TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/election/32elect/32elect.005

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                                                                                July 11, 1932

DEMOCRATS

Congress Hotel Deal



     A national political convention in the U. S. is a vast
vegetative process by which man in the mass distills out of
himself that which he calls Leadership, the quality of the result
depending upon many preceding months of social and economic
weather, upon the current fertility or poverty of the soil that
is the mass mind.

     Banked tightly in their rows and boxes in the teeming
hothouse of Chicago Stadium last week, flooded with artificial
light, seething and waving in a slow chaos of mob emotions, the
Democracy presented a spectacle not unlike the steaming jungle of
man's origin. Predominant were the lowest of political
vegetables -- the commons or garden delegates with no thought or
power but to vote as instructed by the folks at home or the
bosses in the hothouse. Planted among them were some of society's
finest flowers -- Byrds from Virginia, Maryland's Ritchie, New
York's Davis. Like Irish potatoes and more noxious growths were
the city delegations -- Tammany's full-blown ward heelers, micks
from Brooklyn and Boston, hybrids from Chicago under the
leadership of Mayor Anton J. Cermak, lusty bumpkins from Texas,
Oklahoma and Louisiana, and drooping gone-to-seed specimens from
the country roadsides of all the States. Beside each delegation,
like sticks showing what had been planted there, stood the state
guidons. On the platform above the massed delegates, in a little
orchard of flags and microphones, was the fruit of previous years
of party vegetation, the National Committee. In a separate
enclosure, the Press hovered over the scene, its individuals
buzzing busily to carry news pollen or angrily to sting the
Democracy with satire and ridicule.

     Groaning Stalk. A tall, tough stalk growing in this
Democratic garden was James Aloysius Farley, Convention manager
for Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York. Yet even he looked
wilted and broken when he clumped into his Congress Hotel suite
last Friday morning after an all-night session at the Stadium. In
those dragging hours a sullen minority had blocked, if not
beaten, his candidate's nomination. Manager Farley dropped into a
chair and groaned.

     For four years Jim Farley had been building the Governor of
New York up for the Presidency. Since February he had traveled
indefatigably back & forth across the country corralling
convention delegates. He had put his candidate into primaries
where he could win without wounds, steered him clear of contests
with Favorite Sons. He had arrived in Chicago with a clear
majority of delegates. He had captured all the convention
machinery. He had confidently predicted victory for Governor
Roosevelt on the first ballot. Yet since dawn that morning three
ballots had come & gone at the Stadium and the Roosevelt
nomination was unharvested. Jim Farley's plans had been stalled
by the stubborn enmity of Alfred Emanuel Smith and a half-dozen
Favorite Sons.

     When not playing Presidential politics, Mr. Farley is
chairman of the New York State Boxing Commission. In him is
something of the blatant tenacity of the prize ring. Yet as he
sat alone at the Congress Hotel he was defeated by forces beyond
his control. The Smith faction, captained by Jersey City's
hardboiled Frank Hague and backed by Tammany Hall, was
relentlessly bitter in its opposition. Mayor Hague had attacked
Governor Roosevelt as the "weakest man" to nominate. The
California and Texas forces of Speaker Garner, led by lean,
leathery William Gibbs McAdoo, had lined up with the Brown Derby
on every convention vote so far. The minor candidates had stood
their ground for a break that never came. The loss of one
Roosevelt State on the next roll-call would mean disaster.

     Deal. During that dismal afternoon Louis McHenry Howe, the
New York Governor's personal secretary and political eyes-&-ears,
was waiting in Room 1702, centre of the Roosevelt spider web,
when a little group of McAdoo friends marched in. (Their names
were withheld by Mr. Howe as "another story.") They had worked
for the onetime Treasury Secretary in 1924 and were now ready to
help out the onetime Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Speaker
Garner, they reported, was ready to drop his candidacy for first
place on the ticket, provided he was given second place. Under
the influence of Publisher William Randolph Hearst, flattered
with the notion of making a President, Mr. McAdoo was ready to
swing Texas and California to Roosevelt and thus bury the
hatchet -- in Al Smith's back. At this news Mr. Howe's wrinkled
face wrinkled even more. Reaching for the telephone, he called
Governor Roosevelt in Albany to confirm the deal. The Governor
would be delighted to have Speaker Garner on the ticket with him.
Convinced of Governor Roosevelt's good faith, the McAdoo visitors
withdrew to execute the details of State caucuses. Mr. Howe
informed Jim Farley, two flights up, of their candidate's
prospective victory. Mr. Farley, who chews gum when happy, chewed
gum happily. All that remained now was to notify Missouri,
Illinois and Ohio to drop their favorite sons and get on the
bandwagon.

