Reception (72)

Roosevelt was 'a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president.'

He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president.

Party leaders such as Raskob judged Roosevelt an extremist after the Forgotten Man speech and sought to block him.

Roosevelt's speech caused party leaders, such as Democratic National Committee Chairman John J. Raskob , to judge Roosevelt as an extremist, causing them to oppose his candidacy.

The 'forgotten man' broadcast was a demagogic appeal setting class against class.

His threat was interpreted as di rectly intended for Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, who in a re cent radio address, charged that the l "little fellow," the common citizen, has been forgotten.

Intra-party opposition; the April 7 speech proposed farm purchasing power, mortgage relief and tariff reciprocity, not class redistribution.

Roosevelt was intentionally vague on economics to hold both Midwestern progressives and Eastern conservatives.

Roosevelt had been intentionally vague about his economic stances, so as to earn the support of midwestern progressivists without further alienating eastern progressivists (who favored a more conservative economic approach).

There is no difference between the Republican and Democratic candidates; only the Socialists champion the working class.

There will be no difference between the candidates of the Republican and Demo cratic parties.

Roosevelt is running on a platform more emphatic on veterans' relief, and veterans may vote for him expecting the bonus, which he could not sign.

Governor Roosevelt is running upon a platform with a more emphatic plank upon veterans' relief.

The Democratic plank was confined to service-connected disability; the perception that it was more generous shows how the bonus silence was read.

The Commonwealth Club speech is read in retrospect as the outline of the New Deal's expansive federal role.

In a speech in San Francisco, FDR outlined the expansive role that the federal government should play in resuscitating the economy, in easing the burden of the suffering, and in insuring that all Americans had an opportunity to lead successful and rewarding lives.

First returns of the 20-million-ballot Digest poll gave Hoover a slight lead.

First Poll Figures Give 'Hoover a Slight head'

OCR of the contents line; 'head' is 'lead'. The poll is the only quantitative measure of national sentiment in 1932; it had no scientific sample.

The farm program is more liberal and definite than Hoover's, but the tax-relief promise rests on local reorganization and the mortgage position is indefinite.

Equally Mr Roosevelt's position on the refinancing of farm mortgages is indefinite.

Written before the Springfield, Illinois mortgage speech of October 21 supplied specifics.

The Topeka farm speech made vague promises without definite legislation; farmers expect delivery or will turn to violence.

Gov Roosevelt is playing with dynamite if he does not have definite legislation in mind to fulfill the vague promises he made to agriculture in his Topeka address.

Letter signed by a farmer; the paper's own editorial on the same page calls the program 'much more liberal and definite than that of Mr Hoover.'

The campaign was deliberately cautious: attacks on Hoover and promises of better days, often without specific programs, so bland that commentators doubted his grasp of the crisis.

Roosevelt was so genial--and his prescriptions for the country so bland--that some commentators questioned his capabilities and his grasp of the serious challenges confronting the United States.

The historian's summary sits uneasily with the archived speeches, which contain roughly sixty distinct positions, many specific; the blandness was in the framing, not the content.

Roosevelt and his party intend to reduce the farm tariffs and open the home market to peasant-labor products.

This is surely a promise of reducing farm tariffs. They will reduce farm tariffs if they come to power.

Roosevelt's Sioux City speech (Sept 29) had already limited reductions; his Baltimore statement (Oct 25) explicitly excluded farm duties. Hoover then called that a 'new shuffle.'

Roosevelt's six-point farm program is understood as the 'voluntary domestic allotment plan,' whose feasibility experts dispute; the points overlapping Hoover's cancel out.

Roosevelt the farmer has received the outline of a program for aiding him by what some students de scribe as the "voluntary domestic allot ment plan," but which other students declare Is Impossible.

Republican managers plan to portray Roosevelt as 'a radical wolf in a conservative sheep's clothing' by publicizing his embrace of Senator Norris; the columnist compares it to Hanna's 1896 scare tactics.

Watch out for a concerted Republi can movement during the next two or three weeks to scare the country into believing that Franklin D. Roosevelt is a radical wolf in a conservative sheep's clothing.

