Evening star., 1948-04-11
Sketch by kswman svddu,h.


2-April II, 1945.)
--Sksfeh by kswman Suddu,h.
Of . great state putting his eco
nomic ideas into practice.
The interview was mutually un-
satisfactory. Roosevelt said, That
man did nothing but spout figures
at me. He must be more of a
mathematician than . political
scientist"
Keynes said cautiously to Miss
Perkins that he had supposed the
President was more literate, eco
nomically speaking"
Miss Perkins tells how as a young
man in the New York State Senate
he had little interest in labor legis-
lation. She was in Albany lobbying
through the 54-hour-a-week bill for
women.
Franklin d. Roosevelt did not
associate himself actively with the
BILL" she wrote, which was meas
ure of the progressive convictions
Of the politicians Of 1910. I remem-
Der it clearly because I took it hard
that young man, who had so much
spirit, did not do so well in this,
which I thought a test, as did Tim
Sullivan and the MacManus, un-
doubtedly corrupt politicians"
She remembered an unfortunate
habit he had of throwing his head
up. "This," she said, combined
with his pince-nez and great height,
gave him the appearance of looking
down his nose at most people" She
remembered that the Tammany pol-
iticians considered him arrogant.
1t was his illness, the infantile
paralysis that struck him in 1921,
when he was SO, that changed him
in Miss Perkins opinion.
Struck by His Growth
II saw Roosevelt only once be-
tween 1921 and 1924, and I was in
stantly struck by his growth" she
wrote. "He was young, he was
crippled, he was physically weak,
but he had a firmer grip on life
and on himself than ever before.
He was serious, not playing now.
Politics had become important to
him as a means to a good life. He
had become conscious of other
people, of weak people, of human
frailty. I remember thinking that
he would never be so hard and
harsh in his judgment on stupid
people-even on wrong -doers. His
viability-his power 10 grow, in re-
sponse to experience-was beginning
to show"
She tells how Mrs. Roosevelt
learned to be his eyes and ears
during his illness and kept him in
touch with the world by bringing it
home to his bedside Miss Perkins
was in the room in the Hotel Syra-
cuse during the New York State
Democratic Convention of 1928 when
AL Smith telephoned Roosevelt at
Warm Springs to ask him to run
for Governor to help the national
ticket carry that key State. And
she confirms the story that in an
ensuing telephone call Mrs. Roose-
welt was the last person to talk to
him when he made the decision to
run-the decision that made. him
President.
How New Deal Started
AS opposition to New Dealism"
and to New Deal philosophy" con-
tinues to grow the legend that the
New Deal was planned program is
likely to grow with it. Journalists
who worked through it know how
opposite are the facts. The Roose-
welt revolution was q series of re-
coyery measures that followed the
collapse of business and banking in
the great def1ation. Roosevelt had
no such program when he came to
Washington. For instance, the
scheme to insure bank deposits was
voted down at the 1882 Chicago
convention at the direction of the
Roosevelt leadership when intro
duced as a resolution for the plat
form by William Gibbs McAdoo. 1t
was too radical measure for Roose-
velt to adopt as campaign promise.
Miss Perkins shows how circum-
stantial was the alliance with labor
that resulted from the IA tcollec-
tive bargaining) section of the
NRA and the Wagner Act that re-