bob clark is the senior archivist here at the fdr library, and he is a genius, and he and lynn run a magnificent presidential archive. it's a great honor for me as the daughter of a refugee from nazi germany to be speaking here in the home of my idol, franklin roosevelt. well, this story begins in

november, 1936, when fdr won a landslide election. every state in the union except maine and vermont joined in the strong vote of confidence in if roosevelt and the new deal. on election night fdr was home in hyde park listening to the radio and reading the press tickers. as the astonishing results came in, he leaned back in his chair, blew a ring of cigarette smoke at the ceiling and said, wow. he beat the republican of kansas by a margin of 11 million votes. he won 523 electoral votes to only eight for landon. it was a stupendous, unequivocal mandate to fulfill the promises of the new deal. but soon after that earthquake election the political winds shifted, and that overwhelming

mandate proved to be fragile. by the spring of 1937, roosevelt's long honeymoon with congress was over. and by 1938 things were falling apart. the country was sliding back into recession, and the supreme court was declaring unconstitutional key new deal legislation. but it was not only economics and checks and balances that frustrated roosevelt. he confronted another problem, too, there was a serious cleavage within his own party. it was true the democrats held staggering majorities in both houses of congress, but that huge democratic majority was deceptive. because conservative democrats, many of whom were from the south, were allying themselves with republicans and voting together to strike down key new

deal bills. and yet when those conservative democrats were up for re-election, they ran on fdr's coat tails and milked the magical name roosevelt for all it was worth. but when it came to voting, they were happy to knock down new deal programs. and so fdr made a tough decision. well, it was an impulsive decision, an emotional decision and would turn out to be a poorly-managed plan. he decided to spend much of the summer of 1938 traveling across the country and intervening in democratic primary races. he decided to go to rallies and speak out against conservative incumbents and in favor of liberal challengers. he was one angry guy. he was frustrated and deeply

resentful at being blocked by member of his own party who had the nerve, the chutzpah, to exploit his own name and his own popularity when it was to their advantage. he was boiling mad. what was his goal? the goal was to oust conservatives from the democratic party and make that party solidly progressive. and he assumed that the gop would become a solidly conservative party. it made no sense for the nation to have, as he said, a democratic tweed l dumb and a republican tweedledee. he believed that the country needed two effective and responsible political parties, each ideologically consistent and united, each supporting its leaders and offering voters meaningful choices at election time.

but he didn't seem to realize that the republican party, the party of lincoln, was still anathema in the south. and, apparently, he didn't understand the strong emotional and cultural ties that the south had to the democratic party. southerners believed that the democratic party was their party, and conservative southern democrats were not about to take a hike over to the gop. still, fdr was immensely popular in the south and so popular that he thought he could risk engaging in primary fights. there's a story about a southern schoolteacher and her class that illustrates fdr's quasidivine status below the mason dixon line. i wish i could tell this story with a southern accent, but as you can hear the only accent i can do is a new york accent.

[laughter] children, who paveed the road in front of your house, asked the teacher. in response the chorus, roosevelt. who put electricity into your house for you? roosevelt. who gave your uncle a job in the wpa? roosevelt. who got your granddaddy an old age pension? roosevelt. all right, children, now, who made you? [laughter] after a moment of silence, one little boy asserts stoutly, god. whereupon a barefoot boy leaps up in the back row and yells, throw that sorry republican out of here. [laughter] now, the whole idea of ejecting conservatives from the democratic party was very much out of character for roosevelt. because he'd always been a

charmer who showered people with his personal mag anytism and charisma -- magnetism and charisma, not with his bile. he was known for cajoling and persuading people of both parties to support his legislation. he prided himself on knowing how to work with friends and adversaries alike. while he was governor of new york, he once explained that he had to work with people he neither liked, nor trusted. but it was necessary to do so in order to reach his ultimate goal. roosevelt was an expert in tacking with the wind. as president he lavished his talents for flattery, wheedling, horse trading, even his talent for deception on senate and house leaders. he almost always found ways to reconcile opposing interests, and he won the support of politicians north and south, east and west.

