Times Herald from Washington, District of Columbia (2024)

January 9, 1940

Publication:

Times Heraldi

Location:

Washington, District of Columbia

Issue Date:

Tuesday, January 9, 1940

Page:

6

Extracted Article Text (OCR)

6 TIMES Arocnrf the TUESDAY JANUARY 9 1940 Text of Jackson Day Address Calling for National Unity the Menu At $100 Dinner Here's what the guests at last night's Jackson Day din ner here paid $100 to eat and drink Diamond Back Terrapin Soup with Amontillado Hot Butter Crusts Hearts of Celery Olives Pecans Graves Rosechatel 1933 Lobster Crabflakes and Scal lops a la Newburg with Madeira Old fashioned Corn Bread Cucumber Sandwiches Margaux 1933 Heart of ilet Mignon Excelsior New String Beans Anglaise Potatoes Macaire Hearts of Romaine with Melon Grapefruit and Asparagus Tips Vinaigrette Cheese Mafers Real Spumoni Ice Cream with Spun Sugar Anis Madeleines' Demi Tasse President Chides SIDELIGHTS Lea i DJACKSON DALDHER Golden Doris Dulce Vies or Chief Interest worry about all these this job clusively from persons of higher 1 aril i 4 sxm i Roosevelt Calls Both Parties to Liberal Colors Government Before Politics He Warns Leaders his not active party admit the soft individual "he is en listen and that I un be to Anno 'Gillis of the Columbia Broadcasting Company provided the backstage laugh of the eve ning when she dashed up to her corps of technical men while the President was speaking and mut tered "Hey he running into the Amos Andy Emil Hurja renounced prophet of the New Deal was stuck back of a pillar in the farthest corner of the room to for Constant Progress Cited Most of those who call for a wholly different type of lead ership must admit the fairly constant progress of these years Most of those who complain now were the shouting optimists of 1929 I do not believe that the Amer ican people who swallowed that canned pessimism in 1939 will swallow canned 'pessimism in particularly out of the same can The people of the United State recognize two facts to day The first is that the world Outside our hemisphere is in really bad shape This is a mat ter not for pessimism or optl mi is a matter for realism! It is a fact a fact so big that few people have grasped its a fact big in its ef feet on the future of the world that all our little partisan squab bles are shameful in the light of it The second is that we have mdde great gains at home in our own economic prosperity and in the security of our individual citizens Thes gains must not oe cnippeo away they must only a foundation on which build further gains Big Job Accomplished Behind lies accomplished Good of Nation Put irst I have always thought it a magnificent illustration of the instinct for the quality much 'experience in the public life of America with its free Speech and" pfess the irksome ness wore off Doubtless all of them wore hair shirts when they started but if they matured in public life most of them dis discarded those shirts in their earlier days They had to drop their hair shirt or else lose their political shirt Lot of un in Job And when you have learned not to things there is really a lob of run in or when you reach that point of understanding there is satisfaction in pursu ing the truth through the med ley of information that reaches the White House the overstate ment the half truth the glit tering generality the viewing with alarm and the pointing with pride There is practical satisfaction in sifting a tiny particle of truth from the mass of irrelevances in which it is hidden And there is the philos opher's satisfaction of fitting that particle of truth into the general scheme of things that are good and things that are" bad for the people of the na tion as a whole I said a moment ago that the measure of greatness of any party leadership of a country is the measure in which it gets' done in its time the big job that has to be done By this test I do not think anyone can say that the many people in these last seven years who have given composite leadership have failed in their obligation 1834 in Andrew White House: first course was soup in the rench style then beef bouille next wild turkey boned and dressed with brains after that fish then qhicken cold and dressed white interladed with slices of tongue and garnished with dressed sailed then canvass back ducks and celery afterwards partridges with sweet breads and last pheasants and old Virginia ham The dishes were placed in succession on the table so as to give full effect to the appearance then removed and carved on a side table by the ser vants The first dessert was jelley and small tarts in the Turkish style' then blanche mode and kisses with dryed fruits in them Then preserves of various kinds after them ice cream and lastly grapes and Wanted to Advise GOP With a sly side glance at his National Chairman Mr Roosevelt commented: a dinner today would cost the full $100 we have each and all of us paid there would have been nothing left for Jim arley and the Democratic committee would have had to borrow money provide bicarbonate of soda In a candid confession of political creed Roosevelt went on to admit soft that he himself hold less tenaci ously to party ties than many of his predecessors Independents on Increase "My answer he said "that I do believe in party organiza tion but only in proportion to its proper place in He warned that "the future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics that the inde pendent vote in this country has been steadily on the increase at least for the past generation that vast numbers of people con sider themselves normally adher ents of one party and still feel perfectly free to vote for one or more candidates of another party come" election day and on the other hand sometimes uphold party principles even when pfe cinct captains decide take a But despite the Roosevelt ef forts the aura of presidential politics still persisted in the ornate Mayflower