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Tommy the Cork

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This wasn’t meant to be such a long piece but it just kept growing!

Back in 1991-96 I took a second degree in Business and Computer Studies as a part-time student. First-year students had to take two non-cognate modules to broaden their education. One of mine was ‘American History 101’ and then, though it would not count towards my degree, after this I enrolled for ‘Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal’. Enthused by the subject, I saved all my 22 textbooks with the aim of re-reading them at some point. 30+ years later I’ve finally done this: speed reading though and the books are set for the academic bookshop so don’t ask me questions! Comments welcome though.

'Tommy the Cork' book cover

‘Tommy the Cork’ book cover

One book though wasn’t in my original collection; I bought it recently wanting to know about its subject. David McKean’s ‘Tommy the Cork – Washington’s Ultimate Insider from Roosevelt to Reagan’ tells the story of Thomas Gardiner Corcoran (1900-1981), one of the New Deal’s top lawyers and adviser and speechwriter to FDR, then a successful lobbyist.

It’s a life which promised so much but ended up laced with a fair degree of sadness. Here, I’ve tried to focus on the man himself; for lots more on his political and lobbying activities, see McKean’s book or this page on the Spartacus Educational website.

Early life

Corcoran was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to middle-class Irish immigrant parents. He was his high school’s ‘prize scholar’ then, following in his father’s footsteps, studied law at Brown University where he was a top student. At Harvard Law School Professor Felix Frankfurter noted his exceptional ability and arranged for him to clerk for Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) during 1926-27. Holmes had fought in the Civil War and served as a Supreme Court justice from 1902 to 1932. Corcoran continued as a friend and caregiver to Justice Holmes until Holmes’ death, especially after the death of Mrs Holmes in 1929, and was at his bedside when he died. As McKean’s book tells, Corcoran was a complicated person: ruthlessly ambitious, ever keen to make money, yet capable of extreme kindness and generosity. Countless young lawyers benefitted from his support and encouragement.

Following his clerkship year Corcoran joined Wall Street law firm Cotton and Franklin where he learned the finer points of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions. He reputedly made a quarter of a million dollars in the late 1920s (nearly $5m 2025) only to lose nearly all of it in the Wall Street crash.

The New Deal Years

In 1932 Corcoran moved to Washington DC, joining the Reconstruction Finance Corporation as Special Counsel. Over time he would find his way into the White House, becoming a speechwriter, political adviser and friend to FDR. It was during this time that he teamed up with Benjamin Cohen, another gifted lawyer. Temperamentally the two were total opposite: Corcoran was an extrovert who loved to entertain; on occasions he’d take his accordion to the White House and lead a singalong. In contrast Cohen was quiet, sensitive, described by Joseph Lash as ‘the parfit gentil knight’ of the New Deal1. The two of them, described by ‘Time’, 1938, as ‘The gold dust twins’ would help draft some of the key New Deal legislation.

By the time FDR assumed office on 4th March 1933 the USA was on the verge of collapse. FDR asked Felix Frankfurter to assemble a team of lawyers to rewrite the nation’s security laws to minimise the risk of another Wall Street crash. Among those nominated were Corcoran and Cohen. Corcoran had his Wall Street experience; Cohen was a brilliant legal draftsman. His deep knowledge of British company legislation acquired while working in London would influence their thinking. Also appointed to the team was Jim Landis, Harvard’s first professor of legislation, who had the best understanding of markets. The fourth member of the team was 22-year-old Peggy Dowd, previously Corcoran’s PA at the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), of whom more later.

By March 1934 the bill that would establish the Securities and Exchange Commission was ready. Vested interests whipped up a huge campaign against it. Corcoran was chosen to defend it before the House Committee. After a bitter debate it passed. Legislation controlling utilities would follow, again the subject of a big fight.

After the New Deal

As the 1930s progressed Corcoran got involved in all sorts of political adventures. FDR’s son Elliott ventured “Apart from my father, Tom was the single most influential person in the country.” Alva Johnson of the Saturday Evening Post claimed that Corcoran held “a position of power vaguely resembling that which the Duke of Buckingham held under James I”2.

After FDR’s 1936 landslide victory, Corcoran’s influence began to decline. To FDR’s frustration, the Supreme Court increasingly took a critical view of New Deal legislation. During his first term not one justice had died or retired and a majority of the nine justices he’d inherited owed him no loyalty. The solution put forward was to appoint additional justices. This drew outrage from various quarters and the plan was dropped. Then the dam broke and FDR was able to appoint nine justices before his death in 1945. The first, Hugo Black, appointed 1937, served on the bench until 1971; Felix Frankfurter was another notable appointment, serving from 1939 to 1962.

With his marriage in 1940 Corcoran needed more money. He thought of returning to Cotton and Franklin, but only if Ben could come with him. The firm would not take Cohen on account of him being Jewish so Corcoran decided to stay in Washington and use his legal skills and political and personal contacts as a lobbyist.

WW2 saw Corcoran involved with the Chinese Flying Tigers who were attacking Japan well before Pearl Harbour. This brought him into contact with General Claire Chennault (1893-1958). This part of his life is marked by his name appearing in the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame.

In 1941 the post of Solicitor General became vacant. Corcoran desperately wanted the job. He asked various people to recommend him. Four justices wrote in on his behalf. He needed one more to have a majority of the Supreme Court on his side. He went to see his old mentor Felix Frankfurter. Frankfurter said that he was sorry, but he couldn’t oblige. Corcoran reportedly then said, “I put you here, now produce”3. Frankfurter wouldn’t! Later he said that if he’d thought that Corcoran would devote himself to the post, he would have been happy to recommend him, but he felt that he would use the post as a political platform.

With this door closed, Corcoran redoubled his lobbying work which he would pursue for the rest of his life. Here are several of the many examples cited by McKean:

  • In 1941 Corcoran was approached by Henry Kaiser who was after a loan from RFC to build a magnesium plant. Using his contacts Corcoran secured the loan and sent Kaiser a bill for $135,000, also asking for a 15% stake in the enterprise. Kaiser hadn’t got rich by being free with his money so Corcoran had to make do with ‘just’ $65,000 (at this time a WW2 US Private was paid $50 a month).
    .
  • At congressional hearing in December 1941 Corcoran was asked about his lobbying. He admitted to making more than $100,000 during the year for his defence-related work and was quizzed on various assignments. He’d helped the Savannah shipbuilding company to get a contract (subsequently rescinded) to build twelve cargo ships for twenty million dollars; they had no relevant experience of such work. Corcoran had collected a $5,000 fee. To avoid public scandal, the company was then awarded $1,285,000 compensation!
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  • One of Corcoran’s key clients was the American-owned United Fruit Company which had substantial interests in Guatemala. In 1951 a democratically-elected government led by Jacobo Arbenz took charge and reformed education and healthcare in the country. It also instituted a new labour code that improved worker’s rights. UFC owned 42% of Guatemalan land yet only utilized a small part of it. Arbenz’s aim was to redistribute these huge tracts of unused land to the landless poor.
    In 1953, with Eisenhower installed as US President, Corcoran started urging the US government to undermine and overthrow the Arbenz government. With the help of the CIA, the United Fruit Company began a massive disinformation campaign in the USA, labelling Arbenz and his administration as being under communist influence. In June 1954 the Arbenz government was overthrown, Corcoran having acted as a liaison between the CIA and UFC. When the full story came out, “for those who had served with Corcoran in the New Deal it was an inexplicable betrayal”4.

Lots more on the influence of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala here.

The women in Tom’s life

Tom’s mother, Mary O’Keefe was a strong and intelligent woman. McKean quotes him as saying: “Mother had given me an abiding discomfort about women”5. She wanted her son to achieve great things and didn’t wanted him being distracted. Away from her influence in New York, Isabel Cotton, his boss’s daughter, caught his eye and in due course their engagement was announced. She, though, broke it off. Tom later recorded that she had “decided I was too busy to pay the attention to her that an aristocratic girl deserved”6.

In 1932 Peggy Dowd enters the story, joining the RFC as a PA. Her parents were immigrants: her father worked for the post office. She was stunningly attractive – FDR later referred to her as ‘Our gorgeous hussy’, not of course the sort of language a present-day president would use of a junior female employee. She’d never attended college, only taken a typing course, but impressed Tom’s RFC colleague Frank Watson: “My secretary at that time was Peggy Dowd, who later became Mrs Tom Corcoran She was a brilliant individual and a very beautiful girl. She could type so fast you could hardly see the keys move, and at the same time carry on a conversation or ask a question. During this period, l would be up on the Hill all morning, going over the act with the committees. Then I’d come back and Peggy and I would work until midnight, running off copies for the next day’s meetings7.”

