1. Here is a tale worth retelling, about a successful politician. No, not Franklin Roosevelt...but you will see, it could be.
"In 1988, I invested most of the earnings from this lecture circuit acquiring the leasehold on Connecticut’s Stratford Inn. … In retrospect, I wish I had known more about the hazards and difficulties of such a business, especially during a recession of the kind that hit New England just as I was acquiring the inn’s 43-year leasehold. I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender."
George McGovern
How To Create Jobs, By George McGovern - Forbes
2. Franklin Roosevelt had a visceral animosity toward businessmen, entrepreneurs, successful capitalists.
And he had a way with words, in describing them. "unscrupulous money changers..." the greed and shortsightedness of bankers and businessmen," "..rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence" "we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." "there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing."
Wow! What the heck was that about? He was besmirching his fellow Americans, many of whom were responsible for the progress of society.
I'm about to explain it......
3. Franklin Roosevelt came from a very wealthy family, so one may puzzle at the vituperation he leveled at similar folks. Perhaps that very background is the reason, as with the politician George McGovern, he never learned how business worked, or how to earn money.
His mother Sara reported: "Money was never discussed at home....All his books and toys were provided for him. We never subjected the boy to a lot of don'ts."
"BEFORE THE TRUMPET: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882-1905," by Geoffrey C. Ward, p.125-126
a. Then again...how could they teach him about finance, after all, his father, James, inherited his fortune...and almost lost it by way of poor investments. His mother's father, Warren Delano, made his money selling opium illegally to Chinese addicts. When he retired to legitimate business, he didn't do much better than Franklin's father. Delano went back to the Opium trade, which is why Sara spent early years in China.
Ward, Op. Cit., p. 71.
4. Based on the hagiography, one can't help but be surprised at how mediocre young Franklin was at just about everything. Prep school was Groton, college, Harvard....excelling at neither sports nor academics. "I can't understand this thing about Frank. He never amounted to much at school."
Ward, Op. Cit., p. 180-181
a. A 'C to C+' student; not much for homework, study, or research....but he focused on social-political clubs, debates and journalism.
b. Not the only rejection, but a significant one, was his attempt to join Porcellian, the oldest and most elite social club at Harvard. Theodore Roosevelt and other members of the Roosevelt family belonged to the club, but Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president of the Harvard Crimson, never managed to be elected a member. At some time, in his late thirties, he told his relative Sheffield Cowles that this had been "the greatest disappointment in his life".
Frances Richardson Keller, "Fictions of U. S. History : A Theory & Four Illustrations," p. 116.
Porcellian members were future entrepreneurs, businessmen, bankers, and corporate lawyers.
And they had rejected Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"In 1988, I invested most of the earnings from this lecture circuit acquiring the leasehold on Connecticut’s Stratford Inn. … In retrospect, I wish I had known more about the hazards and difficulties of such a business, especially during a recession of the kind that hit New England just as I was acquiring the inn’s 43-year leasehold. I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender."
George McGovern
How To Create Jobs, By George McGovern - Forbes
2. Franklin Roosevelt had a visceral animosity toward businessmen, entrepreneurs, successful capitalists.
And he had a way with words, in describing them. "unscrupulous money changers..." the greed and shortsightedness of bankers and businessmen," "..rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence" "we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." "there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing."
Wow! What the heck was that about? He was besmirching his fellow Americans, many of whom were responsible for the progress of society.
I'm about to explain it......
3. Franklin Roosevelt came from a very wealthy family, so one may puzzle at the vituperation he leveled at similar folks. Perhaps that very background is the reason, as with the politician George McGovern, he never learned how business worked, or how to earn money.
His mother Sara reported: "Money was never discussed at home....All his books and toys were provided for him. We never subjected the boy to a lot of don'ts."
"BEFORE THE TRUMPET: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882-1905," by Geoffrey C. Ward, p.125-126
a. Then again...how could they teach him about finance, after all, his father, James, inherited his fortune...and almost lost it by way of poor investments. His mother's father, Warren Delano, made his money selling opium illegally to Chinese addicts. When he retired to legitimate business, he didn't do much better than Franklin's father. Delano went back to the Opium trade, which is why Sara spent early years in China.
Ward, Op. Cit., p. 71.
4. Based on the hagiography, one can't help but be surprised at how mediocre young Franklin was at just about everything. Prep school was Groton, college, Harvard....excelling at neither sports nor academics. "I can't understand this thing about Frank. He never amounted to much at school."
Ward, Op. Cit., p. 180-181
a. A 'C to C+' student; not much for homework, study, or research....but he focused on social-political clubs, debates and journalism.
b. Not the only rejection, but a significant one, was his attempt to join Porcellian, the oldest and most elite social club at Harvard. Theodore Roosevelt and other members of the Roosevelt family belonged to the club, but Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president of the Harvard Crimson, never managed to be elected a member. At some time, in his late thirties, he told his relative Sheffield Cowles that this had been "the greatest disappointment in his life".
Frances Richardson Keller, "Fictions of U. S. History : A Theory & Four Illustrations," p. 116.
Porcellian members were future entrepreneurs, businessmen, bankers, and corporate lawyers.
And they had rejected Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Last edited:
