FDR - Jean Edward Smith [166]
“The brethren sniff the scent of battle,” H. L. Mencken wrote as the delegates descended on Chicago. “The air will be full of hair and ears within twenty-four hours. God save the Republic.”71 The new Chicago Stadium, where the convention would meet, dwarfed Madison Square Garden and was the first indoor arena to provide an unobstructed view from every seat. Twenty-five thousand people could be accommodated in the galleries and another six thousand on the floor. And the stadium was air-conditioned—not necessarily a good omen to those who traditionally counted on the summer heat to break a convention deadlock.72
Farley and Ed Flynn went to Chicago a week early to set up Roosevelt headquarters, stroke delegates as they arrived, and keep watch over the three principal committees of the convention: Rules, Credentials, and the Platform. Given their overall majority, the Roosevelt forces controlled all three, but there were any number of problems that might arise. “I was aware that the national political field was a new one for me and that one bad slip might prove my undoing,” said Farley.73
Flynn said, “We were green at national politics. When Farley and I set off for Chicago we confessed to each other that we felt pretty new at this game.”74
Their inexperience showed quickly. On Thursday, June 23, Farley convened a strategy session attended by sixty or so leaders in the Roosevelt camp. “Almost before we realized what was taking place,” Farley later recalled, “the meeting was stampeded into taking hasty and ill-advised action.” Prodded by Senators Huey Long, Burton K. Wheeler, and Cordell Hull, with Josephus Daniels putting in his oar, the conclave voted unanimously to seek abolition of the two-thirds rule—that sacrosanct principle of Democratic conventions since Andrew Jackson first called the party together in 1832.75 “The incident hit me like a blow on the nose,” Farley confessed.76
Pro-Roosevelt delegates from the cotton belt were apoplectic. Senator Josiah W. Bailey of North Carolina told Farley that FDR had put his entire southern support at risk. Pat Harrison, who was holding Mississippi for Roosevelt by a single vote, called the proposal “foolhardy and asinine.” John Sharp Williams, the grand old man of Southern Democracy, waded in from Yazoo City: “The two-thirds rule has been for a century the South’s defense,” he telegraphed friends at the convention. “It would be idiotic on her part to surrender it.”77
With his coalition in danger of falling apart, Roosevelt threw in the towel. In a statement that Farley released to the convention, FDR said he thought the two-thirds rule was undemocratic and should be abolished. “Nevertheless, the issue was not raised until after the delegates to the Convention had been selected, and I decline to permit either myself or my friends to be open to the accusation of poor sportsmanship.… I am accordingly asking my friends in Chicago to cease their activities to secure the adoption of the majority nominating rule.”78
The first day of the convention was sawdust and sideshow. Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky, the temporary chairman, treated delegates to a two-hour stemwinder—one of the longest keynote addresses on record. “It had to be a long speech,” Will Rogers quipped. “When you start enumerating the things the Republicans have got away with in the last twelve years you have cut yourself out a job.”79 The initial test of strength came on day two, when the convention considered the report of the Credentials Committee and chose a permanent chairman. The credentials of the Louisiana, Minnesota, and Puerto Rico delegations were being challenged by the Stop Roosevelt forces. To lose would not only deprive FDR of the fifty votes involved; it would shift the momentum of the Convention against him.80
In all three instances the Credentials Committee had voted to seat the pro-Roosevelt delegations. But a floor fight loomed. Louisiana was first. Long, often