hour of emergency more power than to any man before, I admire this feeling in America today, just as I like it in a proud woman who would never forgive a man for the fact that she delivered herself to him in a weak moment...
...The dictator speaks always of the power of the nation...
...But, for the reasons that I mentioned as prompting the Halifax visit to Germany, France has no intention of abandoning her weaker friends in Central and Eastern Europe...
...But the general line is clear...
...Since Wilson, no American has attracted European eyes as much as Roosevelt, even more than Theodore Roosevelt did, because we think the European future dependent decidedly upon the attitude of the United States...
...a typical open american mind IF Roosevelt warned the dictators, their moves on this very hetm* sphere shows you how near the danger is...
...I am only a man-hunter—I collect men...
...What did Hitler say to Lord Halifax...
...He had the good fortune of his illness...
...Another indignant voice: "What does that mean if he uses always the wrong method...
...The rising tide of Communist coptrol in the Trade Unions has provoked a violent non-political syndicalist reaction...
...If this is magic, I wish every nation such a magician...
...Roosevelt's decision—some stand is forced upon you, since it now takes foar days from London to New York and not four months, as it did in President Monroe's day...
...MO fascism seen HERE . DOOSEVELT'S development and his character are both opposed * to dictatorship...
...You can readily see the anguish that must dwell in such a household...
...Once I asked him if his standard of morality based on the ten commandments since childhood had remained always the same...
...Roosevelt of the happiness of the individual...
...Like Roosevelt, Mirabeau was suspected by all classes...
...DUT I am sure that no Right-Minded Person will be moved by this demagogic appeal, which clearly deserves the censure lately passed by the President of Harvard upon "sentimentalists...
...has rendered remote a policy of violent intervention by France...
...I put them in a kind of glass aquarium, where I watch their movements...
...if you had felt what it is to have your letters opened, your telephone overheard—every newspaper you read uniform with all others because they are all dictated...
...He knows very well that no nation goes to war to save the the world...
...If you see your oldest friend murdered because he resisted to be a pacifist—then you will understand what it means—the light in the hand of that gigantic woman in the port of New York to enlighten the shores of a happy country...
...All these considerations came out or rather were kept quiet when M. Chautemps and M. Yvon Delbos visited London...
...The answer is a complex of British Toryism...
...That's usual...
...Why not for 40 years...
...Only then I understood the responsibility in social justice...
...One said: "Look at that fish...
...The French Government of the ] People's Front is not, however, playing a double game, like its reactionary predecessors...
...And Mr...
...Trouble may, be anticipated in the International Federation of Trades Unions following the return to Psru oi its .delegation which visited Moscow to discuss the aSsliaUon of the Soviet Unions...
...All these men developed their character slowly...
...Two classes among Mr...
...No shirts, whatever color, endanger you Americans...
...We are back in the thick of secret diplomacy and it behooves us to speak out...
...H»- French Premier and his Foreign Minister have visited the British Prime Minister and his '- Secretary for Foreign Affairs...
...Roosevelt loves fighting...
...Only if you had lived some months under a dictatorship in Europe...
...The internal situation of the nations countries is naturally reflected in their foreign policy to a greater or lesser extent...
...Un'um-Hitler, he lacks cunning advisers...
...I have in mind for a general Christmas offering, the poor, unfortunate, hard-beset railroad presidents of the United States, now sunk in the bleak depths of penury and subsisting upon crust and charity...
...Nor has Italy ceased to fear a Germanic drive to the sea at her expense...
...He is not at all afraid to be called a politician—he wishes to end this word as a term of abuse...
...Hsd he lived longer, he perhaps woiild have hindered the revolution...
...Really they have ysPWybudged...
...jf Europeans do not look upon Roosevelt's ideas as new> Social changes have been made in the last twenty years in Moscow, Borne, Berlin...
...France will ga to war...
...Before a committee of the Senate the disgraceful and disheartening fact was bared to the shame of all of us that this poor man receives a beggarly salary of only $100,000 a year...
...First, because he does not know the internal differences, he looks at the entire situation more naively...
...Second, with historical predecessors, men who did similar things in similar situations...
...If you have hidden your favorite books under the bed because police come unexpectedly...
...It is therefore quite natural that Paris and Berlin should have resumed their unenviable prewar status as the pulses of European diplomacy...
