A ROOM OF OUR OWN

...The President's recent radio talk on the Crimean Conference, for instance, was a fascinating although tragic study...

...When we see it we shall recognize and follow it...

...And although it has not come to the surface in the straining turmoil of a war-geared country, that leadership will arise...

...And I am confident that when once again the public .wakes up to the grim realities of political power they will demand the un-sugar-coated truth...

...Shrewd politicians already see the opportunity in the offing, as witness various ambitious spearheads laying their plans to capture the folks on the rebound from their "humanitarian" wanderings...

...Roosevelt to come home with "everything our way...

...Of course President Camacho is likewise right in pointing out that no man is "indispensable" in politics, yet at the same time it is true that this quality of stimulating the best effort of others is all too rare...

...There seems to be an increasing tendency for aspiring leaders to "give the public what it wants" with no thought of the responsibility or "value" of the leadership...

...A conscientious friend keeps shaking her head over what she calls the "moral disintegration of the American people...

...Before We Get Wisdom' So although I may be an incurable optimist, I do not blame our present low political state on the folks...

...It was at the apex Of the late Sen...

...they'll take their entertainment straight, thank you...

...A leader's value lies only in his sincerity and in the clarity of his ideas and program...

...Substitute For Thinking " Even today there is still a marked affinity with England in our universities and cultural centers, and to complicate the matter still further there has been a strong tendency among the nationality groups more recently come to our shores to maintain at least their emotional ties with the country whence their people came...

...all sorts of questions arise...

...I get much the same absorbing interest in diagnosing political performance...

...But although we may criticize leadership, you and I cannot excuse ourselves from soul-searching and acting upon our convictions each time we have a chance...

...From the outset it was obvious to me that the President was not himself...

...The fact that Mr...

...Something Has Been Lacking I have often thought that a student could write an illuminating and fascinating study of this vital quality in a leader which draws forth the best in others and thus brings not only his own powers but those of countless others to his cause...

...What I deeply resent is the "big talk," as the children call it, which is supposed to gloss over the real facts and make people "feel good" rather than being aware of the truth...

...Maybe we are going to have to sample some of these fake cure-alls before we get wisdom...

...The serious-minded are outraged by campaigns of Hillbilly bands or Singing Cowboys, but is there any real difference, except in one's entertainment tastes, between that and the top-flight stars of the music and theater' world which always embellish White House occasions...

...And when I say "La Follette family" I mean just that, because such was the character and great personal charm of the late Senator that he bound those about him with passionate concern to his cause...

...As I remarked to a friend who was writing off the German people for not "getting rid of Hitler," how many of us here in the safety and freedom of America have the courage of our convictions—or even the stamina to form convictions—which run counter to the sentiments of those about us...

...It is an affront to their own bitter experience to distort the harsh realities...

...In Van Wyck Brooks' The World of Washington Irving there is an interesting analysis of New York's position in that period, when according to Mr...

...The personal gifts which enabled him to handle American personalities throughout the early years of his regime could not stack up against the ruthless skill of Churchill and Stalin who know what they are after...

...The gravity of the situation and the cost in lives of our loved ones have spurred most of us to the great production record America has made...

...Oh yes, they have been scolded and lectured and propagandized' about doing their part in the war effort...

...Although my New England parents had taken with them into the West their standard of individual civic responsibility upon which they not only believed but acted, when I married into the La Follette family in 3923 I entered a new world...

...Although they have become increasingly weary, disillusioned, apathetic, I am sure there is still a deep urge to move forward with faith in the future...

...We have seen this ever since the war economy got into motion, with high wages, high prices for the farmer, and generally "improved" economic conditions...

...I hope and believe that there will be a reaction against this drugging of our thought with "glamour," just-as letters from our soldiers in combat urge that glamorized war movies be kept from the battle fronts...

...Harold Stassen, to fall into the same trap of issuing his Own buoyant blast of glittering generalities, i* another blasted hope for many a Republican...

...Roosevelt's essential weakness as a leader in the terms defined by President Camacho—his lack of a fundamental program...

...But somehow something has been lacking—the leaven has not been there...

...and still fewer stop to appraise the "value" of their leadership...

...Brooks, ". . . Everywhere the upper classes retained control of the popular mind and the leaders were men of social standing...

...Knowing something (by both the experience of triumph and defeat) of the problem of translating a program into action, I never expected Mr...

...Frankly, I think we are paying the price of abdicating our American traditional individual responsibility...

...In any case the way is not going to be easy, but I still have faith in Lincoln's knowledge of human nature and his oft-quoted saying about not being able to fool all of the people all of the time...

...We instinctively respond to this definition of leadership, and yet when one examines "leadership" in the world around us...

...Progress does not come that way...

...Mr...

...The Revolution had been fought under the guidance of the gentry, who possessed most of the learning, talent, and wealth, and the people still thought they were safer in the hands of these tried leaders, who had been trained for public life...

...Although, as I say, my background was frugal and industrious, I was aghast at the standards exacted of themselves by the La Follettes in their fight for their principles...

...We have therefore observed the policy among short-sighted leadership of appealing for the support of these special groups rather than offering a program for all as Americans...

...Roosevelt with his uncanny political instincts has got a rising young piece of "Presidential timber," in Comdr...

...Within the endless ramifications of our social structure we have unlimited examples of the truth that men and women who make the necessary effort to become leaders are indeed sincere in their objective of attaining their goals...

...Those assessing political activities during this period do indeed have cause for concern...

...Nowhere on the horizon of national leadership does there appear the disposition to get down to brass tacks...

...But here again we run into Mr...

...the hesitation and stumbling over words, the constant interpolations which weakened rather than added strength to his points, all indicated to me a lack of self-confidence and of the ease with which the public has always associated Mr...

...The whole approach of "giving the folks what they want" is dangerous to democracy, because it is a meretricious substitute for getting them to think...

...Whereas President Wilson took his principles, his "points" to the diplomatic conferences with European leaders, even though he was worsted there, he had the deep-seated conviction that his was a righteous cause, while President Roosevelt could only report a series of compromises...

...La Follette's career when his lifetime Of public service soon culminated in his symbolic campaign for the Presidency...

...I am sure, however, that in our hearts we recognize the fact that it is this kind of courage, plus the ideas and program, that develops the right kind of leadership...

...Brooks tells of the close ties with England during that period when "It was a bold man who extolled even the canvas-backed duck or presumed to compare an American with an English apple or to say that the Hudson was as fine as the majestic Thames...

...The cynical politician rides the waves, and sensing that people are driven with work and worry over the war, he plays up the emotional and entertainment appeal...

...Roosevelt is a student of American history, and I have felt that he was determined to avoid the mistakes of President Wilson in attempting to rid the world of war...

...The tragedy to me is that in a critical period in our history the American people have been discouraged from giving their best...

...Roosevelt...

...It is my own opinion that whether the President was ill, exhausted, or both, he was definitely on the defensive and unsure of himself...

...not nearly so many "leaders" are clear as to their ideas and program...

...A friend was sharing her joy with me at a concert recently at what she calls the inner meaning of music which is gained only by years of study and work...