The Plots Against the President (27 page)

Chapter Twenty-seven: Hankering for Superman

149 “Hankering for Superman”: Lippmann, 26.

149 “the Barrymore of the capital”:
Variety
, quoted in Doherty, 79.

149 “a rage for order”: Ibid., 69.

149 “one of the most excitingly”:
New York World Telegram
, quoted in a film advertisement in
Variety
, August 8, 1932, 24.

150 “The public has been milked”: Allison, 3.

150 “The whimsical tale” … “sound reconstruction policies”: Doherty, 69.

150 “an alternate national anthem”: Fraser,
Every Man
, 411.

150 “hour of destiny”: Ibid., 81.

151 “Stand by your president”:
Film Daily
, March 11, 1933, 1.

151 “Just as American communists”: Doherty, 70.

151–152 “Oh, don't worry” … “immediate and effective action” … “Army of Construction” … “one of the greatest presidents”: Quoted from the film
Gabriel Over the White House
.

152 “The good news”: Library of Congress, “Film Series on Religion and the Founding of the American Republic. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/films.html.

153 “I want to send you this line”: Roosevelt to Hearst, April 1, 1933 at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library. http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/pdfs/dictatorship.pdf.

153 “Its reality is a dangerous item”: “Gabriel Retakes,”
Hollywood Reporter
, March 20, 1933, 2.

153 “Put that picture”: Leff and Simmons, 39.

Chapter Twenty-eight: That Jew Cripple in the White House

154 “It is socialism”: Luce, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:264–65.

154 “The excessive centralization”: Lippmann, quoted in Manchester, 1:107.

155 “Nonsensical, Ridiculous”: Hearst, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 175.

155 “Stalin Delano” … “to the Mussolinis”: Hearst, quoted in Nasaw, 482.

155 “rooted in suspicion” … “hallmark of Western culture”: Manchester, 1:101.

155 “We're going at top speed”: Hiram Johnson, quoted in Freidel, 447.

156 “Businessmen of 1929”: Ibid., 503.

156 “The ‘captains' ”: William W. Ball, quoted in Freidel, 504.

156 “This is despotism” … “robots”: Ibid., 503.

157 “In war, in the gloom”: Roosevelt fireside chat, May 1933, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:114.

157 “vast army”: Black, 316.

157 “Through the channels of the rich”: Schlesinger, 2:567–68.

157 “the rottenest newspaper”: Roosevelt paraphrased by Ickes, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:566.

157–158 “terrible” … “rarefied atmosphere” … “poison pen” … “I wish sometime” … “deliberate policy” … “I sometimes think” … “I think they”: Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:555.

158 “a certain streak of madness”: Wolfskill and Hudson, x.

158 “men who have been parasites”: McCormick, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 178.

158 “The republic proceeds”: Mencken to Albert Jay Nock, June 1933, quoted in Wolfskill and Hudson, 173–74.

158 “What that fellow”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 36.

159 “Often characterized as a blueprint”: Carroll, 438.

159 “biblical capitalism”: Sharlet, 123.

160 “If you were a good honest man”: Letter to Roosevelt, quoted on the book jacket of Wolfskill and Hudson.

Chapter Twenty-nine: We Don't Like Her, Either

161 “We Don't Like Her, Either”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 37.

161 “Peace time can be”: Eleanor Roosevelt quoted in the
New York Times
, December 29, 1933.

162 “at once intimate”: Douglas, 152.

162 “Fueled by power”: Cook, 2:1.

162 “Dearest Babs”: Roosevelt to Eleanor, March 17, 1933. Elliott Roosevelt,
F.D.R.: His Personal Letters
, 339.

162 “soldiers out if a million”: Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok, quoted in Cook, 2:44.

162 “I'm just not the sort of person”: Hickok,
Reluctant First Lady
, 87.

163 “She shattered precedent”: Davis, 3:173.

163 “Mrs. Roosevelt doesn't hide”: Freidel, 295.

164 “That I became”: Eleanor Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:525.

164 “For some time I have had”: Carrie Chapman Carr to Eleanor Roosevelt, August 15, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 298.

165 “The only thing that reconciles me”: Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok, quoted in Alter, 259.

165 “Those who attacked the New Deal”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 86.

