Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1933, Page 64

i 2 President Roosevelt and Vice President Garner exchange congratulations. cisions, but the “timber” that meets the exigencies and problems these circum- stances give rise to, is immutable, react- ing always in accordance with its divine endowments. There is no unknown quantity in a man’s native stability of character. It is upon Franklin Roose- velt’s native stability of character that we can build. We heard a great deal last November of the “personality” of the Democratic candidate and a great deal in the ranks of the opposition which might indicate that “personality” is at best an unstable and ephemeral quality upon which to base fitness for the solemn office of President of the United States. But per- sonality is not a volatile possession. As an outer expression of the inner man, the tangible and exuberant outlet of his energies and emotions, it is perhaps one of the most stable indicators of his in- herent qualities and character. If you doubt that, try to fake the spon- taneous grin of Franklin D. Roosevelt! That grin has grown up with him; he wore it at Groton, when he was 14; he carried it through Harvard and Columbia Law; he flashed it in the legislative chamber of the Albany Senate; the dis- arming shaft of it pierced the stodgy smugness of Washington officials bound to the eyebrows in red tape during the . tumultuous days of the war; it shot its way into the heart of a State of 12,000,000 people and sent him twice to the Gov- ernor’s seat; it went across a continent and back again with such &ompelling vigor that millions, later, revisualized it in a voice reverberating from the loud speaker of a household radio. You can’t fake a grin like that! It is a reflection pf a light within. WE give too much heed, perhaps, when i we consider a man’s fitness for public office, to the material essentials of previous experience, of political acumen, to shrewdness and tact and diplomacy and all the other moot virtues incubated in the strife and stress and demands of public contact. No intelligent observer would underestimate the value of such dearly won attributes. But in the last analysis it is the man that counts, the man shorn of the affectations and policies of office, for it is the stripped soul that stands face to face, when every question #s sifted to the bottom, with ultimate de- tision. Expediency, policies, precedents, interpretations, judicious ds or in- fluences know only secondary satisfac- tion. The right of any human problem is the first consideration of the responsi- ble individual. It is the man, Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as the public official it has been my privilege to know. Let us take a look at him from this angle! His forehead is full and high and is creased by horizontal lines which, never- theless, do not furrow it. His nose is large and straight, his chin square and heavy. When he is not smiling his mouth is straight, even severe. His dark brown hair is graying at the temples. His skin is irm and browned. His eyes, of intense blue, are sharp and frank and penetrat- ing. In comversation, they regard one directly, cordially and invariably awaken a friendly and disarming response. This response is a curious and arresting indi- cation of his power to make people like him, his unconsciously exercised power, perhaps, to put his visitor upon an easy, friendly basis, to establish a warm con- tact from the start, that an antagonistic spirit must find particularly disconcert- ing and dismaying. Indeed, I doubt that an inimical individual could long face the kindly, penetrating blue eyes of the President, stand before that rare and graciot.lssmneandnotknowachange of heart, a lifting of animosity, an in- voluntary response to the inherent good- ness of the man, - W. Kingland Macy, a Republican State leader, is saild to have warned a friend who was on his way to see the Governor, “I.00k out you don’t make the mistake of liking Roosevelt.” Others have felt simi- larly. Men with unfriendly intentions, or those not kindly disposed toward him —for every public official comes in con- tact with these—have left him smiling, their hostile banners gone down before the warmth and genuine cordiality of his welcome, . Perhaps the most striking facet of the" President’s personality is his sincerity. There is no mistaking it; it finds expres- sion in every inflection of his hearty voice, in his spontaneous bursts of laugh- ter—of which his wife, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, said, “his rude, crude and vulgar laughter, thank Heaven!”—his concentrated attention when listening— and ‘he is an excellent listener—in his exurberant conversation, in his en- thusiasm, in the zest and genuine pleas- ure he takes in contact with all sorts and conditions of people. It is that resonant, ringing note of sincerity in his voice that made his radio addresses the effective, electrifying and convincing messages they were. Like the grin, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s sincerity is real, a part of him, developed by life and character. His personality is rooted deep in char- —A. P. Phote. acter and that character is the result of certain definite factors of destiny. ONE can scarcely disregard, at the outset, the excellent stock from which the President springs. He has been “accused” by people narrow and un- intelligent enough to use such a verb in this connection, of being a patrician. It is certain that Franklin D. Roosevelt will never be counted among the im- mortals if elevation to that niche de- pends upon the chinks in the family log cabin. Snow has never drifted across his bedquilt nor has he read, to my knowledge, by the light