For a time Dr. Seuss—Theodor Seuss Geisel—drew political cartoons.
This one, published in October, 1941, makes fun of isolationists. The
woman, wearing an “America First” sweater, is oblivious to the threat
of Hitler, “Adolf the Wolf.” Dr. Seuss’s 1958 children’s story–“Yertle
the Turtle”—denounces tyranny. “You stay in your place while I sit
here and rule,” declares Yertle, atop a pile of turtles.The Triumph of Isolationism 703much at home with ideas,” Tugwell explained. But he
was always open to new facts, and something within
him “forbade inaction when there was something to
be done.” Roosevelt constructed the coalition that
made the program possible; his humanitarianism made
it a reform movement of major significance. Although
considered by many a terrible administrator because
he encouraged rivalry among his subordinates,
assigned different agencies overlapping responsibili-
ties, failed to discharge many incompetents, and fre-
quently put off making difficult decisions, he was in
fact one of the most effective chief executives in the
nation’s history. His seemingly haphazard practice of
dividing authority among competing administrators
unleashed the energies and sparked the imaginations
of his aides.
Like Andrew Jackson, Roosevelt maximized his
role as leader of all the people. His informal biweekly
press conferences kept the public in touch with
developments and himself in tune with popular
thinking. His “fireside chats” convinced millions that
he was personally interested in each citizen’s life and
welfare, as in a way he was. At a time when the size
and complexity of the government made it impossi-
ble for any one person to direct the nation’s destiny,
Roosevelt managed the minor miracle of personifying
that government to 130 million people. Under
Hoover, a single clerk was able to handle the routine
mail that flowed into the office of the president from
ordinary citizens. Under Roosevelt, the task required
a staff of fifty.
While the New Deal was still evolving, contempo-
raries recognized Roosevelt’s right to a place beside
Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln among the great
presidents. Yet as his second term drew toward its close,
some of his most important work still lay in the future.
The Triumph of Isolationism
Franklin Roosevelt was at heart an internationalist,
but like most world leaders in the 1930s, he placed
revival of his own country’s limping economy ahead
of general world recovery. In April 1933 he took the
United States off the gold standard, hoping that
devaluing the dollar would make it easier to sell
American goods abroad. The following month the
World Economic Conference met in London.
Delegates from sixty-four nations sought ways to
increase world trade, perhaps by a general reduction
of tariffs and the stabilization of currencies. After flirt-
ing with the idea of currency stabilization, Roosevelt
threw a bombshell into the conference by announc-
ing that the United States would not return to the
gold standard. His decision increased international ill
feeling, and the conference collapsed. The German
financier Hjalmar Schacht announced smugly that
Roosevelt was adopting the maxim of the great
Führer, Adolf Hitler: “Take your economic fate in
your own hands.”
Against this background, vital changes in
American foreign policy took place. Unable to per-
suade the country to take positive action against
aggressors, internationalists like Secretary of State
Stimson had begun in 1931 to work for a discre-
tionary arms embargo law to be applied by the presi-
dent in time of war against whichever side had broken
the peace. By early 1933 Stimson had obtained
Hoover’s backing for an embargo bill, as well as the
support of President-elect Roosevelt. First the muni-
tions manufacturers and then the isolationists pounced
on it, and in the resulting debate it was amended to
make the embargo apply toallbelligerents.
Instead of providing an effective if essentially nega-
tive tool for influencing international affairs, a blanket
embargo would intensify America’s ostrich-like isola-
tionism. Stimson’s policy would have permitted arms
shipments to China but not to Japan, which might have
discouraged the Japanese from attacking. As amended,
the embargo would have automatically applied to both