Reports the opposition framing rather than endorsing it; Hoover's Madison Square Garden speech three weeks later executed it.

Roosevelt, unlike Hoover, favors adequate unemployment relief; on the bonus he deserves credit but remains open to the charge that he would pay it once the budget balances.

Until he makes that compaction Roosevelt will remain open to the charge that he favors a blanket cash bonus when the federal budget is balanced.

'compaction' is OCR for 'correction' or similar.

Roosevelt has not disavowed the House's $2.3 billion greenback bill; the 'new deal' means currency tampering.

One of the most important issues of the campaign arises from the fact that the Democratic candidate has not yet disavowed the bill passed by the Democratic House of Representatives under the leadership of the Democratic candidate for Vice President to issue $2,300 million of greenback currency--that is, unconvertible paper money.

The platform pledged 'sound currency'; Roosevelt never addressed the Patman greenback provision directly. In outcome Hoover's suspicion of currency management proved correct.

Roosevelt's Baltimore statement that he would not cut farm tariffs is a startling last-minute reversal that rewrites the Democratic platform.

He now announces within 2 weeks of the election that he does not propose to reduce tariffs on farm products.

Roosevelt's bonus statement was late, indirect and timid compared with Hoover's; a position forced by expediency, not conviction.

the difference be- tween the Hoover and the Roosevelt statements on the bonus is the difference between courage and timidity, timeliness and lateness, directness and indirectness.

Roosevelt spoke tardily and evasively on the bonus, committing to nothing except a balanced budget before payment.

the Governor has spoken, tho tardily, and a trifle evasively, since he does not commit himself on anything except that he wants a balanced budget before a bonus payment.

Roosevelt evaded the bonus issue; his statement is not courageous.

Mills flatly declares that Mr. Roosevelt 'evaded the bonus issue.'

Roosevelt had in fact stated opposition to prepayment; the charge is about the conditional framing and the seven-month silence.

Roosevelt opposes the bonus only because the Treasury cannot afford it, leaving the inference that the demand is just and would be met once the budget balances.

for it leaves the inference that the bonus demand is just, and that only the present Treasury deficit prevents meeting the demand.

A pro-Roosevelt paper reading the Pittsburgh statement as conditional — which is what it was.

Roosevelt is incapable of taking a positive stand on any important national issue.

Roosevelt seems utterly incapable of taking a positive stand upon any important national issue.

By October 29 Roosevelt had delivered detailed programs on farm relief, railroads, utilities, securities and the budget; the perception of vagueness attached to the whole rather than the parts.

The Pittsburgh speech was aimed at Eastern business: the balanced budget, the 25 percent cut and the bonus stand were read as removing business fears of a Roosevelt presidency.

His pledge of a balanced budget coincides with the unanimous views of financial leaders.

Business audiences took the fiscal pledges literally; the Digest's summary: 'The speech was regarded as plainly intended to remove many of the fears of business regarding his election.'

Pairing the bonus refusal with beer revenue was a 'bald-faced bribe': vote for beer and get your bonus — a promise beer taxes could never fund.

What Roosevelt seems to have done is a dirty trick. He has dunked his bonus in beer. And bitter bread it will be for him in the day of reckoning.

Roosevelt's Pittsburgh text tied beer revenue to balancing the budget, not to paying the bonus; White's reading is what a hostile listener took from the juxtaposition.

Roosevelt is prepared to put the federal government into the power business, and his Senate supporters are pledged to it.

The Democratic candidate has declared that under the same conditions which may make local action of this character desirable, he is prepared to put the Federal Government into the power business.

The Commonwealth Club thesis that the industrial plant is built means Roosevelt believes America's advance has ended — 'the philosophy of stagnation and of despair.'

This philosophy upon which the Governor of New York proposes to conduct the Presidency of the United States is the philosophy of stagnation and of despair. It is the end of hope.

Roosevelt has promised government employment for all ten million unemployed — a cruel and impossible promise.

I especially emphasize that promise to promote "employment for all surplus labor at all times"--by the Government.

