Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/roosevel/roosevel.000

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 15KB | 322 lines

                                                                                January 2, 1933

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Man of the Year


     Scanning the dreary horizon of 1932 as it recedes into
history, upon whom would the discerning eye of an alert U.S.
citizen fix as Man of the Year?

     Beyond his own shores he would find no new name that had
skyrocketed into world consciousness during the twelve-month.
Mahatma Gandhi, 1930s Man of the Year, is still a prisoner of
Britain in the Poona jail and his Indian followers are
quiescent if not quiet. Pierre Laval, 1931's Man of the Year,
was swept out of the premiership of France last February, is
today only a Senator without portfolio. The May elections put
Edouard Herriot into power for six months but fortnight ago he
and his Ministry went crashing out on the issue of paying the
U.S. War Debt.

     The year showed Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, to be Britain's strong man but he was not yet on
top; Laborite Ramsay MacDonald continues to head the National
(Conservative coalition) ministry. Prime Minister MacDonald,
more than any other official participant, was given credit for
the outcome of the Lausanne Conference in July but there have
been other conferences, will doubtless be many more.

     In 1931 Adolf Hitler was Germany's rising star. In 1932 he
and his Nazis slipped back to the tune of 2,000,000 lost votes.
His thunder was largely stolen by General Kurt von Schleicher,
the new Chancellor to whom many a German looks as Man of Next
Year.

     Russia and Italy, one with its Stalin, the other with its
Mussolini, rocked along through the year unchanged and
unchanging under dictatorship.

     Turning back to his own country, the discerning citizen of
the U.S. would find more promising material. Charles Augustus
Lindbergh, 1927 Man of the Year, had become the Victim of the
Year in 1932. For the loss of his son & namesake the nation had
given him all its sympathy but to him went no plaudits for any
new achievement. When in 1928 Walter P. Chrysler became Man of
the Year his Manhattan office building was starting to rise as
the world's tallest, his Chrysler Motors organized to vie with
General Motors. Now the Chrysler Building is overtopped by the
Empire State and the automobile industry is pinioned on the
rock of hard times. The prestige of 1929's Man of the Year, Owen
D. Young, world financier, friend to Samuel Insull, is still
great but even he has produced no sovereign simple for
prostrate business.

     Banker of the Year was certainly Winthrop Williams Aldrich
who last week seemed about to succeed Albert Henry Wiggin as
head of the great Chase National but his big achievements lay
ahead of him. Scanning the realm of business the well-informed
citizen would probably conclude that the biggest and boldest
strides against the economic tide were those of Errett Lobban
Cord who turned from highways to skyways in his restless effort
to expand. The year proved that there was no such thing as a
Depression- proof industry. Yet John Hartford's Great Atlantic
& Pacific food stores, by holding the line, came closest to an
exception.

     Most scientific citizens would award the title of Man of
the Year to General Electric's Irving Langmuir who won this
year's Nobel Prize for his surface chemistry. Yet Dr. Langmuir's
work which earned the award was not confined to 1932. And ready
to dispute such a title would be the friends of Dr. Arthur
Holly Compton, 1927 Nobel Prize winner, who traveled 50,000 mi.
in 1932 researching the cosmic ray.

     To the attention of ordinary citizens were brought during
the year the findings of the Committee on the Costs of Medical
Care rather than eminent accomplishments by individual
physicians or surgeons.

     Sportsman of the Year was certainly Golfer Gene Sarazen
who by winning both the British and U.S. open championships came
as close as any professional can to Robert Tyre Jones Jr.'s
record in 1930. Yet Sarazen flubbed the Professional
Championship, did not even qualify. Josef Paul Cuckoschay (Jack
Sharkey) of Boston retrieved the world's heavyweight boxing
championship for the U.S. from Germany's Maximilian Adolf Otto
Siegfried Schmeling in a bout that satisfied few patrons.
All-around athlete of 1932 was Mildred ("Babe") Didrikson of
Dallas who scored more individual points in the Olympics than
any other participant. Last week Miss Didrikson turned
professional.

     Play of the Year was Of Thee I sing, but George S.
Kaufman, its author (with Morrie Ryskind), rarely works alone.

     Into the cinema firmament swam a new star to replace Garbo
and Dietrich. Seasoned performers carried on competently rather
than brilliantly.

     More people went to hear Lily Pons sing than heard any
other 1932 soprano. But she was new, young, pretty.

