Imperial Valley press., 1945-07-22
Editorials and Comment

ter, called the late President at Warm
Springs, to introduce him to Mr.. Hart
ford on the telephone. Still according
to Pegler the elder Roosevelt thanked
Mr. Hartford, apparently in advance,
for taking care Of his son. The settle
ment Of the 100000 debt for $4,000 was
made by Jesse Jones on behalf of the
Roosevelt family
Certainly there will be no disposition,
even among those of us who found Mr..
Roosevelt considerably less than perfect,
to gloat over this evidence of Grade G
ethical standards in money matters. The
fact that President of the United States
who was millionaire in his own right
should be content with such a settlement
on behalf of his son is one of those myS-
teries which experts on the Roosevelt
character must explain as they can.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was public fig
ure who is understood to have had am
bilious aspirations for place in history.
If in some matters his sensibilities left
something to be desired, that has to go
into the reckoning along with everything
else, plus and minus The rule of de
mOrtuiS nil nisi b0num cannot be invoked
to prevent full appraisal of the New
Deal and its leading personalities. We
cannot, as the neo-liberals used to re-
mind us, escape history.
The ability of most of us to arrive at
a dispassionate judgment of Mr.. Roose-
velt's place in history during his life was
limited by the fact that for more than
twelve years any American who under
took to criticize Mr.. Roosevelts policies
or call in question any Of his acts rlSked
a barrage of abuse which was at times
beyond belief. Tory, reactionary, FaS-
cist, appaaser, Roosevet-hater and con-
spirator were words used indiscrmina
tely to describe any citizen who might
have his doubts on OPA or the book
keeping of Lend-Lease. Mr. Roosevelt
himself delivered pious lectures from
which we were expected to conclude that
the Presidents opponents were men Of
evil purpose and low morals, except
when they were the fatuOuS dupes of
wicked maefactors He was particularly
contemptuous Of those who played fast
and loose with "other peoples money
Now, a1ter President is dead, we find
him tolerant Of transaction which al
most any of his horse -and-buggy critics
would have stunned, if only to avoid the
appearance or evil. w nat eXpialnS lI
Mr. Roosevelt's undaunted admirers,
who are industriously making him into
a legend, will laugh it off as the i'll
considered act of an importunate youth.
Don't we all have trouble with our boys?
But that won't do. 1t doesn't explain the
late Presidents failure to insist that his
son should not involve the White House
in such a transaction. Still less the
Roosevelt familys failure to do as mil
lions of Americans, more hard pressed
than they, have done-pay the debt in
full.
1t seems to US that this episode dove
tails with many others to illustrate the
tOtalitarian phase Of the New Deal, the
theory that neither law nor principle
matters as much as knowing the fright
people" and having the necessary squeeze
on vulnerable men. This was tendency
which alarmed many Americans long be-
fore Mr.. RoOsevelt's death. Because it
is important that Americans should
know all about the group which governed
them so long and pretended to a monOp-
oily of virtue, it is fortunate that the Ell
lott ROosevelt-John Hartford transac-
tion was revealed.