165 “Eleanor can bite an apple”: Manchester, 1:111.

165 “Despite a lithe, graceful”: Halle, quoted in Cook, 1:499.

Chapter Thirty: The Shifty-Eyed Little Austrian Paperhanger

166 “The Shifty-Eyed Little Austrian Paperhanger”: I. F. Stone, quoted in MacPherson, 135.

166 “During the Hundred Days”: Leuchtenburg,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
, 197.

167 “bastards”: Roosevelt, quoted by Henry Morgenthau, Morgenthau diary, May 9, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 400.

167 “I intimated as strongly as possible”: Roosevelt to Cordell Hull, May 6, 1933, quoted in Freidel, 397.

167 “He began with the Jewish question” … “marching, uniformed columns” … “He once made use”: Schacht, quoted in Freidel, 396.

167 “openly hostile” … “They represented”: Black, 258–59.

168 “much-ballyhooed”: Alter, 144.

168 “old fetishes”: Roosevelt cable, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:222.

168 “No such message”: Philip Snowden, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:224.

168 “unwilling to go to the root”: Rosenman,
Public Papers
, 264ff.

168 “because they see the end”: “Roosevelt Praised in German Press,”
New York Times
, July 4, 1933.

168 “You have opportunities”: Ramsay MacDonald to Roosevelt, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:232.

168 “As ER feared most”: Cook, 2:113.

169 “Our ignorance was inexcusable”: William Shirer, quoted in MacPherson, 135.

169 “Today or tomorrow” … “danger to Europe”: Stone, quoted in MacPherson, 135.

169 “most stately Jewish pundit” … “Europe's problem”:
Time
, quoted in MacPherson, 135.

169 “Lippmann had no illusions”: Steel, 330.

169 “dictator, once he feels secure”:
Time
, March 13, 1933.

170 “The universities of Germany”: Dr. Lion Feuchtwanger. “Hitler's War on Culture,”
New York Herald Tribune Magazine
, March 19, 1933.

170 dispatched at least two emissaries to Germany: During the interregnum Roosevelt sent Cornelius Vanderbilt (see chapter 9). In November 1933, Ambassador William Dodd in Berlin sent Roosevelt a summary of Hitler (see Black, 360).

170 “This translation is so expurgated”: Roosevelt, quoted in Freidel, 122.

170 “from the moment”: Tugwell, quoted in Freidel, 123–24.

170 “a strong possibility”: Roosevelt, quoted in Freidel, 390.

170 “I am concerned by events”: Roosevelt to Ramsay MacDonald, quoted in Schlesinger, 2:232.

Chapter Thirty-one: A Rainbow of Colored Shirts

171 “A Rainbow of Colored Shirts”: Wolfskill, 84.

171 “the strongest army, navy”: Smith, quoted in Dickson and Allen, 205.

172 “slapstick Waterloo” … “captured the entire putative army”: Ferguson, 121.

172 “staged a well-publicized funeral”: Dickson and Allen, 217.

172 “Amid flying chairs” … “smashed the bleeding head”: Diggins, 585.

172 “preventive and protective Militia”: Ferguson, 113.

172 “the heart of the old Indian territory” … “President Rosenfeld” … “had been planned and prophesied”: Ibid., 114.

173 “idealistic or Communistic” … “military organization”: Ibid., 122.

173 “playing soldier” … “various shirts and fancy breeches”: Ibid., 124.

173 “The real threat”: Ibid., 129.

174 “their wives insulted”: Goodman, 3.

174 “shock the nation”: Dickstein, quoted in Goodman, 9.

174 “to justify his increasingly large budget”: Gentry, 201.

174 “did not have to look far”: Ibid., 197.

174 “Despite all this burlesque and bombast” … “personal and political machine”: Ibid., 158–59.

174 “short, fat”:
Collier's
, August 9, 1933.

Chapter Thirty-two: Maverick Marine

176 “One of the really great generals”: MacArthur, quoted in Cochran, 137.

176 “A splendid little war”: Butler, quoted in Cochran, 138.

176–177 “vigorously brushed” … “first class orator” … “seemed stupid and unnecessary”: Butler, 4–6.

177 “sunny tropic scenes”: Millett, 151.

177 “If thee is determined”: Cochran, 138.

