Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H. W. Brands Read Free Book Online Page A

grade could hope to rise to editorial ranks. Roosevelt discovered in himself a certain flair for reporting. He wrote easily, and he could talk his way into information that eluded his rivals. His first weeks at Harvard were the last weeks of the 1900 presidential campaign; the campaign evoked great interest on the Harvard campus, with most of the students, doubtless following the lead of their fathers, supporting Republicans William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt against Democrats William Jennings Bryan and Adlai Stevenson. “Last night there was a grand torch-light Republican parade of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” Franklin wrote home. Franklin joined the Republicans for the festivities. “We wore red caps and gowns and marched by classes into Boston and through all the principal streets, about eight miles in all. The crowds to see it were huge all along the route, and we were dead tired at the end.”
    Amid the excitement of the marching, Roosevelt didn’t neglect his reportorial duties. Harvard’s own president, Charles Eliot, spoke loudly and often for good government, but in the current contest he had declined to endorse either McKinley or Bryan. Crimson rules forbade first-year reporters from interviewing Eliot, but Roosevelt, feigning ignorance, buttonholed the Harvard president anyway. Caught by surprise, Eliot blurted out his preference, and the Crimson carried Roosevelt’s scoop under the headline “President Eliot Declares for McKinley.” The story won Roosevelt a coveted spot on the regular staff.
    The position brought greater responsibility. “I am working about six hours a day on it alone, and it is quite a strain,” he told Sara. His hard work was rewarded during the autumn of his sophomore year when he was elected to the editorial board. The choice reflected his peers’ assessment of his talents as a journalist, and perhaps the persuasive skills that would make him an effective campaigner when he turned politician. It also revealed the appreciation of his classmates that he could afford the job. One responsibility of the editors was to treat the staff to dinner and related diversion. To celebrate their election, Franklin and four other new men threw a lavish dinner, followed by an evening at the theater. “Great fun, speeches, songs, etc.,” he reported to Sara.
     

     
    R OOSEVELT’S FAMILY CONNECTIONS grew even more valuable when Theodore Roosevelt became president upon McKinley’s assassination in September 1901. Having a cousin as governor had been a mark of distinction for Franklin; having a vice president perhaps more so (yet not necessarily, given the low esteem in which vice presidents were held in those days). But having a president in the family was truly impressive. Whether Cousin Theodore’s ascent to the apex of American politics contributed to Franklin’s election as a Crimson editor is impossible to know. It certainly lent luster to the family name. Yet Franklin’s diligence and flair had marked him for months, and Theodore’s inauguration probably only made a logical choice easier.
    Franklin didn’t wait long to capitalize on Theodore’s new office. Alice Roosevelt, Theodore’s daughter by his deceased first wife, turned eighteen in February 1902; the occasion required that she be formally presented to society. Edith Roosevelt, the First Lady, hosted a White House debut, the first of its kind at the executive mansion and the most lavish ball there since the days of Dolley Madison almost a century before. Alice was queen of the night, with a very large court. “Three hundred beautiful and beautifully gowned young women and a body of smart young men almost as numerous practically made up the party,” the New York Times reported. A handful of adults were present; these conspicuously did not include the president, who at Edith’s urging or Alice’s insistence left the stage to his daughter. “The White House was filled with young people,” the