people who knew him spoke about his magnetism. he just poured it on. seeing him smile or hearing him laugh, people said, was like uncorking a bottle of champagne. i think that his buoyant, sunny personality may have been one of the most precious gifts he gave to americans during the depths of the depression. that combination of his seductive charm, contagious optimism and self-confidence restored hope to a broken nation. but franklin roosevelt also loved a good fight. in april 1938 when things were turning sour for him, "the new york times" reported that the president's dutch was up, referring to his famous temper. the man of charm could also be a ferocious opponent. just remember the campaign speech he gave in 1936 before

the 1936 election in madison square garden. referring to the wealthy financial barons and economic royalists, he said: they are unanimous in their hate for me, and i welcome their hatred. can you imagine president obama saying anything that bellicose and confrontational? and in that same speech roosevelt repeated the militant refrain: for all these things we have only just begun to fight. and if there was any doubt about his readiness to fight, to improve working conditions, end child labor, help farmers, homeowners and the unemployed, he repeated a few months later: we gave warnings last november that we had only just begun to fight. did some people really believe we department mean it? -- we

didn't mean it? well, i meant it. now, let me pause, change gears and describe for you a sporting event. and it's available on youtube. on june 22nd thousands of people poured into yankee stadium. does anyone here know what that event was? you're not old enough. it was the boxing match of the decade, the american boxer joe lewis, "the brown bomber," was going to defend his world heavyweight title in a rematch against the german max schmelling. people traveled from all over the nation to witness the fight. there were hollywood stars like cary grant and edward g. robinson, my favorites, and political insiders like new york governor herbert lehman. there wasn't an empty seat in

yankee stadium. the country was suddenly immobilized as millions of americans, half the nation's population, listened for free on the radios in their kitchens and living rooms. nbc sports announcer kreme mccarthy gave the electrifying blow-by-blow description of schmelling's first round collapse under the relentless downpour of lewis' fists. as you can see, i'm a boxing fan, so let me give you the final seconds. schmelling is going down, schmelling is down! the count is four, it's -- and he's up! and lewis, right and left to the head, a left to the jaw, a right to the head. right to the body, left up to the jaw, and schmelling is down. the count is five, six, seven, eight. the men are in the ring, the fight is over! schmelling is beaten in the first round. the fight lasted 2:04, and it

was over. personally, i'm not sure about flying 3,000 miles for a two-minute match -- [laughter] but on the other hand, you'd have a dining-out story for the rest of your life. why do i mention the boxing match of the century? is well, obviously, because i love that match. but, also, because two cay day -- two days later president roosevelt, too, climbed into the ring. on june 24th he gave a fireside chat and discussed what he intended to do about the problem of the conservative bloc in the democratic party. it was an unusually hot evening in washington, and at the beginning of the fireside chat fdr joked that the fireside was the last place where americans wanted to imagine themselves on that sweltering night. after talking about the accomplishments of the new deal,

he got to the meat of his talk. his dual role as president and as party leader. as president, he said, he wouldn't ask americans to vote for democrats or republicans. nor or am i, as president, taking part in democratic primaries, he said. but he was also the head of the democratic party, and he explained that he had the responsibility of leaving his party in a lib -- of leading his party in a liberal direction and carrying out the 1936 party platform. so he felt that it was his right and duty as party leader to speak out in the upcoming democratic primaries and support liberal candidates who stood by him and the new deal. he tried to make it clear that he would not oppose candidates who disagreed with him on just one or two issues, like court

packing or recent controversial bill to reorganize the executive branch. he would, however, work to prevent the election of the people he called outspoken reactionaries and hypocrites, the kind of politicians who appear to agree with a progressive objective but who always find some reason to oppose specific proposals. well, the following day, right on cue, editorial writers around the nation slammed the president's talk and dubbed his plan a purge. and purge was one provocative, inflammatory word in 1938. it obviously reminded reader of recent grim events in the soviet union. stalin's murderous purges of senior colleagues in the communist party. in fact, just that past march

one of the largest of the moscow show trials had taken place and ended with the executions of all 21 defendants. so newspapers in america piled on. the conservative chicago daily tribune wrote that if fdr succeeded in his own purge, the only people remaining in the democratic party would be hitler yemen or stalin communist. and another famous columnist announced that roosevelt resembled hitler because he was demanding absolute personal power and a purely nominal legislature. fdr's purge expedition started in early july, just two weeks after his fireside chat. he traveled comfortably in his own ten-car air-cooled train.

eighty other passengers joined him onboard; secretaries, assistants, cooks, military aides, a few friends as well as radio engineers and announcers, newsreel cameramen, photographers and 30 reporters. more reporters traveled with him that summer than covered his 1936 re-election campaign. so during the summer of 1938 roosevelt's train zigzagged across the continent making stops at rallies in ohio, kentucky, down to arkansas, west to oklahoma, down to texas, back up to colorado, further west to nevada until he finally reached california. after a stops in san francisco

