The Plots Against the President
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125 “I want to talk for a few minutes”: Rosenman, Public Papers, 63–65.
126 “Our President took”: “Will Rogers Claps Hands for the President’s Speech,” New York Times, March 14, 1933.
126 “People edge”: Dos Passos, “The Radio Voice.”
127 “Consummate politician”: Smith, “How F.D.R. Made the Presidency Matter.”
127 “the result of a unified plan”: Moley, After Seven Years, 369.
127 “Future plays”: Roosevelt, quoted in Hofstadter, American Political Tradition, 431.
127 “I think this would be a good time”: Roosevelt, quoted in Freidel, 245.
127 “I recommend to the Congress”: Rosenman, Public Papers, 66–67.
128 “the government is going to muscle in”: Dialogue from the film Gabriel Over the White House.
128 “the amount of beer”: Newsweek, April 15, 1933. Quoted in Winslow, 57.
128 “In the midst of the Depression”: Terkel, quoted in Alter, 277.
128 “Roosevelt is the greatest leader”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 143.
Chapter Twenty-four: A Gang of Common Criminals
129 “For the first time”: Perkins, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:22.
129 “A bank rescue plan”: Ahamed, 456.
130 “The bankers were aware”: Josephson, Money Lords, 155.
130 “sort of a love fest”: Ibid., 153.
130 “White-shoe Wall street”: Fraser, Every Man, 431.
130 “in imposing succession”: Pecora, 3–4.
131 “undesirable or worthless” … “Securities houses” … “we must break” … “old and young liberals” … “marched his staff”: Schlesinger, Congress Investigates, 4:2555–56.
132 “less than lordly” … “flushed with annoyance”: Davis, 3:138.
132 “preferred list” … “our close friends”: Pecora findings, quoted in Davis, 3:139–40.
132 “It is nothing more or less”: Landon, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:436.
132 “When it comes to money”: Couzens, quoted in Barnard, 264.
133 “bloated masters of fortune”: Long, quoted in Williams, 633.
133 “each one stolen”: Long, quoted in MacPherson, 120.
Chapter Twenty-five: Traitor to His Class
134 “unscrupulous money changers”: Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, reprinted at http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html.
134 “fewer than three dozen”: Roosevelt, quoted in Fraser, Every Man a Speculator, 448–49.
134 “economic oligarchy”: Roosevelt speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, September 23, 1932. Hofstadter, American Political Tradition, 429.
135 “traitor to his class”: A famous, but unattributed, quote from the era.
135 “captains of Wall Street”: Pecora, 293.
135 “The testimony had brought”: Ibid., 283.
136 “had brought about the transfer”: Josephson, Money Lords, 164.
136 “a happy springtime”: Ibid., 156.
136 “Your action in going off gold”: Russell Leffingwell to Roosevelt, October 2, 1933, quoted in Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 51.
136 “baloney dollar”: Josephson, Money Lords, 163.
136 “trying to cure tuberculosis”: Norman Thomas, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 119.
136 “Mr. Roosevelt is nothing more”: William Z. Foster, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 122.
137 “Although some people mistakenly”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 133.
137 “the wild boys of the road”: The name of the 1933 Hollywood film depicting the masses of unemployed youth menacingly roaming the land.
137 “the way I did on beer”: Moley, After Seven Years, 173.
138 “Fascism, Hitlerism”: Time, April 3, 1933.
138 “utter rubbish”: Roosevelt, quoted in Black, 281.
138 “See that they have good food”: Stiles, 264–65.
138 “to prevent a similar tragedy”: Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted in Cook, 2:45.
138 “played his master card”: Rollins, 387.
138 “in there and talk”: Stiles, 264–65.
139 “I got out”: Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember, 113.
139 “Hoover sent the army”: New York Times, May 17, 1933.
139 “It’s like selling yourself”: Freidel, 265.
139 “had been anxiously”: Rollins, 386.
140 “leaving no doubt”: Alter, 299.
140 “At each camp”: Freidel, 266.
140 “All you have to do”: Rosenman, Public Papers, 322.
Chapter Twenty-six: A Balanced Civilization
141 “highly appropriate”: Hickok, “New ‘First Lady,’ Made Solemn by Inaugural, Lays Plans to Simplify White House Life; To Cut Expense,” Associated Press, March 5, 1933.