     In the book world, Allan Nevins' Grover Cleveland took
high rank among Presidential biographies and Historian James
Truslow Adams (March of Democracy) held his grip on the popular
mind. But the year produced non Main Street, no Bridge of San
Luis Rey.

     The Man-of-the-Year-hunter could hardly fail to spot John
Davison Rockefeller Jr. as Builder of the Year with Rockefeller
Center.

     Fad of the Year: Technocracy, as preached by Howard Scott.

     The discerning citizen would not be satisfied with any of
these specialists as Man of the Year. Looking to Washington he
would see old familiar figures passing below the political
horizon -- figures for whom 1932 meant defeat and exile. After
four years of relentless effort unequaled by any man in the
White House. Herbert Hoover remained a psychological product of
1928. Millions of citizens hoped that by some last-minute
miracle he would turn out to be Man of the Year but more
millions felt -- and voted -- otherwise.

     Alfred Samuel Smith had added nothing to his public
stature by his display of bad temper following his defeat for
the Democratic Presidential nomination. Throughout the year,
along with Calvin Coolidge, he remained a distinguished private
citizen.

     No new leader came out of the Senate and the old ones were
either "lame ducks" or disgruntled individualists with a
narrowing conception of public service. Borah stock was far
below par.

     In the House the country for a few weeks thought it had a
hero in Georgia's Crisp, sales tax advocate. But the riotous
defeat of that legislation and the subsequent defeat of its
sponsor for the Senate fogged the Crisp name. [Last week Mr.
Crisp resigned from the Tariff Commission, to which President
Hoover had appointed him as a "lame duck." Jan. 1 he becomes
lobbyist for Savannah Sugar Corp.]

     Flashes in the Man-of-the-Year pan: Walter Waters,
commander-in-chief of the Bonus Expeditionary Force and Milo
Reno, leader of the Iowa farm strike.

      -- Two months ago, in a lively referendum from ocean to
ocean, the people of the U.S. chose their own Man of the Year,
and clearly the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the
Presidency was without equal elsewhere in the world as an
individual accomplishment. To millions & millions of "forgotten
men" he was a big-jawed, happy Messiah whose "new deal" would
somehow put money into everybody's pocket. To himself, victory
was the sweet reward of long years of careful planning,
unremitting work.

     The story of Governor Roosevelt's rise to be Man of the
Year and 32nd President of the U.S. is fresh in mind. Future
historians describing it as a feat of political
mountain-climbing will not fail to mention:

      -- How Franklin Roosevelt was the deadest of dead
Democrats when defeated for the vice-presidency in 1920.

      -- How the following year an acute attack of
poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis) left his muscles atrophied
from the waist down.

      -- How he, a helpless cripple, was lifted to the rostrum
of the Democratic convention at Madison Square Garden to
nominate Alfred Emanuel Smith for the Presidency in 1924.

      -- How he discovered the mineralized waters of Warm
Springs, Ga. as a cure for his infirmity in 1924.

      -- How a cane had replaced crutches when he again
nominated Al Smith at Houston in 1928.

      -- How Smith induced him to accept nomination for Governor
of New York in 1928.

      -- How he was first hailed as "our next President" by
friendly Georgians at Warm Springs following his 1928 State
election.

      -- How he was re-elected Governor by the biggest majority
on record in 1930.

      -- How he made James Aloysius Farley his pre-convention
manager and sent him out scouting for Presidential delegates in
1931.

      -- How he pretended he was not a White House candidate in
1931.

      -- How he was examined by eminent physicians in 1931 and
publicly pronounced "sound in all respects."

      -- How, last January, he first announced his candidacy in
time for the North Dakota primary.

      -- How he, already an Elk, Odd Fellow, 32nd degree Mason
and joiner of a score more clubs and societies, joined the
Improved Order of Red Man and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon in
1930, the American Philatelic Society and the Academie
Diplomatique Internationale in 1931, etc. etc., the Maccabees
last week.

      -- How, after winning the nomination last July on the
fourth ballot, he dramatically flew to Chicago to address the
convention.

      -- How he campaigned 12,000 mi. during September and
October.

      -- How he was elected Nov. 8 by 22,813,786 votes to
Hoover's 15,759,266.