     The deal that effected the Roosevelt-Garner nomination came
as the climax to a four-day convention struggle. At the outset
after the keynote speech Manager Farley established his clear
Roosevelt majority of 100 votes or more by winning delegation
contests from Louisiana and Minnesota and electing Senator Thomas
James Walsh permanent chairman over Jouett Shouse. But those same
ballots nailed down the anti-Roosevelt States -- California,
Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New
Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia
-- as a minority strong enough to veto any nomination.

     1000% for the Rules. Before the convention began, it took a
telegram from Governor Roosevelt to halt his partisans from
abrogating the venerable party rule requiring a two-thirds
majority to nominate. Even then a Roosevelt minority of the Rules
Committee wanted a nomination by a simple majority if six ballots
produced a deadlock. Manager Farley, fuzzy with fatigue, bustled
around to head off this demand. The Rules Committee was hastily
assembled in the lunchroom in the Stadium basement. There Manager
Farley boomed: "Look here, just so there won't by any
misunderstanding, I want to tell you what our position is. We're
for the rules as they now stand 1000% -- the two-thirds rule all
the way through."

     The Convention adopted the 1928 rules with a whoop, the only
concession to the little hands that tried to snatch the Roosevelt
leadership being a proposal that the 1936 Convention consider
changing the requirements to nominate. This complete retreat
saved Manager Farley from what would have otherwise been a bad
beating on the floor.

     Smith's Moment. Alfred Emanuel Smith, darling of the
galleries, took no direct part in Convention proceedings until
the Platform Committee reported for Repeal of the 18th Amendment.
Then for a brief ten minutes he held the rostrum spotlight and
microphones, fighting for a cause already won. It was his big
moment -- but it had nothing to do with his real purpose of
blocking a Roosevelt nomination.

     A minority plank calling for Resubmission had been offered
by Dry Senator Hull of Tennessee who had argued that Repeal
sentiment had been manifest only in the last few days and that
even the party nominee four years ago had been satisfied with
Resubmission. Leaving the Tammany weed patch on the floor,
Delegate-at-Large Smith climbed up the back stairs to the
speakers' platform to answer the Hull argument. His
plastered-down hair was greyer, his face more wrinkled, his
waistline plumper than four years ago. He took the public's
cheers sidewise. His Adam's apple bobbed up & down, as if with
emotion at the thunderous ovation. Discerning ears could tell
that the uproar was not for Smith the Wet, Smith the Candidate,
or even Smith the Democrat, but for Smith the Man.

     Four Years. "Of course," Mr. Smith began, in a rasping voice
that stabbed the microphone, "the fact that Senator Hull found
out only in the last three days that there was sentiment n the
country for Repeal is -- just too bad . . . . Since when has it
become any violation of fundamental Democratic party creed to
declare emphatically in favor of the rights of the States? The
Senator quoted from my acceptance speech. That was four years
ago. Did the Senator agree with me four year ago? He did not. And
because I happened to be four years ahead of my time just look
what happened to me! . . .

    "If there's anything in the world today the American public
dislikes, it's a dodger. The time has passed when you can be Wet
among Wets and Dry among Drys . . . .

     "I promised myself to listen in on the radio on the
Republican Convention. (Purposely so pronounced. The galleries
guffawed.) I couldn't stand anything beyond the speech of the
temporary chairman . . . . The Administration in Washington finds
itself in the awkward position of attempting to straddle the
question . . . ."

     934-to-213. It was after midnight before all speeches were
finished. Patrick J. Haltigan, reading clerk of the House of
Representatives, moved to the microphone and began the momentous
roll call. Roosevelt delegates had been publicly freed to vote
their convictions. Managers Farley and Hague, united on this
issue, kept hands off.

