WENDELL WILLKIE AND AL SMITH: A CONTRAST IN VALUES
Follette, Isabel B. La
Wendell Willkie And Al Smith: A Contrast In Values By ISABEL B. La FOLLETTE **T'M just not going to read the magazines any more!" -L exclaimed an intelligent and idealistic young woman the other...
...with no actual responsibility himself, attacking those who carry the burdens of making decisions...
...They are seeking the prescription for a satisfying life...
...Roosevelt...
...I pointed out that "appreciation" was a poor criterion in choosing one's life work...
...What finer epitaph could a man have than Franklin Roosevelt's fitting nickname for him—'The Happy Warrior...
...The more involved we are, the more in need of perspective...
...When a New York sweatshop fire killed 149 women during his legislative career he began fighting for a labor code, and by the time he was elected Gover-•nor he was acknowledged to have no rival in his grasp of state affairs...
...Willkie's career, when he flew from country to country hob-nobbing with generals, prime ministers, and heads of state...
...He had been preceded by henchmen with fat wallets and the money flowed freely for anyone interested...
...He still propounds it: "What are you going to say when the student comes back to you five years after graduation and accosts you, 'What did you mean by giving us that fine set of moral values to live by...
...Willkie himself, many people who expressed admiration for his "independence" and his views on various issues went to the polls and voted for Mr...
...That he could not rally to his banner the searching multitudes was due, it seems to me, hot to lack of personal courage on Willkie's part but rather to the voter's intuition concerning his political instability...
...While the newspapermen were captivated with his warm, hearty personality and everything possible was done on his behalf, the politicos pronounced his campaign tour here a political flop...
...Roosevelt even in the Spring primaries of 1944...
...No one's political stock could have been lower than Mr...
...L exclaimed an intelligent and idealistic young woman the other day...
...Al Smith or the elder La Follette could never have accomplished what they did without the unswerving support of thousands of men-and women who had faith in the line these leaders followed...
...that one should select a job he thought worth doing, that he could give himself to and sacrifice for with faith and joy...
...He returned home in a burst of glory to publish his best-selling One World...
...He made speeches on all possible occasions and subjects, reversed himself when he deemed it politic, and the next thing we knew he had engineered himself, with the assent of the astute Mr...
...Their lives present an illuminating, to me at least, contrast in values that make life worthwhile for oneself and others...
...They swallowed temporary disagreements on a specific issue on the theory, foreign to the shoppersraround, that Al or Old Bob had been right in the past and, knowing more about government than they did, might conceivably be proved right in the future...
...None can tell how far he may go on that path, but the very following of that path from day to day makes life worthwhile...
...But apparently—again a common experience—when he got out in the world and found that "life wasn't like that" he checked his ideals, and we found him rising rapidly to great heights in the utility field...
...By now he had changed many of his views, and while dropped by old supporters in the Republican Party who found him un-dependable, he gained new friends among one-world theorists...
...Willkie held forth a set of rules it was pleasant to believe rather than put to the test...
...He has not only to have a program but to tell the people the unvarnished truth and, as with Al Smith in the case of increased taxes, "make 'em like it...
...That isn't the set of rules that runs the world...
...It would be hard to define a set of values that would suit all of us, but from my observation the happiest individuals are those who regard life as a path rather than a means to an end...
...Smith refused to give up hope, however, and looked to 1932, but the Democratic machine shelved him for Franklin Roosevelt...
...I have often wondered how the once-socialist boy felt during the long years when he earned fabulous sums fighting the TVA and public ownership...
...Roosevelt would probably be among the first to acknowledge the greatness of Smith's leadership during those years in New York state...
...Interestingly enough, and doubtless puzzling to Mr...
...his was just the appeal of "put me in and I'll do the job better than Roosevelt does...
...He battled for slum clearance, rights of children, reforms in state government, better pay for teachers and other public servants, and so on...
...I recalled the ever-challenging query of a wise teacher who has spent a lifetime trying to give young people "something to turn to...
...Roosevelt, into a trip around the world...
...My ideal for a democracy is a society in whieh each individual is free to choose his path according to his desire...
...Everything you read predicts the hopelessness of the future at every turn...
...But what way is one to turn...
...And besides," I continued, "through all the ups and downs the people do instinctively appreciate sincerity of purpose in their leaders...
...Willkie's Political Instability As I contemplate the lives of Smith and Willkie, it seems to me that there is an outstanding lesson in terms of the values of a rich life...
...That the responsibility for the present confusion and fear of the future in the mind of the voter results from failure or lack of leadership in both old parties cannot be denied...
...Willkie turned to the vast field of politics...
...I recall at one time when people were complaining about increased taxes, that Smith, instead of apologizing for the increase, waded right in and told them that of course their taxes were increasing, but that look what they were getting for them...
...But most young people starting out and looking at the world are not thinking in terms of a place in history...
...Willkie sensed that need of aggressive leadership...
...that any life so lived has its rewards for the individual himself and is the foundation of a good society...
...Again he devoted himself to covering the political highways and by-ways with an eye on the Republican Presidential nomination, and, on the other hand, there were suggestions that he might be a good running-mate for Mr...
...When he died, those close to him were disagreed, according to the press, as to whether he would have come out in support of Mr...
...He hasn't decided just how to maneuver yet, but all that energy and ambition are going somewhere...
...Willkie's Career Of Changes Both "started from the bottom...
...This fact was brought home to me by the public reaction to the recent death of two American leaders, Alfred E. Smith and Wendell L. Willkie...
...He was for the underdog...