...All the railroads ask is an increase of rates to the amount of $500,000,000 a year...
...In their turn, both Bismarck and Hindenburg expressed the German General Staff's contempt for Italy as an ally...
...France is incredulous, cynical if you like, about Germany •ad Italy...
...I would be bored without opposition...
...and perhaps he is not quite sure the American nusiness man can stay quiet, earning no extras, when through his field glasses he can Bee others making millions out of Europe...
...He was also afraid that France was going to be invited to participate in-somejsort^of fouc-pqwer Directory, which would have a similar effect...
...The heart-rending case of one of them was laid only last week before the open purses of a generous nation...
...Like Roosevelt, Mirabeau worked out a middle road between reaction and radicalism...
...Who does not see in this the • hand of Providence...
...Then another said: "Even so, he swims straight and fine...
...If this is magic, the oil drillers I saw with smiling features in Oklahoma speaking of Roosevelt were also taken by magic If this is magic, Marcus Aurelius 2000 years ago, and Masaryk only yesterday in Prague, were magicians...
...Roosevelt, the lucky child of the gods, could never have reached this point without this dramatic blow...
...The general impression was conveyed to the public that France and Great Britain were very good friends, that they were both sympathetically inclined towards Germany and that, generally speaking, there was -little or nothing to worry about...
...The dictator is always a man in uniform...
...Who has all these advantages, must also bear some consequences...
...The second problem is that'of Mussolini...
...Callous indeed must he be that could contemplate unmoved the situation I have described here—especially about the automobiles...
...French Trade Union Organisation, is going to have ws Work cut out to convince his Communut follnwwrs of his good faith in the matter...
...In this sense let me compare Roosevelt with another country gentleman, Count Mirabeau, who also revolted against his own, ruling class and urged them to avoid revolution by large and generous concessions...
...These world problems do not depend only on Mr...
...The fact is too painful to discuss at length...
...Still another unfriendly voice: "Look, that fish is red and he is surrounded with other red fishes...
...And then one final shout: "This is a mad fish...
...foment "troubles" and then ell the old gneethm of "intervention" will com* up again, la the meanJiny,, M. -Deltas snstiad about Europe telling the Czechs and the Yugoslav* and th* Rumanians how strong France and the FrancoBritish'alliance are and how unwise they...
...That great courage, to win over his affliction, that first word: "I will best this thing...
...0} CgjB...
...Let us make up a purse for this suffering family that will be indeed bread upon the waters...
...Roosevelt's character...
...AFTER having lived an all too easy life from 20 to 40, he was •** the victim of the most terrible Wow a very healthy, bandsome, sportive man can receive...
...Each power is arming with the firm intention, in the case of the democracies, oi defending themselves, and in th* case of the totalitarian states, of dominating by foree...
...french anxious for unity with britain MOW for the French position...
...If his diplomatic and mattery experts have prevented him so far from making a major error and thereby provoking his own downfall through an unsuccessful war or some other crazy adventure, this does not make tjbe German problem a less grave one...
...It seems incredible, but I have the documents...
...And that is why frank, even brutal plain-'Sptakuig by those of us who still refuse to be fogi bound is vital...
...Also unlike Hitler, he is able to replace them to a certain extend by his own Latin sharpness...
...If you knew what it is to have every speech forbidden, meetings banned, Congress changed to an assembly of 600 nominated men who have only to lift the right arm when the great man comes and to be silent...
...There were always in history such country gentlemen to help the poor against the rich by their own conviction...
...AND I am humiliated to have to add that he is * * not alone „in this condition of indigence and neglect at the hands of his countrymen...
...munist power in France during recent month...
...For the moment he and Hitler are inclined to play ball, although at heart they distrust each other-profoundly...
...Roosevelt won his by two popular elections...
...I see in Roosevelt's policies not an idealistic thesis as in Wilson's—"to save Democracy...
...3y -Things seem to have been moving fast in the '.• diplomatic world recently...
...An acquaintance of mine, who, I regret to say, has been sadly infected with Subversive Doctrines and is probably in the pay of Moscow, leans over my shoulder at this point and suggests that there was lately in the city of Baltimore a case of destitution more deserving than that of the Clement family...
...i A fog of vaguely optimistic banalities shrouds international negotiations...
