Eleanor Roosevelt

                    Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884, in New York City to Elliott and Anna Hall Roosevelt.  She was named Anna after her mother and her aunt Anna Cowles; she was named Eleanor after her father and called "Ellie" or "Little Nell".  Her nicknames may have been used to distinguish her from her mother and aunt, but she apparently preferred the name Eleanor from a young age. 

Eleanor was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt.  She had two younger brothers - Elliott Roosevelt, Jr. (1889-93) and Hall Roosevelt (1891-1941) and one half brother - Elliott Roosevelt Mann (born to Katy Mann, a family servant; died 1941).  Eleanor and her family were part of New York high society and lived in a world of great wealth and privilege.

Roosevelt behaved in "old fashioned" ways so much that her own mother called her "Granny".  Even though living in a world of privilege and wealth, Eleanor suffered great childhood heartaches.  Her mother and brother - Elliott, Jr. - died of diphtheria when Eleanor was eight years old.  Her father was an alcoholic who was confined to a sanitarium; he died two years after his wife.  Eleanor was raised by her maternal grandmother, Mary Ludlow Hall (1843-1919) at Tivoli, New York.  Is it any wonder that she was described in a biography as being "insecure and starved for affection" and considered herself to be "ugly".  She understood while still a young teenager that physical beauty did not always determine a person's prospects in life.  

Eleanor had private tutors until she was 15 and sent to Allenswood Academy, a private finishing school near London, England.  She was encouraged to "cultivate independent thinking" by the headmistress of the academy.  Eleanor became fluent in French and gained self-confidence at the academy.

Roosevelt ended her formal education and returned to the United States in 1902 at age 17.  She was a debutante at a ball held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on December 14, 1902, and was later given a debutante party.  She was a member of the New York Junior League and volunteered as a social worker in New York City's East Side slums.

Eleanor met her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1902 and was "overwhelmed when the 20-year-old dashing Harvard University student demonstrated affection for her.  Franklin and Eleanor began courting after she attended a White House reception and had dinner with her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt on New Year's Day, 1903.  Franklin was a "sheltered young man" until Eleanor took him on a "walking tour" through the squalid tenements.

Franklin and Eleanor became engaged in November 1904, but Franklin's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, insisted that the engagement not be announced until December 1, 1904.  Sara did not approve of Eleanor and took her son on a cruise in an effort to take Franklin's mind off Eleanor.  Her efforts did not work because Franklin returned from the cruise with "renewed ardor" for Eleanor.  President Roosevelt agreed to give the bride away; therefore, the wedding date was fixed according to his schedule.  The President's participation in the wedding "focused national attention on the wedding."

Eleanor was 20 years old and Franklin was 23 years old when they married on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1905, in New York City.  The ceremony was performed by the Reverend Dr. Endicott Peabody, the groom's headmaster at Groton School.  The newlyweds went on a short honeymoon at Hyde Park before they began living in an apartment in New York City.  They took a formal honeymoon, a three-month tour of Europe, the following summer.

Upon their return from Europe, Eleanor and Franklin settled in a house provided by Franklin's mother; they also spent time at the family's Hyde Park estate overlooking the Hudson River.  Franklin's mother apparently had control of all household matters.  I assume that Eleanor felt great relief and freedom when Franklin was elected to the state senate and they moved to Albany, New York.

Franklin and Eleanor became parents of six children, five of whom survived infancy:  Anna Eleanor, Jr. (3 May 1906-1 December 1975; journalist, public relations official), James (23 December 1907-13 August 1991); businessman, congressman, author), Franklin Delano, Jr. (18 March 1909-1 November 1909; died at age seven months), Elliott (23 September 1910-27 October 1990; businessman, mayor, author), Franklin Delano, Jr. (17 August 1914-17 August 1988; businessman, congressman, farmer; John Aspinwall (13 March 1916-27 April 1981; merchant, stockbroker).

The family began to spend summers at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, located on the Maine-Canada border.  While there, Franklin was stricken with a paralytic illness in August 1921; this illness resulted in his legs being permanently paralyzed.  Experts at the time though he had poliomyelitis, but later research indicates it was more likely Guillain-Barre syndrome.  Eleanor gave Franklin devoted attention and later prodded him to return to active life.  In order to compensate for his immobility, Eleanor overcame her shyness and began to make public appearances on his behalf.  She was supportive of him "as a listening post and barometer of popular sentiment."

Eleanor had a relationship with her future mother-in-law long before she fell in love with her distant relative Franklin.  After her marriage to Franklin, her relationship with her mother-in-law was contentious and difficult.  Sara wanted to be a good mother to Eleanor but considered Eleanor to be unprepared for the role of wife to her son; Eleanor valued Sara's opinions but resented her domineering behavior.  Historians continue to study the relationship between Sara and Eleanor.

