In the early 1930's, after Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with Al Smith and became the favorite of progressive Democrats in the South and West (basically, the kind who had supported McAdoo in 1924), conservative Democrats like DNC Chairman John Raskob were determined to stop him. But with whom? Ideally, Raskob would have liked to see his friend Al Smith nominated again in 1932, but he knew that this was unlikely--Smith after all had gone down to a landslide defeat in 1928, and had little support except from Catholics and Northeasterners. Newton Baker was another alternative, but had his own disadvantages: "His service as secretary of war had alienated the sizeable German-American vote; his advocacy of the League until 1932 had lost him support among the other ethnic groups who had taught Cox such a painful lesson in 1920; his former support of the open shop made him an enemy of organized labor; and his large corporate clients promised to be even more embarrassing to Baker than they had been to Davis in 1924." Douglas B. Craig, *After Wilson: The Struggle for the Democratic Party, 1920-1934,* p. 234. So the anti-FDR coalition, without abandoning Baker as a possibility, also chose to nurture several dark-horse candidates. One of the most prominent was Owen D. Young. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_D._Young Craig's discussion of Young (pp. 234-5) is interesting:
"Owen D. Young, the chairman of General Electric, was generally considered to be a strong contender. By any standard, Young was the outstanding business leader of the time. He had served on the Dawes Committee on Reparations in 1924 and had chaired the Young Committee when that issue was again investigated in 1930. A frequent speaker on public issues, Young had developed a reputation as an enlightened spokesman for welfare capitalism during the 1920s. Relishing his role as the gadfly of big business, he supported high inheritance taxes and the partial payment of the soldiers' bonus in 1931. Like Raskob, however, he believed that business corporations should be allowed to reform themselves without government intervention. His achievements within General Electric were the equal of Raskob's within Du Pont and GM; he had instituted higher piecework rates, a pension plan, and a stock investment plan during the prosperous 1920s. Young's connections wuth the coalition's leaders were strengthened when he, Raskob, and Pierre du Pont served together on the board of General Motors in the early 1920s.
"Although he was on good terms with FDR, Young did not approve of the governor's water-power policies, and he considered him to be too opportunistic and vacillating. He was reported ready to cooperate with Raskob on the chairman's home rule plan for prohibition, and in return Raskob had promised Young his full support. Young seemed to confirm this when he wrote to his doctor in July 1931 to seek advice regarding his wife's health. 'I have been asked to accept nomination as the Democratic candidate,' he wrote Dr. Chace; 'I have reasonable assurance from the key leaders of the party, that I could be nominated.'
"Young's boom ended on May 16, 1932 ,when he declared that he could not accept the nomination. His wife's health was such that Dr. Chace could not be sure whether she would survive a campaign, and Young was not prepared to take the risk. Only two days before Young's announcement, FDR had written to Daniels to report that Young was the first choice of the 'Smith-Shouse-Raskob crowd,' but in the event that he declined to run, 'they will turn with a deep sigh' to Baker. The *New York Times* agreed; Young's withdrawal, it argued, had removed the 'strongest prop' from the stop-Roosevelt movement, leaving the conservative coalition with only Baker as a nationally acceptable candidate..."
Let us say that Mrs. Young's health was better, and that Young stayed in the race. Now let us suppose that the stop-FDR coalition prevails. I think that it could have done so: IMO the crucial decision that made FDR's nomination very probable was that of FDR's bitter opponent Smith not to withdraw. As Craig has put it: "By not withdrawing, he [Smith] unwittingly helped Roosevelt maintain his strength between the vital third and fourth ballots. Had he withdrawn then, William Allen White wrote Ralph Hayes soon after the convention, FDR's support would have evaporated quickly: 'So long as Smith was in, Roosevelt was fairly safe. You cannot imagine the fear and dread of the South and West which even the possibility of Smith's nomination produced.'" *After Wilson,* pp. 245-6. So Smith withdraws and a deadlocked convention turns to Young. He will of course easily defeat Hoover in November.
What kind of president will Young make? I have not yet had a chance to read most of *Owen D. Young and American Enterprise: A Biography* by Josephine Young Case (Young's daughter) and her husband Everett Needham Case. But from what I could read of the book online, Young seems to have been a sympathetic critic of the New Deal who tried to modify what he regarded as its excesses while serving as a mediator between FDR and the business community. He wrote that "I think a very large share of the controversies which now center round our present policies arise from want of understanding both on the part of the proponents and the opponents." He even said that while some of the the government's "experimental policies" may have retarded recovery, he would not criticize them--"because I think they were necessary to our social stability, or to put it another way, had they not been done social instability would have retarded economic recovery more than the government activities." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA663 He was especially interested in the plight of youth during the Depression and worked with Eleanor Roosevelt on the National Youth Administration. He was also deeply involved with the American Youth Commission, which issued important studies of youth problems in employment, education, health, etc. "And it was primarily at Young's insistence that the problems of black youth were given special attention in a series of ground-breaking studies." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA664 Unlike some of the conservatives who supported him in 1932, he would have nothing to do with the Liberty League. In 1936, he showed that he was unhappy with recent Supreme Court decisions: "It is obvious to me that we have reached a point where the courts simply have to recognize that these national businesses demand Federal regulation..." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA730 On foreign policy, he was an internationalist and opponent of appeasement, warning in 1938, "I know the threat of force must be met temporarily with its only antidote." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA731
Any thoughts?
