TRAGEDY-AND A CHALLENGE-FACE AMERICA
Follette, Sen. Robert M. La Jr.
Tragedy—And A Challenge—Face America By Sen. ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, Jr. THE death of Franklin D. Roosevelt came as a shock to the Nation and the world. It removed from the global stage one of the...
...Contrary to the general impression, I never found him unwilling to listen to opinions which differed from his own...
...No man in public life since the Civil War has been on a tougher spot...
...Handsome, genial, with a flare for the dramatic and an extraordinary feel for timing, he was a man who had a sixth sense in dealing with people as individuals or in the mass...
...I have never known anyone who had more personal and social charm...
...Elected President in the most serious economic crisis this Nation has yet faced, he steadied the ship of state and convinced the people they had nothing to fear but fear...
...His memory will be cherished by millions of his fellow men...
...President Truman's personality, however, has won him a host of close friends in Congress as well as in the Executive branch of the Government...
...He is confronted with the traditional necessity of carrying on the policies of his predecessor without the freedom of action which would be his had he been elected President...
...His every move will be watched and his slightest decision will be given an unwarranted significance...
...We are too close to the momentous events of the past 13 years to form any definitive estimate of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his policies...
...I never pulled my punches in discussing questions of public policy with him and, so far as I was able to tell, he never harbored any resentment because of my frankness...
...His outstanding work as chairman of the Senate Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program gives him a background of knowledge concerning the war effort unequalled by any other person not responsible for its conduct...
...But no one questions that he will loom large in the annals of time, or that he has profoundly influenced the course of history and the future of our country and the world...
...It removed from the global stage one of the most dramatic and colorful figures ever to trod those boards...
...I know he will give to the utmost the best that is in him...
...I have great hope that it may meet the occasion...
...Against the background of the economic crisis he pressed for social and regulatory reforms which will have a lasting influence upon the destiny of the Nation...
...No one could come in contact with him without realizing the great quality for leadership which he possessed to so marked a degree...
...NATURALLY, the sharp, fundamental disagreement over foreign policy lessened our contacts, and with the entry of this country into the war and the terrific additional burdens it entailed upon the President, I saw him infrequently during the last few years...
...a TREMENDOUS responsibility has fallen up-on President Truman, who assumes the power of the greatest office in the world in the midst of an unfinished war of unprecedented magnitude and with the shape and character of the peace to follow it in the process of formulation...
...Yet he already has the good will of his fellow countrymen with their spontaneous and sympathetic appreciation of the enormous difficulties he faces...
...The final historical judgment must be reserved until the consequences flowing from his life and actions are revealed by the passage of time...
...The precedents he shattered, the domestic and foreign issues he dealt with, the physical handicap he so gallantly overcame, his ability to win support of the rank and file of people, the fact that he died in office with victory in a global war in sight—all these are factors which will affect any measured appraisal of his virtues and his faults...
Vol. 9 • April 1945 • No. 17