The letter said what Hoover quoted; Roosevelt neither repeated nor repudiated it.

The final Digest poll gave Roosevelt 41 of 48 states — an accurate forecast of the landslide (he carried 42).

Roosevelt Bags 41 States Out of 48

The reforestation pledge — a billion trees, a million men — would yield less than three days' work.

The Democratic candidate adds to this program the proposal to plant a billion trees and thereby immediately employ a million men, but the Secretary of Agriculture has shown that the trees available to plant will give them a total of less than 3 days' work.

The Democratic mandate is clear: the party is commissioned to do as it promised, and its promises 'are going to be presented for payment.'

With the Inauguration of the Democratic ad ministration, the promises issued by the party aie going to be presented for pay ment.

Farley, on the same program, said Roosevelt 'becomes President without commitments of any kind' — as to cabinet appointments.

Roosevelt won not on his merits but was pushed over the line by the mass strength of anti-Hoover sentiment; the paper cannot even congratulate him.

is a good deal like an elusive, slidey, half-back who has made a slick run through a broken field, and then has been pushed. over the line for a touch-down by the mass strength of his

After the election, Wall Street felt business had little to fear from the political change, and Republican editors found cause for hope in the apparent continuity of policy.

Wall Street there is reported to be a rather general feeling of confidence that busi- ness need have little to fear because of the political change.

Financial opinion read the campaign's fiscal orthodoxy as the program; within five months the gold standard was gone and the NRA in prospect.

When the debtors asked for postponement after the election, the press split between refusing any reduction (Denver Post, Ohio State Journal) and cancellation as the only cure (Baltimore Sun); both read Roosevelt as bound by the no-cancellation plank.

The best way for the United States to settle the debt prob- lem is to say to Europe, 'We will not consider any proposition for cancelation or further reduction of the debts you owe us.'

Hoover's mobilization of business and banking committees is ceremonial — 'his new panel of honorary pallbearers' — and Democrats call it propaganda.

Of course, not everybody is deeply imprest, as is evident from the Baltimore Evening Sun's (Ind.) ironic reference to President Hoover's speech before

The Digest's own summary found 'a distinctly impressive gathering'; skeptical and impressed readings coexisted.

The Hoover administration is the greatest peacetime spender in history, piling bureau on bureau.

I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peace times in all our history.

Ordinary expenditures excluding depression relief fell; total outlays rose because of RFC capital, relief and construction — the same distinction Roosevelt later used for his own budgets.

Hoover did absolutely nothing to remedy the crash from October to December 1929 and delayed relief and economy for years.

From that day to December 31st of that year, he did absolutely nothing to remedy the situation. Not only did he do nothing, but he took the position that Congress could do nothing.

Hoover's November 1929 conferences and public-works requests contradict the literal charge; Hoover answered it point by point at Indianapolis.

Hoover's invitation to the President-elect to confer on the debt notes was hailed as wise and statesmanlike; Roosevelt's acceptance won equal praise.

President Hoover's gesture of cooperation is hailed everywhere as wise, politic, patriotic, statesman- like. President-elect Roosevelt's gracious acceptance similarly wins the plaudits of the press.

The acceptance speech's foreign-policy passage was brief, nationalist in hue (Borah's influence), and did not differ in any vital respect from the Democrats; both parties meant to 'attend strictly to [their] own knitting.'

It does not differ in any vital respect from the position assumed by the Democrats.

Landon 'must clarify to win labor'; workers were entitled to clear-cut views on bargaining.

Landon Must Clarify to Win Labor Workers Entitled to ClearCut Views on Bargaining

Labor first read 'any other person' as a denial of organizers' rights; Landon's letter to Norman Thomas was received as 'a milestone' affirming lawful organizing.

labor critics were quick to contend that this meant a denial of the right of organizers to go into an unorganized industry and get members. Mr. Lan don, in his letter to Norman Thomas, makes it clear that he did not mean to exclude union organizers.

Read as a deliberate break with Hearst and the Legion -- notice that Landon was not 'under his thumb'.

