FDR - Jean Edward Smith [141]
Smith was content to take FDR at his word, but Tammany and the upstate leaders refused to accept a substitute candidate. Roosevelt had no enemies within the party and only Roosevelt could rescue the ticket, they said. At the insistence of James A. Farley of Rockland County, secretary of the State Democratic Committee, Smith put in another call to FDR at Warm Springs. The call found Franklin at poolside but he declined to take it, saying “Tell the governor I’ve gone on a picnic and will not be back all day.”40
That evening, with the vote for governor scheduled the next day, Smith sought out Eleanor and implored her to get Franklin on the phone: “He won’t take my calls.” ER told Smith that it was her husband’s decision and she would not attempt to influence him, but she agreed to get him on the phone. Eleanor eventually tracked FDR down, handed the receiver to Smith, and rushed from the room to catch the last train to New York, where she had to teach at Todhunter the next morning. She would not learn what transpired until she read the newspapers next day.
First, Smith put John Jakob Raskob on the phone. Raskob had taken the post of chairman of the National Committee and was one of the party’s principal contributors. (Smith’s campaign headquarters were in the General Motors Building in New York.) Raskob pleaded with Franklin to run on behalf of the national party. FDR replied that he had too much invested in Warm Springs to make that feasible.
“Damn Warm Springs!” Raskob shouted. “We’ll take care of it for you.” Raskob said he would personally underwrite Roosevelt’s losses.* Then he handed the phone to Smith.
The governor bore down: “Take the nomination, Frank. You can make a couple of radio speeches and you’ll be elected. Then you can go back to Warm Springs. After you have made your inaugural speech and sent your message to the Legislature you can go back there again for a couple of months.”
“Don’t give me that baloney,” said FDR.
Herbert Lehman, a senior partner in Lehman Brothers investment bankers, an experienced labor negotiator and one of the most respected figures in the party, came on the phone. If Franklin would take the nomination, he would accept the nomination for lieutenant governor and fill in whenever needed.
Smith came back on. “Frank, I told you I wasn’t going to put this on a personal basis, but I’ve got to. As a personal favor, can I put your name before the convention?” Again Roosevelt declined. His health, Warm Springs, the need to regain the use of his legs, whatever reason he could think of.
The governor heard him out. “Frank, just one more question. If those fellows nominate you tomorrow and adjourn, will you refuse to run?”
FDR hesitated.
“Thanks, Frank. I won’t ask you any more questions.” Smith handed the telephone to Lehman, and in another minute the deal was done.41
Egbert Curtis, the Merriweather Inn manager, drove FDR back to his cottage that evening. Was he going to run? Curtis asked.
“Curt,” said Roosevelt, “when you’re in politics you’ve got to play the game.”42
The following afternoon, Mayor Jimmy Walker of New York placed Roosevelt’s name in nomination. The vote was pro forma. There was no opposition, and FDR was chosen by acclamation. Eleanor telegraphed her condolences: REGRET THAT YOU HAD TO ACCEPT BUT KNOW THAT YOU FELT IT OBLIGATORY.43 Louis Howe smelled disaster. MESS IS NO NAME FOR IT, he wired Franklin. FOR ONCE I HAVE NO ADVICE TO GIVE.44
New York Republicans, taken aback by FDR’s nomination, immediately focused on the health issue. “There is something both pathetic and pitiless in the ‘drafting’ of Franklin D. Roosevelt,” asserted the New York Post. The Herald Tribune said, “The nomination is unfair to Mr. Roosevelt. It is equally unfair to the people of the state.”45 The Democrats were primed and ready. “A Governor doesn’t have to be an acrobat,” Smith replied. “The work of the governorship is brainwork. Frank Roosevelt is mentally as good as he ever was in his life.”46 FDR