F.D.R.

‘The New Deal Was Not Fascist” (The Atlantic Monthly, 1933)

In certain quarters it is asserted that Mr. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ is nothing other than the first stage of an American movement toward Fascism. It is said that, although the United States has not yet adopted the political structure of Italy and Germany, the economic structure of the country is rapidly being molded upon the Fascist pattern.


FDR’s D-Day prayer can be read here

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The Temper of the Electorate (The New Outlook Magazine, 1932)

Just weeks before the U.S. presidential election of 1932 this article appeared in a political magazine that indicated how the Depression-tossed voters were feeling after three years of economic set-backs. The article consists of 21 pithy little paragraphs that sum up their feelings:

I BELIEVE it possible to feel hungry under either major party, but that under the Republicans it seems to hurt more.


Click here to read about the extensive press coverage that was devoted to the death of FDR…

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FDR’s ”Pack The Court” Proposal (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Attached is a break-down of President Roosevelt’s proposed legislation to rid the Supreme Court of six ornery justices by imposing a mandatory retirement age for the whole of the Federal Government. Failing that, FDR’s legislation would have granted the President power to appoint an additional Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70, in order to assure passage of all New Deal legislation.

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Justice George Sutherland (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Justice George Sutherland (1862 – 1942) was consistently on the reactionary side in votes against New Deal legislation. It was he who wrote the decisions invalidating the Guffey coal-control act and the powers of the SEC to interrogate witnesses. His NRA and the Municipal Bankruptcy Act, railroad pensions and hot oil legislation. He voted in favor of the TVA and old-age pensions.

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Justice Louis D. Brandeis (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Part of the personal tragedy inherent in President Roosevelt’s suggestion to rid the Supreme Court of men over 70, part of the uncertainty with which liberals greet his plan, must arise from consideration of Louis Demblitz Brandeis. At 80, Brandeis is the oldest of the nine justices… Liberals cherish him, conservatives respect him and the [FDR] administration is grateful to him.

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FDR’s Publicity Machine (New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

To those who have followed the political career of President Roosevelt, this unprecedented emphasis on public relations and publicity is no surprise. No president has ever been more alive to the potentialities of maintaining a ‘good press’, of gauging public reaction to his policies and of timing his announcements to obtain the widest and most sympathetic audience possible… No party organization could afford the elaborate press relations machinery which existed on March 4, 1933. Its cost, including salaries, printing, supplies etc., is today in excess of $1,000,000 annually, and it is being paid for by the American taxpayer.


Click here to read about President Harry Truman…

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The World Press and the Death of FDR (Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

At 5:45 p.m. telephones rang simultaneously in the Washington bureaus of the AP, UP and [the International News Service] on a conference call from the White House. The familiar voice of Steve Early, who had retired only recently after twelve years as White House press secretary, called the roll to make sure all were listening. Then: ‘Here is a flash. The President died suddenly early this afternoon’

Swiftly the news went around the world… No president had meant quite so much to the press as Mr. Roosevelt. Few in history had been more consistently and bitterly opposed by a majority of publishers. Perhaps none had more admirers and fewer detractors among working newsmen. No president since his cousin Theodore, who coined the word ‘muckracker’, had on occasion denounced press and newsmen alike more harshly. Yet most newsmen forgave him his peevish moments. Certainly none had been more news-rich and none had ever received the voluminous coverage that President Roosevelt had. Over the years, the Roosevelt twice-a-week press conference was the Capital’s biggest newsmaker.

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FDR: The First One Hundred Days (Literary Digest, 1933)

Here are the Chief accomplishments of the special Session of the 73rd Congress, March 9 – June 16, 1933


These fifteen pieces of legislation were called the Honeymoon Bills – his critics pointed out that not one of them originated in Congress and added to their argument that Congress had been marginalized during the earliest period of his presidency.


FDR’s critics had a thing or two to say about the first year of The New Deal…


Click here to read about FDR and the press.

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