Whether or not the speech was de liberately so intended, its effect.was to serve notice on Mr. Hearst that Mr. Landon is not "under his thumb"

Early Digest returns from four states ran 2 to 1 for Landon and were read as showing he 'has a chance to defeat President Roosevelt.'

the first fragment of the presidential poll taken by the Literary Digest indicates that Landon, the Republican nominee, has a chance to defeat President Roosevelt.

Landon's Des Moines speech accepted 'the principle of national responsibility for agriculture' and offered a program competing with the New Deal's for the farm states -- the Coolidge-Hoover position was gone.

The Cleveland platform and now Gov Landon in his Des Moines speech accept the principle of na tional responsibility for agriculture and offer a program that seeks to compete with the Roosevelt admin istration's program

Landon told Iowa farmers the New Deal was 'robbing' them while promising continued checks -- read as pledging both economy and benefits.

New Deal Robbing American Farmer He Tells Iowa Corn Growers

Landon, who had promised to make the Act workable, instead proposed to demolish it and substitute an old-age dole; repealing the unemployment title amounted to abolishing unemployment insurance.

It is all the more disappointing, therefore, that in his Mil waukee speech on social security, Gov. Landon, who promised suggestions to make the Federal act workable, actually pro poses to demolish it and substitute an old age dole for the needy.

A pension plan that 'will WORK', financed by an earmarked tax instead of borrowing; the first completely honest statement in the campaign on the subject.

But Governor Landon UNLIKE PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT--insists on a pension and security plan that WILL GIVE RESULTS.

Landon would keep a federal tie to old-age pensions but throw unemployment insurance back to the 48 States, ignoring that States would not act alone.

His pro posal is to throw unemployment back to the 48 states absolutely.

The Detroit speech 'brought the campaign to a focus' on the President's alleged violation of the American system; Landon's questions on NRA and AAA revival and constitutional amendment were the issue.

Gov. Landon's speech at Detroit last night brought the campaign to a focus. It gave specific expression to a question that is unmistakably the issue between the administration seeking a return to power and the party that is seeking to effect a change.

The Digest's final count gave Landon 370 electoral votes to 161 and 1,293,669 straws to 972,897 -- 'overwhelming Landon victory'.

Governor Landon elected with 370 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 161. This will be the trend of elec tion headlines if the Nation's voters line up as indicated by the final report of the Literary Digest Poll

The 1936 result was read by historians as a referendum endorsing the New Deal's activist state over Landon's economy-and-Constitution appeal.

1936 FDR had lost most of the backing he once held in the business community because of his support for the Wagner Act and the Social Security Act.

Roosevelt could not duck Landon's NRA question; he had 'given pretty clear indication that he is not thru' and should say so now rather than face a broken-promise charge later.

It would be better to face it now than to duck until after election and then, if he tries to return to the principles of NRA, be confronted with another broken-promise charge.

Relief recipients feared open postcard ballots could identify their votes; WPA foremen collected ballot cards -- relief seen as a political machine.

it is reported that foremen on W. P. A. units asked the men to bring their ballot cards to a central place to be sent in.

Upstate New York workers, discovering the payroll tax, were shifting to Landon in an eleventh-hour protest; the administration's reply that employers also pay made matters worse once workers learned the employer rate would rise to 3 percent.

It is an eleventh hour shift to Lan don as a protest by laboring men who are discover ing what the New Deal means to them concretely In terms of the new pay roll tax.

Workers' pay will be docked to build 'a phantom reserve fund' any Congress can spend; the President will not say whether workers get back what they put in.

they will have their pay docked for the purpose of building up a phantom reserve fund--a fund that any future Congress can spend any time it sees lit and lor any purpose It sees fit.

Roosevelt would read re-election as a mandate to carry on the New Deal; his 'I welcome their hatred' spirit meant new moves would face microscopic examination.

Obviously, the President looks forward to his re-election as mandate to carry on the New Deal.

All major polls but the Digest predicted Roosevelt; Gallup gave Landon only Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.

