FDR - Jean Edward Smith [415]
57. In addition to 291 Democrats and 127 Republicans, the House of Representatives contained 17 Independents, Progressives, and Socialists. Guide to U.S. Elections 928.
58. Walker to FDR, November 7, 1912.
59. FDR to ER, January 1913, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, FDRL. In addition to Agriculture and Forest, Fish, and Game, Roosevelt was placed on the standing committees on Codes; Railroads; and Military Affairs.
60. FDR to Joseph Tumulty, January 13, 1913, FDRL.
61. Eleanor Roosevelt, interview with Frank Freidel, May 1, 1948, cited in Freidel, Apprenticeship 154–155.
62. Garrison summarized his view of his duties in a revealing letter to a friend in 1915: “I have made it a rule ever since I have been in the Department, not to interfere in any way with the ordinary disposition, location of duty, etc., of the officers of the Army. Whenever the commanding officer needs service to be done in a certain place, he, as a matter of routine, selects the proper command to perform the duty, and I of course would know nothing whatever about such matters.” Garrison to Ollie M. James, November 17, 1915, Lindley M. Garrison Papers, Princeton University Library.
63. Baker led the unsuccessful fight by Wilson delegates against the unit rule, and his mention of Wilson set off a thirty-minute demonstration when the convention began. See Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Crowded Hours 206–207 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933).
64. Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The New Freedom 117 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1956).
65. The banquet for Wilson was hosted by eight hundred Princeton alumni. “There are some emotions that are much deeper than a man’s vocabulary can reach, and I have a feeling tonight that moves me very much indeed,” said Wilson, more choked up than was his wont. Ibid. 57.
66. Daniels, Wilson Era 124. “It is singular that I never thought of any other man in that connection,” Daniels noted in his diary on March 15, 1913.
67. Josephus Daniels, The Cabinet Diaries of Josephus Daniels, 1913–1921 10, E. David Cronon, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963).
68. TR to FDR, March 18, 1913, FDRL. “When I see Eleanor,” the former president continued, “I shall say to her that I do hope she will be particularly nice to the naval officers wives. They have a pretty hard time, with very little money to get along on, and yet a position to keep up, and everything that can properly be done to make things pleasant for them should be done.”
69. New York Herald, March 10, 1913.
70. Daniels, Cabinet Diaries 4; Wilson Era 124–129.
71. Wagner’s satisfaction at FDR’s departure from Albany was attested by his son, Robert F. Wagner, Jr., in an ABC documentary, “FDR and His Times.” Additional evidence suggests that Charles Murphy did his utmost to ensure that FDR joined the Wilson administration in Washington. Some in the Navy Department thought that it was Murphy who actually engineered Roosevelt’s appointment. Admiral Frederic Harris, interview with Frank Freidel, Freidel Papers, FDRL.
SIX | Anchors Aweigh
The epigraph is from Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew 20 (New York: Viking Press, 1946), discussing FDR’s formative years in Washington.
1. Wilson was a terrible golfer. He almost never broke 100 and sometimes needed fifteen putts to finish a hole. But he played relentlessly. Don Van Natta estimates that Wilson played as many as 1,600 rounds while president, roughly twice as many as Dwight D. Eisenhower. Golf, said Wilson, was “the perfect diversion” from the pressures of the Oval Office. Don Van Natta, Jr., First off the Tee 135–151 (New York: PublicAffairs, 2003).
Bryan announced the no-alcohol policy at an April 21, 1913, farewell dinner he hosted for Lord Bryce, who was retiring as British ambassador. Bryan told the guests that when Wilson asked him to be secretary of state, he had asked whether that would necessitate serving liquor and had been told to use his own judgment. “We have always been teetotalers,” said Bryan,