Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932

293 Pages·2007·28.863 MB·English

by  Donald A. Ritchie

ELECTING FDR
With the landmark election of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt in 1932, decades
of Republican ascendancy gave
way to a half century of Democratic
dominance. It was nothing less than
a major political realignment, as the
direction of federal policy shifted from
conservative to liberal—and liberalism
itself was redefined in the process.
Electing FDR is the first book in seventy
years to examine in its entirety the
1932 presidential election that ushered
in the New Deal. Award-winning
historian Donald Ritchie looks at
how candidates responded to the
nation’s economic crisis and how
voters evaluated their performance.
More important, he explains how
the Democratic Party rebuilt itself
after three successive Republican
landslides: where the major shifts
in party affiliation took place, what
contingencies contributed to FDR’s
victory, and why the new coalition
persisted as long as it did.
Ritchie challenges prevailing
assumptions that the Depression
made Roosevelt’s election inevitable.
He shows that FDR came close to
losing the nomination to contenders
who might have run to the right of
Hoover, and discusses the role of
newspapers and radio in presenting
the candidates to voters. He also
analyzes Roosevelt’s campaign
strategies, recounting his attempts
to appeal to disaffected voters of all
ideological stripes, often by altering
his positions to broaden his popularity.
\ \
- \.
{. t
f:-* '
> \ i
\
; l '
V
/ ■ -X
' ■ /
/
ELECTING FDR
American Presidential Elections
MICHAEL NELSON
JOHN M. MCCARDELL, JR.
ELECTING FDR
THE NEW DEAL
CAMPAIGN OE I f §2
DONALD A. RITCHIE
t
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KANSAS
Published © 2007 by the University Press of Kansas
by the All rights reserved
University
Press of Kansas Photographs on pages 66, 83 (Clifford Berryman cartoon), 93,131,
(Lawrence, 156,173, and 179 (from the New York World Telegram and Sun)
Kansas 66049), are from the Library of Congress; on pages 31, 34, 59,117, and
which was 128, from the Hoover Library; on page 128, Clifford Berryman
organized by the cartoon from the National Archives and Records Administration;
Kansas Board of and on page 174, from the Senate Historical Office.
Regents and is
operated and Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
funded by Ritchie, Donald A., 1945-
Emporia State Electing FDR : the New Deal campaign of 1932 /
University, Donald A. Ritchie.
Fort Hays State p. cm. — (American presidential elections)
University, Includes bibliographical references and index.
Kansas State ISBN 978-0-7006-1550-6 (doth : alk. paper)
University, 1. Presidents—United States—Election—1932. 2. Roosevelt,
Pittsburg State Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945. 3. Political
University, campaigns—United States—History—20th century. 4. United
the University States—Politics and government—1929-1933.1. Tide.
of Kansas, and E805.R58 2007
Wichita State 973-9I7°92—dc22 2007028024
University
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.
CONTENTS
Editors’ Foreword vii
Author’s Preface ix
Introduction i
The Politics of Prosperity 7
Prefix for Poverty 38
A Couple of Conventions in Chicago 77
A Campaign of Hope and Fear 115
The New Deal Experiment 161
Appendix a: Franklin D. Roosevelt Radio Address
Appendix b: Herbert Hoover Radio Address 219
Appendix c: 1932 General Election Results 223
Appendix d: Civilian Employment Statistics,
1929-1945 225
Notes 227
Bibliographic Essay 253
Index 263
E
Ai
Jo
k
k
os
tra
ill
I*
Is
Dc
&
til
Ft!
IS
F;
to
k
th(
“I
an
H
Jii
inj
up
OD
Di
Hi
if
su
4
cc
re
editors’ foreword
An electoral landslide whose outcome seems inevitable in retrospect
does not always seem that way in prospect. In 1864 Abraham Lincoln
defeated George McClellan by 212 to 21 electoral votes, but less than
three months before the election Lincoln had written, “This morning,
as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that the Adminis­
tration will not be reelected.” On the Sunday before the 1980 election
almost every political pundit and pollster judged the contest between
Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan too close to call. Two days later Reagan
bested Carter in the Electoral College by 489 to 49.
One of renowned U.S. Senate and Washington press corps historian
Donald A. Ritchie’s great achievements in Electing FDR: The New Deal
Campaign of 1932 is to recapture the suspense and uncertainty that, un­
til the votes were counted, marked the 1932 election between Governor
Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, the Democratic nominee, and the
reelection-seeking Republican president, Herbert Hoover. To be sure,
Ritchie does not dispute the sweeping character of the victory won by
Roosevelt and his party: a 472-59 majority for FDR in the Electoral Col­
lege, along with coattails that brought ninety-seven new Democrats to
the House of Representatives and twelve to the Senate. In a conclud­
ing chapter that surveys the transformative character of the New Deal
and the lasting partisan realignment ushered in by Roosevelt’s victory,
Ritchie also makes a persuasive case that 1932 was an election of extraor­
dinary and lasting importance.
But, oh, the suspense that preceded these outcomes! Roosevelt’s nom­
ination by the Democratic National Convention was hard-fought and,
until the fourth and final ballot, far from certain. “Had his party chosen
one of the ‘stop-Roosevelt’ alternative candidates,” Ritchie notes, “the
Democratic presidential candidate might well have run to the right of
Hoover.” And, Ritchie adds, that is what probably would have happened
if A1 Smith, the party’s presidential nominee in 1928, had thrown his
support to another candidate instead of remaining aloof in the vain hope
that Democrats would turn to him again. Bookmakers at the Democratic
convention judged Hoover the five-to-one favorite in November, Ritchie
reports. Throughout the campaign, Hoover consistently regarded FDR