...Roosevelt by reason and suggestion...
...This man has a personal charm, captivating everybody...
...introduced Franklin Roosevelt to history...
...Roosevelt, after four years' effort at maintaining strict neutrality, advanced in his Chicago speech to the point of threatening the dictators...
...No," he exclaimed...
...Such men were always fought by their own class...
...Today he looks an even more healthy man...
...He is Wilson's pupil only in' ideas...
...I have studied old photographs and old motion pictures, all of which prove to me that it was his illness, together with his marriage and the war, which modeled his character...
...If you can construct a sin "out of that, you can object also to Caruso, that he captivated women by his voice...
...Roosevelt, I regret you are still living, he laughed, because he understood...
...But that is a fear without reason...
...And it appears that these were the children of a sailor on the Algic that had been guilty of striking against his kind, indulgent employers, and the children had no home because their father was locked up on a charge of trying to overthrow the government by refusing to help strikebreakers, and so they had crept into this warehouse to find a place to sleep...
...These wretched strikers of the Algic were last week convicted of their' crime and may now expiate it with ten years' imprisonment...
...The dictators begin with misanthropies...
...Tthought I had to see his origin...
...The dictator wants to be feared...
...If they are past or present men makes no difference...
...Ludwig is interested in pathological characters...
...he delivered recently at the waldorf-astoria-the mew leader is the first english newspaper to carry it...
...Also, our modern Crusaders, instead, of • saving the world from Communism, look for Morocco iron and Spanish copper...
...The dictator destroys all parties and lives by the support of his party...
...Result: no mention of them in the final communique...
...The plight of Mr...
...For meft are material for a leader, just like clay fer a sculptor...
...Once he was close upon the starvation line—or the dole—with a wretched allowance of only $60,000 a year...
...Aaother: "And what pjice will there be for this spectacular swimming—hopeless indebtedness for future unborn little fishes...
...Lord Halifax has visited Hitler...
...And remember always that he that gives quickly gives doubly...
...All that came . out oi London was a vague suggestion that vague tajiks might take place between * vague nations for a vague and general settlement that Germany had in advance refused to consider...
...But first I must add to the poignant disclosures concerning this sad pauperism among our most deserving servants, that I am assured by those in a position to know and whose word is above suspicion that some of these men have no more than five automobiles apiece...
...how he arrived at great reforms without any force, without any limitations of free speech and of Congress—that is what interested us Europeans...
...It is that of Mr...
...it "is" domination by persecution, first at home and then abroad...
...I would hate to be a dictator...
...Obviously to enable the road to pay its president a living wage and relieve the grievous situation shout -those automobiles...
...He would involve his country in European troubles...
...Like- Roosevelt, Mirabeau tried - to reconcile the growing hatred and to alter the old system, to change it little by little without destroying it...
...He said a^great deal, but it boils down to this—that Germany would, like to reinforce its military and economic positions as cheaply as possible, that she would love to strengthen her political and territorial positions at the same time as her "prestige" without bloodshed, since one is never quite sure about the outcome of a war, and finally that "don't we all appreciate the Bol- ' shevik menace...
...I asked them if they voted for him...
...Money and snobbery has nobbled the democratic press almost as effectively as internment camps have brought the totalitarian press to heel...
...But there is a~long way from this warning to a war...
...the barely concealed sympathy of the most reactionary English Conservatives - 'L_5?y State Thich openly declares itself the eoe"9f ofVBolshevism, the credulity of the Church of English Taction which believes that evidence of goodwill will always beget goodwill in the minds' of the toughest, the knowledge of Eden that should the worst come to the worst, the British public will never forgive a Government that has left even the smallest stone unturned...
...Roosevelt unveils, argues and taxes...
...I am asking the editors of The New Leader to open their columns for a public subscription for his relief...
...When even this has failed in the past few years, it aas been supplemented by luck...
...Not one...
...He used the old rights and he did not abolish anything and yet he reached some aim, which in other countries is forced upon the citizens by fear and terror...
...Under the mistaken impVession ;' that lies should be countered by half-lies, the other European governments are reverting to the secret methods of'pre-war diplomacy that the - League of Nations was designed to dispense with...
...I mention it only because I have a proposal to make to The New Leader's supporters that I am sure will find an echo in every responsive heart...
