FDR, a Poor Man's President

 "The test of progress is not whether 

we add more to the abundance of 

those who have much, it is whether we

provide enough for those who have little."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Hyde Park on Hudson is a movie about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The information on the DVD cover explains: When the king and queen of England visit U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, hoping for support on the eve of World War II, Roosevelt must deal with his official duties as well as the competing interests of his mother, his wife and his mistresses.  A review I read about the movie is that it was "trashy."  Yet, I learned a few things from the movie.


As I tried to remember what I knew about the President that had been elected four times, nothing much  came to mind. I do recall my Father and Mother talking about what a good president he was, how he cared for the poor, and that they would vote for him. The impression I had was that he was healthy until the last few years of his life and then he was in a wheelchair. That was not the case because he was paralyzed from polio in 1921 and he took office in 1933. I also had heard or read that he had an affair, but the movie mentions a few mistresses. Watching the movie I realized that Roosevelt had braces and could not walk. It surprised me to see that he was carried, he had a car rigged without foot pedals so he could drive, he had mistresses and he and his wife Eleanor lived separately. In the movie I found it interesting that the press did not show him crippled but photographed him behind his desk or sitting in the car. My guess is that in this day and age, the press would not be so accommodating.

I remember that my Father worked in a program called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which put men to work and paid a minimum salary. FDR believed that people gained self-esteem by working, more than if they just received relief from the government. My Father worked on some projects in the mountains and also the rebuilding of Ft. Vasquez between Plateville and Ft. Lupton. I was too little to realize we were in an economic depression. When I was a bit older, around six, I remember Roosevelt winning an election and hearing that Harry S. Truman was his running mate. Maybe I don't remember but heard discussions later in life. They defeated Thomas E. Dewey and I do recall seeing a picture of a man with a mustache.

President Roosevelt enacted the Social Security Bill for older citizens since they were the hardest hit by the depression, a fact I did not know. Aside from his affairs, I found myself liking the President, especially when I read some of his quotes.

"In politics nothing happens by accident. 

If it happens, you can bet it was 

planned that way." 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt