Nothing to Fear: Adam Cohen on “FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America”
... We’re joined now by Adam Cohen. He’s an assistant editorial page editor for the New York Times and author of a new book called Nothing to Fear: FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America. This is his first interview since the book’s publication.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
ADAM COHEN: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s great to have you with us. Well, you say in this book it’s not just FDR himself.
ADAM COHEN: That’s right. The story of the Hundred Days is often told as an FDR story. And he did do amazing things. That speech we saw was beautiful, mobilized the nation. He did fireside chats. He was very effective in working with Congress. But there was a second level of people underneath him, his inner circle, that really developed the policies that came out of the Hundred Days, and these are critical policies: the first federal welfare program we ever had, the first major public works program, things like that. And it’s other people—Frances Perkins, who we saw perched in the background behind FDR in the photo there, when he was signing the Social Security Act; Henry Wallace, his Agriculture secretary; Harry Hopkins, the first federal relief administrator—these were crucial people who have been lost a little bit to history.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, in terms of how—their particular individual contributions, how did that work out, given the power of the presidency? Obviously, he had to give them the free rein to act, but how specifically did they leave their imprint on the various aspects of legislation?
ADAM COHEN: Sure. The thing about FDR is he was a great leader, but he didn’t come into office with very definite views about these problems. He actually was a very pragmatic person. He said he believed if something worked, you should do it; if it doesn’t work, try something new. So he was always on the lookout for good ideas, wherever they came from, including from the Hoover administration. It was holdovers from the Hoover administration that developed the Banking Act that they passed in the first week. So he was looking everywhere.
And that left the opening for people like Frances Perkins, who had very strong views. She came into office saying, “We need public works. There are millions of people unemployed. They don’t have a way to feed themselves. We need that.” Harry Hopkins came down to Washington, D.C. with a plan for a federal welfare program and said, you know, “We need to do this.” And—
AMY GOODMAN: Explain the scene.
ADAM COHEN: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: When Harry Hopkins came to Washington, it was under a stairwell that he met Frances Perkins?
ADAM COHEN: Yeah. We think now of these things as being so well planned out, but they weren’t at all. Harry Hopkins, who had run the New York state welfare program, comes down to Washington eager to meet with FDR in the White House, cannot get an appointment. He calls Frances Perkins, who he knew from New York, and she says, “I can meet with you, but I’ve got a dinner. Come by my club where I’m living.” And they meet under a stairwell, because they can’t get a table. All the tables are taken. He hands her this program, and she says, “This is great. I’m going to take it to the President and get him to adopt it.” It was a very bold welfare program—a lot of federal money, a lot of federal rules, centralization. She does take it to FDR, and he does adopt it. It becomes the law. But it was literally under the stairwell that our first welfare program was developed.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Wallace, his role? How he was chosen, and then his role within the administration?
ADAM COHEN: Henry Wallace was an amazing man, a scientist, a farm journalist. And he came to Washington saying he was going to save the Farm Belt, or he would just go back home to Iowa. And the Farm Belt had actually been in depression much longer than the rest of the country. They had had a terrible 1920s. So he comes to Washington, and he goes to FDR in the first week and says, “We need an agriculture plan.” And FDR says, “Go talk to the farmers. See what they want.” Wallace quickly holds a meeting of all the farm leaders. They agree to this subsidy program, which was critical then to saving the farms. And within a month or two, we had this incredibly revolutionary agriculture program that did save the farmers, save the Farm Belt. Another amazing fellow....
Read entire article at Democracy Now
Welcome to Democracy Now!
ADAM COHEN: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s great to have you with us. Well, you say in this book it’s not just FDR himself.
ADAM COHEN: That’s right. The story of the Hundred Days is often told as an FDR story. And he did do amazing things. That speech we saw was beautiful, mobilized the nation. He did fireside chats. He was very effective in working with Congress. But there was a second level of people underneath him, his inner circle, that really developed the policies that came out of the Hundred Days, and these are critical policies: the first federal welfare program we ever had, the first major public works program, things like that. And it’s other people—Frances Perkins, who we saw perched in the background behind FDR in the photo there, when he was signing the Social Security Act; Henry Wallace, his Agriculture secretary; Harry Hopkins, the first federal relief administrator—these were crucial people who have been lost a little bit to history.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, in terms of how—their particular individual contributions, how did that work out, given the power of the presidency? Obviously, he had to give them the free rein to act, but how specifically did they leave their imprint on the various aspects of legislation?
ADAM COHEN: Sure. The thing about FDR is he was a great leader, but he didn’t come into office with very definite views about these problems. He actually was a very pragmatic person. He said he believed if something worked, you should do it; if it doesn’t work, try something new. So he was always on the lookout for good ideas, wherever they came from, including from the Hoover administration. It was holdovers from the Hoover administration that developed the Banking Act that they passed in the first week. So he was looking everywhere.
And that left the opening for people like Frances Perkins, who had very strong views. She came into office saying, “We need public works. There are millions of people unemployed. They don’t have a way to feed themselves. We need that.” Harry Hopkins came down to Washington, D.C. with a plan for a federal welfare program and said, you know, “We need to do this.” And—
AMY GOODMAN: Explain the scene.
ADAM COHEN: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: When Harry Hopkins came to Washington, it was under a stairwell that he met Frances Perkins?
ADAM COHEN: Yeah. We think now of these things as being so well planned out, but they weren’t at all. Harry Hopkins, who had run the New York state welfare program, comes down to Washington eager to meet with FDR in the White House, cannot get an appointment. He calls Frances Perkins, who he knew from New York, and she says, “I can meet with you, but I’ve got a dinner. Come by my club where I’m living.” And they meet under a stairwell, because they can’t get a table. All the tables are taken. He hands her this program, and she says, “This is great. I’m going to take it to the President and get him to adopt it.” It was a very bold welfare program—a lot of federal money, a lot of federal rules, centralization. She does take it to FDR, and he does adopt it. It becomes the law. But it was literally under the stairwell that our first welfare program was developed.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Wallace, his role? How he was chosen, and then his role within the administration?
ADAM COHEN: Henry Wallace was an amazing man, a scientist, a farm journalist. And he came to Washington saying he was going to save the Farm Belt, or he would just go back home to Iowa. And the Farm Belt had actually been in depression much longer than the rest of the country. They had had a terrible 1920s. So he comes to Washington, and he goes to FDR in the first week and says, “We need an agriculture plan.” And FDR says, “Go talk to the farmers. See what they want.” Wallace quickly holds a meeting of all the farm leaders. They agree to this subsidy program, which was critical then to saving the farms. And within a month or two, we had this incredibly revolutionary agriculture program that did save the farmers, save the Farm Belt. Another amazing fellow....