1.5
For anyone alive during 
the years 1933-1945, 
when Franklin 
Roosevelt was 
Democratic president of 
the US, FDR looms large. 
True, millions of 
American Republicans 
detested "that man in 
the White House" and 
believed he was 
ruining the country. 
But even they knew 
that he was the leader. 
At first the point was 
less clear. In his early political career, Roosevelt seemed a 
commonplace, though personable, product of upper-class 
society. Marriage to the redoubtable Eleanor Roosevelt (his 
cousin), a crippling attack of polio and the trauma of the 
Depression all had a galvanising effect. Taking office at a 
moment of national collapse, he restored to his 
countrymen (and other Western nations) the priceless gift 
of hope. Ubiquitous, shrewd, gay in spirit, he won the trust 
of immense numbers. They returned him to the White 
House in 1936, again in 1940 (the only president to secure 
a third term) and yet again in 1944. No less resilient in 
wartime, though ageing rapidly under its burdens, he 
directed operations from the initial disaster of Pearl 
Harbor (which his enemies accused him of arranging) until 
his death on the eve of victory over Germany. Roosevelt 
had his weaknesses, like any man. But he stands as the 
equal of the other men of destiny, both allies and 
adversaries, who lived in that awesome era
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2.2
 It was against a background of gloom and widespread 
sense of hopelessness that the Presidential section of 1932 
was held.  At it the Republicans, who felt bound to 
vindicate their President by their votes, decided to put 
Herbert Hoover forward for a second time.  At the 
Democratic Convention at Chicago there was a good deal of 
initial manoeuvring, but eventually Roosevelt was 
nominated, and once his campaign had started there was 
little question of the result. Apart from the fact that the 
Hoover regime had failed to master the depression, there 
were many circumstances in Roosevelt's  favour.  The 
Democratic platform was, in defiance of all precedent, brief 
and definite; conditions generally could scarcely have been 
more desperate; and the refusal of prohibition was a 
popular Democratic plank.  

Moreover, as the campaign progressed Roosevelt's inspired 
nomination pledge of "a new deal for the American people" 
began to catch the public imagination.  Hoover, indeed, was 
beaten from the first; but the result when it came was 
unparalleled in American history - a majority of 4,000,000 
votes and 480 out of 531 in the electoral college. 
  
On the eve of his inauguration the nation long lost to hope 
was on the point of panic.  Banks had been closing all over 
the country and it was rumoured that those of New York 
and Chicago would shut the next day.  It was a moment of 
culmination at which Roosevelt alone seemed to stand 
between the people and complete despair.  At such a time 
he was at his greatest, and as he drove with his tired 
predecessor through the streets of the capital to the 
inauguration ceremonies, he appeared to radiate courage 
and assurance.  His speech was brief and foreshadowed 
immediate and strenuous action.  

His plans for national recovery covered the whole range of 
industry.  Huge schemes of public relief works were 
launched and the Budget rose to a total unprecedented 
even in the years of war.  Since taxation could not cover it, 
he had to borrow.  In finance his plan was to move 
towards a managed currency, and his aim a dollar which 
would not change in its purchasing or debt paying power 
during the succeeding generation.  There was to be 
constant talk of a balanced Budget in some year not too far 
ahead, but the figures and estimates were scarcely to point 
in that direction.  With the huge defence programme which 
developed later all hope of it expired.
  
There were three aspects of the President's "New Deal."  
The first was to avert abuses by imposing drastic 
limitations on all big industrial organizations; the second to 
develop national resources by such means as huge dams 
and hydro-electric plants; the third to establish social 
security in one grand sweep.  Nothing in regard to it was 
particularly new except the immensity of its scale and 
speed with which it was attempted to put it through.  At 
every stage, moreover, he sought to carry the country with 
him, and to this end kept it informed of both his aims and 
achievements by his "Fireside Chats," a system of direct 
personal contact which developed into an unprecedented 
intimacy between President and people.
  
There were, of course, loud complaints from business and 
other interests, and those who felt themselves to be 
prejudiced or endangered by the new legislation.  But 
apart from some checks and some dissension the 
President's proposals were carried through on a broad tide 
of popular support.  Even after what has been called the 
first "honeymoon" year everything continued to go 
smoothly enough.  Then, however, the "codes" which 
Roosevelt's National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 had 
imposed upon employers were condemned by the 
Supreme Court and rendered invalid.  His Agricultural 
Adjustment Act was also to suffer the same fate.  It was 
the beginning of a sharp constitutional conflict.  In spite, 
however, of a tendency in some quarters to make it a 
political issue, the President, to whom opposition was 
always a stimulant, faced the difficulty calmly, and, in 
trying to save what he could, succeeded beyond 
expectation.  In spite, therefore, of the loss of legislation 
which incidentally had served a great deal of its purpose, 
the "New Deal" went on.
  
By 1935 the President was able to claim that his basic 
programme was substantially complete.  Apart from its 
material effects it had undoubtedly exerted a remarkable 
educative influence on the people, and in the same year he 
stated that the objective of the nation had greatly changed, 
and that clearer thinking and understanding were leading 
to a broader and therefore a less selfish outlook.  By that 
year also the economic skies had begun to lighten.  

The second term, however, was to be full of other than 
domestic preoccupations.  In his Inaugural Address he did 
not mention foreign affairs: but in the next October he 
sounded a warning note and said that the epidemic of 
world lawlessness was spreading.  "Let no one imagine," he 
added, "that America will escape, that America may expect 
mercy; that this Western Hemisphere will not be attacked; 
and that it will continue tranquilly and peacefully to carry 
on the ethics and the arts of civilization."  It was 
remarkable prophecy; but perhaps even more remarkable, 
the prophet himself proceeded to act upon it.
@
2.3
In the presence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives and of 10 members of his Cabinet 
President Roosevelt this afternoon read his eagerly 
awaited Message to Congress.  He stood uncomplainingly 
under the almost intolerable glare of "Klieg" lamps 
installed by motion-picture companies, and spoke in a 
voice which gathered resonance as he proceeded.  
Applause interrupted him here and there, but it swelled to 
an ovation as he ended and made his way down the ramp 
which is erected to facilitate the walking.  

There was, as politicians were quick to note, "something 
for everybody" in the address, but it was something so 
generalised as to whet rather than satisfy the appetite to 
know what the future may hold.  It was a sketch firmly 
drawn of bare outlines of purpose, but the work of filling 
in is to be left  - and, given the uncertain temper of 
Congress, perhaps wisely left - to a series of future 
Messages.  Congress, in other words, was not asked to 
swallow what the President called "a new order" whole 
and at once, but its digestive powers are to be tested and 
developed as time and public taste may determine.  
Whatever else to-day's address may leave uncertain, it 
clearly presages another year of budgetary deficit and 
further and considerable additions of the national debt. 

"SOCIAL JUSTICE"

The speech is roughly divisible into a prelude and a 
programme.  In his exordium, Mr Roosevelt spoke of 
movement toward a new order "under the framework and 
in the spirit and intent of world-wide change creating 
problems "for which the masters of the old practice and 
theory were unprepared."  Today "social justice" is in most 
nations a "definite goal," and the "attempt to make a 
distinction between recovery and reform is a narrowly 
conceived effort to substitute the appearance of reality for 
reality itself.  

In spite of our efforts and talk "we have not weeded out 
the over-privileged, and we have not effectively lifted up 
the under-privileged".  Though "no wise man has any 
intention of destroying what is called the profit motive - 
the right to work to earn a decent livelihood for selves and 
families - Americans must forswear that conception of 
acquisition of wealth which through excessive profits 
creates undue private power over private affairs, and to 
our misfortune over public affairs as well."

And so the President came to his programme, "which, 
because of many lost years, will take many future years to 
fulfil," and which should provide security of livelihood 
through better use of national resources, security of 
livelihood through better use of national resources, 
security against the major hazards and vicissitudes of life, 
and security of  life, and security of decent homes.

The broad problem of livelihood involved intelligent care 
of the population throughout the nation in accordance with 
intelligent distribution of means and a definite plan for 
putting people to work; the problem of security against the 
hazards of life  would be met by recommendations shortly  
to be sent to Congress covering unemployment insurance, 
old-age insurance, benefits for children, for mothers, and 
for handicapped maternity care, "and other aspects of 
dependency and illness where a beginning can now be 
made"; and the problem of better homes would be met 
through proposals he would make "in relation to giving 
work to the unemployed."

