Franklin Delano Roosevelt
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt By William E. Bohn THE picture which • national afore leavea in the public mind hi compounded of achievement and personality. Counting- from the beginning, there have...
...Ha took ever the Presidency at a time of economic collapse...
...H IS fellow citizens in this country will alwaya remember President Roosevelt ss s man who had supreme faith in American ideals of freedom, justice and democracy...
...But Franklin D. Roosevelt attracted in a definite and personal way many millions of citisons, especially tho plain people, the working people, and held their allegiance for more than twelve years...
...Those whose business it is to add up the doings of public men, the ways in which they have added to or improved our ways of doing things, are more and more of the opinion that this man left our government very much as he found it...
...Any less talented, less versatile, less skillful leader w6uld have failed...
...Like Washington, Jackson and Lincoln, this man came to the head of the nation at a time when drastic rhsnge was necessary ta survival...
...They lacked the warm human touch, the talent for picturesque pose or speech...
...Hit whole intellectual process was more from within outward...
...Aa politician, it ia generally acknowledged, Franklin D. Roosevelt ranked with the greatest, with such masters as Lincoln and Jefferson...
...The great body of social snd economic legislation enacted under President Roosevelt's leadership constitutes by itself aa imperishable monument te bis memory...
...His close ties wits men and women of these groups and his loyalty to them accounted for the presence in Waahington during these psst years of the numerous intellectuals and radicals who have ao greatly disturbed the routint politicians...
...He has taken the lead in bringing about an important alteration in our attitude toward labor, agriculture and industry, snd toward the function of the government in relation to them...
...Since the end of his regime in Washington the record of Theodore Roosevelt's total activity has steadily receded in perspective...
...His method of managing his team of rampaging horses drew down upon him intermittent curses snd applauae...
...He aeixed the occasion created by the great depression to act a new trend in our national psychology...
...The other predecessor in the White House with whom Franklin D. Roosevelt is inevitably compared, ia Wood row Wilson...
...And hia clear vision succeeded in bringing about s program of reforms and legislative enactments which made America stronger and more secure then ever before...
...And that ia history...
...There were timea when all four, pulled in different directions...
...But even to one who looks *t Franklin D. Roosevelt from a critical point of view, to an* who views him without the warmth of a devotee or a follower, it must be evident that he ranka imong the very greatest of our Presidents, smong the four or five at the very top...
...There have boon throe chief executives who, rated rigidly on the basis of achievement, would outrank several of acknowledged groats...
...Whether we fought with him or against him, we cannot view his achievements In sny detached or mathematical way...
...He captured the public imagination as few have done in the course of our history...
...The labor movement rapidly grew from fewer than 3,000,000 members to more than 13,000,000...
...As the war has gone on, Roosevelt's greatest political masterpiece haa been holding the trade union millions in leash The uneven impact of the stabilization program on the wage-earners of this country haa led to widespread and justified discontent Memory of the substantial gains of labor during the New Deal era would not have been sufficient to keep the working-men and working women in line...
...Hia death occasioned such an expression of common grief as we have not known since Lincoln's time...
...History has sn inexorable way of cooling down and leveling off contemporary judgments...
...New social goals were set...
...Thought of in this connection—that is, in relation to the distinction between definite achievement and a talent for drama—the contrast between Franklin D. Roosevelt and his distant relative, Theodore Roosevelt, takes on a certain interest Many people think that • the earlier Roosevelt was a very great man...
...It was possible for European statesmen who came nowhere near his stature and had nothing like his grasp of hgman affairs to refer to him deprecatingly as a Presbyterian parson...
...Consciousness of how far others have gone wrong in times past is a constant warning to us...
...It is possible that something of what has been gained will be lost during future periods of reaction...
...With regard to one who is still among us or hss recently passed away, our emotions are involved...
...The labor and liberal forces took on new hope, were stimulated by a new driving power...
...Franklin d. Roosevelt placed himaelf at the head of the force* of reform end in rapid succession w« had placed upon the statute book* th* Social Security Art, th* Wage* and Houra Act, the National Labor Relationa Act and a aerie* of measure* for the relief of agriculture which added up to a sub atantial program of economic betterment, of which TVA in an enduring symbol...
...But, in contrsst to Theodore Roosevelt, this men —seemingly so cool, so detached, so lacking in the power of marshalling mobs behind him—left in Washington a volume of useful legislation equaled by no one between Lincoln and FDR...
...Their mutual dislike was based on deep differences of impulse and method...
...Just ss—with tho passage of time— Theodore Roosevelt has loomed leas large, so Woodrow Wilson hss been rising both in popular esteem snd in the opinion of critics...
...More Americans began to think about the possibility af a decent sort of life for all of our citizens than over before...
...There was hardly a facet of our national life which he did not touch...
...In fact, in the' field with regard to which he received the greatest publicity, in the matter of the control of great trusts, in his verbal battle against "malefactors of great wealth," hia final accomplishment came to practically nothing...
...His fine human qualitioa, his talent for popularization, and his trait...
...The man had great personal charm, but it was of a sort that is limited in its appeal...
...It has taken all of the President's personal influence, all of his diplomatic skill, to keep labor's discontent from boiling ever...