There were also difficulties in the relationship between the "Hyde Park Roosevelt family" and the "Oyster Bay Roosevelt family."  President Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican while Franklin was a Democrat so there were political differences.  President Roosevelt admired his niece Eleanor, and his eldest daughter Alice - "beautiful, highly photogenic, but rebellious and self-absorbed" - did not appreciate her father asking, "Why can't you be more like `cousin Eleanor'?"  From early in their lives, Eleanor and Alice had a life-long strained relationship.  Alice had a friendly relationship with Franklin and promoted Franklin's affair with Lucy Mercer - probably an underhanded way to undermine Eleanor.  She once said, "He deserved a good time" because "he was married to Eleanor."

Eleanor discovered the affair when she found letters from Lucy in Franklin's luggage in September 1918.  She was extremely hurt and demanded that he end the affair or she would file for divorce.  Franklin's mother threatened to disinherit him if he got a divorce, and his political advisors pleaded with both Eleanor and Franklin to save the marriage for the sake of their children and his political career.

The marriage survived even though Eleanor insisted that their physical relationship end.  Even though Franklin agreed to

end the affair, Lucy began visiting him in the 1930's and was with him at Warm Springs, Georgia, when he died on April 12, 1945.

Eleanor became a different woman and sought to achieve fulfillment through her own achievements.  Eleanor had close relationships with both women and men, but there are questions about how close the relationships were.

Eleanor supported Franklin in his political career, both as governor of New York and as President of the United States.  She supported his New Deal policies and was an advocate for civil rights.  After Franklin's death in 1945, she continued as an international author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition.  She worked to "enhance the status of working women" but she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment on the grounds that she believed it would have adverse effects on women.  She also supported the formation of the United Nations and was appointed by President Harry S. Truman and confirmed by the US Senate to be a delegate to the UN General Assembly from 1945 to 1952.  While at the United Nations, "she chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."  She was called the "First Lady of the World" by President Truman because of her human rights achievements.

Mrs. Roosevelt continued to be active in politics for the rest of her life.  She was instrumental in starting a second wave of feminism after President John F. Kennedy appointed her as chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.  Eleanor received many honors.  She was ranked in the top ten of Gallup's 1999 List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

Eleanor was struck by a car in New York City in April 1960 and her health rapidly declined.  She was treated with cortisone which activated the dormant tuberculosis from years earlier, and she was diagnosed with bone marrow tuberculosis.  She died at age 78 at her Manhattan home on November 7, 1962.  President Kennedy ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff in her honor.  UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson said, "The United States, the United Nations, the world, has lost one of its great citizens."

President John F. Kennedy and former Presidents Truman and Eisenhower attended Eleanor's funeral at Hyde Park.  She was buried on November 10, 1962, next to Franklin in the family compound in Hyde Park, New York.

  

Greatness of FDR

                    I am not a fan of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (also known as FDR), but I have to admit that he was a great leader.  FDR served as the 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945) and became the only President to serve more than two terms.  He presided over our nation during the worldwide Great Depression and World War II and was at the center of many great events.

                    The main reason why I dislike FDR is because he instituted the New Deal - "a variety of programs designed to produce relief (government jobs for the unemployed), recovery (economic growth), and reform (through regulation of Wall Street, banks and transportation)."  Even though conservatives were able to abolish many of the relief programs instituted by FDR, he "dominated the American political scene, not only during the twelve years of his presidency, but for decades afterward.  He orchestrated the realignment of voters that created the Fifth Party System.  FDR's New Deal Coalition united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans and rural white Southerners. Roosevelt's diplomatic impact also resonated on the world stage long after his death, with the United Nations … as [one example] of his administration's wide-ranging impact.  Roosevelt is consistently rated by scholars as one of the top three U.S. Presidents."   

                    Roosevelt was a liberal Democrat who "defined his ideological position as `a little left of center' and also called his cabinet `slightly to the left of center.'"  Liberals and progressives tout Roosevelt's greatness because he moved our nation to the left.  Since America is a center-right nation, conservatives are justified in disliking FDR policies.  Even though he was brazen enough to be the first President to serve more than two terms, actions were taken soon after his death to insure that no future President would serve more than two terms in office.

                    FDR is best known for his Day of Infamy speech on December 8, 1941, the day after Japanese airplanes and ships attacked Pearl Harbor.  "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan….  Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us, No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory…."

                    Other quotes show just how far left FDR was.  