Hotel ballroom Be side Mr Roosevelt sat Vice Presi dent Gamer who has already tossed his Texas sombrero into the ring there to remain come hell and third term high water Postmaster General and Na tional Chairman arley who holds the ace cards in the national con vention poker game Introduced the President and thanked the guests for their presence and their money Behind lies accomplished a really big job It was the crea tion out of the funk of the early thirties of a new spirit with which we can now face the forties A realistic historian of our party has wisely concluded have the intelligence to define our troubles and the physical means with which to meet them In the end whether we make America a good or a bad coun try will depend on what we make individually of ourselves 'A selfish and greedy people can not be The enormous task which the of a leader that the people tri umphantly re elected Jackson in spite of the fact that in the meantime in his fight for eco nomic democracy Biddle and the Bank had sought to create an economic depression in qrder to ruin him Of all these American figures I like to think and I know I am right that their purposes their objectives their motives placed the good of Qie' Nation always ahead of the good of the party that While they used the mechanics of party organization in manyways they dropped mere parti sanship when they considered it against the national interest I saw a good deal of the Governorship of New York be fore I became Governor of the State and I saw a good deal of the inside of the White House for many years before I occu pied it Many years agoit had become clear to me that prop erly availed of the governor ship and the Presidency insteadof being merely a party head quarters could become the mo important clearing house for exchange of information and ideas and facts and ideals af fectmg the general public wel fare The relative importance of politics and government is some thing not always easy to see when you are in the front line trenches of political organize tion In a period of 30 years dur ing which I have been more or less in public in my home county in Albany in Washington in Europe during the World War in New York city in national conventions back in Albany and finally again in Washington I have come to the conclusion that the closer people are to what may be called the front lines of government of all kinds local and State and ederal the easier it is to see the im mediate underbrush the indi vidual tree trunks of the mo ment and to forget the no bility the usefulness and the wide extent of the forest itself It is because party people county court houses or city halls or State' capitals or the District of Columbia are most ofTiem so close to the picture of party or factional warfare that they are apt to acquire a false perspective of what the and purposes of both parties and their leaders should be for the common good today Politics Only an Instrument They forget that politics is only an instrument through which to achieve government They forget that back of the jockeying for party position back of the party generals and thousands of men and women officers and privates foremen "zand work have to get a job done have to put in day after day of honest sincere work in carry ing out the multitudinous func tions that the policymakers in modern democracy assign to ad ministrators in modem democ racy People tell me that I hold to party ties less tenaciously than most of my predecessors in the presidency that I have too many people in my Administra tion who are Democrats I impeachment My answer lieve in party education and of substantial property ownership he is a hero because he did the job which then had to be done to bring stability out of a chaos of cur rency and banking difficulties Thomas Jefferson Is a hero to me despite the fact that the theories of the rench Revolu tionists at times over excited his practical judgment He is a hero because in his many sided genius he too did the big job which then had to be done to establish the new republic as a real democracy based on univer sal suffrage and the inalienable rights of man instead of a stricted suffrage in the hands of a small oligarchy Jefferson realized that if the people were free to get and dis cuss all the facts their com posite judgment would be better than the judgment of a self per petuating few That is why I think of Jefferson as belonging to the rank and file of both ma jor political parties tpday Where Would Lincoln Stand? I do not know which party Lincoln would belong to if he were alive' in and I amnot evjn concerned to speculate: on it? a new party had to becreated before he could be elected President I am more interested in the fact that he did the big job which then had to be done to preserve the Union and make possible at a later time a united country His sympathies and his motives of championship of hu manity itself have made him' for all centuries to come the legiti mate property of all parties of every man woman and child in every part of our land I feel very much the same way about not Jackson the Democrat but Jackson the American who did the big job of his day to save the economic democracy of the Union for its westward expansion into a' great nation strengthened in the ideals and practice of popular government tell me quite frankly that though they would give any thing to be able to vote for me a Democrat it would hurt their influence and their social posi tion in their own home tow'll I have in mind he predica ment of one of the ablest edi tors of today who some time ago said to me very frankly: am really in complete sym pathy with your program but cannot say so publicly because Mr President the readers and advertisers of my paper are 90 per cent Republicans and I simply cannot afford to change its unalterable policy of tradi tional opposition to anything and everything that comes from Democratic sources