"Owen D. Young, the chairman of General Electric, was generally considered to be a strong contender. By any standard, Young was the outstanding business leader of the time. He had served on the Dawes Committee on Reparations in 1924 and had chaired the Young Committee when that issue was again investigated in 1930. A frequent speaker on public issues, Young had developed a reputation as an enlightened spokesman for welfare capitalism during the 1920s. Relishing his role as the gadfly of big business, he supported high inheritance taxes and the partial payment of the soldiers' bonus in 1931. Like Raskob, however, he believed that business corporations should be allowed to reform themselves without government intervention. His achievements within General Electric were the equal of Raskob's within Du Pont and GM; he had instituted higher piecework rates, a pension plan, and a stock investment plan during the prosperous 1920s. Young's connections wuth the coalition's leaders were strengthened when he, Raskob, and Pierre du Pont served together on the board of General Motors in the early 1920s.
"Although he was on good terms with FDR, Young did not approve of the governor's water-power policies, and he considered him to be too opportunistic and vacillating. He was reported ready to cooperate with Raskob on the chairman's home rule plan for prohibition, and in return Raskob had promised Young his full support. Young seemed to confirm this when he wrote to his doctor in July 1931 to seek advice regarding his wife's health. 'I have been asked to accept nomination as the Democratic candidate,' he wrote Dr. Chace; 'I have reasonable assurance from the key leaders of the party, that I could be nominated.'
"Young's boom ended on May 16, 1932 ,when he declared that he could not accept the nomination. His wife's health was such that Dr. Chace could not be sure whether she would survive a campaign, and Young was not prepared to take the risk. Only two days before Young's announcement, FDR had written to Daniels to report that Young was the first choice of the 'Smith-Shouse-Raskob crowd,' but in the event that he declined to run, 'they will turn with a deep sigh' to Baker. The *New York Times* agreed; Young's withdrawal, it argued, had removed the 'strongest prop' from the stop-Roosevelt movement, leaving the conservative coalition with only Baker as a nationally acceptable candidate..."
Let us say that Mrs. Young's health was better, and that Young stayed in the race. Now let us suppose that the stop-FDR coalition prevails. I think that it could have done so: IMO the crucial decision that made FDR's nomination very probable was that of FDR's bitter opponent Smith not to withdraw. As Craig has put it: "By not withdrawing, he [Smith] unwittingly helped Roosevelt maintain his strength between the vital third and fourth ballots. Had he withdrawn then, William Allen White wrote Ralph Hayes soon after the convention, FDR's support would have evaporated quickly: 'So long as Smith was in, Roosevelt was fairly safe. You cannot imagine the fear and dread of the South and West which even the possibility of Smith's nomination produced.'" *After Wilson,* pp. 245-6. So Smith withdraws and a deadlocked convention turns to Young. He will of course easily defeat Hoover in November.
What kind of president will Young make? I have not yet had a chance to read most of *Owen D. Young and American Enterprise: A Biography* by Josephine Young Case (Young's daughter) and her husband Everett Needham Case. But from what I could read of the book online, Young seems to have been a sympathetic critic of the New Deal who tried to modify what he regarded as its excesses while serving as a mediator between FDR and the business community. He wrote that "I think a very large share of the controversies which now center round our present policies arise from want of understanding both on the part of the proponents and the opponents." He even said that while some of the the government's "experimental policies" may have retarded recovery, he would not criticize them--"because I think they were necessary to our social stability, or to put it another way, had they not been done social instability would have retarded economic recovery more than the government activities." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA663 He was especially interested in the plight of youth during the Depression and worked with Eleanor Roosevelt on the National Youth Administration. He was also deeply involved with the American Youth Commission, which issued important studies of youth problems in employment, education, health, etc. "And it was primarily at Young's insistence that the problems of black youth were given special attention in a series of ground-breaking studies." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA664 Unlike some of the conservatives who supported him in 1932, he would have nothing to do with the Liberty League. In 1936, he showed that he was unhappy with recent Supreme Court decisions: "It is obvious to me that we have reached a point where the courts simply have to recognize that these national businesses demand Federal regulation..." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA730 On foreign policy, he was an internationalist and opponent of appeasement, warning in 1938, "I know the threat of force must be met temporarily with its only antidote." https://books.google.com/books?id=QIFMaca-ak8C&pg=PA731
Any thoughts?