| Wendell Willkie | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Wendell Lewis Willkie February 18, 1892 Elwood, Indiana |
| Died | October 8, 1944 (aged 52) New York, New York |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Edith Willkie |
| Alma mater | Indiana University |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
| Signature | |
Wendell Lewis Willkie (pronounced /ˈwɛndl̩ ˈluɨs ˈwɪlki/;[1] February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for the president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and anti-business. Willkie, an internationalist,[2] needed the votes of the large isolationist element, so he waffled on the bitterly debated issue of America's role in World War II, losing support from both sides. His opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote and 85% of the electoral vote.
Afterward, Roosevelt found Willkie to be compatible politically with his plans and brought him aboard as an informal ambassador-at-large. Willkie criss-crossed the globe on the former army bomber The Gulliver, bringing home a vision of "One World" freed from imperialism and colonialism. "One World" was Willkie's travelogue of his travels and meetings of the then-Allies heads of state, as well as ordinary citizens and soldiers in regions such as Russia and Iran.[3] His liberalism lost him supporters in the GOP and he dropped out of the 1944 race, then died of a heart attack. He never held political office.
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He was born in Elwood, Indiana, the son of Herman Willkie (a German immigrant from Aschersleben whose family name was originally spelled "Willcke")[1] and Henrietta Trisch. His parents were lawyers in Elwood, and Henrietta was one of the first women to be admitted to the bar in Indiana. He was named Lewis Wendell Willkie, but at home and among friends in Elwood he was called by his middle name, Wendell.
Willkie attended Elwood High School. In 1913, he earned a BA from Indiana University,[1] where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After teaching history for one year at the high school in Coffeyville, Kansas, he returned to IU and entered the School of Law, earning an LLB in 1916.[1]
In 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I, Willkie enlisted in the Army. An Army clerical error transposed his first and middle names, but Willkie did not correct it as he preferred the new version, thereafter giving his name as Wendell Lewis Willkie. He was commissioned as a First Lieutenant and trained as an artillery officer. He arrived in France just as the fighting ended. As a lawyer, Willkie was sent to American headquarters in Paris to assist in court-martial cases.
After returning to the U.S., Willkie went to work for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio as a corporate lawyer. He became active in the Akron Democratic Party organization, and was a delegate to the 1924 Democratic National Convention. In 1919, Willkie married Edith Wilk (no relation), a librarian from Rushville, Indiana. They had one son, Philip.
In 1929, Willkie became a legal counsel for the New York-based Commonwealth & Southern Corporation, the nation's largest electric utility holding company, which provided electrical power to customers in eleven states. He became company president in 1933. Willkie was a delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention. He initially backed former Cleveland mayor and Secretary of War Newton D. Baker for the presidential nomination, but when Franklin Roosevelt was chosen, Willkie supported him and contributed money to his campaign.
In 1933, Roosevelt proposed legislation creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a government agency with far-reaching influence that promised to bring flood control and cheap electricity to the poor Tennessee Valley. However, the TVA would compete with existing private power companies in the area, including Commonwealth & Southern. This prompted Willkie to become an active critic of the TVA, as well as other New Deal agencies that directly competed with private corporations. Willkie's argument was that government-controlled organizations (such as the TVA) had unfair advantages, in that they did not have to make a profit and could thus charge cheaper rates than private corporations needed to levy in order to operate at a profit. This was not a new idea for Willkie; in 1930 he had stated publicly that it would be unconstitutional for the federal government to enter the utility business.[4]
In April 1933, Willkie testified against the TVA legislation before the Military Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives. He testified that the TVA supplanting Commonwealth & Southern could threaten $400 million in investors' equity, which convinced the House to limit the TVA's ability to build transmission lines that would compete with existing private utility companies.[5]
Roosevelt, however, persuaded the Senate to remove those restrictions and the resulting law gave the TVA extremely broad powers. Because the government-run TVA could borrow unlimited funds at low interest rates, Willkie's Commonwealth & Southern was unable to compete, and C & S had to sell its properties in the Tennessee Valley to the TVA in 1939 for $78.6 million. Willkie formally switched political parties in 1939 and began making speeches in opposition to the New Deal. However, Willkie did not condemn all New Deal programs; he supported those programs that he felt could not be run better by private enterprise. His objection was that the government had unfair advantages over private businesses, and thus should avoid competing directly against them. In 1939 Willkie made a highly publicized appearance on the popular Town Hall nationwide radio program, where he debated the merits of the private-enterprise system with Robert H. Jackson. Jackson was Roosevelt's Solicitor General and a possible 1940 Democratic presidential candidate. Most observers felt that Willkie won the debate, and many liberal Republicans began — for the first time — to view him as a possible presidential candidate.[6]
The 1940 presidential campaign was conducted against the backdrop of World War II. Although the United States was still neutral, the nation — and especially the Republican Party — was deeply divided between isolationists, who felt the nation should avoid any steps that could lead America into the war, and interventionists, who felt that America's survival depended upon helping the Allies defeat Nazi Germany. The three leading candidates for the 1940 Republican nomination were Senators Robert Taft of Ohio and Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, and Thomas E. Dewey, the "gangbusting" District Attorney from New York. These three men had campaigned vigorously, but only 300 of the 1,000 convention delegates were pledged to a candidate before the convention. This left an opening for a dark horse candidate to emerge.
Willkie seemed an unlikely candidate as he was a former Democrat and a Wall Street industrialist who had never before run for public office. He had backing from some media magnates: Ogden Reid of the New York Herald Tribune, Roy W. Howard of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, and John and Gardner Cowles, publishers of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, the Des Moines Register, and Look magazine. Willkie's supporters established a national grassroots network, but his support was thin. His efforts were helped by Eugenie Mary Ladenburg Davie who became an active member of the Republican Party and was the head of the Woman’s Auxiliary during Willkie’s campaign to unseat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.[7] A May 8 Gallup poll showed Dewey at 67% support among Republicans, followed by Vandenberg and Taft, with Willkie at a mere 3%.
Willkie did try to appeal to the powerful isolationist wing of the Republican Party by saying, "No man has the right to use the great powers of the Presidency to lead the people, indirectly, into war." However, Willkie's greatest support came from the party's internationalist wing, which wanted the U.S. to provide all the aid possible to the Allies forces short of a formal declaration of war. Willkie consistently spoke of the need to aid Britain against Germany in contrast with the other leading Republican candidates, who were isolationists.
While Taft stressed that America needed to prevent the New Deal from using the international crisis to extend socialism and dictatorship at home, the German blitzkrieg that quickly defeated France shook public opinion. Sympathy for the embattled British was mounting. In mid-June, little over one week before the convention opened, Gallup reported that Willkie had surged to second place with 17%, and that Dewey was slipping. Willkie stumped the country, seeking the support of liberal and east coast Republicans worried by German victories.
As the convention opened in Philadelphia on June 24, Gallup reported that in a poll taken a few days earlier, Willkie had moved up to 29%, Dewey had slipped 5% to 47%, and Taft, Vandenberg, and former President Hoover trailed at 8%, 8%, and 6% respectively. With the surrender of France to Germany on June 25, 1940, and the belief that Britain was under imminent threat of a Nazi invasion, the convention opened in an atmosphere of great excitement and national stress; this is believed to have boosted Willkie's chances even further.[8]
Hundreds of thousands telegrams urging support for Willkie poured in, many from "Willkie Clubs" that had sprung up across the country. Millions more citizens signed petitions circulating throughout the country. At the convention, Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota, the keynote speaker, announced for Willkie and became his official floor manager. Hundreds of vocal Willkie supporters packed the upper galleries of the convention hall. Willkie's amateur status and fresh face appealed to delegates as well as voters. The delegates were selected not by primaries but by party organizations in each state, and as political veterans, they had a keen sense of how fast public opinion was changing. This change was also reflected in a later poll taken by Gallup but not reported till after the convention: Willkie had pulled ahead among Republican voters by 44% to only 29% for the collapsing Dewey.