The Unemployed

The President harked back to the spring of 1933, when the 
"issue of destitution seemed to stand apart," and when 
measures were taken to afford relief, to make possible the 
more "rational and orderly operation of business," and "to 
put behind industrial recovery the impulse of  large 
expenditures in Government undertakings." Despite the 
National Industrial Recovery Act, despite public works, 
despite the expenditure of more than $2,000,000 in relief, 
"the stark fact before us is that great numbers still remain 
unemployed."

The disintegrating force of continued independence on 
relief was dwelt on, and the President added vigorously, 
"the Federal Government must and shall quit this business 
of relief."  He estimated the number on the relief rolls as 
approximately 5,000,000, of whom 1,500,000 represented 
a group always in the past dependent on local welfare 
efforts who would be cared for now as they were not local 
but national," and the Federal Government was the "only 
governmental agency with sufficient cover and credit to 
meet this situation," on their behalf, therefore,

In the exception of certain of the normal public building 
operations of the Government, emergency public works 
shall be united in a single new  and greatly enlarged plan.

With the establishment of this new system we can 
supersede the Federal Emergency Relief Administration 
with a co-ordinated authority which will be charged with 
the orderly liquidation of our present relief activities and 
the substitution of a national chart for the giving of work.

The President said he had arrived at "certain very definite 
convictions" as to the amount of money necessary and 
would submit figures in his Budget message.   "I assure 
you now," he said, "they will be within the sound credit of 
the Government." Upon the work chart will appear - 
Clearance of slums, rural housing, rural electrification, 
reafforestation of great watersheds, prevention of soil 
erosion, reclamation of blighted areas, improvement of 
road systems, construction of national highways "to handle 
modern traffic," elimination of level crossings, enlargement 
of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and other 
projects.  Here was a method offered to meet the problem 
of unemployment fitting logically "into the long-range 
permanent policy of providing the three types of security 
which constitute as a whole an American plan for the 
American people."

There are other recommendations to come, however.  
Consolidation of Federal regulatory administration over all 
forms of transport is one of them, "renewal and 
clarification of the purposes" of N.I.R.A. is another, and 
reference was also made to the abolition of the evil 
features of holding companies in the public utilities field, 
and, "in view of the abnormal world conditions," 
continuance of agricultural adjustment "with certain 
necessary improvements."
@
2.4 
Mr. Roosevelt has been returned as President of the United 
States for the second time in the history of American 
elections. According to incomplete returns, he has carried 
46 of the 48 States of the Union. His Republican opponent, 
Mr. Landon, Governor of Kansas State, has won only Maine 
and Vermont. 
In the Electoral College Mr Roosevelt commands 523 of the 
531 votes. Mr. Landon has only 8. The latest figures of the 
popular vote are:
	
	Mr. Roosevelt	22,809,193 votes
	Mr. Landon	14,216,063

Although the returns are not yet complete, the indications 
are that the Democrats will have increased majorities both 
in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.

Mr Roosevelt yesterday won a victory in the polls greater 
than that of any other presidential candidate since James 
Monroe was elected 116 years ago. Monroe gained all the 
electoral votes but one, that one being withheld by an 
elector who felt that only Washington was entitled to  
honour of a unanimous election. Mr. Roosevelt won all but 
8 of the 531 electoral votes and carried 46 of the 48 
States, Governor Landon taking only Maine, with its 5 
electoral votes, and Vermont, with its three. Even 
traditionally Republican New Hampshire failed Governor 
Landon, as well as his own state of Kansas.

The President's popular majority, with many returns of 
voting still to be made, is already well over 8,000,000 
votes. The latest figures show him leading Governor 
Landon by 22,809,193 votes to 14,216,063, with Mr. 
Lemke, the Union Party candidate, trailing far behind with 
only 389,947 votes, and Mr. Thomas, the Socialist 
candidate, so far out of the picture as to be a supreme 
example of the "forgotten man."

