THE PRESIDENCY: Prelude to History

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The nation clearly, almost violently wanted a man of action, a powerhouse of strength and sureness. Only in New York and Washington, traditionally bad indexes to the national will, was there a panicky agreement that Franklin Roosevelt was the man the hour required. The rest of the U. S., willing to be convinced, remained to be convinced. Judgment was not reserved, it was only suspended—the hanging sword of national opinion.

The President moved fast and consistently. In the midst of exchanging apparently casual repartee with a press conference last week, he slipped over a blue-ink-typewritten memo from Missy LeHand. announced the revival, under the 1916 National Defense Act, of a Council of National Defense—six Cabinet members and seven coordinators to organize the still shadowy effort to arm the country.

The council looked good. But the U. S. had listened to Herbert Hoover when he insisted that boards, councils, conferences would not do the job—one man had to have the power. From the White House came the answer. Big Bill Knudsen, bowing to the President with Old-World courtesy, straightened up to ask bluntly: "Who's boss?" "I am," said Franklin Roosevelt.

There was part of the answer. The big man was prepared to take over all the portfolios, handle the entire vast effort himself. Could any one man do it? Can Franklin Roosevelt do it?

Mr. Roosevelt has many qualifications even for that stupendous job. Much has happened since he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy in World War I, when he first emerged as a farsighted, clearheaded, efficient public servant. Franklin Roosevelt laid up war materials for two years, preparing the Navy so thoroughly that less foresighted War Department chiefs had to beg Woodrow Wilson to give them vital materials out of Mr. Roosevelt's hoarded plenty. More than any man's, his was the vision that saw the need of mining the North Sea's northern entrance, the strength to override the two Admiralties that said "impossible," the ability to get the minefields laid that helped to end the German submarine menace.

A man who is as close to the Presidential enigma as anybody answered thus last week: "Franklin Roosevelt is the toughest guy in this country, perhaps in the whole world. He's the toughest guy I've ever seen and that's a big statement. I sometimes think he is the toughest guy in U. S. history.

"Above all, he is utterly, supremely confident. You and I and the Man-in-the-Street might bend or break or get frightened under the terrific load, the terrific pressure of responsibility he carries. Not he. I know that the President, alone at night in his bedroom, thinking the whole scene over, doesn't even have a palmtingling in his hands. He is ready. He may not have been born for this time, but he's trained, hardened, forged, groomed and polished for this job."