of a burning ember. Lack of worldly goods or material pos- session is no measure of worth. Franklin Roosevelt had been abroad eight times before he was 14; he had been educated by governesses and tutors; he had owned his own horse and ice-boat; he knew no privations. But he developed stamina enough to stand up against a political machine—the one under whose un- suspecting banners he had entered pub- lic life—and fight for a principle when, as a young and green insurgent he pitted his intelligence, his sense of justice and political acumen against the tricks and cleverness of seasoned politicians; he took a physical blow that would have felled a weaker man, standing up, with- out losing the grin, refusing to regard himself, sentimentally, in the light of a beaten man; he has shown himself to be, under a great diversity of conditions, high-principled, meticulously scrupulous, possessed of a keenly developed sense of fair play; understanding, sympathetic, fair-minded, traits that are not popularly associated with one born on ancestral acres, knowing not want. Assuredly, he is a patrician, in the true sense of that word, possessed of that divine gentleness which is the only real measure of aristocracy. The executive mansion in Albany has opened its doors to quaint and curious visitors, measured by social standards. “Now you will see a man!” Franklin D. Roosevelt is re- ported to have said to a newspaper cor- respondent, and shortly thereafter there appeared at the family tea table a red- faced, huge-hapded individual. Roose- velt accepted rough exterior of the man for the gentle, kindly heart he knew to be his. If you have seen the Albany Legisla- ture in action you will agree that any crowd called together by an exciting ac- cident in the street would be fairly rep- resentative of that body. Franklin Roose- velt has fought with that body, blustered, argued, cajoled, persuaded, whipped them into line and submission by the fervor of his conviction, elicited their anger, their resistance, never their con= tempt. On the occasion of his fiftieth birthday there appeared in the public press of Albany a paid advertisement congratulating him upon that occasion, signed by gentlemen who were publicly and spiritedly opposing him. Yet these gentlemen, because of the man Roose- velt, could all subscribe publicly to such sentiments as these: “Complacency and inertia are not in his make-up. Today, at 51, Franklin Roosevelt can look back with satisfaction to many a worthy battle won against tremendous odds and through years of struggle, and by fair means, in the open, with complete candor, with dignity undefiled.” T His frankness and courage is no doubt, in its essence, an inheritance from his Dutch forbears, the patrician stock from which this essentially Democratic indi- vidual sprang. His family has lived in Dutchess County, along the Hudson River, since the French and Indian wars. It took part in the State Constitutional convention, and exercised its influence during the Revolutionary War. Tradi- tion and wealth came down to the only child of James and Sara Delano Roose- velt with ease of life on the ancestral estate at Hyde Park. It would have been easy for a less vigorous, a less de- termined, a less ambitious, or intelligent or industrious youth to have succumbed to the inevitable status of country gentlemen. Franklin Roosevelt was moved by that divine discontent which drives men to their destiny whether they will or no. But destiny encountered, in this case, little friction; the young Franklin Roose- velt was willing and eager to be driven; he thrived on it. At 28 he was a State Senator; at 31 an Assistant Secretary of the Navy; at 38 a vice presidential nominee; at 46 the Governor of New York State, and now, at 51, the President of the United States—the man chosen almost unanimously by this great Nation to lead it from darkness and chaos and floundering to light and order and pre- cision of purpose and accomplishment. O much for the innate qualities of the man. What of his experience? What have been the testing grounds for these qualities? In what public crucibles has he been molded? It is scarcely neces- sary to go into detail at this time with regard to the well known facts of the public life of the President. But it may not be amiss to point out the un- usual opportunities for service of out- standing character that have been his and the essentially vigorous and efficient manner in which he has confronted them. He is unique in that he estab- lished, in a great measure, a reputation for national service before his inaugura- tion. With due respect to those excellent and worthy Presidents who have gone before, with fitting and appreciative tribute to their high intellect, their fervent passions to serve, their un- questioned talents and abilities, this fact stands out: Few of them, at the time of entering upon office, have performed what may be regarded as national serv= ice—that is, service which might be con- strued as of national significance. Their national reputations began after they had taken office. Franklin D. Roosevelt, on the other hand, took over the presi- dential duties yesterday, with a well established record behind him, national in scope and influence. - Consider his early insurgency, a young and inexperienced State Senator from Dutchess County, successfully blocking the attempt of a political ring—made up of members of his ewn party—to elect Sheehan, a man obviously unfit, to the United States Senate. The seventeenth amendment to the Federal Constitution, providing for the popular direct election of Senators by the people, instead of through oftentimes untrustworthy Rep- resentatives in the Legislatures, is the Continued om Forty-third Page