IN PEACE AND WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 13 April 1945, Page 5

IN PEACE AND WAR

ROOSEVELT’S RECORD AT THE HELM A FOURTH-TERM PRESIDENT F'ranklin Delano Roosevelt —Delano was his mother's name—was born at Hyde Fark, New York State, on the 30th January, 1882, and was 63 at the time of his death. He was a son of Mr and Mrs James Roosevelt and a descendant of a Dutch Pilgrim family who went to America in 1649. He was the first President in the nation's history to serve more than two terms, and was elected in November. 1944, for a fourth term.. After graduating at Harvard University in 1904 and at Columbia Law School in 1907 he was admitted to the New York Bar in 1907 and practised law in New York City from 1907 to 1910. He was later a member of the legal firm of Roosevelt and O’Connor, from 1924 to 1933. Espousing the cause of the Democratic Party in 1910 he worked for the election of Woodrow Wilson and was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the first Wilson Administration. He occupied that position from 1913 to 1920. He was in charge of inspections of United States Naval Forces in European water in 1918, and of demobilisation in Europe in 1919. TO THE WHITE HOUSE Two terms as Governor of New York State culminated, in 1933, with his arrival at the White House, where he succeeded the’ Republican, Herbert Hoover. In Franklin Roosevelt the American masses had found their advocate. and the isolationists their match It is questionable, indeed, whether,, except Abraham Lincoln, any President of America has possessed that interest in the people for the people which always absorbed him. Roosevelt’s beliefs forbade the recognition of evil triumphant. He held the profound historical truth that the masses were the nation. And so it was not surprising that, in his first term of Pre ; sidential office, with the evils of depression stalking through the land, he should introduce his famous reform policy called the New Deal. It had been claimed that he won the presidency in one short speech. which ended:

“In my calm judgment the nation faces to-day a more grave emerg ency than i n 1917. . . . These unhappy times call for the build ing of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganised, but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the for gotten men at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

When Mr Roosevelt took office in 1933, his administration was faced with national and international problems of great gravity. Depression at home undermined the nation’s economic balance and from abroad the menace of German and Japanese aggression to the domestic processes of all democratic nations was m its first stage. To meet the problem of economic depression, the Roosevelt administration initiated a programme of public works to relieve widespread unemployment. Social security measures, including unemployment and old age insurance. were passed by Congress, as were measures for the control of stock exchanges, federal aid to farms nd the National Labour Relations Act guaranteeing farmers the right of collective bargaining. The National Recovery Act. which set forth codes of fair labour practice in industry, func-. tioned for a time as an important phase of the administration’s over-all recovery programme, but subsequently was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. During his first term Mr Roosevelt also sponsored repeal of the constitutional amendment prohibit ing the sale of alcoholic beverages. Early in his first term, he also took steps to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Not all measures sponsored by Mr Roosevelt were approved bv Congress. Among those defeated was the 1937 proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court which precipitated a heated controversy throughout the nation. In the eletcion for his second term in 1936 President Roosevelt’s opponent was Alfred Landon: in 1940, for the third term the Republican nominee was Wendell Willkie. and in 1944 he was opposed by Thomas’ E Dewey Governor of New York State

ONSET OF THE WAR

Mr Roosevelt’s first step toward meeting the threat of aggressor actions was taken in 1937. when he obtained an increased Congressional appropriation for the United States Armv and Navy. Subsequent measures designed to meet this threat included his urging in 1937 of a “quarantine” of aggressors: the arming of all United States merchant vessels; moves against the German submarine menace to neutral shipping in 1941: and the signing of the Selective Training and Service Act in September of 1941, which was the nation’s first peacetime measure for compulsory military training. In August of 1941 Mr Roosevelt met Mr Churchill on a battleship in midocean to draw up a declaration of principles known as the Atlantic Charter. In October of the same year, two months before Janan struck at the United States in the Pacific, he established by executive order the office of lend-lease administration to furnish supplies to “any country whose defence the President deems vital to the defence of the United States.” Lend-lease has been a pool from which Great Britain. China. Russia and other United Nations have drawn materials with which to sneed the defeat of the common enemy As the war progressed the meetings of the Allied leaders have made world news and each one marked an important step forward in planning for the defeat of the enemy. Considerable travelling by the President was entailed in his attendance at the Casablanca-. Quebec. Cairo. Teheran. Moscow and Crimea (Yalta) conferences. Mr Roosevelt was married in 1905 to his cousin. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. The President and Mrs Roosevelt had five children. The only daughter. Anna Eleanor, is the wife of Major John Boettiger. now serving with the Allied Military Government. The four Roose velt sons are serving with the United States armed forces. They are: Lieut.General James Roosevelt of the Marine Corps, who was awarded the Navy Cross for his part in the raid on Makin Island in 1942; Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, United States Army Air Forces, who was awarded the Distinguished

Flying Cross for aerial photographic reconnaissance; Lieutenant-Commander Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jnr.. United States Navy, who won the Silver Star at the Palermo landing and the Purple Heart for wounds received in action, and Lieutenant John Roosevelt, also serving with the Navy. For the greater part of his adult life Mr Roosevelt suffered a severe physical handicap—the result of infantile paralysis—and the story of his efforts to overcome the effects of this disability is one of great courage and determination. Despite his great responsibilities and ousy public life he was able to devote time to the writing of several books and among his best known works are “Whither Bound?" (1926>. ‘Government—Not Politics” (1932». “Looking Forward" (1933), and "On Our Way" (1934). SYMPATHY EXPRESSED IN NELSON Reference to the great loss suffered by the Allies through the death of President Roosevelt was made by the chairman. Councillor J. Corder. at today’s meeting of the Waimea County Council. The council adjourned for half an hour as a mark of respect. On receiving the news the Magistrate’s Court adjourned for several minutes this morning. Flags were flown at half mast on j many public and private buildings in | Nelson to-day.