178 “opera bouffee” … “liberate” … “It wasn't exactly clear” … “Military engagements” … “Butler's most bizarre exploit”: Cochran, 143ff.

179 “as much for his care” … “I'd cross hell on a slat”: McFall, 24.

179 “I do not think that anyone knows”: Cochran, 155.

Chapter Thirty-three: I Was a Racketeer for Capitalism

181 “There is nothing”: Stimson, quoted in Archer, 108.

181 “like an unruly schoolboy”: Butler, quoted in Archer, 108.

182 “A friend of mine”: Ibid., 110–11.

182 “the mad dogs who are about to break loose”: “Italy's Ambassador Protests Slap at Duce by Maj. Gen. Butler,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, January 27, 1931. The story about Mussolini and the hit-and-run accident was essentially true, although Butler misquoted Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was the individual who had taken a ride with Mussolini in Italy. According to Vanderbilt, what actually happened after the child was hit by the car was that Vanderbilt yelled out and Mussolini patted his knee and said: “Never look back, Mr. Vanderbilt, always look ahead in life” (Cochran, 155).

182 “the only man that ever got”: Will Rogers, quoted in Archer, 116.

182 “Handed a loaded ‘pineapple' ”: Butler, 305–6.

183 “General”: Archer, 117.

183 “Unless we are mistaken” … “unfortunate error”: Ibid., 113–14.

183 “preparing to fight”: Thomas, 308.

183 “YOU'RE A VERY BAD BOY”: Archer, 115.

183 “cemented my decision”: Butler, quoted in Thomas, 310.

183 “thirty-three years and four months”: Butler, quoted in McFall, 24.

184 “swell racket” … “might have given”: FBI FOIA file on Smedley Butler.

184 “the greatest bill collector”: Butler, quoted in
Chicago Daily Tribune
, September 28, 1935.

184 “one of the most picturesque”: Schmidt, 215.

184 “a member of the Hoover-for-Ex-President”: Butler, quoted in Archer, 126.

184 “treasury raiders” … “millions of dollars”: Butler, quoted in Schmidt, 219.

185 “Royal Family of financiers” … “What the hell”: Schmidt, 222–23.

Chapter Thirty-four: We Want the Gold

186–188 “About five hours later” … “the royal family in control” … “We represent the plain soldiers” … “smelled a rat” … “So many queer people” … “make a speech” … “A speech about what?”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 2ff.

189 “bullet-shaped” … “close-cropped”:
New York Post
, November 20, 1934.

189 “millionaire lieutenant” … “sort of batty”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 13–14.

189 “What's all this” … “Don't you try”: Ibid., 12.

190 “a great idea” … “positive assurance” … “slip-up” … “If I am to be”: Butler, quoted in Schmidt, 225.

190 “There is something funny”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 14.

190 “That speech”: Ibid., 13.

191 “I have got 30 million dollars”: U.S. Congress,
Public Statement
, 2.

191 “You know the President is weak” … “Why do you want to be stubborn?”: Clark, quoted in Archer, 148.

191 “Although our group is for you”: Clark, quoted in Gentry, 202.

191 “You know as well as I do”: Butler testimony, quoted in Spivak, 320.

Chapter Thirty-five: Coup d'État

192 “like a bad penny”: Butler, quoted in Archer, 18.

192 “Well, then, we will think”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 15.

193 “contemplated the desirability”: Roosevelt to Kalinin, quoted in Morgan, 397.

193 “A great many people”: Davis 3:340.

194 “Gentlemen” … “I just returned” … “There is a Fascist Party” … “Everywhere you go”: U.S. Congress,
Public Statement
, 10–11.

194 “superorganization … an amalgamation” … “get the soldiers together”: Archer, 23.

195 “Did it ever occur to you?” … “We have got the newspapers”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 18.

195 “man on a white horse”: Ibid., 21.

195 “constitutional”: Butler, quoted in Seldes,
You Can't Do That
, 175.

195 “agents of Wall Street”: Weber, 201.

195–196 “The President doesn't need the support” … “Don't you understand”: Ibid., 4.

196 “analogous to Mussolini's” … “was not in sympathy” … “forced to resign”: Gentry, 202. See also U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 21.

196 “We want to ease up” … “You want to put somebody in there”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 18.