...From my observation, the Willkie enthusiasts Cmany of whom, as I have pointed out, did not vote for him) were in the class of voters who have no fundamental political philosophy and allegiance but who "shop around" at each election...
...Roosevelt's...
...Willkie's attempt at resurgence...
...The honest candidate who understands the task ahead cannot give the voters a pleasant, comforting solution...
...Willkie's following the 1940 election...
...From a personal point of view, I imagine that this trip was the climax of Mr...
...Willkie arrived in Wisconsin for a vigorous campaign...
...His showing at the polls was pathetic, and he consequently withdrew from the race...
...To me he is a sad figure, a man of great endowment but of philosophical instability...
...Dewey "with reservations," it is the votes, not the reservations, that count on the ballot...
...Of course "happenstances" often push us into certain roads, but just as the elder La Follette's life-long fight for the "little fellow" began when the local Republican boss refused to allow him to run for political office, and a sweatshop fire aroused the latent social instinct of Al Smith, doubtless Mr...
...A poor New York boy who went to work at the age of 13 when his father died, he likewise had great personal gifts of energy, ability, and charm...
...And he got away with it...
...Roosevelt...
...A young man exploded to me recently, "Believe me, I won't go into politics...
...Why didn't you give me values that would be useful to me in what I have had to come up against?' " These questions are widespread today among the thoughtful who sincerely want to accept their responsibility toward solving the problems that face us all...
...Willkie collapsed so distressingly that even his most ardent followers suffered for him...
...When the "old maestro," Mr...
...He had a gift for taking the most complicated state problem and putting it to the folks in simple, clear terms...
...I know of no more helpful prescription when one is in one of those temporary Sloughs-of-Despond that occasionally grip us all than to pick up the life of some leader of the past, to follow his struggles, and to appreciate that his problems, vicissitudes, and the world in which he lived, were just as difficult to him as ours appear to us today...
...But Mr...
...Through the press we at home followed his course like the chapters of a thriller...
...Willkie, like Mr...
...Willkie followed his own pattern...
...of resolving there shall be no war, yet himself without technical knowledge of the problems involved—this general approach is too prevalent in our country today...
...And then, like many another individual, money-making no longer satisfied him, and Mr...
...Willkie had been told by his backers that to keep their financial support he must make a good showing in this state, Mr...
...Through the ranks of Tammany he worked his way into the state legislature and finally to the position of Governor of New York...
...There is no point in living if you believe that, and I refuse to let myself be drawn into the bog that all the 'experts' moan about...
...Although I had no faith in his political stability, I found myself arguing with the Dewey-ites that at least Willkie got out and worked for what he wanted...
...He found to his disappointment that, as with the voters who voted for Mr...
...No Opposition Offered Since Wisconsin has an early Presidential primary, and Mr...
...An admirer speaks of Willkie's "place in history" but what is there to point to but words, and even those confusing ? Whereas Al Smith learned to be a superb craftsman in his chosen field, and the history books will bear testimony of the steps accomplished in pursuit of his goal...
...You can half kill yourself for the people's benefit but they never appreciate it...
...While he kept up certain activities he beeame increasingly bitter politically, to the sorrow of his old friends, and I understand he went pretty much to pieces in his last years, as have many great characters in history...
...Roosevelt, turned his guns on him, poo£ Mr...
...His fame became nationwide and in 1928 he was the Democratic nominee for President...
...His record certainly gave the man in the street nothing to tie to...
...And when Al Smith died the press reported that over 200,000 people stood in a drizzling rain to file past his bier...
...Dewey or Mr...
...Being fascinated with politics myself, I began following with great interest Mr...
...In spite of his great abilities, experience, and social program whieh won him the support of liberals, he was subjected to a whispering campaign mainly on account of his religion that I still remember, after many years of political battling, for its viciousness...
...It is my contention that this very quality of one-world-mindedness...
...The youth of today think of him mainly as the genial father of the song, "The Sidewalks of New York," but in my youth those eager for public service flocked to New York to participate in the great social reform of Al Smith's era...
...With financial power and contacts in the "right places" he secured the Republican nomination for President, but his campaign of 1940 was distinguished mainly by his ineptitude in handling the role of a political candidate...
...Dewey today, had no real opposition program to offer against Mr...
...These include the voter who tells you he "picks the man, not the party," and thereupon specifies qualities and qualifications from public servants entailing experience which they cannot get without continuing support of the politically faithful and loyal, values which the shoppers-around eschew...
...Unlike the searching teacher, Mr...
...The cynical to the contrar5% I^believe this was a tribute from the plain people of New York who appreciated the gallant fight on their behalf he made through all the years when it was in his power to help them...
...Up From The Sidewalks In direct contrast we have the political career of Al Smith...
...This pattern, as I see it, had no guiding principle, no underlying philosophy except in later years an unharnessed ambition to be a great world figure...
...To me Wendell Willkie typifies the critical weakness in a portion of our body politic, the tendency to indulge in what Willkie himself called "campaign oratory" instead of facing up to the facts and taking a position thereon...
...Watch that man," I kept saying to associates who dismissed him as done for...
...Willkie, endowed with a fine physique and excellent brain, started out, like so many others, with socialistic tendencies...
...of expressing generous platitudes with no real grasp of the painful, minute labor involved in even local politics...
...I've been out in the world and they don't work...
...From then on his sun began to set...
...The Plain People Understand The present tendency among a body of voters to prefer the man who promises to solve the problem with fine phrases to the experienced public servant, has already cost the nation serious losses...
...Through a lifetime of bitter struggles the people of Wisconsin never lost the faith that 'Old Bob' La Follette was for them...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 44