     Dry Roosevelt States joined Wet Smith States in demanding
Repeal -- South Carolina and New York, Michigan and Massachusetts.
The tide against Prohibition swept delegation after delegation
away from its old moorings. At every Dry vote the galleries
groaned -- Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia. The
party went soaking, dopping, dripping Wet by a vote of
937-to-213.

     "The Man Who . . . ." The convention next spent ten lusty
hours putting eight candidates in nomination for the Presidency.
Nominators stinted no oratorical superlative to glorify their
candidates. Well might the country marvel at such an
agglomeration of political paragons presented by the Democracy.
Excerpts:

     John E. Mack: He comes to this convention with the greatest
number of Stats behind him in the history of the Democratic Party
. . . . He has that rare gift for making and holding friends . .
. . His priceless gift of sympathetic understanding . . . . His
splendid record . . . his ability to get things done . . . . He
fills the crying need for a practical American. . . . Country
born and country loving, this man's whole political life is an
open book . . . . FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT.

     Senator Tom Connaly: Reared in humble surroundings, he has
risen to a place of power . . . . His grasp is not surpassed by
any man . . . . He is still of the plain people . . . has never
lost the common touch . . . He knows America as no other public
figure . . . . His mind and patriotism live in every section of
the Republic. . . . He is a sturdy, stout-hearted, clear-headed
American . . . the Field Marshal of the Armies of Democracy . . .
. JOHN NANCE GARNER.

     Governor Joseph Buell Ely: Shall we admit that education and
prosperity have softened our muscles, drained our vitality and
left us only speculating, doubting, equivocating and polite
gentlemen? Thank God, no! There is a man who sits among us who is
a modern Andrew Jackson . . . . The savior of his nation, this
positive, virile, straight-speaking, plain-thinking statesman . .
. .  ALFRED E. SMITH.

     Clocked Clamor. After each nominating speech pledged
delegations demonstrated for their candidate -- went shouting,
shoving, sweating around the aisles while the Press clocked their
competitive enthusiasms. Duration of demonstrations:

        Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 min.
        Ritchie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 min.
        Roosevelt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 min.
        Garner  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 min.
        Byrd  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 min.
        Traylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 min.
        Murray  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 min.
        Reed  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6 min.
        White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4 min.

     Vote No. 1. Just as dawn was paling the Stadium's high
windows, Reading Clerk Patrick J. Haltigan, whose whacking big
voice is matched only by that of John Crockett in the Senate,
stepped to the microphone. "Alabama?" cried.

     It was the moment for which millions of radio listeners, to
whom he had become the convention's stentor, had stayed up all
night. The time was 4:45 a. m. C. D. S. T.

     "Twenty-four votes for Roosevelt," answered William Woodward
Brandon who had voted his delegation so long and so loyally for
Oscar W. Underwood in 1924.

     As the first ballot on the nomination started, Manager
Farley twitched with excitement. He had predicted victory on the
initial roll call. Would he get it? When New York was reached,
Boss Curry of Tammany Hall dramatically announced that the
delegation would have to be polled individually. Result: Smith,
65; Roosevelt, 28. Mayor Walker, arriving late, publicly cast his
1/2 vote for Smith. The Stadium buzzed. Obviously the Mayor of
New York would not toady to the Governor of New York regardless
of the Seabury charges which might cost him his job.

     Final vote: Roosevelt, 666; Smith, 201; Garner, 90; other
scattering.

     Votes Nos. 2 & 3. The sun was well up when the second ballot
started without any important shifts. On the third ballot
Roosevelt rose to 682, Smith fell to 190. The convention
deadlocked. After a continuous twelve-hour session which had
emptied the galleries and sprawled delegates out with bleary
fatigue and adjournment was taken until evening.

     Shifter Hearst. It was during this interval that Manager
Farley secured the withdrawal of Speaker Garner and induced Mr.
McAdoo to lead the swing to Roosevelt. A prime agent in the shift
was Publisher William Randolph Hearst, listening to the
convention for his California home. Mr. Hearst was largely
responsible for the Garner candidacy. When it fizzled, Mr. Hearst
was informed that, if the deadlock persisted, a break to Newton
Kiehl Baker would follow. Because he regarded Mr. Baker as a
dangerous Internationalist, a friend of the "power trust," and
"the least fit of any candidate" for the nomination -- also
perhaps because the bloods of Mr. Hearst and Al Smith never did
mix -- Mr. Hearst urged Messrs. Garner & McAdoo to toss their
votes to Roosevelt.

