The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-16

gan to get sore. They rallied to get out the vote. From that point on, Roosevelt knew he was elect ed. I always thought that If FDR hadn't succeeded in getting Dewey mad, Dewey might be in the White House today.
 FDR LOVED YACHTS
 Roosevelt was one of the smart est politicians ever to sit in the White House, but once in 8 while he slipped. One slip was when he let himself be drawn into the senatorial purge campaign of 1888, and among those slips was his de- cision to invade the eastern shore of Maryland against Senator Mil- lard Tydings.
 That decision was based en- tirely upon Roosevelt's love of boats. I was on the inside of that campaign and sat with Mayor Jackson of Baltimore when it was arranged to have the President deliver 3 Labor day speech at Baltimore, an industrial city where labor is im- pOrtant.
 But the President said no. He wanted to cross Chesapeake Bay in his yacht Potomac and motor up the eastern shore of Maryland. It would be restful weekend re- taxation. There was no labor audience on the eastern shore, only hostile farmers. But the President wanted to take that boat trip. and he took 1t.
 The Labor day speech at Denton, Md, was a good one. But it was out of place. Hostile banners greeted him everywhere. The results, as shown at the polls later, were disastrous. SPANISH WAR BUNGLING
 No man was ever more night in forSeeing this war and trying to head 1t off than Franklin Roosevelt. His attempts to block the Japanese as early as 1897 are too long to be told here and will have to wait for a later column. That. however, was whcle Roose- welt and Henry L. Stinlson, now Secretary of War, first were dra M together. Stimson had come down to see FDR in 1883, just after hiS inauguration, to urge a strong stand against Japan. Roosevelt. promised and stuck to that prom ise.
 However, always felt that the President was not as far-sighted in regard to Spain as in regard to Japan. I talked to him at some length about this at Hyde Park during the Spanish Civil
 War. He realized that Hitler and MussOlini were subsidizing Franco and that this might be
 9 curtain-raiSer to Q general European war, but he hesitated to buck religious groups in this country by intervening.
 He also blamed the State De- partment for not giving quiet diplomatic help to the Spanish Republicans, and even told me the amazing fac that his own brother-in-law, Hall Roosevelt, hat gone to Paris to sell arms to the Spanish Loyalists through France but that this had been blocked by the State Department.
 Some day when the whole story of the Spanish Civil War Is told, 1t will be one of the darker spots in the Roosevelt foreign policy picture.
 The President loved to tell stories and sometimes exasperated callers who had come loaded to put across ideas to him rather than hear his stories. However, he is marvellous raconteur.
 One morning I was sitting with him in the Lincoln Study when he told me the story of his first political battle in the Albany sen- ate. It took him nearly fifteen minutes, during which Marvin MacIntyre was telephoning at five-minute intervals from the executive offices demanding that he come over to his desk. How ever, the President would not be deterred.
 FDR was under thirty when he was elected to the New York