The American Institute of Public Opinion poll conducted by George Gallup gives Landon only three sure states. Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire

Even with a Roosevelt victory, a conservative coalition of both parties might control Congress and check 'drastic regulation'.

ONTROL of both houses of Congress would seem to be I assured to a coalition of eon servatlve Democrat and Re publicans.

The Digest's error -- 39 points on the margin -- came from sampling and non-response bias; Gallup's 50,000-person quota sample was within 1.4 points.

George Gallup 's American Institute of Public Opinion achieved national recognition by correctly predicting the result to within 1.4%, using a much smaller sample size of just 50,000.

The triumph was a vote of confidence in a man, not in principles; the Constitution and the Supreme Court remained the two obstacles to 'the presidential will to power.'

Two obstacles still Interpose. They are the Constitution •nd the Supreme Court.

Voters believed 'in his hands Democratic traditions and our Constitutional system are safe' -- the assumption the court bill would break.

It is clear that people like Hr. Roosevelt, regardless of party .leanings, approve his humanitarian tf>olicies and have faith that in his hands Democratic traditions and our .Constitutional system are safe.

Post-election judgment that the pay-envelope campaign, the campaign's 'sensation', failed to move the labor vote.

Ijast week Its local membership* through alliances with the New Deal and Federal political machines, did not divide the labor vote between the two parties, but marshaled from 80 to 90 per cent on the Roosevelt side.

Roosevelt owed his victory to a 'Popular Front' led by radicals and would turn further left; 'millions who voted for Mr. Roosevelt are due for a sharp awakening.'

It is to men of the stripe of Du binsky, Antoninl, Ia Guardia, Norris and Lundeen, if not at once to Brow der, that Mr. Roosevelt will turn for counsel.

Despite the Syracuse repudiation, the Tribune still counted Browder among those Roosevelt might turn to.

if not at once to Brow der, that Mr. Roosevelt will turn for counsel.

Socialist sympathizers 'probably joined the Roosevelt movement in large numbers rather than waste their votes.'

Persons in sympathy with the Socialist point of view, for Instance, probably joined the Roosevelt move ment in large numbers rather than waste their votes.

The Ohio primary 'wrote finis' to Borah's hopes; his crusade to liberalize the party 'fizzled' because he waited too long.

his fail ure to rouse the rank and file in Ohio seems to demonstrate finally that the prize is not within his reach

Borah bore no rancor, but doubted Landon's campaign would reach Western progressives unless he 'reveals him self as a progressive.'

If Landon senses this problem and, by his addresses, reveals him self as a progressive, then the task of men like Senator Borah in appeal ing to Western audiences will be rel atively easy.

The Lemke ticket's threat lay in its appeal to Western inflationist sentiment; it put Roosevelt 'in a very tight hole' between radicalism and the middle ground.

The first threat to Roosevelt, poseo by the presidential candidacy of Mr. Lemke. obviously arises from its ap peal to the inflationist sentiment of the West.

The Union ticket drew from Democrats and aimed at Roosevelt's scalp, but was 'entirely unlikely' to carry a single State.

But it is entirely unlikely that Coughlin and his Lemke-O'Brien ticket will carry a single State for themselves.

In the West the Lemke-Coughlin-Townsend tickets 'draw votes from Mr. Roosevelt rather than from Mr. Landon.'

For these third party tickets draw votes from Mr. Roosevelt rather than from Mr. Landon.

Coughlin whipped a 50,000 crowd at the Minnesota fair into pledging support for Lemke 'to destroy the sham battle in Washington', unsettling forecasts for the State.

The strange event was climaxed with the great throng standing and pledging ■upport to William Lemke, Union party presidential candidate

Lemke was 'only a Coughlin-Landon stooge'; 'a vote for Lemke is a vote for Landon.'

Coughlin knows that a vote for Lemke is a vote for Landon.

The returns 'proved conclusively' that isolated group movements outside the two parties are vain; Coughlin's retirement ended them.

If there is one thing that the last election proved conclu sively. it is that the two major parties have too big a hold on the American people to be disturbed from the outside