...He warns them, because he knows the suggestive power of making business out of other peoples' war...
...When I told Mr...
...To define his aha is impossible, since—like all men suffermg from similar madness—the goal is always round the corner...
...He said: "Of course...
...It believes quite simply that if Great Britain and France hang together* they halve the risk of a totalitarian attack and, again, if the worst should come to the worst, that Franco-British unity is the best insurance against defeat...
...Think of those automobiles...
...I tell you, he is entirely poisoned with Bolshevist poison...
...Insofar as the smaller state* are concerned...
...Think of All the Poor Railroad Presidents at Xmas and GIVE By CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL this season of the year, when the hearts oi all good people are now opened to thoughts of generosity, kindliness and relief for the destitute, 1 wish to lay before the readers of The New Leader a plea for a class of sufferers among us that has had but too littl* attention...
...the majority oi the l.rVRU...
...Roosevelt is stimulated by the battle with parties...
...For I worked more as a psychologist than as a political expert...
...F. D. r:s counterpart in history *TPQ decide this question, we must study Mr...
...Roosevelt came into my aquarium, my American friends stood around in great exciterdent...
...Fascists Push Europe Back To Age of Secret Diplomacy ace paris correspondent of london labor's daily herald becomes a regular contributor to the . NEW leader with this roundup of european diplo* macy — he will write every MONTH...
...r; To do it here is surprising only because it has been done so late...
...In Washington are constant reminders of this Roosevelt energy—it emanates into the many small government branches and departments...
...Roosevelt also fell in no sense from the heavens as he is today...
...It is true that when this increase of rates shall reach the workers and farmers who will finally pay it, the $600,000,000 will have become a billion...
...Roosevelt's critics do not interest me— the rich, who complain over their taxes, and the Republicans, who are simply party rivals...
...When I became better acquainted with him and I found him, although a President, extremely interesting, I decided to study him...
...If a foreigner enters a family, sometimes he sees with his fresh eyes-things which remain hidden to the family...
...SO from all this it results that the German, British and French positions remain unchanged...
...But I do not think thai Germany will "attack" th* Czechs—much more likely to...
...On the contrary, it is to be hoped that the example thus set at Baltimore will be followed everywhere and an end put to these annoying strikes, so that we can get to our golf with minds at ease...
...These facts are flashed in the eyes of the peace-loving citizens of democratic Europe and they are told what a lot is being don* to make the world safer for them...
...Behind all this there are a few simple facts, ^true today as they have been any time these ^•five years...
...Nothing has changed in that tradition since...
...Even the Socialists...
...Boer, he educated men to new ways of thinking...
...Roosevelt wants to be loved...
...Clement himself sees this dilemma clearly and has risen to it...
...In a letter to the stockholders of the Pennsylvania company, just issued, he calls attention to the imminent need of more revenue for the railroad, and urges them to put forth every effort to induce the Interstate Commerce Commission to allow the increase in rates the companies have asked for...
...There is also the American sense of humor— every dictator is furtive and gloomy—the Americans would laugh at this type of man...
...M. Yvon Del bos has spread the good word among the lesser .European States...
...The dictator usurped his power by sword and fire...
...Who gives to the poor lends to the Lord...
...He also made it abundantly clear*in London before he arrived, that the Western Air Pact and the Four-Power Agreement were very aWelatafol Both subjects were discussed in London and the British Ministers, were shown that on these points at least France was unshakeable...
...So you'find parallels in the Plutarch ic manner between Roosevelt and Hoover, Roosevelt and Hitler, Roosevelt and Al Smith, Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Lincoln...
...GIVING OUR readers ah INTERPRETATION OF THE FORCES behind the stories which have made the front pages...
...When you have had to fight a whole day against Congress and the Supreme Court," I asked him, "in the evening are you not jealous of the dictators who can simply order what they wish...
...The old farm, where he- is today just the, son of the house, is a modest old country house without luxury but with a certain old independent dignity...
...And she thinks there are probably other children of these depraved strikers that are without shelter or food, and they should have attention before we attempt to relieve the melancholy case of Clement...
...has broken down...
...Roosevelt is courteous and ironic...
...He said: "I came into .public work then...
...Clemens tugs at my heartstrings...
...Meanwhile, Geneva languishes and big newspapers beginyN» recall their staff-men from League headquarters...