142 “Saturday night”: Freidel, 268.
143 “Wouldn’t anybody” … “one-man show”: Manchester, 1:97.
144 “Dear Mr. President”: Correspondence quoted in Manchester, 1:99.
144 “opened the New Deal floodgates” … “No president”: Smith.
144 “Having overcome that”: New York Times, March 26, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 288.
145 “To destroy a standing crop”: Wallace, quoted in Manchester, 1:102.
146 “a supreme effort” … “the most important and far-reaching”: Rosenman, Public Papers, 246.
147 “the burden of telling the whole truth”: Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:441.
147 “Roosevelt is an explorer”: Churchill, 294.
147 “a balanced civilization” … “the population balance”: Schlesinger, 2:319.
147 “contradictory character”: Elliott Roosevelt, F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, 1:318.
148 “confronted with a choice”: Tugwell, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:22.
148 “how close were we to collapse”: Johnson, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:22.
Chapter Twenty-seven: Hankering for Superman
149 “Hankering for Superman”: Lippmann, 26.
149 “the Barrymore of the capital”: Variety, quoted in Doherty, 79.
149 “a rage for order”: Ibid., 69.
149 “one of the most excitingly”: New York World Telegram, quoted in a film advertisement in Variety, August 8, 1932, 24.
150 “The public has been milked”: Allison, 3.
150 “The whimsical tale” … “sound reconstruction policies”: Doherty, 69.
150 “an alternate national anthem”: Fraser, Every Man, 411.
150 “hour of destiny”: Ibid., 81.
151 “Stand by your president”: Film Daily, March 11, 1933, 1.
151 “Just as American communists”: Doherty, 70.
151–152 “Oh, don’t worry” … “immediate and effective action” … “Army of Construction” … “one of the greatest presidents”: Quoted from the film Gabriel Over the White House.
152 “The good news”: Library of Congress, “Film Series on Religion and the Founding of the American Republic. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/films.html.
153 “I want to send you this line”: Roosevelt to Hearst, April 1, 1933 at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library. http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/pdfs/dictatorship.pdf.
153 “Its reality is a dangerous item”: “Gabriel Retakes,” Hollywood Reporter, March 20, 1933, 2.
153 “Put that picture”: Leff and Simmons, 39.
Chapter Twenty-eight: That Jew Cripple in the White House
154 “It is socialism”: Luce, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:264–65.
154 “The excessive centralization”: Lippmann, quoted in Manchester, 1:107.
155 “Nonsensical, Ridiculous”: Hearst, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 175.
155 “Stalin Delano” … “to the Mussolinis”: Hearst, quoted in Nasaw, 482.
155 “rooted in suspicion” … “hallmark of Western culture”: Manchester, 1:101.
155 “We’re going at top speed”: Hiram Johnson, qu
oted in Freidel, 447.
156 “Businessmen of 1929”: Ibid., 503.
156 “The ‘captains’ ”: William W. Ball, quoted in Freidel, 504.
156 “This is despotism” … “robots”: Ibid., 503.
157 “In war, in the gloom”: Roosevelt fireside chat, May 1933, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:114.
157 “vast army”: Black, 316.
157 “Through the channels of the rich”: Schlesinger, 2:567–68.
157 “the rottenest newspaper”: Roosevelt paraphrased by Ickes, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:566.
157–158 “terrible” … “rarefied atmosphere” … “poison pen” … “I wish sometime” … “deliberate policy” … “I sometimes think” … “I think they”: Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:555.
158 “a certain streak of madness”: Wolfskill and Hudson, x.
158 “men who have been parasites”: McCormick, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 178.
158 “The republic proceeds”: Mencken to Albert Jay Nock, June 1933, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 173–74.
158 “What that fellow”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 36.
159 “Often characterized as a blueprint”: Carroll, 438.
159 “biblical capitalism”: Sharlet, 123.
160 “If you were a good honest man”: Letter to Roosevelt, quoted on the book jacket of Wolfskill and Hudson.
Chapter Twenty-nine: We Don’t Like Her, Either
161 “We Don’t Like Her, Either”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 37.