Of course you understand" ollowing Past Leaders Millions of unnecessary words and explanations and solemn comments are uttered and writ ten year after year about the great men of American history with ample quotations to prove what Jefferson or Hamil ton Jackson or Clay Lin coln or Douglas Cleveland or Blaine Theodore Roosevelt or Bryan would have said or would' have done about some specific modern problems of government if they were alive today The purpose of all these com ments is either to induce the party leaders of today blindly tb follow the words of leaders of yesterday or to justify public acts or policies of today by the utterances of the past often tortured out of context The devil can quote past statesmen as well as Scripture tb prove his purpose But most people who are on the firing line of the moment have come to attach major im portance only to the motives be hind the leaders of the past To them it matters on the whole very little what party label American statesmen bore or what mistakes they made in smaller things so long as they did the big job that their times demanded be done Hamilton a Hero to Him Alexander Hamilton is a hero to me in spite of his position that the nation would be safer if our leaders were chosen ex cratic party I felt no reluctance to give them good advice for I i was sure that they would not use it they of little faith 1 Seriously the more I have 1 studied American history and the more clearly I have seen what I the problems are I do believe I that the common denominatorof our great men in public life i has not been mere allegiance to one political party but the disin i terested devotion with which they have tried to serve the I whole country and the relative unimportance they have as I cribed to politics compared with the paramount importance of government By their motives may ye know them! Can't See the orest There are a lot of riddles in the National Capital I myself am supposed to be a self made riddle in fact? a cross between a riddle and a Santa Claus Most of the riddles in this town however are the ones posed for you in some solemn column Likecross word puzzles and hypothetical bridge hands they come to you morning evening as a synthetic daily amusem*nt feature like fairy tales or bed time stories calculated to keep unsuspecting children awake all night But occasionally we get a real riddle like this one about the three empty chairs Why our guests come? I guess the real reason is that like the small boy they did not want to go to Heaven with this A bunch But maybe there were other reasons Maybe it was because they figured that we just wanted to fatten up the ducks and that we were putting on a closed sea son in January merely to get better sport next fall Old ashioned Jackson Dinner Maybe they were holding out for an old fashioned Jackson dinner Someone called my at tention the other day to a maga zine article setting forth a re port of a dinner in ebruary 1834 in Andrew White House as made by a guest at the dinner I quote: first course was soup in the rench style then beef bouille next wild turkey boned and dressed with brains after that fish then chicken cold and dressed white interladed with slices of tongue and gar nished with dressed sailed then canvass back ducks and celery afterwards partridges with sweet breads and last pheasants and old Virginia ham The1 dishes were placed in succession on the table so as to give full effect to the appearance then removed and carved on a side table by the servants The first dessert was jelley and small tarts in the Turkish style then blanche mode and kisses with dryed fruits in them Then preserves of various kinds after them ice cream and lastly grapes and oranges" Such a dinner today would Cost the full $100 we have each and all of us paid there would have been nothing left for Jim arley: and the Democratic committee would have had to borrow money to provide bicar bonate of soda for all AU Great Leaders Alike I had hoped our invited guests would come because I had in tended to tell them not only about Andrew Jackson but about Abraham Lincoln as well to tell them how much alike all our great leaders have been even to give them free though un solicited advice on how to re constitute the Republican party successfully along the lines on which Abraham Lincoln created It As the leader of the Demo (Continued from Page 1) must be only a foundation on which to build further gains us lies accomplished a really big job It was the creation out of the funk of the early thirties of a new spirit With which we can now face the forties Jokes at 1940 It was however as a colloquial armchair humorist that the Presi dent scored his greatest success with his $100 a plate audience Obviously mocking at public curiosity over great enigma the Roosevelt third term he gleefully said: myself am supposed to be a self made riddle in fact a cross between a riddle and a Santa Cluas Most of the riddles in this town however are the ones posed for you in some solemn columd Like cross word puzzles and hypo thetical bridge hands they come to you morning or evening as a synthetic daily amusem*nt fea ture like fairy tales or bedtime stories calculated to keep unsus pecting children awake all With mock solemnity he mused: "Occasionally however we get a real riddle like this one about three empty To illustrate his gibes at the expense of the absent trio Republican Leaders McNary Austin and DR picked on his closest personal friend among the opposition the astute and lovable McNary His eyes Tries to ollow Concept In practice as you know I have tried to follow out that concept? In the White House today we have built up a great mosaic of the state of the Union from thousands of bits of information from one man os woman this thought from another data on some event a scrap here perhaps and a scrap there from every congressional district in the Union from rich and poor from enthusiast and complainant from liberal and conservative from Republican and Democrat I like to tl link that most American governors or Presi dents have seen the same op portunity' in their office and that their motives have been primarily of service rather than of party Or personal aggrandise ment Doubtless they all have been Irked by the commentators of the day who ascribed other mo tives to them Doubtless after rances Perkins Secretary of Labor viewed the performance through a picture frame She sat directly behind a large flower basket with a huge loop handle MRS ROOSEVELT DREW PEARSON (in background) AND SUMNERWELLES irst Lady chatting at Jackton Day dinner with Undersecretary of State By EUGENE WARNER Doris Duke Cromwell richest girl in the world with an awe nonchalance almost stole the show from the Big Boss last night Doris of the golden hair and golden treasury toted a heavy load of golden ornaments to a ringside table right in front of Mr Roosevelt gold pendant ear rings that hung as low as a ears massive antique gold bracelets that reached from her dainty wrist almost to her elbow andgolden necklace It was whis perdd everywhere that her hus band James Cromwell who was there got the best seat in the house because he is the new angel of the party The President and Mr Gamer also disagree on haberdashery Cactus Jack goes in for a stiff boiled shirt and stiff collar while the gentleman from Dutchess county prefers soft shirt and col lar urthermore the hides his tie under his collar? while the President boldly displays his for all to see Public Is More Interested In Government Than Politics He Warns dancing with mischief the Presi dent related upon a time there was a school teacher who after describ ing Heaven in alluring and golden terms asked her class of small boys how many of them wanted to go to Heaven With eyes that sparkled at the thought every boy in the class held up his hand except one Teacher said Charlie McNary you want to gq to Heaven? why sure I want to go to Heaven he said pointing to the rest of the boys in the room with that to to As the roar of laughter subsided Roosevelt chuckling went on: 1 week ago three distinguished leaders of the opposition were in vited to this great a $10 dinner with all the no cover no $100 check no tips to sign and to jine' and a ring side seat at a nonpolitical plate side chat Belleve it or they sent polite regrets "Why our guests come? I guess the real reason is that like the small boy they did not want to go to Heaven with this Jackson Menu of 1834 Hinting the absentees might have been holding out for an old fashioned Jackson Day dinner the President quoted the menu of a dinner given in ebruary is that I do be organization but only in proportion to its proper place in government I believe party organization the ex istence of at least two effectively opposing parties is a sound and necessary part of our American system and that ef fectively organized nationally and by States and localities parties are good instruments for the purpose of presenting and Explaining issues of drum ming up interest in elections and of improving the breed of candidates for public office Independent Vote Growing But the future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is inter ested more in government than in politics that the independent vote in this country has been steadily on the increase at least for the past generation that vast nuiiibers of people consider themselves normally adherents of one party and still feel per fectly free to vote for one or more candidates of another party come election day and on the other hand sometimes uphold party principles even when precinct captains decide "to take a walk" The growing independence of voters after all has been proved by the votes in every presiden tial election since my child hood and the tendency is on the increase I am too modest of course to refer to the most recent example the election of 1936 Party regulars who want to win must hold their allies and supporters among those in dependent voters Too Strict Regularity Decreed There are of course some I hope a decreasing with whom I firfd it difficult to jalk rationally on this subject of stict party vot ing I have in mind for ex ample some of my close friends in the South who are under the impression that they would' be ostracized in society and in business if it were to appear publicly that they had ever voted for a Republican i also have in mind some very close mends in northern villages who The text of President Roosevelt's addfess to the Jackson Day diners last night follows in full: Once upon a time there was a school teacher who after de scribing Heaven in alluring and golden terms asked her class of small boys how many of them wanted to go to Heaven With eyes that sparkled at the thought every small boy injhe class held up his hand except one Teacher said "Charlie Charlie McNary you want to go to Heaven? Why "Teacher I want to go to Heaven he said pointing to the rest of the boys in the with that A week ago three distinguished leaders of the opposition were invited to this great banquet a $10 dinner with all the fixin's free no' cover charge no $100 no tips to sign and to and a ring side seat at a nonpolitical plate side chat Believe it or not they sent polite regrets Why? Many Riddles in Capital Whitney of Long Island Warrenton and other pointe was No 2 glamour girl of the evening Sleek dark and suave in a low cut aquamarine gown her diamond emerald bracelets pins and necklaces seemed inconspicuous compared to her cold and chiseled beauty ranklin jr escorted his dad to the table his oval face almost severed by a grin from ear to ear despite his recent auto acci dent A patch of adhesive tape decorated his brow Mrs Roosevelt is going in for primitive jewelry The irst Lady dressed in a tawny lace gown her shoulders covered with a flowing lace bouffant scarf had her neck encircled with a bracelet