◆ SpookStack

APRIL 14, 1947 light and off we went. When Jesse Jones objected to an interest rate as low as four percent, Roosevelt said to me, “Tell Jesse not to be a chiseler.” All ideas were grist for Roosevelt's mind—reciprocal-trade pacts, youth pro- jects, conservation camps, labor-relations boards, agricultural-assistance schemes. As the Supreme Court would invalidate them or as they became outmoded by the passage of a crisis, Franklin Roose- velt would pass on to more dynamic concepts. His enthusiasm for ideas con- tinued to the very end. He delighted in the term “United Nations,” which he coined. He zestfully discussed with Win- ston Churchill the creation of a new world currency the unit of which was to be a “‘dimo.” The human being HERE was a radiant warmth about Roosevelt’s personality. It touched all who worked with him“directly, and reached further to touch the millions who voted for him term after term. He conducted his cabinet meetings with a Spirit of joy and irreverence; sometimes “J wonder what they. would have ‘been . like.-without Madame Secretary. . The Roosevelt charm was‘a tool of which he was fully aware; he used it . gonsciously. He believed he could talk any man into loyalty, into continuing to work for him despite the bitterness of outside attacks. Sometimes he failed; more often he succeeded. In January, 1945, Madame Perkins was ready to re- sign her post as Secretary of Labor; she had cleaned out her desk and wound up her affairs. But on inauguration day Franklin Roosevelt turned the full charm of his personality on her and she stayed. He absorbed his ideas usually in con- versation, for he loved good talk. At the end of a day he delighted to sit down with a drink, surrounded by sparkling talkers, and let conversation tipple around him. He loved to ramble himself—about his boyhood, about his travels abroad in his youth, about per- sonal adventures and speculations. From the talk of others Roosevelt. would pick choice nuggets of information, well turned phrases, novel suggestions that he would incorporate into his own speeches and thinking. His mind, like a curiosity shop, stored up odd items—of fact, history and folk- lore. Its diversity astonished some of the . more plodding and pedestrian politi- cians, who would stand wrapped in won- * der while Roosevelt aired his enormous fund of accumulated knowledge. His geniality and warmth knew no self-consciousness. talk to the stricken farmers and Roose- velt would speak to them in his polished Harvard accent. Never for a moment . ‘did he seem to suspect that this was not the authentic idiom of the plains, nor was there ever a hint of patronizing or a trace of self-consciousness. And the farmers loved him for it. Perhaps the most startling of all the intimate qualities of his mind was his spectacular ‘spatial memory. He could remember strange streets, bays, oceans, harbors, countrysides with almost ictal visual recall. During the war his knowl: edge of maps, distances and physical barriers was invaluable. (Usually, he was right, but sometimes he. was wrong.) He remembered’ the: depths of waters on marine charts, the heights of mountains, the quality of roads and highways. He loved to draw plans of buildings; he drew rough ones for the . construction and placing. of many a new building in Washington. Some he loved; others, like the Pentagon, he loathed. This quality he extended to his vision of America, as a country. No man saw the nation more clearly as a geographic whole than Roosevelt did. He thought of it in terms of watersheds and rivers rather than in terms of states. He could catch great geophysical ideas quicker than any other man with whom I worked in the government. I remember bringing to him the original program of the soil- conservation districts. He grasped the idea instantly and the next day we had his letter, setting forth our ideas as to a state law, on its way to each of the 48 Governors. His conviction of destiny OOSEVELT always had with him, too; the special conviction of des- tiny—that his was a great age of history, and that he was born to act in and dominate these times. _ I remember accom- : panying him on a trip to the drought area in 1936, His entourage would stop - its inspections from time to time to.. 15 - The -world beyond Ametiea closed on Rodsevelt ‘gradually. For: yeats he: toyed with. the idea’ that. Italy was friend. that the fascists in Europe did te’ “fight: for keeps.. It was. only: by: “de- -gtees that ‘the conviction’ prew. ‘on him that this was a struggle which - faust eventually strike at , American’ ‘security -and American” destiny., And: ‘as, ‘the’ con- viction- ‘entered his: thinking, it “ giadually stole from him his lightheartedness. -It_was ‘not until: the spring of 1938 and the’ Austrian crisis that ‘Roosevelt realized that this was a time of war that might “sweep America with’ it. . From then on, with the conviction:of: struggle to come, Roosevelt maneuvered deftly to make’ ready : ‘his people. Hitler and Mus- . solini were:mad dogs susceptible to force alone, but the American people were unaware of it. It was true that Roose- velt did not force through appropria- tions heavy enough to meet the dangers that were clearly developing, that he did not stockpile sufficient materials to meet inescapable demands. But Roosevelt had the politician’s master sense of what was possible. He stood between the reality .. -... of the outside world, whose dangers he understood, and a people who lived in blithe ignorance of all these dangers. His great consideration was to create public opinion that would tolerate even a minimum of preparedness. Free men in a free Society HE war itself oppressed him. He disliked the easy bandying about of the word ‘victory’ in government drives. At times he seemed moved by a feeling that America might possibly fail in her goals. “This is going to take everything we've got, and even then we may not win,’ he said soon after war broke out. Perhaps not even during the war did Roosevelt evolve a complete philosophy. He played by ear, conscious of all the conflicting elements he led, seeking to reconcile them in each new crisis by new ideas and fresh thinking. I believe that any other approach to the problems of his times would probably have failed. His unending search for. an ever new equilibrium in men and affairs beyond the confines of a doctrinaire philosophy may, I think, in itself have been the _ approach to a philosophy for free -men in a -free society. Tee ETRE Ne RE tin ren Fe NT wr: an ie oy