                  "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."  (He was a progressive who wanted to move away from traditional American values.  He even tried to "stack" the Supreme Court with more justices in order to get his progressive policies past the Court.)

                    "I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm."

                    "If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world of peace."

                    "If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I'd do is join a union."

                    "If you treat people right, they will treat you right … ninety percent of the time."

                    "In our personal ambitions we are individualists.  But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people." 

                    "In politics, nothing happens by accident.  If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."

                    "Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.  The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."

                    "Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men."

                    "One thing is sure.  We have to do something.  We have to do the best we know how at the moment….  If it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along."  (Is this the idea behind Obamacare?

                    "Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged."  (Leftists operate on feelings!)

                    "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

                    "The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written."  (This idea stretched into the idea that the Constitution is a "living and breathing" document that changes according to what people think it means.)

                    "There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still."

                    "There is a mysterious cycle in human events.  To some generations much is given.  Of other generations much is expected.  This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

Alaska Highway

The Alaska Highway means different things to different people. Some people consider it to be a great adventure while others think of it as simply a long drive. I heard one young woman describe it as “a thousand miles too much scenery.” I have traveled the Alaska Highway about a dozen times, but I still find myself wanting to make the trip again – looking forward to it and enjoying every mile of it.

The idea of an overland link between Alaska and the Lower 48 was studied as early as 1930 during the administration of President Herbert Hoover. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, construction of the highway became a military necessity because Alaska was considered to be vulnerable to an invasion by Japanese forces. When the Japanese invaded Attu and Kiska islands in the Aleutians in June 1942, there was an added sense of urgency to complete the highway.

The highway to Alaska was approved by the United States Army on February 6, 1942, and construction of it was authorized on February 11 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Construction of this pioneer road officially started on March 9, 1942, and ended on October 25, 1942 = a period of 8 months and 12 days. The military name for this trail through the wilderness was ALCAN, and some people still refer to the Alaska Highway as the ALCAN. There were restrictions on civilian traffic on the highway during the war years. The highway was officially renamed the Alaska Highway in March 1943 and opened to the public in 1948.

The War Department determined that the Alaska Highway would be built on the same general route followed by aircraft flying from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to Fairbanks, Alaska, as well as existing winter roads, old Indian trails, rivers, and “sight” engineering. Airfields along this route formed the Northwest Staging Route. More than 8,000 war planes were ferried along this chain of airfields from Great Falls, Montana, to Ladd AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska. The aircraft were flown from Fairbanks to Nome to Russia as part of the Russian-American Lend Lease Program.

A formal agreement between the United States and Canada in March 1942 secured rights-of-way for the road. The United States agreed to pay for construction and to give the Canadian portion of the highway to the Canadian government after the war. Canada agreed to furnish the rights-of-way, to waive import duties, sales taxes, income taxes, and immigration regulations, and to provide materials for construction along the route.

More than 10,000 American troops in regiments from the United States Army Corps of Engineers went north to work on the road. Civilian engineers and equipment were organized by the Public Roads Administration. They located and shipped trucks, road-building equipment, office furniture, food, tents and other supplies.

Soldiers and civilians worked seven days a week and endured mosquitoes and black flies in summer and temperatures below zero degrees in winter. Communication between headquarters and field parties was sparse, and there was never enough equipment. Crews worked from the western end of the road as well as from the eastern end and met at Contact Creek on September 25. Vehicles were traveling the entire length of the ALCAN by October.

The Alaska Highway was officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony at Soldiers’ Summit at Kluane Lake on November 20, 1942. It was rededicated on November 20, 1992, during the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Highway. It was also named an International Historical Engineering Landmark in 1996.

The Alaska Highway starts in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, at Mile 0. It travels in a northwesterly direction to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory (Historical Mile 635). It crosses the Alaska border at Port Alcan (Historical mile 1221.8). The official end of the Alaska Highway is at Delta Junction, Alaska (Historical Mile 1422), and the unofficial end of the highway is at Fairbanks, Alaska (Historical Mile 1520).

The highway is about 35 miles shorter today than it was in the 1940’s, and it continues to get shorter as reconstruction takes off more miles. The condition of the highway continues to improve with reconstruction. When I first drove it in 1973, there were vast stretches of mud. Today the entire highway is paved, but it is still plagued with frost heaves.

Driving the Alaska Highway is an adventure that everyone should take at least once. I recommend that anyone making the trip take along the latest copy of The Milepost. This book is a “must” for making the trip. In fact, much of the information for this post came from my copy of The Milepost (pages 97, 104).

