A Roosevelt Rhapsody

To appreciate fully this long, confusing and confused account (The Democratic Roosevelt, Doubleday, $8.50) of the life and works of Rexford G. Tugwell’s beloved but unreliable hero, the reader must remember that the author is a poet. His early essays in free verse, so eagerly quoted by critics of the New Deal twenty years ago, hardly do justice to the burning emotions of the man. This account is that of a bereaved troubadour.

I can off er my rather intimate personal testimony that Tugwell had unwavering ideals and principles. He was, as I knew him, a true believer in a collectivist state fairly closely modeled on the planned economy of the Soviet. For immediate purposes, he would have accepted the Attlee plans of the late 1940’s. But I hasten to absolve this sensitive man from any taint of the Communism with which the world has become familiar since the death of Lenin.

RM

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Raymond Moley

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

To appreciate fully this long, confusing and confused account (The Democratic Roosevelt, Doubleday, $8.50) of the life and works of Rexford G. Tugwell’s beloved but unreliable hero, the reader must remember that the author is a poet. His early essays in free verse, so eagerly quoted by critics of the New Deal twenty years ago, hardly do justice to the burning emotions of the man. This account is that of a bereaved troubadour.

I can off er my rather intimate personal testimony that Tugwell had unwavering ideals and principles. He was, as I knew him, a true believer in a collectivist state fairly closely modeled on the planned economy of the Soviet. For immediate purposes, he would have accepted the Attlee plans of the late 1940’s. But I hasten to absolve this sensitive man from any taint of the Communism with which the world has become familiar since the death of Lenin.