Master of His Fate James Tobin (free e books to read online .txt) 📖

So maybe Raskob could change FDR’s mind. He said he could eliminate FDR’s worries about paying for Warm Springs with the stroke of a pen.

The hour was getting late. Smith asked Eleanor for one more favor: Would she please call her husband for them? Maybe she could get him to come to the phone. She said she would try.

The governor’s people had found out that FDR was in Manchester to give a speech. They placed a call to the local drugstore. The manager of the store sent someone over to find FDR. His wife wanted him on the telephone, they said. So he came over to the store, and when he picked up the phone, Eleanor said Governor Smith wished to speak to him. Then she handed the receiver to Al.

Right away FDR told Smith the phone connection was bad, and he hung up. But the operator called back a minute later and said Governor Smith would phone Mr. Roosevelt at the Meriwether Inn in a few minutes.

On the ride back Missy kept saying: “Don’t you dare.”

At the inn FDR took the call. On the other end he heard Raskob’s voice. He was offering to take responsibility for FDR’s debt.

Then Smith himself was back on the line, saying FDR could be governor and still spend nine months a year in Georgia if he wanted to.

“Don’t hand me that baloney,” FDR said. No governor with any self-respect could neglect the job that way.

Well, Smith said, how about if they put Herbert Lehman on the ticket for lieutenant governor? He would make a great backup. He could fill in if FDR needed him.

At one point FDR asked to speak to Eleanor again. Frances Perkins, who was in the room, reported the conversation as follows, based on what she heard Eleanor say and what she learned later that FDR said:

FDR: “Do you think carrying New York [for Smith] depends on my running for governor?”

Eleanor: “I’m afraid it does.”

FDR: “It appears that they think I have an obligation to run. What do you think?”

Eleanor: “I know it’s hard, but that’s what they believe.”

Al Smith got back on the line. He put his need as plainly and forcefully as he could.

As a personal favor, he said, would FDR please take the nomination for governor to improve Smith’s chances to win the presidency?

To answer once and for all, FDR had to think about several other questions at once.

If he said yes and lost the race for governor—and he thought he probably would lose, just as he thought Smith would lose to Herbert Hoover—then his future in politics would look grim indeed. In 1920, when he was the Democratic nominee for vice president, his ticket had lost the state of New York. This would be a second statewide loss. After that, who would want a two-time loser to run for anything?

But if he said no and then Smith lost the White House by a hair, how would his fellow Democrats feel about the man who had said no when Al Smith begged for his help?

But what about his legs?

If he ran for governor and won, would he be sacrificing his last chance at walking? Dr. Hubbard had told him he might regain 20 percent more strength below the waist. Would that be enough to walk without braces?

Maybe, but only if he stuck to his exercises for many more months, which he could never do as governor of New York—certainly not at Warm Springs, the only place where he could make real progress.

If he didn’t run, maybe he’d be able to walk.

If he ran, maybe he’d be governor. As governor, he would be in a much better position to run for president.

He still hadn’t given Smith an answer. The governor tried his final angle.

If the convention went ahead and nominated FDR on Tuesday without his consent in advance, Smith asked, would he refuse to run?

“Don’t … you … dare!” Missy whispered.

FDR hesitated.

This is what he told his uncle Fred in a letter several days later: “The convention was in a hopeless quandary—there was no one else to satisfy all parts of the State. It was a condition which spelt defeat not only for the State, but also in all probability for the National ticket in New York. That being so there was literally nothing that I could do but to tell the Governor not that I would allow the use of my name before the convention, but that if in the final analysis the convention insisted on nominating me, I should feel under definite obligation to accept the nomination.”

That was good enough for Al. He hung up the phone in triumph and told his boys to pass the word: Nominate Roosevelt!

FDR got in the car for the brief ride from the inn back to his cottage.

Behind the wheel was Egbert Curtis. He asked, So … are you going to run?

“Curt,” he said, “when you’re in politics, you’ve got to play the game.”

The next day the convention nominated FDR in a storm of applause.

He accepted by telegram.

EVERY PERSONAL AND FAMILY CONSIDERATION HAS BEEN AND IS AGAINST MY BECOMING THE CANDIDATE OF THE CONVENTION, he wrote, BUT IF BY ACCEPTING I CAN HELP THE SPLENDID CAUSE OF OUR BELOVED GOVERNOR I WILL YIELD TO YOUR JUDGMENT … IF ELECTED, I SHALL GIVE MY BEST SERVICE TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE HIGH EXAMPLE SET DURING ALL THESE YEARS BY GOVERNOR SMITH AND TO THE FURTHERANCE OF THE CAUSE OF GOOD GOVERNMENT IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

He kept a couple of appointments in Georgia. Then, on Friday, October 5, he boarded a northbound train.

The election was thirty-two days away.

Chapter 14“ON MY FEET”

The Democrats of New York had done something no political party had done before. They had chosen a man most people would call a cripple to run for statewide office.

Surely, many Republicans thought, that would give their own nominee a huge advantage.

But it would not be a simple matter