BOOKS OF THE DAY
F.D.R.
The Roosevelt Letters, Being the Personal Correspondence of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Volume Two (1905-1928). With
a Foreword by Eleanor Roosevelt. Edited by Elliott Roosevelt, Assisted by James N. Rosenau. (Harrap. 2 is.) THE second volume of the Roosevelt letters is both more and less interesting than the first. It is more interesting, for it is less a matter of family, school and college small beer. Groton and Harvard and the genealogical ramifications of the Roosevelt clan are prominent again as the next generation goes off to school and college, but there is more about public affairs and the first half of Roosevelt's political career is fairly adequately covered. We see him enter the Senate of New York State, win the headlines, almost at once, by opposing Tammany, and enter national politics as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson Administration. Then came the Democratic debeicle of 1920 when Roosevelt, as Vice-Presidential candidate, was swamped in the tidal wave of " normalcy " that sent Harding—and then Coolidge—into the White House. What followed was more disastrous than even a record-making political defeat, the onset of infantile paralysis and the slow climb back into active if crippled life. There can be no doubt of the interest and importance of the story told here, and the occasional disappointments of the reader come inevitably from the limitations of the correspondence.
These are personal letters, and we know that many written to his family were not kept. Then, when he was with hia. wife or mother, he wrote few letters—and that covers most of the time he was literally beginning to crawl out of the grip of paralysis. Although the editors have made a gallant and totally justified effort to eke out these gaps, there is little that is new here and nothing that modifies our existing ideas. We can see the human irritation and disquiet of F.D.R.'s formidable mother as he displayed too little interest in his role of squire of Hyde Park and too much in active politics. We can see the continuous friction between Sarah Delano Roosevelt and her daughter-in-law. Indeed, the hints of the process that turned Mrs. Roosevelt into the present world figure are as interesting as the light thrown on the growth of her husband. We can see parents worrying over their children, laughing over Elliott's spanking, and F.D.R. discussing, with great candour, the strength and weakness of his eldest son's upbringing. There are tours abroad, fishing trips in America, the summers spent in Canada at Campobello, the growing intrusion of polities into family life. Even with the elaborate editing much of the detail will be bewildering to English readers in whose breasts the names of Norman Mack or Vance McCormick awake no echo.
Roosevelt's role in the First World War is much more exciting for such persons. We can see him arguing for a stronger navy, at first on terms of doubtful amity with his immediate chief, Josephus Daniels, irritated by Congress and highly un-neutral in his attitude to Britain and Germany. We have echoes of his first serious political set-back, his defeat in the contest for the Democratic nomination for United States senator from New York. With the American entry into the war in 1917, Roosevelt became a figure, if not of the first rank, then among the top seconds. He made two important trips to Europe, and we have a lively account of an interview with King George V, who said, "You know I have a number of relations in Germany, but I can tell you frankly that in all my life I have never seen a German gentleman." We see Lloyd George and Clemenceau, the not very combative Italian admiral, Thaon di Revel (whom Mussolini was later delighted to honour), General Degoutte (to give him the spelling he used himself), Admiral Sims. We see Roosevelt zealous for the renown of the Marines and angry at what he thought sharp practice directed to diminishing their credit. Then came the capture of Congress by the Republicans and the zealous digging into real and alleged scandals and the harassing of executive officers that, in America, is thought to be the price of liberty—and the profit of politics.
In 1921, Roosevelt was suddenly stricken by what proved to be infantile paralysis, a disaster that might have ended all active life. He was supposed to have said later to an impatient friend, "You must remember that I spent twelve months learning to waggle my toes," and there is evidence here of the important part toes played as a symptom of recovery. He went to Warm Springs, Georgia, the tiny resort that he was to make famous and where he was to die ; his friends saw him crawling out of a room on hands and knees, a great triumph, and, in 1924 and 1928, as the nominator of "Al" Smith, he won his first great oratorical successes. But he was still a crippled man, bent on getting really well before going back to politics. He surrendered, after all, to the impor- tunities of his friends and his party. He alone could help Governor Smith to carry New York—and the presidency. He ran for governor ; his chief was defeated and he, to general astonishment, won. That day ended the second stage in his career. For, at what many thought to be the lowest ebb in the history of the Democratic Party, he had won the greatest state in the Union. Even had his name not been Roosevelt, he would have been a marked man.
With that triumph this volume ends, with a third to come. Mr. Elliott Roosevelt and his aids have taken great pains to provide the reader with all the notes he needs. There are, perhaps, too many minor errors in spelling and one or two more wimp errors of fact or omission. I doubt if Munro Ferguson was called "the Novar " (he was undoubtedly called " Novar " before taking a peerage). Mrs. Roosevelt's maternal ancestors would have been horrified at "Campbell-lairds." John Purroy Mitchel was not, strictly speaking, "killed in action." The role of August Belmont in the Democratic convention of 1912 is not correctly stated ; the location given to the Crillon will surprise people who know that hotel, and the "young Lovett,' mentioned on page 321, should have been identified. Is he the Robert A. Lovett who gave such distinguished service in the third Roosevelt administration as Assistant Secretary .of War ? We leave F.D.R. on his way to Albany and the White House. It is a long way from 1905, from Brown's Hotel and the Hotel de France et Choiseul where the young honeymooning couple started out on their partnership, with no inkling of what history was to do to them both.
D. W. BROGAN.
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