...Whs^reaUy prompted the visit of Lord Halifax to • Hitler...
...It is not what Roosevelt had done—but how he did it...
...In such dissimilar systems we find the same collective power of the state over economics...
...So I compared this man and this situation first with the leaders of Europe—I know nearly all of them...
...But "even tfefore he reached Belgrade, a new Yugoslav-RsjfSn flirtation began and Poland is again toying alternately with Germany and Franc...
...Yes, lecturing through this country, I was sometimes in the astonishing situation for a foreigner—to defend the President of the United States against his own countrymen...
...LIFE 1M a happy land Y"OU have the right to criticise and even condemn some of Roosevelt's measures and laws...
...And all of them amazed me by saying: "He saved the country in 1933, but now he becomes a dictator...
...Roosevelt is social...
...He is not swimming in a sincere way...
...The wane...
...Such are the depths to which we have fallen...
...f Then I asked: "You found power strengthened the moral, not weakening...
...The same heartless committee that drew back the curtain and showed to the world the sufferings and degradation of this good man, has revealed the salaries of others that labor with him in ttie same unfruitful vineyard, and looking down the list I discover that there is not a railroad presdient in America that received much more than $200,000 a year for his services...
...The dictator hates, murders and bans...
...He knew tpat he was not going to approve any offers of conciliation to Germany that would result only in weakening the French position...
...He told me: "I learned from Wilson how not to set...
...be if--they flirt with Germany...
...The dictator is lonely...
...That is the trouble," you say...
...I found in Roosevelt that typical American open mind that I could not discover in two former Presidents I had the honor to meet...
...In the face of this emphatic condemnation of strikes by an intelligent jury of American freemen, there is not likely to be among the Enlightened any undue sympathy for the sufferings such miscreants may have entailed upon others...
...For suppose there are more than five persons in the family...
...Think of him trying to maintain life jipon only $100,000 a jrear, and then give—give till it hurts— give...
...hitler on verge of crazy adventure PI-RST, Hitier with a very great part of the * <x--German''people participating only too willihgly—don't let us blind ourselves to this—in his madness, is pursuing unswervingly a policy of • progressive domination...
...On the qontrsryf by dosing carefully his threats and promises, Hitler is fast reaching a position where promises will be no longer necessary...
...He seeks less to dominate perhaps than to intimidate...
...By EMIL LUDWIG I ET me make it dear that my ideas on Roosevelt were not al' "«ys the same...
...By Jack Sandford Pari* Correspondent for the London Daily Herald {Special to The New Leader) TOE time has come to handle world affairs . "Jf^Wi the gloves off...
...They said "Yes...
...The dictator is solemn and tragic...
...M. W. Clement, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad...
...No great statesman has ever won his country by simple logic and statistics—his personality was always decisive...
...I believe in the entire moral justice of'Roosevelt's program...
...He aisswered "Yes, for 27 years...
...And if you will believe me, even this miserable stipend he has had only a few months...
...But I wish to go still farther...
...But Roosevelt's character gives still stronger guarantees...
...Actually the French Foreign Minister went to London terrified that he was going to be asked to approve a Western European Air Pact that would have conveyed to France's Central European friends the impression that they were being left to the mercy of Germany...
...The dictator loves power...
...She says that there was a fire in an old warehouse and in it two little boys were burned to death...
...When Mr...
...STRONG sense of moral justice DUT there are other objections to him which are still more important for us Europeans...
...Because he conquered out of this disaster by concentrated energy, he becomes the natural model for all young Americans to fight against handicaps...
...Roosevelt never had one on his body...
...Such words make a deep impression upon German people, because the German fear of American troops and money is increased to a panic since they feel thai in the last war the United States decided their fate...
...j I am certain that the sons of the rich who hate him today will erect a monument fifty years from now to the "Memory of the man who tried to save Capitalism...
...If the dictators with their gloomy appearance, dark eyes, shouting orders, excite the masses and men today, why is not another character preferable—one with a serene and gay manner, open and straightforward...
...if your minister is in prison because he insists in believing the Old Testament, your teacher because he believes in Rousseau...
...For myself, I "have sometimes shot as badly as 130 when I have been oppressed with a premonition that a sit-down strike was in contemplation somewhere...
Vol. 20 • December 1937 • No. 52
