Evening star., 1932-01-24
Roosevelt Ready to Fight
NEW YORKER is VETERAN IN POLITICS.
BY WALTER T. BROWN.

| n Franklin D. Roosevelt, who to-
| II day entered himself as candi-
4 u date for the presidency by con-
senting to have his name go
| into the North Dakota primary, is
political warrior of % years ex-
perience.
The New York executive was only
% when in 1910 he ran for the State
/ Senate in the rock-ribbed Republican
| Dutchess County, where the Roosevelts
| had lived since the French and In
dian wars. He is distant cousin OF
the late President Theodore Roosevelt,
who, like him, was Governor of New
| York and Assistant Secretary OF the
Navy.
After Senate term at Albany the
son of James Roosevelt, gentleman
farmer and railroad executive, went to
Washington as Secretary Josephus
Daniels chief assistant in the Navy
Department. Roosevelt unsuccessfully
! sought a United States Senate seat and
went down to defeat as the vice pres
idential nominee in 1920.
Won by Record Plurality.
AL Smith called him from his Warm
Springs sanitarium in 1928 to run for
Governor. He won and Smith lost the
presidency, and in 1880 New York gave
Roosevelt an unprecedented plurality
of 735,000 when he again ran for Gov
ernor.
An attack of infantile paralysis in
1921 palsied his legs and sent him to
the political Sidelines. Leaders counted
him out. At the tiny Georgia hamlet of
Warm Springs he found recuperative
facilities and in 1924 Roosevelt, sup
ported by his son, walked to the front
of the stage in Madison Square Garden
and nominated Al Smith for the pres
idency. He marshaled Smiths forces
in that bulldog struggle with the sup
porters of William Gibbs McAdoo
Again in 1928 Roosevelt called for
Smiths selection as the Democratic
flag carrier.
Roosevelt today, almost so years old,
is well over six feet tall and weighs
nearly 180. The paralysis of 1921 has
slowed his gait but not his hands or mis-
mind. He seems never to tire. Dur
ing his two campaigns in New York
State he covered every county, and each
year he visits State schools and other
institutions, stopping often but not for
long. Little lines of pain around his
blue-gray eyes tell of his struggle to
overcome i'll health.
lame mere III lO94.
Roosevelt smiles readily and talks
freely when he desires to commit him.
self, and in the four years he has been
on Capitol Hill few have seen him
angry He talks shop all the time.
The State and politics are never-ending
topics of conversation. Mrs. Roosevelt
shares + interest in political economy,
and in " st instances their views agree.
The Roosevelt strain goes back to
1914, when Claes Martenzen van Rose
velt of Holland settled in New Amster-
dam. Isaac, his great grandson, moved
during the French and Indian War.
That is the family home, the rallying
place for the clan, ruled by the Gov
ernor's widowed mother. The elder
Mrs. Roosevelt is of Flemish origin.
Her forbear, Philippe Delano, landed at
Duxbury, Mass, 20 years before Van
Roosevelt went to New Amsterdam. The
DelanoS we're seafaring folk and the call
of the sea came down to the Governor.
He was a yachtSman and sailor before
paralysis brought a farewell to youth.
His homes are filled with ship models
books on ships and paintings Of
merchantmen and warships.
Wages Thorough Campaign.
Treasured by the Governor and to be
seen in the living room of the old
Roosevelt home in SiXty-third street,
New York, are tiny models of the
American World War feet with which
the Navy Department War Board plan
ned its maneuvers.
Should the Governor receive the
Democratic nomination at Chicago
next June, he likely will campaign in
every section of the country AS
gubernatorial candidate he went into
every New York county some that
Democratic aspirants for Governor had
ignored since Samuel Tildens time.
When he was James M Cox's compan-
ion on the national ticket in 1920
Roosevelt made more than 1000
speeches and blanketed the country.
The news writer's who followed the
Governor in 1920 formed permanent
group, and yearly on Roosevelt's birth
day-January 3o-they visit him.
Reticent on national subjects since
his name went into the political tour
nsment lists, Mr. Roosevelt regards
himself as Progressive" Not since
the 1880 State campaign has he de-,
clared himself on prohibition, but then
he called for repeal of the eighteenth
amendment and its replacement with
another amendment giving liquor con-
troll to the States.
Urges Government Relief.
He regards the citizen as the ward
of the Government, and in his plea for
unemployment relief legislation last
Summer and his message to the Legis-
lature this year declared society,"
through its Government, must aid
those thrown out of work by depression.
Roosevelt fought Woodrow wilson's
battles for the League of Nations and
in that connection an interesting story
has come from the 1920 campaign.
Cox, the presidential nominee, had
never met Wilson, then sick and dis
heartened. According to the yarn, the
Democratic leaders had intended sub
ordinating the League issue in the
campaign. Roosevelt took Cox to see
Wilson, and so touched was Cox by the
determination of the dying President
that he agreed with Roosevelt they
would make the League fight, despite
the tide of public opinion running
against it.
The Governor married Roosevelt,
Anna Eleanor, daughter of Elliott
Roosevelt, only brother of President
Roosevelt. 1T. R." himself gave her in
ar5 coil he Glad the