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I chose to blog about Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), nicknamed FDR while in office, simply because he was President when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. I have some very mixed feelings about this President. I was born while he was in office, but he died soon after my birth. I admire the way he overcame physical problems and showed strong leadership during World War II, and yet I am amazed at his egotism that would cause him to even want to be President for such a long time. Besides, I believe that his New Deal moved our nation down the road towards socialism. His administration put programs in place that are causing financial problems for our country right now. FDR was born January 30, 1882, on his father's estate in Hyde Park, New York, and was the only child of wealthy parents. He studied under governesses and private tutors until he was 14. He then went to Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts. After graduating from Groton, he attended and graduated from Harvard University. He attended Columbia University Law School where he passed the bar examination but left school without a degree and with no interest to practice law. While at Harvard he courted his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) and became engaged to her the year he graduated. His mother was a domineering woman and tried to convince her son to end the engagement. FDR and Eleanor were married on March 17, 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor's uncle, gave the bride away. (Theodore and FDR were fifth cousins.) The Roosevelts had six children. FDR enjoyed swimming, sailing, and sledding with his children, whom the Roosevelts called "the chicks." FDR entered politics as a New York state senator at age 29 and became known as a "bold and skillful political fighter." In 1912 FDR supported Woodrow Wilson against his cousin Theodore Roosevelt in the presidential election. Wilson became President and appointed FDR as the assistant secretary of the Navy in 1913. He sought the Democratic nomination as a candidate for the United States Senate in 1914 but lost. In April 1917 when the United States entered World War I, he wanted to serve in the military, but he was persuaded to stay in his position with the Navy. In 1920, at age 38, he was a candidate for United States Vice President on a ticket with James M. Cox. They were defeated by Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. In August 1921 FDR became ill with polio and suffered severe pain. He could not stand or even move his legs. His back, arms and hands were partially paralyzed. His condition worsened within months, and many people thought that his political career was over. His mother tried to convince him to retire. He began to fight back against the disease and by 1924 went swimming as often as possible. He spent several months each year at Warm Springs, Georgia. In 1926 he bought the springs and surrounding land and established the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation the next year with a group of friends. The foundation provided low-cost treatment for "polios," Roosevelt's word for his fellow sufferers. FDR returned to the political arena while learning to walk again. His first public speech since his polio attack was to nominate New York Governor Alfred E. Smith for President at the Democratic National Convention. Smith won the nomination and encouraged FDR to run for governor of New York. Smith lost his campaign to Herbert Hoover and didn't even carry his home state of New York. FDR barely won his campaign to become governor of New York. As governor, he supported a variety of progressive legislation. After the Great Depression began in October 1929, he began the first system for relief of the unemployed in New York. He easily won reelection in 1930. In the presidential election of 1932, he beat out the incumbent, President Herbert Hoover, and promised a "new deal" to lead the nation out of the depression. He became President on March 4, 1933, at the age of 51. His inauguration was the last one held in March. Amendment 20 to the Constitution moved all later inaugurations to January. The depression grew worse with thousands of unemployed workers standing in bread lines. Many farmers and city workers lost their homes and many more were about to lose theirs because of lack of funds to pay their mortgages. The country survived a banking crisis in 1933 because FDR closed all banks and reopened only the ones in good financial condition. In spite of many progressive solutions, such as unemployment legislation, public work projects, and the other unemployment programs, the Great Depression continued. All the government programs cost more than the government was collecting in taxes. The deficit was settled partly by raising taxes and partly by borrowing money by selling government bonds. The national debt was higher than ever before. It is sad to say that our nation was rescued from the Depression by World War II. FDR, like Abraham Lincoln, was either deeply loved or bitterly hated. Millions believed he was the friend and protector of the "common man" - the key to FDR's success in politics. His critics believed that his policies, called the New Deal, gave the federal government too much power. He was accused of usurping many of the rights that the Constitution gave to the states. He even tried to push through a Second Bill of Rights. There was much concern that the free enterprise system might be destroyed by government controls over business. While FDR was President, the New Deal recovery measures were enacted (1933), prohibition was repealed (1933), the Social Security Act was passed (1935), Supreme Court controversy happened over FDR's attempt to "pack" the court (1937), the United States began selling arms to friendly nations on a cash and carry basis (1939), Congress passed the Selective Service Act (1940), Pearl Harbor was attacked (December 7) and war was declared (1941), 26 nations signed the Declaration of the United Nations and the Allies invaded Normandy, France (1944). FDR served as President of the United States for more than 12 years, longer than any other person. He was the only President to be elected four times. No previous President ran for the office more than twice. The Constitution was changed after FDR's death to allow Presidents only two terms in office. FDR died in Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945, just 83 days after his fourth inauguration. Facts are from article written by James T. Patterson, World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 16, pp 452-453.