and l.a., he boarded a navy vessel and went on a fishing cruise to the galapagos islands with some close friends for a few weeks of vacation. then the ship passed through the panama canal, and he disembarked in florida. he went to warm springs for a few days, gave some speeches in georgia and south carolina and then, finally, returned to washington in if late august. in late august. let me give you a picture of what happened at one of the stops, the one in barnesville, georgia, in the august. it was a dry, scorching day with temperatures in the mid 90s. the little down of barnesville had a population of only 3,000, but for the day it became the focal point of the nation. as 40,000 people poured into town to see and hear their hero. officially, the president had come to dedicate a rural

electrification project that would supply power to the central parts of georgia. but some people rightly suspected that something else was cooking. the speaker's platform was gayly decorated with stars and stripes and red, white and blue bunting and seated on the platform were the president and georgia's distinguished senator, walter george, who was up for re-election. george was an old school southerner with formal, chifl rouse manners. he always refer today his wife as miss lucy, and she called him mr. george. he seemed to come right out of central casting. al seated on the platform was a young attorney named lawrence camp whom roosevelt was going to endorse. so there sat george on the platform not displaying any emotion.

walter george, in fact, was not a diehard reactionary or an outspoken adversary of the president. in 1933 he'd supported virtually all of fdr's proposals including the national industrial recovery act, tva, agricultural adjustment act. later he voted for social security, the national labor relations act and other new deal measures. and during the 1936 presidential campaign george had backed roosevelt all the way. but during fdr's second term he cast votes against some key administration bills including housing bills, court reform, executive reorganization and the wages and hours bill. roosevelt began his talk by discussing the achievements of the rural electrify case administration.

it was one of the great new deal successes. before it the free market economy had left much of rural america literally in the dark. then fdr spoke about coming to georgia for the first time 14 years ago in search of a pool of warm water where he might swim his way back to health. and he came to love warm springs in georgia, but he told his audience that there was one discordant note in his first stay at warm springs. when the monthly bill came in for electric light for my little cottage, he said, i found that the charge was four times as much as i was paying in hyde park. someone in the audience shouted, we hear you! and someone else yelled out, they were just trying to rob us poor people!

but roosevelt explained that the economic and social problems facing the south were more complex than the price of electricity. he dampened the crowd's festive mood by describing the many problems afflicting the south. it's my conviction, he said, that the south presents right now the nation's number one economic problem. the nation's problem -- not merely the south's -- for we have an economic unbalance in the nation as a whole due to this very condition in the south itself. it's an unbalance that we can't -- that can and must be righted for the sake of the south and of the nation. then he got closer to the heart of the subject and announced that the task of meeting the economic and social needs of the south called for public servants

whose hearts are sound, whose heads are sane, whose hands are strong. the people of georgia, he said, needed senators and representatives who were willing to stand up and fight night and day. so now the crowd smelled blood. they were really more interested in hearing the president swoop down for the kill than in listening to a talk about electricity rates and southern problems. roosevelt took pains to assure voters that he was not interfering in the internal politics of georgia. oh, no. he said the georgia voters had a perfect right to choose any candidates they wished. at this point some people shouted, hooray for george! and others yelled, good-bye, george. [laughter]

roosevelt explained that the president's job was to work with congressmen and senates to translate progressive objectives into action. but he complained that some of them gave only lip service to those objectives without even raising their little fingers actively to attain them. now, my friends, what i'm about to say will be no news. let me make it clear that senator george is, and i hope always will be, my personal friend. [laughter] he is beyond question, beyond any possible question a gentleman and a scholar. and then with george quietly seated just a few feet behind him on the podium, the president lowered the boom. here in georgia my old friend,

the senior senator from this state, cannot possibly in many my judgment -- in my judgment be classified as belonging to the liberal school of thought. on most public questions, he and i do not speak the same language. i have no hesitation in saying that if i were able to vote in the september primaries in this state, i most assuredly should cast my ballot for lawrence camp. bang. when the speech was over, george received some cheers of support and other more mischievous shouts of, "good-bye, george." but george himself was a gentleman. he left his seat, approached the president, reached out for his hand and said for all to hear, "mr. mr. president, i regret that you have taken this occasion to question my

democracy and to attack my public record. i want you to know that i accept the challenge in the friendly spirit in which it was given." [laughter] shaking george's hand, roosevelt said, "god bless you, walter, let's always be friends." let me describe briefly one other campaign stop on roosevelt's purge itinerary. on labor day weekend, he traveled to maryland to speak at rallies against maryland's democratic senator, millard tidings. actually, roosevelt felt some affection for a conservative like walter george, but he had nothing but loathing for millard tidings. one day he muttered to interior secretary harold dickeys, take

