FDR - Jean Edward Smith [288]
Frances Perkins, attending her sixth Democratic convention, agreed. She had known FDR more than thirty years and was much closer to him than Ickes. She chose to telephone. (“He was always easy to get on the phone and willing to interrupt whatever he was doing to talk to one of his associates.”) He would be renominated, Perkins told the president, but “the situation is just as sour as it can be.” Like Ickes, she urged him to come to Chicago.
“No, no, I have given it full consideration,” Roosevelt replied. “I thought it all through both ways. I know I am right, Frances. It will be worse if I go. People will get promises out of me that I ought not to make. If I don’t make promises, I’ll make new enemies. If I do make promises, they’ll be mistakes. I’ll be pinned down on things I just don’t want to be pinned down on, yet. I am sure that it is better not to go.”
“What can we do?” asked Perkins.
“How would it be if Eleanor came?” said FDR. “I think she would make an excellent impression. You know, Eleanor always makes people feel right.”
Perkins agreed. “Call her,” the president said. “I’ll speak to her too, but you tell her so that she will know I am not sending her on my own hunch.”11
When Perkins called Eleanor, she found her reluctant. “I thought it utter nonsense,” ER wrote later.12 She was also concerned about Farley. Both Eleanor and Frances Perkins were very fond of the chairman and regretted that he and Franklin were now rivals. Finally, ER said she would go only if Farley invited her. “I am not going to add to the hard feelings,” she told Perkins.13
Eleanor put in a call to Farley in Chicago, who was so overcome by the first lady’s gesture he could barely speak.14
“I don’t want to appear before the convention unless you think it is all right,” said Eleanor.
“It’s perfectly all right with me,” Farley replied when he regained his composure.
“Please, don’t say so unless you really mean it.”
“I do mean it and I am not trying to be polite. Frankly, the situation is not good. Equally frankly, your coming will not affect my situation one way or the other. From the President’s point of view I think it desirable, if not essential, that you come.”15
Eleanor made arrangements to fly to Chicago Wednesday. Rather than use government transportation, she called C. R. Smith, the head of American Airlines and an old friend, who put his personal plane at her disposal.
Tuesday evening the clouds parted and the convention came to life. Mayor Kelly regained control. Farley might command the tickets to the gallery, but the Chicago police determined access to the convention site. By the time the delegates were called to order, Chicago Stadium was packed with Cook County regulars waiting for the mayor’s signal. The principal address would be given by Senator Alben Barkley upon assumption of his duties as permanent chairman. Nominating speeches would follow. Twice, in 1932 and 1936, Barkley had brought the delegates to a partisan frenzy with his stem-winding keynotes, and in 1948 he would exceed even those performances with a keynote speech that galvanized a fractured and dispirited Democratic party to press on to victory. In 1940 he was at his rhetorical best. As the audience stomped and cheered, Barkley delivered a litany of New Deal accomplishments and Republican failures. Thirteen minutes into the oration he casually mentioned the president’s name, igniting the pent-up emotion on the floor and precipitating