Dewey led the first ballot, but was far short of a majority; Taft was second, and Willkie was a surprisingly strong third. On the second and third ballots Dewey's support dwindled, as his delegates went to either Taft or Willkie, with most favoring Willkie. Meanwhile, Willkie's supporters in the galleries chanted "We Want Willkie" over and over. On the fourth ballot Willkie surged into first place, with Taft close behind; other candidates began to drop out in favor of the two frontrunners. As the delegates belonging to "favorite son" candidates were released by their original candidates, Willkie steadily gained more of them than Taft. Finally, on the sixth ballot, Willkie received a majority of the ballots cast and won the nomination. His victory is still considered by most political historians to be one of the most dramatic moments in the history of American presidential conventions.
Willkie left the selection of the candidate for Vice President to convention chairman Joseph W. Martin, Jr., who suggested Senate Minority Leader Charles L. McNary of Oregon. Despite the fact that McNary had spearheaded a "Stop Willkie" campaign late in the balloting, Willkie selected McNary, who was nominated by acclamation. Willkie asked Martin to take on the task of Republican National Committee chairman, a post that Martin held simultaneously with his House leadership role from 1940–1942. Martin found the party without adequate finances after Willkie's defeat and unable to raise needed funds for the 1942 congressional elections.
Convention chairman Joe Martin went to Elwood, Indiana, to inform Willkie officially of the nomination, as was then the custom. In giving his acceptance speech, Willkie used a full text of the speech which was typewritten with double spacing in ordinary pica type, whereas experienced politicians used triple space in large letters as notes for giving speeches. Martin writes in his memoirs, "As I feared, Willkie had difficulty reading the speech from the small type. His performance was flat. Then the crowning blunder came at the end of the speech when the Willkie clubs, without my knowledge, piped in an appeal for funds to the tremendous radio audience. If ever such an appeal was out of place, it was in a high-minded notification ceremony. . . .[10]
Willkie centered his presidential campaign about three major themes: the alleged inefficiency and corruption of Roosevelt's New Deal programs, Roosevelt's attempt to win an unprecedented third term as President, and the government's alleged lack of military preparedness. Willkie claimed that he would keep most of FDR's New Deal welfare and regulatory programs, but that he would make them more efficient and effective, and that he would work more closely with business leaders to end the Great Depression. Roosevelt's attempt to break the "two-term" tradition established by George Washington was also a focus of Willkie's criticism; the republican candidate accused Roosevelt of thinking himself indispensable and wanting to institute "one-man rule." He said FDR had "weakened rather than strengthened democracy throughout the world."[11]
Willkie relied heavily on radio to broadcast his message to the people. Joe Martin writes that he could "hardly find enough money to buy him all the time he wanted on the networks."[10]
However, these first two themes did not catch the public's attention, and as Willkie's support sagged he turned to criticism of Roosevelt's lack of preparedness in military matters. However, during the campaign Roosevelt shrewdly preempted the military issue by expanding military contracts and instituting a military draft. Although Willkie had initially supported the draft, he waffled and reversed his stance when polls showed that opposition to entering another world war was a popular issue for the Republicans. Willkie then began to claim that Roosevelt was secretly planning to take the U.S. into the European war against Germany. With this claim, his campaign attracted isolationists and managed to regain some of its momentum.[12]
Late in the campaign the Republicans obtained letters written by Henry A. Wallace, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, to Russian mystic Nicholas Roerich, who had invented an eclectic religion based on Tibetan Buddhism. Wallace addressed Roerich as "Dear Guru", signed his name as "G" for Galahad — a name Roerich assigned Wallace in his religion — and showed his complete adherence to Roerich's doctrines. Democratic leaders feared that if the letters were published, Wallace's exotic religious beliefs would alienate many voters. Republicans did plan to publish the Wallace letters, but the Democrats threatened to release information about Willkie's rumored extramarital affair with writer Irita Van Doren, resulting in a stalemate.[13]