     The night session of the convention was a perfunctory
ratification of the Congress Hotel Deal. During the fourth ballot
Mr. McAdoo arose to announce:

     "California came here to nominate a President. When any man
comes into this convention with popular will behind him to the
extent of almost 700 votes . . . ."

     Suddenly the rabble in the galleries sensed what was coming.
They hooted, hissed, booed. Mr. McAdoo knew that mob cry of old.
It was the same one that Tammany hoodlums gave him at Madison
Square Garden in 1924. His dark face flushed darker with rage.
Governor Roosevelt had been called a demagog by Mr. Smith because
he appealed to the "forgotten man." But the forgotten men in the
Stadium gallery were heart, soul, throat and hands for Al Smith.

     "This convention wants to know," shrilled Mr. McAdoo above
the din, "if this is the kind of hospitality Chicago accords its
guests. I intend to say what I propose to say here tonight
without regard to what the galleries or anybody else thinks . . .
California casts 44 votes for Franklin D. Roosevelt."

     Vote No. 4. This McAddoodling brought other States running
hen-like to the winner -- Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri,
Oklahoma, Virginia. The Roosevelt vote mounted to 945. Manager
Farley was almost delirious. "What did I tell you! What did I
tell you!" he kept babbling.

     But Nominee Roosevelt was not the unanimous choice of the
convention. A grim loyalty to Alfred Emanuel Smith in the New
York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey
delegations prevented that. To a bitter, impractical end the
Brown Derby irreconcilable cast their 190 votes for their own
candidate. In his hotel room Mr. Smith snapped off his radio,
began packing up to leave town. Defeat went hard with him.

     "Put It There." Next day Manager Farley executed his end of
the "deal" when he secured speaker Garner's nomination of the
Vice Presidency by acclamation. Then from the Stadium he sped to
the Chicago airport where Nominee Roosevelt was arriving from
Albany . When the plane settled to the ground, Jim Farley, his
broad red face redder than ever with excitement, jostled through
the packed crowd to be the first to greet the Governor. Mr.
Roosevelt, all smiles, put his left hand on Farley's shoulder to
steady his own shaky legs, and stuck out his right hands saying:

     "Jim, old pal -- put it right there -- you did great work!"


The Roosevelt Week

     A great armchair beside a radio in the study of the
Executive Mansion at Albany held the Governor of New York most of
last week. Through the quiet room boomed the confused sounds of
the Democratic convention in Chicago. Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
his lame legs stretched out before him, official duties
forgotten, leaned back and listened happily. At his feet was his
Scotch terrier, Megs. Nearby hovered his wife Anna. His 77-year-
old mother knitted silently. Sons Elliott, 21, and John, 16,
paced about in nervous excitement.

     During the early stages of the convention Governor Roosevelt
had little or nothing to say to the Press. He did all his talking
over long distance telephone to James Farley, his convention
manager.

     Submarine & Bicycle. What newsmen wanted to know was: Would
Governor Roosevelt, if nominated, fly to Chicago to address the
delegates? He concealed his plans with gay banter: "I may go out
by submarine to escape being followed by you men . . . . I have
thought of another method. I could ride a bicycle, a five-seater.
Papa could sit in front and steer and my four sons could sit
behind." Newshawks grinned politely.

     The Governor sat entranced while he listened to John E. Mack
of Poughkeepsie place him in nomination. During the demostration
that followed he scribbled off a telegram: "My affectionate
thanks to you, my old friend, for that fine speech. No matter
what the result today, you and I always go on together."

     "Stick to Your Guns." The long night session ending in three
deadlock ballots. Governor Roosevelt followed intently by air.
When the voting started after daybreak he took a sheet of paper
and kept tally on his knee. When the third vote failed to produce
a nominee, he sent a sizzling telegram to Chicago:

     "I am in this fight to stay . . . . This is a battle for
principle . . . . It is being waged to keep our party as a whole
free from dictation by a small group representing the interests
in the nation which have no place in our party . .. . Stick to
your guns. . . . . The nation must not and shall not be
overridden . . . . We intend to stand fast and win."