...In his impact on the public consciousness, on our ways of feeling snd thinking about public matters, he did far more...
...He never could have had the immense popularity of either of the Roosevelt...
...Economic and social changes had long mad* evident the need of a traaaformation in the direction of economic democracy...
...The difficulties which he surmounted in this field were of the greatest...
...Any comparison between the state papers and public addresses of Roosevelt and Wilson will show the difference...
...President American Federation of Labor...
...His support was derived from four widely separated ana antagonistic sources: the conservative southern Democrats, the labor movement, the urban democratic machines of the North, and tho independent liberals...
...But many national leaders have been both skillful and attractive...
...Any one of them performed more definite service to the people of the country than, for example, Andrew'Jackson or Theodore Roosevelt...
...historians...
...Many an old Bull Mooser still grows moist about the eyes at mention of him...
...Now here is a curious thing...
...Perhaps his greatest service to humanity waa In making os awsrs of these dangers and in getting America prepared in time for tho inevitable stack by oat enemies...
...Whatever his merits may have been, his service lay not in the direction of securing new legislation, new interpretations of the Constitution, new services for the benefit of the people...
...Wilson was academic in the sense that his spproach to problems and situations was from the point of view of reason...
...All of these men except tho first had colorful par-aonslities, and the first President WSS endowed with color and appeal by the mythology which developed about tho memory of him...
...The New Leader has often drawn attention to flaws in the Roosevelt program and errors in the Roosevelt leadership...
...Hia humanity saved millions of American citizens who, without help from the Government, might have perished from starvation...
...Franklin D. Roosevelt wss a fine, intelligent, benevolent country squire whose overflowing interest in human welfare prompted him to gather about him groups of thinkers, artists, scientists and philanthropists and to absorb and coordinate and activate the ideas whieh he received from them...
...Without them Franklin D. Roosevelt could not have started where he did and carried on to the point which he reached during the 1930's...
...So today—though his actual political achievements were not impressive—he still looms large in the popular mind...
...WILLIAM GREEN...
...Lincoln inspired ovag warmer and deeper emotione...
...He wss limited by a narrow mind snd an impetuous and uncritical approach to life...
...When we were at the Very bottom ef the economic trough...
...It Is inevitable that our minds leap backward in an effort to place him in our national pantheon...
...At the time of his death it was customary for journalists to place him right after Lincoln as the third in our White House pantheon...
...The widespread poverty, the recurrence of depressions, the domination of our public life by the forces of big business, hsd been described, analyzed and denounced by Socialists and ethers...
...Its product bore more definitely the stamp of a sharp and definite personality...
...Franklin D. Roosevelt's place in history will be determined by the changes which we have wrought under his leadership in our ways of thinking, living and conducting our government...
...These might well be called the historians' Presidents...
...More important than the measure* themselves waa the change in national mood that accompanied them...
...Wilson's program of labor and social laws actually constituted the first Now Deal...
...security...
...But where would America and the rest of the work...
...He saw things with cold logic in their larger historical perspectives...
...In the popular imagination he still ranks very high among the top ten of our Presidents...
...bo today if Franklin D. Roosevelt had not recognised at the outset the menace of Fascism sad Nazism, both aa a threat to our free way of life and as a threat to our physics...
...Wilson was the more original thinker, as well as more profound scholar...
...The radio, carrying his resonant voice to tho intimacy of millions of nrssldoa, greatly enlarged tho scope of tUt gift Masses of men and women had feelings of love j and allegiance toward Jsckson...
...But despite all the rage which waa engendered between elections, he was alwayi able when the voting day came to pull them in neatly abreast to draw hia electoral chariot across the line ahead of competitors...
...On the basis of his intellectual qualities, one it Inclined to place Franklin D. Roosevelt somewhere below Madison, Jefferson, Lincoln and Wilson...
...This man was, in many respects, the opposite to Theodore Roosevelt...
...As a parson ho passoaiad vary great charm, human warmth, a veritable talent for friendship...
...acendent gifts as a politician enabled him to take ideas from men who lacked all possibility of playing a part in public life and translate them into legislation and public administration...
...Hia interests ranged far and wide...
...The picture of the America that can be was etched in sharp outline upon our national consciousness...
...In detail we can find much to criticize in the present state of affairs...
...Bat daring the Harding-Coolidge Hoover era, We allowed ourselves to drift into a national calamity...
...His coar-age st that time of crisis rallied the weak, halted the panic and started America back on the road te recovery...
...Franklin d. roosevelt was fortunate in that both his personal gifts and hia political achievements combine' in giving him title to a Vary high rank among tho 32 men who served as chief executives of tab) country...
...Counting- from the beginning, there have been seven Presidents who are generally thought of as grogt: Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...But in the midst of tho making of history on ths greatest seals, one of tho control actors has boon torn from tho scene...
...These are James Madison, John Quincy Adams and Grover Cleveland...
...But he had an abundance of energy and a talent for taking and holding the center of the stage...
...It waa partly on this account that hia phra&ea often have a more cutting edge...
...But to those who have time and patience to scan the record, their achievements look large...
Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 16
