THE PRESIDENCY: Sermon on the Shore

Sermon on the Shore

To Washington from Hyde Park went President Roosevelt at the beginning of last week. He found Secretary of Commerce Roper, just back from Europe, telling everyone not to have the jitters, but anxious reports were flowing in from U. S. diplomats abroad—Wilbur Carr in Prague, Hugh Wilson in Berlin, Bill Bullitt in Paris, Bill Phillips in Rome, Joe Kennedy in London. After listening to Mr. Kennedy at length on the transatlantic telephone, Secretary of State Hull marched out of his office, across the street to the White House, to give a verbatim account of what Prime Minister Chamberlain had just told—and asked—Joe Kennedy (see p. 29)

As the week wore on, however, from the vantage point of the Presidential desk Europe looked less ominous, politics more interesting.

First was the case of South Carolina. Franklin Roosevelt was ready for the returns which showed that he had failed to purge Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith (see p. 26). He had a double-barreled reply: 1) Secretary Steve Early announced that the President had privately predicted a Smith victory by 40,000 votes, 2) the press was given for direct quotation a one-sentence sample of sententious Presidential philosophy: “It takes a long, long time to bring the past up to the present.” Second came the case of California for which Franklin Roosevelt was not prepared. At the news that Senator “Dear Mac” McAdoo had been swamped by the old-age pensioneer, Sheridan Downey (see p. 26), the President masked neither his surprise nor chagrin, but he made a quick recovery, cheerfully accepted Nominee Downey as a true liberal, let National Chairman Jim Farley promise him election support.

Third, Franklin Roosevelt made haste to take up the case of Maryland before it was too late. To draw the sting from his opposition to conservative Democrats he permitted another direct quote explaining that he was acting on principle: “If there is a good liberal running on the Republican ticket, I would not have the slightest objection to his election. The good of the country rises above party.” Then he sallied forth to Maryland to boost Representative David Lewis, on principle, against Senator Millard Tydings (see p. 27).

Motoring down to Morgantown, Md., 55 miles below Washington on the Potomac, Mr. Roosevelt took Candidate Lewis along with him, permitted plump Republican Governor Nice in the car.

With Mr. Lewis standing close by, Mr. Roosevelt said he had come to inspect, in the interests of national defense, the site for a bridge which Morgantown has long desired. He also said it was an appropriate time to “do a good turn” for some of the Capital’s good neighbors, and such a bridge would “open up” their section of the country. Then he added: “This bridge is one of the things that has got to be done as fast as we can possibly do it.” Result: Morgantowners beamed on Candidate Lewis.

Voyaging overnight aboard the yacht Potomac, Franklin Roosevelt next brought happy Mr. Lewis to Crisfield on Maryland’s sleepy Eastern Shore. Also aboard, an important member of the expedition, was Democratic National Chairman Jim Farley. His presence showed that, in this Purge fight at least, he agreed with the man whom he made President. The party motored through the Eastern Shore’s farmer towns and fishing villages—Pocomoke, Princess Anne. Snow Hill, Berlin, Salisbury—to Denton, hometown of Representative T. (for Thomas) Alan Goldsborough. Mr. Goldsborough was for Mr. Lewis but most Eastern Shore folk were not, and Senator Tydings had stirred up a lot of local feeling by describing the President’s coming as an ”invasion” of the Free State of Maryland. To this feeling Franklin Roosevelt addressed his remarks on the courthouse lawn at Denton. He called it a Labor Day “sermon.”

Said he: “The Free State of Maryland, proud of itself and conscious of itself, is also proud and conscious of being a most important part of the United States of America. . . . What happens in and to the Free State of Maryland matters mightily in and to the United States of America. . . . In the Free State of Maryland—happily a part of the Union—the flag, the Constitution and the President are still as welcome as in all of the other 47 States of the Union. . . .

“Continuing progress . . . comes from the rank and file of our citizens . . . [whose representatives] get things done in the true spirit of ‘give and take’—not the representatives who seek every plausible excuse for blocking action. . . . For our own safety, we cannot afford to follow those in public life who quote the Golden Rule but take no steps to bring it closer.”