The 1930s: Government and Politics: People in the News

THE 1930s: GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

On 10 December 1931 Jane Addams and Nicholas Murray Butler were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Addams, a social worker, was the founder of Hull House in Chicago and the first president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Butler was president of Columbia University and a strong supporter of the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928.

In December 1935 the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) was organized, with Mary McLeod Bethune as the first president. Bethune was a leading member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet," a group of African American leaders who lobbied for political reforms.

In April 1935 William E. Borah, a senator from Idaho, successfully demanded that funding for the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act and other New Deal relief efforts not be used to build munitions or warships. A persistent opponent of President Roosevelt's foreign policy and the leader of isolationists in the Senate, Borah was a progressive Republican who supported many New Deal programs, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), and Social Security.

In a special election on 12 January 1932 Hattie Caraway of Arkansas became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, when voters chose her to fill out the remaining year of her late husband's term. Having first filled the seat by appointment of the Arkansas governor after her husband's death in 1931, Caraway was elected to a full term in the Senate in November 1932 and continued to serve there through 1945.

On 10 July 1932 the Farmer-Labor Party nominated Jacob S. Coxey as its presidential candidate. He received just more than seven thousand votes in the November election.

In 1932 Mayor James Michael Curley of Boston, one of the most prominent urban Democratic political bosses in the 1930s, overcame his initial opposition to Roosevelt's reformist tendencies and supported him for the presidency.

In March 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed James A. Farley postmaster general of the United States. Considered one of the most astute and successful campaign managers in U.S. history. As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Farley orchestrated Roosevelt's 1932 and 1936 presidential election victories.

On 28 May 1932 the Communist Party USA nominated William Z. Foster of New York as its presidential candidate and James W. Ford, an African American, as Foster's running mate. The ticket garnered slightly more than one hundred thousand votes in the election.

In early July 1932 powerful urban political boss Frank Hague agreed to support the Roosevelt ticket. Mayor of Jersey City from 1917 to 1947, Hague once boasted to a constituent, "I am the law." Roosevelt relied on the political machines in several states as a crucial part of his New Deal coalition. As a reward for Hague's early support, Roosevelt subsequently channeled New Deal aid to New Jersey through Hague's machine.

On 19 May 1933 President Roosevelt appointed Harry L. Hopkins administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). One of the president's most valued advisers, Hopkins also headed the Works Progress Administration (1935-1938) and other New Deal programs before becoming secretary of commerce (1938-1940) in Roosevelt's cabinet.

On 9 November 1932 President-elect Roosevelt appointed Louis Howe his chief secretary. Howe—who once quipped, "It's no trick to make a President. Give me a man who stays reasonably sober, shaves and wears a clean shirt every day"—was among Roosevelt's closest political advisers.

In February 1933 President-elect Roosevelt announced that Harold Ickes would be his secretary of the interior. While holding that post until 1946, "Honest Harold" also headed the Public Works Administration and the National Resources Planning Board. A staunch civil rights advocate, Ickes integrated the cafeteria at the Department of the Interior, and, along with Eleanor Roosevelt, he persistently supported civil rights causes.

Hugh S. Johnson stepped down as the head of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) on 15 October 1934. Johnson, who designed the NRA industrial codes, as well as its "blue eagle" symbol, later attacked Roosevelt and the New Deal as socialistic.

On 27 November 1930 Frank B. Kellogg was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which outlawed war.

Herbert Lehman, a close friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was elected to the first of his four terms as governor of New York State on 8 November 1932. The president referred to Lehman as "my good right arm." As governor Lehman implemented a "Little New Deal" for New York State. Later, as a U.S. senator (1949-1957) Lehman was one of the last of the New Dealers in Congress.

In January 1937 Gov. Frank Murphy of Michigan, an ardent liberal and an early supporter of President Roosevelt and the New Deal, came under attack for his support of the sit-down strike by automotive workers in Flint, Michigan. Murphy had previously served the Roosevelt administration as governor general of the Philippines (1935-1936). Roosevelt made him attorney general of the United States in 1938 and appointed him associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1940.

In December 1937 Sen. Gerald P. Nye, a progressive Republican and leading isolationist from North Dakota, claimed that Roosevelt had promoted the Japanese bombing of the U.S. gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River in China.

On 13 April 1933 Ruth B. Owen became the first female foreign minister from the United States when President Roosevelt appointed her minister to Denmark.

On 1 July 1932 political boss Thomas Pendergast of Kansas City, Missouri, agreed to support Roosevelt's candidacy at the Democratic National Convention. As president Roosevelt enhanced Pendergast's hold on the Missouri political machine by dispensing federal patronage to Missouri through him.

In September 1935 Gerald L. K. Smith, a protofascist, took over leadership of the Share-Our-Wealth Society after the assassination of Sen. Huey Long. Smith subsequently helped to found the Union Party in 1936, formed the Committee of One Million, and organized the America First Party. In 1944 he ran as the America First Party's presidential candidate.

During the Socialist Party of America convention on 22-24 May 1932, Norman Thomas was nominated to run for president on the Socialist Party ticket. Thomas, who ran in every presidential election from 1928 through 1948, got his highest vote, 881,951, in 1932; he received only 187,720 votes in 1936.

Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, who once said he aspired "to make the world safe for corn breeders," led the Roosevelt administration in developing the Agricultural Adjustment Act, passed on 12 May 1933. Wallace served as vice president during Roosevelt's third term (1941-1945).

In April 1933 Roosevelt appointed his close friend and adviser Sumner Welles ambassador to Cuba. As assistant secretary and undersecretary of state (1933-1943) Welles helped to shape U.S. policy toward Latin America and is credited with coining the phrase "Good Neighbor Policy."