Roosevelt's seven years as Assistant Secretary of the
Navy provided a strong groundwork for his tenure as a war president.
He was in charge of procurement, civilian personnel, the budget,
and management of yards and docks, giving him crucial administrative
experience that he had previously lacked. FDR brought Louis Howe
with him to Washington. Howe wrote FDR's speeches, took care of
labor relations with the Navy's civilian work force, and took charge of
patronage, giving postmasterships and shipyard jobs to loyal Democrats
with the aim of building a political machine that would eventually
challenge Boss Murphy's in New York.
Wilson, meanwhile, was performing excellently as president, serving
as a role model for the young Roosevelt watching from the Navy
office. The eloquent Wilson addressed Congress directly to pass
his reforms, the first president since Jefferson to do so. He persuaded
the American people to support his reforms and had many of them
passed through popular support. He enacted most of his New Freedom
ideas into law during his first years in office, restructuring
the nation's banks, establishing the Federal Reserve system, beating
down trusts and monopolies, and enacting child-labor and workman's
compensation laws. FDR, meanwhile, was busy charming the socialites
of Washington and calling on his wife to do the same. Although
people in Washington were impressed with his social graces, none
believed that he had the seriousness to become the president of
the United States. Eleanor transformed herself into the true politician's
wife, making hundreds of house calls, attending teas, dinners,
openings, and receptions. She was forced to hire a social secretary
to help her keep track of all of her duties. The secretary, Lucy
Mercer, who was a member of an impoverished branch of an eminent
family, was beautiful and lively at parties, all the things that
Eleanor was not. Lucy soon became an addition to all the parties
to which Eleanor was invited.
Howe, ever the political schemer, urged FDR to become
personally involved with the contract negotiations with the Navy's
civilian labor force, which FDR did. Howe had realized early on
that the 100,000 people involved in these negotiations could be
useful political ammunition for FDR's future. Roosevelt also used
his position in charge of Navy procurement to good advantage in
the fight against monopolies and trusts, changing the ways in which
the military bought steel and campaigning against coal companies.
These efforts paralleled Wilson's battles against trusts and monopolies
in early 1914.
It was early in FDR's career as Assistant Secretary of
the Navy that World War I began in Europe. Roosevelt and Daniels
took almost opposite approaches to the rise of war in Europe. Daniels, unlike
the intensely aware Roosevelt, seemed to ignore the fact that America
had a large stake in any war between the major powers of the world.
It was about this time that Roosevelt was trying to prepare the
country for impending war that he decided to run for Senator in
New York. He lost in September of 1914, in a defeat so complete
that only Boss Murphy could have engineered it. FDR learned some
valuable lessons from this failed campaign for Senator. He learned
that he could not run a campaign in a few weeks, that he could
not openly defy Tammany Hall and win in New York, and that Progressives
and Democrats with similar goals in New York needed to work together
for Democrats to win.
On May 17, 1915, a German U-boat sank the liner Lusitania, which
was carrying 128 American civilian citizens along with munitions
for Britain in her cargo. Americans were outraged at what was seen
as cold-blooded murder on the seas. Wilson, however, was determined
not to go to war. He chose instead to send notes of such caustic
content to the German Premier that William Jennings Bryan resigned
as Secretary of State rather than sign such provocative documents.
The sinking of the Lusitania, however, did focus
the national eye on the lack of military preparedness in America.
President Wilson informed the Secretaries of the Army and Navy
to draft plans for quick increases in their strength. Roosevelt was
finally proven right.
Wilson won the election of 1916 against Charles Evans
Hughes, running on the slogan "He kept us out of war." Wilson received
the bulk of his support from Midwesterners of German origin, who harbored
the most fervent anti-war sentiment. Germany, however, resumed
unrestricted submarine warfare on February 3, 1917. When FDR was
suddenly called back from an inspection trip to the Caribbean because
of "political considerations," he realized that Wilson was not
facing the question of whether America was going to war, but when.
Even so, the ever-cautious Wilson held Roosevelt's eagerness for
military preparedness in check. Wilson did not want to make any
preparations for war that would allow historians to say that America
had incited war with the Central Powers in 1917. On April 2, Wilson
called for a special session of Congress in which he asked for
a declaration of war, saying that the world must be made safe for
democracy. FDR watched and learned from President Wilson's masterful
handling of the American entry into World War I.