     When Governor Roosevelt sat down at his radio at 9:30 p.m.
that evening, he knew he was as good as nominated. Manager Farley
had reported that the California and Texas delegations had swung
over, in return for the Vice Presidential nomination for Speaker
Garner. Joy pervaded the Executive Mansion as the convention roll
call started and William Gibbs McAddoo announced the switch that
clinched the nomination.

     "Oh, boy! Oh, golly," exclaimed young John, a fifth former
at Groton, as Missouri joined the Roosevelt bandwagon. When the
result was announced, Nominee Roosevelt, his long face crinkled
up in smiles, hobbled out to the ballroom to greet the Press.
Mrs. Roosevelt, pinning up the long sleeves of her green chiffon
dress, went into the kitchen to cook eggs and frankfurters for
"the boys."

     Meanwhile the radio was booming back to Albany the nominee's
message to the convention: "I thank you . . . . It is customary
to hold formal notification ceremonies some weeks after the
convention. This involves great expense. Instead may I ask the
convention to remain in session tomorrow that I may appear before
you and be notified at that time?"

     The convention assented.

     "A Perfect Day." Bright & early next morning Nominee
Roosevelt arrived at the Albany Airport where a tri-motored plane
waited to take him and ten relatives, friends and aides to
Chicago. "It's a perfect day, isn't it?" called the Governor to
cheering onlookers as he was lifted into the cabin. With stops at
Buffalo and Cleveland, the air voyage against stiff winds
required nine hours.

     At the airport in the oldtime Capone stronghold of Cicero,
Ill., 10,000 people waited to greet Nominee Roosevelt. James
Roosevelt, 23 Franklin Jr., 17, Mrs. Curtis Dall, 23, all of whom
had witnessed the convention, fought their way to their father's
side. In the crush his glasses were knocked from his nose. Mayor
Cermak accompanied him on a swift swing through the city to the
Stadium. As Nominee Roosevelt sighted the buildings for next
year's World Fair he promised Mayor Cermak to officiate as
President of the U. S. at the opening ceremony.

     Traditions & Promises. Helped up to the convention platform,
the nominee, in a dark grey suit with red rose in lapel, sat
quietly by while Chairman Walsh "notified" him of his nomination.
When his turn came to speak, he rested his weight on his hands on
the rostrum, delivered and address which he put together on the
flight from Albany. Excerpts:

     "(My) appearance before the convention is unprecedented and
unusual but these are unprecedented and unusual times. . . . . We
will break foolish traditions and leave it to the Republican
leadership to break promises . . . . Ours must be a party of
liberal thought, of planned action, of enlightened international
outlook and of the greatest good to the greatest number.

     "It will not do merely to state, as do Republican leaders,
that the Depression is world-wide. That was not their explanation
of the apparent prosperity of 1928. If they claim paternity for
one they cannot deny paternity for the other . . . . For ten
years we expanded far beyond our natural and normal growth . . .
Corporate profit was enormous . . . The consumer was forgotten
. . . the worker was forgotten . . . the stockholder was
forgotten. . . . Enormous corporate surpluses . . . went into new
and unnecessary plants, which now stand stark and idle, and into
the call money market of Wall Street . . . .

     "Just a word on taxes. Government costs too much. We must
abolish useless offices, merge .. . consolidate . . . give up . .
. . I propose that government of all kinds be made solvent and
that the example be set by the President and his Cabinet . . . .

     "This convention wants Repeal. Your candidate wants Repeal.
And I am confident the United States wants Repeal . . . . From
this date on the 18th Amendment is doomed . . . . We must rightly
and morally prevent the return of the saloon.

     "We should repeal immediately those provisions of law that
compel the Federal Government to go into the market to purchase,
sell and speculate in farm products.

     "I accept that admirable tariff statement in the platform.
We have invited and received the retaliation of other nations. I
propose an invitation to them to forget the past, to sit at the
table with us as friends and to plan with us for the restoration
of the trade world . . . .

     "For years Washington has alternated between putting its
head in the sand and saying there is no large number of destitute
people who need food and clothing and then saying the States
should take care of them if there are.

     "Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the
political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for
guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the
distribution of national wealth . . . . I pledge myself to a new
deal for the American people. This is more than a political
campaign. It is a call to arms."