tidings' hide off and rub salt in it. tidings had opposed nearly every new deal measure. the nra, the tva, the agricultural adjustment act, the wagner act, works progress administration, housing bills, revenue act and court reform. even on social security he voted only present. and in a veiled attack on fdr, he even warned of home grown dick dictatorship. and yet tidings was completely aware of the president's extraordinary popularity and also insisted that he embraced the bones of the new deal. so fdr entered maryland on labor day weekend before the maryland primary and gave speeches for the challenger, liberal democrat davy lewis. as for tidings, fdr never

pronounced his name. he told crowds only that any politician had the right to be liberal, conservative and even reactionary. but, he said, the nation cannot stand for the confusion of having him pretend to be one and act like the other. well, what finally happened? george, tidings, south carolina senator smith and the other conservative incumbents all won their primary contests and won re-election too. roosevelt managed to defeat only one conservative; john o'connor, the congressman from new york and chairman of the powerful house rules committee. the purge was a flop. what were the main reasons for the failure? it's a long list.

the liberal challengers whom roosevelt supported were mostly political amateurs and disorganized amateurs. the incumbents had their own well-organized political machines. many state newspapers supported the incumbents. people resented roosevelt's interfering in state and local politics, and roos veld had not -- roosevelt had not given himself and his staff and democratic party organizers nearly enough time to carefully build up liberal bases. roosevelt did not succeed in his ultimate goal which was party realignment. but the purge did herald the realignment that would take place as i discuss in detail in my book in the 1960s, '70s and '80s after the civil rights act of 1964 and 1965 and

after nix son and reagan's so-called southern strategies. today the once solidly democratic south is solid no more. what happened in the immediate aftermath of the purge? roosevelt had to make nice with all of the senators he'd alienated. but what interested me about this mismanaged affair the most is that after the election many of the economic and social conservatives whom roosevelt had sought to ban itch from -- banish from his party, especially the ones from the south, became his staunchest allies in the buildup to the war and in the battle against isolationists in congress. from 1938 to 1940, country after

country fell to hit her's naked aggression -- hitler's naked aggression. czechoslovakia, poland, norway, denmark, belgium, holland, france and in the east japan invaded china and french indochina. roosevelt desperately needed the support of internationalists and interventionists in congress, and the southern contingent in congress was the most internationalist, interventionist and the least isolationist in the nation. the president needed and received their support. walter george and other conservative senators who were not new deal enthusiasts energetically backed fdr on the buildup to the war. people like josiah bailey of north carolina, tidings of

maryland, cart carter glass and harry byrd of virginia and others. carter glass had been one of the very few people in congress who opposed social security, but not only did he support fdr on the war, he thought that the president was too restrained. he wanted him to blast hitler off the map, and glass was a strong supporter of selective service and lend-lease. millard tidings, whose hide fdr had wanted to strip off, said that he would rather have a ready and prepared army and not need it than need it and not have it. and he supported selective service. senator john overton of louisiana and richard russell of georgia even amended that select i have service -- selective service bill to allow the governors to seize industrial

plants if their owners refused to accept government defense contracts. and in 1950 a dozen year after the purge, tidings was virtually the only senator with the courage to stand up to joe mccarthy. after mccarthy's committee -- sorry, after tidings' committee investigated mccarthy's reckless accusations, tidings stood up on the senate floor and announced that they were a fraud and a hoax. and even harold ickies, one of the purge's most fervent champions, made an bout face and praised tidings. but in 1950 tidings lost his seat in the senate to mccarthy's own hand-picked candidate. by taking down the prime target on roosevelt's hit list of 1938,

mccarthy accomplished what roosevelt could not. and i wonder what fdr would have thought about the defeat of his new deal foe at the hands of joe mccarthy. there are many lessons to be learned from the purge that i discuss in my book, but the simplest ones may be that, first, it's probably best to play the cards you're dealt. second, a majority party needs to be a big tent party. and third, an effective president has to be a strong party leader and a hard-working party builder. in conclusion, let me describe another story from the summer of 1938, and you can also see it on youtube. because the whole universe is on youtube. [laughter]

that july a care-free young pilot named douglas corrigan flew from new york to los angeles. the problem was that he landed in dublin, ireland. [laughter] where am i, he asked the astonished airport workers in dublin. i intended to fly to california. he had flown without landing papers, without passport, without radio, no instruments, not even a map. my compass went wrong, he said. newspapers and even hollywood ate up the story of wrong-way corrigan. [laughter] his stunt gave depression-weary americans something, finally, to laugh about. and when he returned to new york, he was showered with confetti and a ticker-tape

parade downtown. well, fdr wanted to be like joe lewis, but he wound up like wrong-way corrigan heading in the wrong direction in the summer of 1938, and the purge was one of the few glaring mistakes in the roosevelt's long, courageous, compassionate and superb political career. thank you. [applause]