Thunder on the Left

At President Roosevelt's ear the White House telephone twanged and squeaked while Florida's zealously New Dealing Claude Pepper spluttered at the wire's other end. Said Pepper in effect: the Roosevelt State Department choices were too conservative for an earnest New Dealer to endorse. The President replied: if the Senate does not endorse this list, it will be sent back unchanged to the next session.

He added, soothingly: Claude, you ought to have seen the first list submitted to me.

Temporarily mollified, Pepper called off his threatened filibuster. The Senate hastily confirmed Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius' team, and went home. But New Deal Congressmen still had reservations about three, in particular, of the six appointees: William L. Clayton, whom they consider a "cartelist"; Brigadier General Julius C. Holmes, whom they partly blame for the Darlan policy in 1942; veteran Diplomat James Dunn, whom they regard as the villain of the U.S. appeasement policy toward Franco.

The Pepper protest further served notice on the President that henceforth any Rooseveltian swings to the right would be fought loudly and bitterly by men who are normally his most loyal wish-followers in Congress. These include Pennsylvania's noisy Joe Guffey and Montana's wealthy, leftist James E. Murray. They also count on support from Utah's Elbert D. Thomas and Alabama's Lister Hill, as well as two freshman Senators--Warren Magnuson of Washington and Brien McMahon of Connecticut. Somewhere in the background was the ambitious C.I.O. Political Action Committee. Even further back was the man the C.I.O. has picked as a potential leader of the junta and a potential 1948 Presidential candidate: Henry Wallace.

So far the coalition was loosely formed. But it recognized two political facts of life: Franklin Roosevelt needed pressure from the left to stay "a little left of center"; and this was presumably the President's last term in office. From their first skirmish and hasty retreat, they claimed a partial victory: a Roosevelt promise to "consult" them next time.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.