President Roosevelt's victory over Governor Landon will 
almost certainly be greater than any in American political 
history. Mr. Roosevelt has won the electoral vote of every 
State in the Union except Maine and Vermont which gives 
him 523 votes to Mr. Landon's eight, and has a staggering 
lead over his opponent. 

This is an overwhelming personal triumph. The President 
has conducted his campaign in every sense but that of 
party organisation entirely alone. Against him were 
arrayed all the mass strength and resources of financial 
and industrial leadership and at least 80 per cent of the 
newspapers in the country. They have been no more 
effective than was Mrs. Partington's broom in brushing 
back the ocean waves.

More important than this, infinitely more significant, is the 
fact that yesterday's vote was affirmative, not negative. In 
1932 the American people voted against the depression as 
that was embodied for them in the unhappy figure of Mr. 
Hebert Hoover, and gave Mr. Roosevelt 472 electoral votes 
and a popular majority of more than 7,000,000. It was said 
then, and not unreasonably, that the popular tendency was 
always to vote against rather than for something, and this 
year it had been the hope of the Republicans that the rule 
would now apply against the man who had benefited by it 
four years ago. But either the rule breaks down or, if it 
does not, the people have risen against "big business" and 
the newspapers. Taken either way, the result is profoundly 
impressive. 

Its social implications are endless. There has been 
immense economic progress in the United States, but its 
advantages have been dangerously centralised. Certain 
business groups, certain specialised forms of occupation, 
have been protected at the expense of others, and a 
financial solidarity which for many years knew itself to be 
more powerful than the  Government had been created. 
These had been the primary interest of most legislative 
enactments -  they were always the spoilt children of the 
Republican Party - and the theory behind this action was 
that the benefits conferred on certain classes would seep 
down to the masses. This happened too completed or, as in 
the years that followed the crash of 1929, not at all. What 
is now evident is that the American people in the 
tremendous majority refuse to forbid the most 
considerable attempt which has yet been made to broaden 
the field of economic growth and enlarge the sphere of 
economic advantage.

The old way endured and was accepted as the right way 
for numerous reasons. It worked while yet there was a 
virgin empire to be settled and exploited, while the 
development of transport was proceeding apace, and while 
new divisions of industry - notably the manufacture of 
automobiles - were in process of establishment. There are 
no such factors or circumstances immediately to be seen or 
relied on, but one of the ablest of Americas students, Mr. 
Harold Moulton, has said that there are other ways of 
advance.

In putting the old common necessities of food and housing 
within the reach of millions who are now underfed, ill-
clad, and housed only in the tenement of the city slum or 
the shack of the country slum we have an ample and 
accessible field of business enlargement.

Unquestionably there are troublous days ahead, and it is in 
the form of labour unrest that trouble is most likely. The 
task before the President is, as the Washington Post says 
today, the "consolidation of the practical and thoroughly 
beneficial social advantages that have been sketched out 
during the last four years." His experience has been 
enriched during his first term, he knows more now of what 
is visionary and what is achievable than he did. He is no 
longer likely, as Hazlitt said all the Utopians were, to lose 
himself in Utopia. and he will have a personal prestige in 
his own country which has not been given to any President 
since General Washington.

He will have a congress even more strongly Democratic 
than before. The disadvantage of so unwieldy a 
preponderance in numbers is obvious. Discipline, in the 
party sense of the word, will be conspicuous by its 
absence; there is enough numerically and in divergence of 
opinion to furnish forth two sizable parties in the 
Democratic strength today. The influence of one man 
rather than the fortunes of a political organisation will be 
the guide to action of most members of congress, and this 
throws on that man, Mr. Roosevelt, a terrible 
responsibility.
@
3.1
The Lease and Lend Bill was signed by President Roosevelt 
yesterday afternoon and became law.  During the day the 
Bill as amended by the Senate was approved by the House 
of Representatives with a vote of 317 to 71.

The original vote in the House on the Bill before it went to 
the Senate was 260 to 165.  Thus to-day's vote has given 
an even more convincing demonstration of the solidarity of 
the American people behind their Government in its policy 
of giving all aid short of war to Great Britain and other 
nations fighting against aggressors.
  