Her ability and work ethic did not go unnoticed: “To help with the typing Corcoran asked the RFC to send over a young secretary named Peggy Dowd. … She was only twenty-two years old. She had met Corcoran a few weeks earlier when she had been sent to his office by the chief of the secretarial pool. “You’re Irish. Maybe you can handle him,” she was told. During their first encounter Corcoran sat behind his desk chomping on a cigar and barking orders when Peggy interrupted him and said coolly, “Take the cigar out of your mouth or I won’t take dictation from you.” Corcoran, looking stunned but amused, obliged.”8.

Over the next few years the two grew increasingly close. Tom loved Peggy whilst wanting to maintain his bachelor freedom; Peggy loved him but was getting impatient. “I bore no ill will towards your mother”, she told him, “but it’s a long time since I knew that I was in love with you, that your mother died [she died in 1936]. But I understand being Irish — you’re the oldest son and the oldest son, I don’t know when it began, can never marry till his mother dies. So his mother will never believe that any other woman came before her“9.

Still Tom didn’t rush things. In early 1940 he finally asked Peggy to marry him. Not everyone was supportive. His mother had referred to Peggy as “your warmed over French fried potato of a secretary.” FDR thought that Corcoran could do better than marry a working girl whose father was a mailman. Frankfurter wanted him to marry someone with money so that he would be free to continue in public service10. Marion Frankfurter told Tom that in Britain it was the accepted practice for bright young lawyers to marry into the English gentry – though we can note that her husband married the solidly middle-class daughter of a Congregational minister. But all to no avail. Once engaged, Tom made an appointment to formally introduce his intended to FDR. Peggy bought a new dress and hat. On the day FDR sent a message that he was too busy to see them. Tom viewed this as a snub for many years after.

The couple married on March 4th 1940. Not long afterwards Peggy was expecting the first of their six children. The couple moved to a larger house where they often entertained. Peggy seemed to be happy, but this was an illusion. Sadly she’d began to drink, not just at social events but at home. In 1957 she died of a cerebral haemorrhage, aged just forty-four.

Left a widower, Tom tried to be a good father, pushing all his children to achieve, especially daughter Margaret. She studied law, possibly not by choice, and, although not an exceptional student, through her father she got a clerkship with Justice Black. The pressure was getting to her. In January 1970, aged twenty-eight, she died from an overdose of sleeping pills.

'The Education of Anna' book cover

‘The Education of Anna’ book cover

Following Peggy’s death, Tom had acquired a number of female friends. Most prominent was Peking-born Anna Chennault (1923-2018). At 21 as a junior journalist she was sent to interview General Claire Chennault, then head of the US China-based 14th air force. In 1946 he divorced his wife (leaving her with eight children!), marrying Anna a year later. He died in 1958 of lung cancer. She moved into the world of politics, campaigning for Richard Nixon among Chinese-Americans in 1960, then began a career as a society hostess in Washington, living in a Watergate penthouse at the time of the notorious burglaries.

Anna’s 1980 memoir, ‘The Education of Anna’ is dedicated “to all my teachers, and to the best teacher of them all, Thomas G. Corcoran”. In it she tells us: “… my parties were never very large. With rare exception they were limited to three tables of twelve each …”. Eight courses were the norm. How the other half live! Anna claimed that Tommy wanted to marry her, but she’d vowed never to marry again.

In later years a second female friend and regular escort was Lindy Boggs (1916-2013). Like Tasmania’s own Enid Lyons, she started life as a political wife and then built her own political career: her husband Hale was majority leader of the US House of Representatives. In 1972 he was in a plane that went missing over Alaska and was declared dead. In the ensuing special election Lindy was elected to succeed him. She was elected to a full term in 1974 with 82% of the vote and was re-elected seven times thereafter until she vacated her office in January 1991. After her district was redrawn in 1984 she became the only white member of Congress representing a majority-African-American constituency. In 1997 President Bill Clinton appointed her official U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, a position she held until 2001.