Eleanor Roosevelt's biographer and very close personal friend Joseph Lash wrote "The anti-Roosevelt underground campaign in 1940 was venomous, and (Democratic National Chairman) Flynn accused the Republicans of conducting the 'most vicious, most shameful campaign since the time of Lincoln.' Much of the abuse centered on Eleanor and the Roosevelt family."[14] However, the abuse went both ways, as historian William Manchester noted: "above all, he [Willkie] should never have been subjected to the accusation of Henry Wallace, FDR's new vice-presidential candidate, that Willkie was the Nazis' choice."[15]
Willkie received 22.3 million votes (more than any previous Republican candidate), but was outpolled by Roosevelt with 27.3 million. Roosevelt won the electoral vote to 449 to 82. Willkie carried ten states: Maine, Vermont, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado. However, Willkie did draw 5.8 million votes more than Alf Landon in 1936, and ran strong in the rural Midwest, taking 57% of the farm vote. Roosevelt, meanwhile, carried every city in the nation with a population of more than 400,000, except for Cincinnati. Willkie was the only major-party nominee for President who never held major elected or appointive office or high military rank.
After the election, Willkie became a fervent internationalist and an unlikely ally of Roosevelt. To the chagrin of many Republicans, Willkie spoke out for controversial Roosevelt initiatives such as Lend-Lease, and campaigned against isolationism. In 1941, Willkie joined with Eleanor Roosevelt to found Freedom House. On July 23, 1941, he urged unlimited aid to Britain. As Roosevelt's personal representative, he traveled to Britain and the Middle East in late 1941, and to the Soviet Union and China in 1942.
In 1943, Willkie published One World, a book for popular audiences which recounted his world travels on the Gulliver and urged that America accept some form of "world government" after the war. One World was a best-seller that marked his transformation into a major spokesman for internationalism and made him a controversial figure within the Roosevelt administration and among his Republican colleagues, but it helped move public opinion from isolationism to internationalism. Its publication also extended Willkie's contacts with the world of literary critics and film executives.[16]
Willkie spoke often of the need to uplift blacks and addressed a convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1942, one of the most prominent politicians to do so up to that time. When a violent race riot broke out in Detroit on June 20, 1943, Willkie went on national radio to criticize Republicans and Democrats for ignoring "the Negro question." He said, "The desire to deprive some of our citizens of their rights — economic, civic or political — has the same basic motivation as actuates the Fascist mind when it seeks to dominate whole peoples and nations. It is essential that we eliminate it at home as well as abroad." During this time, Willkie also worked with Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP, to try to convince Hollywood to change its portrayal of blacks in the movies.
According to recollections by publisher Gardner Cowles, Willkie's visit to China involved a bizarre episode as Soong May-ling, the wife of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek supposedly seduced Willkie. The bizarre part was that it was part of her plot to use China's wealth to help him become President in 1944. Cowles' main evidence was that both Willkie and Soong suddenly went missing during a dinner party. Cowles said Soong later told him, "If Wendell could be elected, then he and I would rule the world. I would rule the Orient and Wendell would rule the western world." Apart from Cowles' recollections, no corroborating evidence has ever turned up, and Cowles himself reported none of this in his newspapers.[17]
In the 1944 presidential election Willkie again sought the Republican nomination, choosing his wife's hometown, Rushville, Indiana, as his campaign headquarters. His progressive views gained little support due to the rightward shift of the party, and to Republican resentment over Willkie's close collaboration with Roosevelt.
Willkie was considered a favorite in the Wisconsin primary, but finished a distant fourth, behind General Douglas MacArthur, Dewey, and Stassen, with only 4.6%.[18] Following this crushing loss Willkie withdrew from the race.
By the time of his sudden death in October 1944, Willkie had not endorsed either Dewey or Roosevelt. He had begun working with the new Liberal Party of New York to launch a new national party, but his death ended that movement.