The President will ask Congress, probably to-morrow, to 
appropriate no less than 7,000,000,000 dollars 
($1,750,000,000) for carrying out the purposes of the law.  
This announcement was made to-day by Senator Glass, of 
Virginia, Chairman of the Senate Committee on 
Appropriations, after members of the Appropriations 
Committees of both Houses and some other members of 
Congress had been called into conference by the President.  
Senator Glass said that "all cash" appropriations would be 
asked for, meaning by that presumably that there would 
not be included any request for contract authorizations.
  
BARTER TALK DENIED  

As soon as the Bill was signed the President released a 
number of military and naval materials to Great Britain 
and Greece.  He declined to say what they were, stating 
that their nature would not be disclosed for a reasonable 
time, lest the knowledge of their identity should be of 
military value to "someone else"; but he did say that the 
amount involved was not large, and that much of the 
material was surplus or over-age.
  
Asked whether any deal or exchange was made in 
connexion with the transfer this afternoon, he replied that 
none had been made and that, if he did exchange 
munitions for some foreign assets, that fact would be made 
public within a reasonable time.
  
It is reported that some Congressmen who talked with the 
President to-day received from him the impression that he 
would send a fleet of "mosquito-boats" (motor torpedo-
boats) to England immediately and that probably food 
supplies, particularly pork and cheese, and possibly wheat, 
would also be sent.
  
Acting on the assumption that the United States may be 
called upon soon to transfer to Britain a great tonnage of 
merchant ships for carrying war supplies from this 
country, the Government has begun a survey of American 
shipping resources.  These have tentatively been listed at 
about 1,150 ships of a total of 7,087,000 gross tons, 
exclusive of the nine vessels which are all that remain of 
the laid-up fleet.  

Of these 1,150 there are 357 merchant ships of 2,271,148 
tons in international trade, all privately owned except 41, 
of 291,000 tons, which belong to the Government.  In 
addition there are operating under the American flag 349 
tankers of 2,578,500 tons, nearly all available for oversea 
trade.  Of 386 vessels of 1,857,800 tons operating in 
domestic trade some, though not a great number, are 
suitable for transocean traffic.  
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3.6
It is with the deepest regret that we announce that 
President Roosevelt died suddenly yesterday.  The news 
reached London at midnight. His death occurred at Warm 
Springs, Georgia, and was caused by cerebral haemorrhage.  
He was 63.
  
Mrs. Roosevelt, who was in Washington at once notified the 
Vice-President, Senator Truman, who attended an 
emergency meeting of the Cabinet at the White House last 
night.  Later he was sworn in as 32nd President of the 
Union.
  
DEATH FROM CEREBRAL HAEMORRHAGE  

It is announced at the White House that President 
Roosevelt died suddenly this afternoon of cerebral 
haemorrhage at Warm Springs, where he had been for 
more than a week.
  
The President's death occurred at 3.35 p.m. central war 
time.
  
Vice-President Truman conferred and took the oath as 
32nd President of the Union at 7.09 p.m. with the Cabinet 
at the White House.
  
Mr. Roosevelt died in his bedroom in the small bungalow 
on Pine Mountain where he had stayed on his visits over 
the past 20 years to Warm Springs for after treatment of 
infantile paralysis.  Mrs. Roosevelt said to-night that he 
had not been feeling well for some time.
  
A FAINTING FIT  

Still, his physician, Admiral Ross McIntyre, felt no 
apprehension about him.  When he talked on the telephone 
to Warm Springs this morning the President seemed to be 
all right, but at 3.05 this afternoon he was told that he had 
fainted while having his portrait painted.  Admiral 
McIntyre summoned Dr. Paullin from Atlanta, who joined 
Dr. Howard Bruen, who was taking care of Mr. Roosevelt in 
Admiral McIntyre's absence.  The two physicians were 
with Mr. Roosevelt when he died.
  
Mr. Roosevelt complained of severe headache at about 1.15 
p.m. and a few minutes afterwards became unconscious.  
He remained so until he died two hours later.
  
The President had planned to return to Washington next 
week.  The funeral services will be held in the White 
House on Saturday.

Mrs. Roosevelt received news of her husband's death by 
telephone while attending a charity event.  She left 
immediately without saying a word to anyone.  Mrs. 
Woodrow Wilson, whose husband also died under a war-
time President's burdens, was at the same party.