McKean tells us that “Corcoran, however, told one friend that he would not marry Lindy or Anna or anyone else for that matter, because, “once you marry, they’re not nice to you””11

Later years

One might have hoped that age would bring increasing wisdom but McKean tells a number of stories that sadly suggest otherwise:

  • In 1969 the Supreme Court initially declined a petition to re-hear the El Paso Natural Gas case. El Paso wasn’t a Corcoran client but the suggestion is that he may have been providing informal advice. Totally disregarding legal rules, Tom went up to see Justice Hugo Black in his Supreme Court chambers to petition him to think again. Shocked, Black threw Tom out but not wishing to humiliate an old friend, he decided to say nothing. A few days later Tom made a similar visit to Justice Brennan, with a similar result.
    At the weekly justices meeting, Brennan told them what had happened. A number of justices were sympathetic to reopening the case but knew if this happened, Tom might have then started boasting about his achievement in bending the court’s will. So the application to re-hear was denied. To quote McKean, “Had Douglas’s dissent been made public, Tommy Corcoran, one of the most distinguished and successful lawyers in Washington for more than forty years, would surely have been disbarred.”12  Ten years later the District of Columbia Bar was asked to examine Corcoran’s conduct. Thankfully for him, Justice Black was dead (d.1971) and Justice Brennan conveniently couldn’t remember the conversation13. A lucky escape!
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  • In 1971 a number of Washington’s legal elite gathered for a black-tie dinner to mark Tom’s 70th birthday. In his speech Ben Cohen remarked that “I think we may count the New Deal years among the best years of his life. ….. There has never been a better spirit de corps in government than that inspired by Tom in the New Deal years.” Then it was Tom’s turn and to the dismay of many listening he began by noting that he represented one of the largest pipeline companies in the USA. Close friend Joe Rauh later said that seeing this once brilliant, crusading lawyer now bragging about his corporate clients “made me sick”14.
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  • Ten months later Tom attended the funeral of Peggy’s cousin, Michael Dowd. After the ceremony he offered a lift to Michael’s 19-year-old daughter, Maureen. While driving back to the family home Tom told her that he would like to adopt her. She would have the best education possible and a credit card and sports car like the ones Margaret had had. Daughter and newly-widowed mother were, not surprisingly, horrified by the suggestion.15

While most of his contemporaries were long retired, Corcoran worked almost to the end. In late 1981 he went into hospital for a gall bladder operation. On December 5th he told visiting son Tim that when he got out of hospital he was going to make lots more money. The next day he was dead, from an embolism. At his funeral fellow lawyer James Rowe spoke, quoting Justice Holmes: “Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire.”16 If only this sentiment had underlaid Tom’s 70th birthday speech.

References (to ‘Tommy the Cork’ unless otherwise stated)

• 1. p.452; 2. p.91; 3. p.152; 4. p.227; 5. p.13; 6. p.28; 7. Louchheim, p.109; 8. p.39; 9. Lash p.445; 10.p.126; 11. p.310; 12. p.272; 13. pp.306-8; 14. p.298; 15. p.299; 16. p.316

Key books (links are to AbeBooks):

For a detailed account of Tommy Corcoran’s political and lobbying career, check out this Spartacus Educational article.

 

FDR’s Splendid Deception

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FDR's Splendid Deception book cover

FDR’s Splendid Deception book cover

Last month I wrote about how I came to get interested in Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. My current project, to read all my New Deal books once more and then dispose of them, continues.

I’ve just finished another book, somewhat different to the others, FDR’s Splendid Deception, by Hugh Gregory Gallagher. The subtitle explains: “The moving story of Roosevelt’s massive disability and the intense efforts to hide it from the public.” The author contracted polio at the age of nineteen and has been wheelchair-bound ever since, so brings an understanding to the subject that others might not have.

Franklin Roosevelt was born in 1882 to a well-heeled family; Theodore Roosevelt, later to be President (1901-09), was a fifth cousin. FDR was destined for success and in 1913 at 31 he became Assistant Secretary to the Navy, serving in this capacity through WW1. James Cox selected FDR as his running mate for the 1920 presidential election but lost to Warren Harding.

Then disaster struck. In 1921 FDR contracted polio, which left his legs paralysed. His political ambitions were done for. Or were they?

Urged on by his wife and close advisor Louis Howe, FDR resolved to continue in public life. He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his legs. Until his death he would spend much of his time at Warm Springs, Georgia, believing in the recuperative powers of the waters.

FDR got his big break in 1928 when the governor of New York State, Al Smith, resigned so as to run for president. He persuaded FDR to nominate for the governorship. FDR won by a whisker, then by a more than comfortable majority in 1930. Having shown that his disability was no obstacle to political leadership, he won the Democratic nomination for the 1932 presidential election, then won the election by a handsome margin (see below).

Those who know something about FDR probably think first of his speeches and his wireless fireside chats, his wonderful delivery accentuating his fine choice of words, for example:

  • I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. [First inaugural address 1933]
  • The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself [First inaugural address 1933]
  • I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. [Second inaugural address 1937]
  • The test of our 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 too little. [Second inaugural address 1937]
  • Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Could a wheelchair-bound person win a presidential election today? I doubt it especially if their politics were at variance from the mainstream media.

But things were different then. The picture on the front cover of the book is one of only two known to exist showing FDR in a wheelchair. To quote Gallagher’s book (pp.93,94):

During his first campaign for governor, FDR made it a rule that photographers were not to take pictures of him looking crippled or helpless. His actual words, said to some newsreel cameramen taking his picture as he was being helped out of a car in 1928, were “no movies of me getting out of the machine, boys.”

And from then on, remarkably, no such photographs were taken. It was an unspoken code, honoured by the White House photography corps. If, as happened once or twice, one of its members sought to violate it and try and sneak a picture of the President in his chair, one or another of the older photographers would “accidentally” knock the camera to the ground, or otherwise block the picture. Should the president himself notice someone in the crowd violating the interdiction, he would point out the offender and the Secret Service would move in, seize the camera and expose the film. This remarkable voluntary censorship was rarely violated.

Did the press’s self-imposed censorship matter? For the first three elections arguably not. FDR’s physical limitations did not materially affect his ability to serve as president. Indeed several surveys note him as one of the USA’s best presidents but by 1944 things were different. The demands of wartime leadership had taken their toll. FDR was not a well man as many could see. Key advisors Tommy Corcoran and Ben Cohen decided to tell their beloved leader that he should stand down and not contest the 1944 election, but when it came to it Corcoran couldn’t get the words out and Cohen, the ‘parfit gentil knight’* of the New Deal, chickened out and sent FDR a letter, which was ignored. FDR would contest and win the election but his fourth term ended just months later with his death on April 12, 1945 aged just 63.

  • Joseph Lash, Dealers and Dreamers p.452

Electoral College votes (FDR/others) and share of popular vote:

1932: 472/59, 57.4%;

1936: 523/8, 60.8%;

1940: 449/82, 54.7%

1944: 432/99, 53.4%

The book: FDR’s Splendid Deception, by Hugh Gregory Gallagher, Vandamere Press 1994, ISBN 0-918339-33-2

Harold Ickes: Pilgrim, Warrior or Curmudgeon?

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Back in 1991 I was in a mess. My software business was losing money. I was deep in debt, working all hours, thrashing around like a drowning swimmer. Then a friend gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received. “You’re doing yourself no good;” she said, “each week you need to take some time off work. But if you decide to do this, every week there will be some good reason why you can’t. You need to find something that forces you to take time out, whatever else is going on.”

Just then my local college (West London Institute of Higher Education as was) was running ads in my local paper, “Study for a degree, two evenings a week.” Without thinking too hard, I signed up, subject ‘Business and Computer Studies’. Unlike my first degree, this was a modular degree, made up of 18 modules each taking half a year. Full time students would take three at a time, three years; part time students, two, so four and a half years.

An extra twist was that first-year students had to take two non-cognate modules to broaden their education. I chose ‘Islam and Judaism’ and ‘American History 101’. Having really been engaged by the latter, I signed up for a further American Studies module ‘Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal’ even though this would not count towards my degree. One of my better calls.

Righteous Pilgrim

Righteous Pilgrim

Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) served as US president from 1933-1945. He died in office on April 12th 1945, just months after winning his fourth election [the two-term limit came into force in 1951]. His presidency brought many new people to the fore. One, my focus here, was Harold LeClaire Ickes, Interior Secretary, one of two cabinet members to serve through FDR’s entire term (the other being Frances Perkins, Labor Secretary). T.H.Watkins’ biography runs to 864 pages (+86 pages of footnotes) so I can only pull out a few points of interest.

Ickes’ personal life was worthy of a soap opera. He was born in Pennsylvania, 1874, had a somewhat challenging childhood. On his mother’s death, he, aged 16, moved to Chicago to live with an aunt while he worked his way through university. As an initially impecunious journalist he went to live with James and Anna Wilmarth Thompson. He had an affair with Anna and after her marriage to James broke up, married her. It was not a happy union; were his multiple affairs a cause of the unhappiness or a response to it? In 1935 Anna was killed in a car crash. Her wealth passed to Harold, leaving her children with nothing. On stepson Wilmarth’s suicide a year later, Ickes pulled strings to get the police to destroy an incriminating suicide note. All rather unsavoury.

And then, now in his sixties, he fell for the attractive Jane Dahlman, younger sister of Wilmarth’s wife and 39 years his junior. In 1938 the two of them travelled separately to Dublin, Ickes using a false name, where they were married. Finally this man, who had lived such a rollercoaster life, found security and true happiness. He died in 1952, aged 77. Jane died of heart failure in 1972, aged just 59.

Roosevelt's Warrior

Roosevelt’s Warrior

Politically, Ickes was initially a Republican, moving to support Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 Bull Moose campaign. During WW1, 1917-18, he served with the YMCA in France. Subsequently he was actively involved in Chicago politics, but was unknown nationally until 1933.

The 1932 presidential election took place during the depths of the great depression. On being elected and knowing the huge challenges ahead, FDR was keen to assemble a cabinet drawn from across the political spectrum, one that could get things done. The post of Secretary of the Interior was offered to several possibles including Hiram Johnson, a Republican Senator who had switched his support to FDR, but Johnson was uninterested. He, however, recommended an old ally, Ickes. At an age when many would be thinking of retirement, Ickes’ time had come.

Ickes had never even met Roosevelt when summoned to New York. His autobiography records FDR’s words after their first meeting:

“Mr Ickes, you and I have been speaking the same language for the last 20 years and we have the same outlook. I’m having difficulty finding the Secretary of the Interior. I want a man who can stand on his own feet. I particularly want a western man. Above all things I want a man who is honest and I have about come to the conclusion that the man I want is Harold L. Ickes of Chicago.”

The Autobiography of a Curmudgeon

The Autobiography of a Curmudgeon

History records Ickes as someone who could be difficult to work with, in his own words, a curmudgeon. In the foreword of his autobiography he notes: “If, in these pages, I have hurled an insult at anyone, be it known that such was my deliberate intent, and I may as well state flatly now that it will be useless and a waste of time to ask me to say that I am sorry.”

During his early years in office Ickes was best known to the public for his work as the director of the Public Works Administration, a New Deal agency. Billions of dollars were spent on building much-needed infrastructure whilst providing employment. Schemes like this had a long history of rorts, but under Ickes’ watch, corruption was all but eliminated.

One of Interior’s responsibilities of particular interest to Ickes were the USA’s National Parks. During his secretaryship parks were improved, extended and new ones added.

Ickes was a strong supporter of both civil rights and civil liberties. He had been the president of the Chicago National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Under his watch the Interior Department HQ’s rest rooms and canteen were desegregated as were facilities in National Parks. [Native American] Indian affairs were given a new importance.

Ickes’ finest moment came in 1939. African American contralto Marian Anderson wanted to perform at the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall but the DAR refused; only white performers were acceptable. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was outraged and resigned from the DAR: “I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist … You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed.”

What to do? Anderson’s manager, Sol Hurok, persuaded Ickes to make the Lincoln Memorial available for an open-air concert. It took place on Easter Sunday, April 9, with Ickes as MC. He spoke for two minutes making “the best speech I have ever made.” In introducing the lady who needed no introduction, he told the 75,000-strong audience:

“Genius, like justice, is blind. For Genius with the tip of her wings has touched this woman, who, if it had not been for the great mind of Jefferson, if it had not been for the great heart of Lincoln, would not be able to stand here among us, a free individual in a free land. Genius draws no color line. She has endowed Marian Anderson with such a voice as lifts any individual above his fellows and is a matter of exultant pride to any race.”