In April 1941, Willkie joined the law firm of Miller, Boston, and Owen in New York City, and shortly thereafter the firm changed its name to Willkie, Owen, Otis, Farr, and Gallagher. It is now Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
Rather than fly, Wendell Willkie chose to travel from Indianapolis to New York City by train. While crossing Ohio he experienced the first of an estimated more than 20 heart attacks. Although other passengers implored him to get off the train at Pittsburgh and go to a hospital, he refused. He wanted to get home and be seen by his own doctor. He reached New York alive but died after two days in a hospital, on October 8, 1944, age 52.[19]
Willkie's 1940 running mate, McNary, had died six months earlier. This was the only occasion where both members of a major party Presidential ticket died during the term for which they sought election.
Eleanor Roosevelt, in her My Day column for October 12, 1944, eulogized Willkie as a "man of courage... (whose) outspoken opinions on race relations were among his great contributions to the thinking of the world... Americans tend to forget the names of the men who lost their bid for the presidency. Willkie proved the exception to this rule."
Willkie is buried in East Hill Cemetery, Rushville, Indiana. In honor of his brief time practicing law in Akron as well as his national reputation, the Bar of the Summit County Courthouse erected a brass bas relief which is prominently displayed in the main hall.
Willkie's name was prominently mentioned by keynote speaker and Democratic Senator Zell Miller at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Miller praised Willkie as a politician who embodied a non-partisan spirit of co-operation during wartime and praised his support of President Roosevelt's creation of a military draft. Miller spoke of Willkie saying,
"Shortly before Willkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between 'here lies a president' or 'here lies one who contributed to saving freedom,' he would prefer the latter."[20]
Miller compared John Kerry negatively and blasted the senator for being critical of President George W. Bush's foreign policy by claiming Willkie refused to criticize FDR on foreign policy during a time of war.
State of the Union, a 1945 play by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse, about a fictional Republican presidential candidate, was reportedly loosely inspired by Willkie and his alleged mistress Irita Van Doren. (It was made into a movie in 1948.)
Willkie was also featured as a character in Philip Roth's counterfactual history novel, The Plot Against America, in which Willkie opposes Charles Lindbergh in the 1940 presidential election.
A large dorm complex at Indiana University Bloomington is named after him, and for several decades was home to the Willkie Co-op, an experimental housing cooperative that emphasized student operation of dormitory service.
In a humorous reference in the Bugs Bunny animated cartoon Falling Hare, Bugs is pestered by a gremlin while trying to fly a World War II bomber. When Bugs realizes what the gremlin is, he timidly asks, "Could that have been a [whispering] gremlin?" In a Yiddish accent, the gremlin shouts in Bugs' ear, "It ain't Vendell Villkie!" This recalls an incident at the 1940 Republican National Convention when the head of a state delegation from the Midwest announced "two votes for Villkie" in a Scandinavian accent. This sound bite, broadcast on nationwide radio, enjoyed a brief vogue as a humorous catchphrase.
In an alternative history novel by S. M. Stirling, Marching Through Georgia, it is mentioned that Roosevelt retired after his second term and Willkie became his successor as President. The short story 'Trips' by Robert Silverberg is another alternative history example of the same scenario.
The Liberty ship SS Wendell L. Willkie was named for him. It was laid down November 8, 1944, just one month after his death, commissioned December 9, and served with the United States Maritime Commission until scrapped in 1970.
Willkie was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 75¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.
Willkie was the author of two books:
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Wendell Willkie electoral history |
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1940 Republican presidential primaries[21]
1940 Republican National Convention (Presidential tally)[22]: First ballot:
Second ballot:
Third ballot:
Fourth ballot:
Fifth ballot:
Sixth ballot (before shifts):
Sixth ballot (after shifts):
United States presidential election, 1940:
1944 Republican presidential primaries[23]:
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| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Alf Landon |
Republican Party presidential candidate 1940 |
Succeeded by Thomas E. Dewey |
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