     Man ofthe Year Roosevelt's climb to the Presidency
represented a physical triumph of the first order. For a decade
he had fought a dogged fight to regain control over his
paralyzed legs. Today the President-elect can walk in his
braces, without crutch, stick, or assisting arm, about 15 steps.
Declares his wife: "If the paralysis couldn't kill him, I guess
the Presidency won't." The Man of the Year's attitude toward his
affliction is one of gallant unconcern. After his November
election he went to Warm Springs where he addressed others there
taking the cure: "We've shown that we people here have
determined to get over the small physical handicaps which after
all don't amount to a hill of beans."

     Governor Roosevelt's political comeback after 1920
involved efforts even greater, because their object was less
tangible, than his conquest of his lame legs. Years ago Louis
McHenry Howe, his friend and adviser, had inoculated him with
the White House virus. His election and re-election as Governor
re-awakened the Presidential fever, which burned with
increasingly intensity as the months at Albany wore successfully
on and Herbert Hoover's prestige sank at Washington. Forgotten
now is the fact that two years ago some of Franklin Roosevelt's
oldest friends were deploring the evident, consuming degree of
ambition as almost indecent. Such ambition is the mainspring of
most political candidacies. Certainly no man without it could
have become the third Democratic President since the Civil War.
Translated from ambition to realization, the "indecent" passion
becomes heroic.

     After his 1930 re-election Governor Roosevelt got out and
humped himself for the national nomination. Typical were his
activities during June 1931: 1) attendance at the Governors'
Conference at French Lick, Ind. where he worked into a non-
partisan speech a full-length campaign platform which stole the
headlines; 2) a stop-over in Ohio, "Mother of Presidents," to
see Governor White, James Middleton Cox and the local
Democratic bosses; 3) a trip to Manchester, Mass. to call on
Col. Edward Mandell House whose support he enlisted. In July he
appeared at the Charlottesville (Va.) Institute of Public
Affairs, held court. In August he dramatized his disagreement
with President Hoover on St. Lawrence waterpower. In February
1932 he jettisoned the League of Nations as a party encumbrance.
In April he was not above talking partisan politics over the
Lucky Strike radio hour.

     Yet while his ambition was burning hottest, he kept his
head cool and clear enough to make no rash mistakes. He
listened carefully to the astute Colonels Howe & House. He
trusted hustling Jim Farley to line up the important West and
Midwest. He appealed to and for the Forgotten Man without going
so far off the deep end of demagoguery that he could not regain
his balance among potent conservatives.

     Most Men of the Year complete their memorable achievement
between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31. The Chrysler Building stands, not
only completed but occupied. The Young Plan, despite subsequent
events, remains world history. But Colonel Lindbergh after his
flight was required to serve the nation year after year as its
No. 1 Hero -- a role which set in motion a train of
circumstances ending in tragedy the windy night of March 1 at
Hopewell, N.J. and, as Lindbergh had, Man of the Year Roosevelt
has his greater job ahead of him. Will he make good in the White
House? The country is only too ready to hope so. Yet in spite
of his campaign utterances and the activities of his "brain
trust," by last week President-elect Roosevelt had apparently
only begun to arrive at his answers for the problems of 1933.
Some of the problems and their present status:

     Cabinet. Yet to be selected were the ten men who can make
or break ad administration. The President-elect planned to do
his choosing at Warm Springs during January.

     War Debts. Beyond flat refusal to follow the Hoover
commission method his specific remedies for this international
complexity remain unknown.

     Farm Relief. Yet to be worked out in detail are Domestic
Allotment and Mortgage Relief.

     Economy. Promised was a billion-dollar cut. Will a member
of three American Legion posts go hammer-&-tongs after the
veterans?

     Tariff. Many a manufacturer wishes he knew the Roosevelt
mind on rate cuts.

     Taxation. The 32nd President has yet to declare himself on
the Sales Tax or any other form of new taxation to balance the
Budget. [Last week House Ways & Means Chairman Collier
announced: "In order to balance the budget at this session I'll
support the sales tax as a last resort. I want the new
administration to have a clear sheet March 4."] Last week he was
considering a revolutionary proposal to tax corporate surpluses,
now estimated at $4,000,000,000. Such a tax, it was argued,
would squeeze much water out of inflated capital structure,
discourage corporate hoarding.

     Prohibition. The intricacies of keeping the Repeal pledge
have yet to be developed.

     A year from now the U.S. electorate will have a much more
real idea of the worth of its 1932 Man of the Year.