Franklin Delano Roosevelt A Man of the Century

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on his interest in African exploration, his extensive knowledge of public affairs, and his voluntary work as Secretary of the Memorial Cancer Hospital. Mr. Merriman was elected a member in 1931. On April 5, 1929, supporting the candidacy that had been seconded by Colonel Edward House, Woodrow Wilson’s confidant, of Judge Robert Worth Bingham of Louisville, Kentucky, FDR wrote that the Judge was an old friend of his and “I should be very glad to see him elected to the Century Association.” After his election to the presidency, Judge Bingham was FDR’s choice to be Ambassador to the Court of St. James and, of course, his newspapers and the Bingham family became synonymous with great journalism. Poultney Bigelow wrote the newly elected Governor asking him to support the nomination of Dr. F.F. Day, the newly appointed president of Union College, citing the fact that FDR’s father had graduated from Union College in 1847 as a reason that might cause him to show sentimental interest. As a postscript to a second letter to the Governor asking if he had written, Mr. Bigelow passed on some gossip which must have indicated that FDR had an interest in the subject to the effect that Prince Louis Ferdinand, the grandson of the Kaiser, was working for Henry Ford and that he was not engaged to anyone – “least of all to a movie star” and that the Prince’s grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm II, had cabled Mr. Bigelow to like effect. Other letters of support were written by Governor Roosevelt for Francis B. Riggs, who had been proposed by Dr. Endicott Peabody who reminded FDR that Mr. Riggs was a graduate of Groton. He supported Maunsell Crosby, an amateur ornithologist who was a Dutchess County neighbor. In June 1932 he wrote on behalf of Professor Robert M. Hague of Barnard College. Mr. Copley Amory, Jr. to whom FDR referred to as his cousin was also the beneficiary of a supporting letter that year from the Governor. Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated for the first of his four terms as President on March 4, 1933. Whether it was the careful filing system of his devoted secretaries, Missy LeHand and Grace Tully, or his own predilection as a collector to save what others might find valueless, there are a considerable number of notices from the Century Association that are part of the records kept at the Presidential Library at Hyde Park. A fascinating profile of our cherished Century Club emerges from these documents. For example, in a notice of the monthly meeting for November 1, 1934, it is reported that 142 breakfasts 6
were served in September. When we combine that information with a Club notice of April 28, 1936, we have echoes of a contemporary debate. The notice of that date told members that the Columbia University Club had extended room privileges to all members of the Century. The Columbia University Club was across the street, now a Moonie dormitory and hotel. Let the Board of Managers take note. Rooms with bath were available at $3.00 a day or $60.00 monthly. Suites were more expensive – $5 a day or $100 a month. But single rooms could be obtained, presumably without baths, for $2 a day or $36 a month. There was an exhibit of Italian paintings of the Renaissance, including works by Piero della Francesco, Botticelli and Bartolommeo in March 1935. There are notices of memorable names being elected to membership such as Tom Finletter in 1934, George Wharton Pepper in 1936, as well as Archibald MacLeish, Lord Lothian (later British Ambassador to the United States) and Lewis Douglas (later Harry Truman’s Ambassador to Great Britain). The Club celebrated the 75 th birthday anniversary of Dr. Walter Damrosch in 1937 and in that same year had a memorial service for Elihu Root who had been a member for 51 years and president of the Century for nine of those years. Nelson Rockefeller was elected in May 1937. Also in that year Dean Acheson, Alan Dulles and Arthur Hays Sulzberger were made members – Mr. Sulzberger having been nominated by Admiral Richard Byrd and seconded by the sitting Chief Justice of the United States, Charles Evans Hughes. In 1938 a reception was given to honor Mr. Justice van Devanter, a recently retired member of the Supreme Court of the United States. Honoring Justice van Devanter was undoubtedly a means of showing the disdain of many Centurions, including Charles Burlingham, for President Roosevelt’s Supreme Court reform proposals. There is reason to believe that the prevailing sentiment of the Century Club did not favor the New Deal. On June 8, 1938, Bice Clemow, a Centurion with admiration for the President, wrote him a letter which included this refreshing insight: “Yesterday in the Century Club I eavesdropped on two greybeards who were gleefully, but you can bet damn furtively, reassuring themselves that “Roosevelt’s got ‘em on the run now” and 7
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt A Man of the Century

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