161 “Peace time can be”: Eleanor Roosevelt quoted in the New York Times, December 29, 1933.
162 “at once intimate”: Douglas, 152.
162 “Fueled by power”: Cook, 2:1.
162 “Dearest Babs”: Roosevelt to Eleanor, March 17, 1933. Elliott Roosevelt, F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, 339.
162 “soldiers out if a million”: Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok, quoted in Cook, 2:44.
162 “I’m just not the sort of person”: Hickok, Reluctant First Lady, 87.
163 “She shattered precedent”: Davis, 3:173.
163 “Mrs. Roosevelt doesn’t hide”: Freidel, 295.
164 “That I became”: Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:525.
164 “For some time I have had”: Carrie Chapman Carr to Eleanor Roosevelt, August 15, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 298.
165 “The only thing that reconciles me”: Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok, quoted in Alter, 259.
165 “Those who attacked the New Deal”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 86.
165 “Eleanor can bite an apple”: Manchester, 1:111.
165 “Despite a lithe, graceful”: Halle, quoted in Cook, 1:499.
Chapter Thirty: The Shifty-Eyed Little Austrian Paperhanger
166 “The Shifty-Eyed Little Austrian Paperhanger”: I. F. Stone, quoted in MacPherson, 135.
166 “During the Hundred Days”: Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 197.
167 “bastards”: Roosevelt, quoted by Henry Morgenthau, Morgenthau diary, May 9, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 400.
167 “I intimated as strongly as possible”: Roosevelt to Cordell Hull, May 6, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 397.
167 “He began with the Jewish question” … “marching, uniformed columns” … “He once made use”: Schacht, quoted in Freidel, 396.
167 “openly hostile” … “They represented”: Black, 258–59.
168 “much-ballyhooed”: Alter, 144.
168 “old fetishes”: Roosevelt cable, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:222.
168 “No such message”: Philip Snowden, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:224.
168 “unwilling to go to the root”: Rosenman, Public Papers, 264ff.
168 “because they see the end”: “Roosevelt Praised in German Press,” New York Times, July 4, 1933.
168 “You have opportunities”: Ramsay MacDonald to Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:232.
168 “As ER feared most”: Cook, 2:113.
169 “Our ignorance was inexcusable”: William Shirer, quoted in MacPherson, 135.
169 “Today or tomorrow” … “danger to Europe”: Stone, quoted in MacPherson, 135.
169 “most stately Jewish pundit” … “Europe’s problem”: Time, quoted in MacPherson, 135.
169 “Lippmann had no illusions”: Steel, 330.
169 “dictator, once he feels secure”: Time, March 13, 1933.
170 “The universities of Germany”: Dr. Lion Feuchtwanger. “Hitler’s War on Culture,” New York Herald Tribune Magazine, March 19, 1933.
170 dispatched at least two emissaries to Germany: During the interregnum Roosevelt sent Cornelius Vanderbilt (see chapter 9). In November 1933, Ambassador William Dodd in Berlin sent Roosevelt a summary of Hitler (see Black, 360).
170 “This translation is so expurgated”: Roosevelt, quoted in Freidel, 122.
170 “from the moment”: Tugwell, quoted in Freidel, 123–24.
170 “a strong possibility”: Roosevelt, quoted in Freidel, 390.
170 “I am concerned by events”: Roosevelt to Ramsay MacDonald, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:232.
Chapter Thirty-one: A Rainbow of Colored Shirts
171 “A Rainbow of Colored Shirts”: Wolfskill, 84.
171 “the strongest army, navy”: Smith, quoted in Dickson and Allen, 205.
172 “slapstick Waterloo” … “captured the entire putative army”: Ferguson, 121.
172 “staged a well-publicized funeral”: Dickson and Allen, 217.
172 “Amid flying chairs” … “smashed the bleeding head”: Diggins, 585.
172 “preventive and protective Militia”: Ferguson, 113.
172 “the heart of the old Indian territory” … “President Rosenfeld” … “had been planned and prophesied”: Ibid., 114.
173 “idealistic or Communistic” … “military organization”: Ibid., 122.
173 “playing soldier” … “various shirts and fancy breeches”: Ibid., 124.
173 “The real threat”: Ibid., 129.
174 “their wives insulted”: Goodman, 3.
174 “shock the nation”: Dickstein, quoted in Goodman, 9.
174 “to justify his increasingly large budget”: Gentry, 201.
174 “did not have to look far”: Ibid., 197.
174 “Despite all this burlesque and bombast” … “personal and political machine”: Ibid., 158–59.
174 “short, fat”: Collier’s, August 9, 1933.
Chapter Thirty-two: Maverick Marine
176 “One of the really great generals”: MacArthur, quoted in Cochran, 137.
176 “A splendid little war”: Butler, quoted in Cochran, 138.
176–177 “vigorously brushed” … “first class orator” … “seemed stupid and unnecessary”: Butler, 4–6.
177 “sunny tropic scenes”: Millett, 151.
177 “If thee is determined”: Cochran, 138.
178 “opera bouffee” … “liberate” … “It wasn’t exactly clear” … “Military engagements” … “Butler’s most bizarre exploit”: Cochran, 143ff.
179 “as much for his care” … “I’d cross hell on a slat”: McFall, 24.
179 “I do not think that anyone knows”: Cochran, 155.
Chapter Thirty-three: I Was a Racketeer for Capitalism
181 “There is nothing”: Stimson, quoted in Archer, 108.
181 “like an unruly schoolboy”: Butler, quoted in Archer, 108.
182 “A friend of mine”: Ibid., 110–11.
182 “the mad dogs who are about to break loose”: “Italy’s Ambassador Protests Slap at Duce by Maj. Gen. Butler,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 27, 1931. The story about Mussolini and the hit-and-run accident was essentially true, although Butler misquoted Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was the individual who had taken a ride with Mussolini in Italy. According to Vanderbilt, what actually happened after the child was hit by the car was that Vanderbilt yelled out and Mussolini patted his knee and said: “Never look back, Mr. Vanderbilt, al
ways look ahead in life” (Cochran, 155).
182 “the only man that ever got”: Will Rogers, quoted in Archer, 116.
182 “Handed a loaded ‘pineapple’ ”: Butler, 305–6.
183 “General”: Archer, 117.
183 “Unless we are mistaken” … “unfortunate error”: Ibid., 113–14.
183 “preparing to fight”: Thomas, 308.
183 “YOU’RE A VERY BAD BOY”: Archer, 115.
183 “cemented my decision”: Butler, quoted in Thomas, 310.
183 “thirty-three years and four months”: Butler, quoted in McFall, 24.
184 “swell racket” … “might have given”: FBI FOIA file on Smedley Butler.
184 “the greatest bill collector”: Butler, quoted in Chicago Daily Tribune, September 28, 1935.
184 “one of the most picturesque”: Schmidt, 215.
184 “a member of the Hoover-for-Ex-President”: Butler, quoted in Archer, 126.
184 “treasury raiders” … “millions of dollars”: Butler, quoted in Schmidt, 219.
185 “Royal Family of financiers” … “What the hell”: Schmidt, 222–23.
Chapter Thirty-four: We Want the Gold
186–188 “About five hours later” … “the royal family in control” … “We represent the plain soldiers” … “smelled a rat” … “So many queer people” … “make a speech” … “A speech about what?”: U.S. Congress, Public Hearings Report, 2ff.
189 “bullet-shaped” … “close-cropped”: New York Post, November 20, 1934.
189 “millionaire lieutenant” … “sort of batty”: U.S. Congress, Public Hearings Report, 13–14.
189 “What’s all this” … “Don’t you try”: Ibid., 12.
190 “a great idea” … “positive assurance” … “slip-up” … “If I am to be”: Butler, quoted in Schmidt, 225.
190 “There is something funny”: U.S. Congress, Public Hearings Report, 14.
190 “That speech”: Ibid., 13.
191 “I have got 30 million dollars”: U.S. Congress, Public Statement, 2.
191 “You know the President is weak” … “Why do you want to be stubborn?”: Clark, quoted in Archer, 148.
191 “Although our group is for you”: Clark, quoted in Gentry, 202.
191 “You know as well as I do”: Butler testimony, quoted in Spivak, 320.
Chapter Thirty-five: Coup d’État