made up of heavy claw like gold pieces She wore a bracelet to match On her bosom were three huge pink camel lias? She talked animatedly with Sumner Welles Undersecretary of State her dinner partner only oc casionally glancing at her hus band Attorney General Murphy Just nominated for the Supreme Court positively beamed when the Pres ident' 'mentioned among his achievements that he had the Court up to A strange new note was discerni ble in the ranks of the Dems They seemed a little jaded and grown fat in public office Even $100 dinners was old stuff to them now Prolonged good natured boos rocked the hall when Senator Hatch was introduced He's the author of that daw gone politics out of ederal act Terrific cheers rent the air when Secretary Hull was intro duced Apparently the word was out that the choice for The white haired Secretary of State looked quite embarrassed until Speaker Bank head patted him reassuringly on the back Postmaster arley drew the big gest laugh from the crowd when he began his remarks with Mr President Mr Vice President Mrs Roosevelt and ellow Candi dates The President grinned hugely at gag Only when the President was in troduced did the Dems let loose their old time enthusiasm Wild unrestrained yells cheers whistles and handclapping shook the a ir for several minutes until Robert silenced them and the broadcast began Mr Robert by the way wore the only blue tuxedo at the feast i The entire crowd rose as one when 82 year old Senator Carter Glass was introduced The elder statesman lost his ticket but man aged to identify himself satisfac torily even though he is anti New Deal When he came in he re marked he hoped he get at least a dollar meal for his hundred arley and Gamer went out of their way to be cordial to one an other all evening Thev saf by side and were often in cheek to cheek whispery Democratic party has already performed in this generation has been to provide the energy and the confidence to steer govern ment in the interest and under the direction of those of our peo ple who do not want to be' self ish and who do not want to be greedy And I am convinced that most people in the United States do have a with a real feeling of pleasure in the moralities in volved that we have been mov ing forward these later years in the right direction Things To Be Glad Of They are really glad that on the whole the fanner is no longer an economic outcast and is getting better prices for his crops They are glad that we are slowly 'working out for labor greater privileges with greater responsibilities They are glad that gamblers and speculators are no longer the most honored element in our economic life They are glad that certain op portunities tor security once only available to the rich like old age insurance are becom ing available to the poor They are glad that we are beginning to conserve the nat ural resources of our soil our rivers and our trees for the good of our children that we have improved our roads and added to our parks and built hundreds of schools that we are bringing to every housewife cheap elec relief from drudgery that we have made our banks safe and brought our courts up to date that we have kfept mil lions of people out of the bread lines They are glad that govern ment is daily becoming morehonest and mqre decent Manifestation of New Spirit And one of the manifesta tions of that new spirit is that there are fewer Americans who view with alarm There are of course some people in addi tion to the professional politic viewers with alarm who always look on the dark side of life complain that things are not as they were once and who firmly believe that everybody who dis agrees with them is a moron or a crook They belong to the type of unfortunate of whom it is said joying bad Sometimes when I listen to people like derstand old Uncle Jed said Ezra one day you a little nara oi nearin "Yes said Uncle Jed af eared git a mite Whereupon Ezra made Uncle Jed go down to Boston to an ear doctor Uncle Jed returned Ezra asked what happened said Uncle Jed doctor asked me if "I had been any I said a that doctor said Jed I might just as well tell you now if you want to lose your got to give up I thought it all over and then I said I like what been so much better than what been that I reckon Jest keep on Praises GOP Leaders So you see I have talked with you tonight in a vein of oia tasmonea pnnosopny witn little or no partisanship mixed up with it just as I promised my three Republican leader friends who ought to have been here tonight They are grand fellows liked by" me and by every Democrat in the Congress Nowadays everybody in the country knows that some times when two Representatives or two Senators engage in a terrific battle of words a foren sic philippic a 15 round heavy weight championship bout the two contestants five minutes later will be found sitting in the cloakroom with their arms about each other laughing and joking while they catch their bijeaxh There are of course a' few exceptions of men who stretch ing political disagreements into persopal invective prove the 'general rule but why bring up unpleasant subjects at this din ner at' which we are all having such a good time 1 am genu inely sorry for those exceptions to the rule They must find it hard to live with themselves and with their families and friends as well Motive Is What Counts Motive in the long run is what motive accompanied by good manners If leaders have good motives and good manners and at the same time knowl edge of the different parts of the country and plenty of expe rience you can be fairly safe in assuming that they wreck your government But remember that they must have other qualities the willing ness to pay $100 for a $10 din ner the fortitude to eat the whole of it and the courage to make a half hour plate side chat at the end of it WiW 'X BV JeK ytet Xv: six BB'v' IuIy.

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