Space does not allow me any consideration of Ickes’ secretaryship during WW2. Notably he banned the supply of helium to the Hitler government, effectively bringing German airship development to a halt. At the height of WW2 Ickes held down 16 major jobs, e.g., Solid Fuels Administrator, Coordinator of Fisheries, Petroleum Administrator etc.

Following FDR’s death in office, Harry Truman, the new president, reappointed Ickes as Interior Secretary. In early 1946 a suggestion was made to Ickes that Truman’s campaign funds could benefit by $300,000 if Interior dropped its opposition to an offshore oil prospecting proposal. Ickes, “Honest Harold”, of course refused to be bought. When a Senate confirmation hearing asked about this, Ickes confirmed it was true. Truman’s response was to suggest that Ickes’ memory might have been faulty. This brought a fiercely worded resignation letter:

“… I don’t care to stay in an Administration where I am expected to commit perjury for the sake of the party…. I do not have a reputation for dealing recklessly with the truth …”

And with that Ickes’ time in government came to an end. He lived out his last six years at the farm he and Jane had bought, Headwaters Farm, near Olney, Maryland.

The books:

  • Autobiography of a Curmudgeon: by the man himself, 1943
  • Righteous Pilgrim: T.H.Watkins, 1990, ISBN 0-8050-0917-5 – the definitive biography
  • Roosevelt’s Warrior: Harold L. Ickes and the New Deal: Jeanne Nienaber Clarke, 1996, 0-8018-5094-0 – mainly covers 1933-1939 period

At the Foot of the Cherry Tree

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'At the Foot of the Cherry Tree' cover

‘At the Foot of the Cherry Tree’ cover

My first four-week trip to Australia in 1986 was going to be my last one. Life had other plans though and in 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1996 I revisited Melbourne, staying in the eastern suburb of Box Hill. The motel I stayed in was fine at the time; it now generates the most extraordinarily bad reviews (‘I would rather sleep homeless in a warzone that in this hellhole’)! In those days, Box Hill was the Korean capital of Melbourne; it’s changed significantly since then with a number of high-rise towers being built in recent years and Mandarin Chinese now being the single most spoken language in Box Hill homes.

Roll the clock forward to 2008 and I moved to Australia, not to continue the suburban life I’d left behind but for a new life in a Melbourne Docklands high-rise. Box Hill still interested me so in time I joined the Box Hill Historical Society. Our monthly talks have covered a wide range of subjects. I’ve particularly enjoyed those from members describing growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, comparing my UK experience with theirs.

July 2024’s talk was one that I went to unsure as to how interesting it would be. How wrong I was! Our guest speaker, Alli Parker, told us about her historical novel, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree. It’s a novelisation of the true story of Australia’s first Japanese war bride, Alli’s grandmother, who came to Melbourne after World War II, but only after a long hard struggle.

Alli’s grandfather, Gordon Parker (b.1928), the second of seven children, grew up in Ringwood, 10km east of Box Hill, and at 18 volunteered to serve in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) who were stationed in Kure, 20km SE of Hiroshima. Following the end of WW2, BCOF was responsible for supervising demilitarisation. On his first day there, he met Nobuko Sakuramoto (“Cherry”), a 16-year-old atomic bomb survivor, who was employed as an orderly in the BCOF camp. Despite strict anti-fraternisation rules between the Australians and Japanese, the two became friends and fell in love.

As Gordon’s service came to an end, he decided that he wanted to bring Cherry back to Melbourne as his war bride. Opposition came from all sides. Many Japanese wanted nothing to do with those they saw as responsible for the horrific bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Australians, like other allies, were all too mindful of the treatment that had been meted out to their POWs by the Japanese. Almost no one could understand why Gordon should do something so stupid as to get involved with a Japanese girl, let alone marry her – twice, at a Sinto shrine in 1948, then at a Japanese Anglican church in 1950 after he discovered the White Australia policy wouldn’t let her into the country.

The defeat of Labor in 1949 had led to a change of immigration minister: Arthur Calwell, a staunch proponent of the White Australia policy, was replaced by Harold Holt. Holt continued with the White Australia policy but “added his human touch and flexibility to hardship cases.” The press carried articles sympathetic to Gordon and Cherry’s plight which evoked a lot of public support, though not from everyone.

And then … At then end of 1951 Cherry and children were granted visas to come to Australia.  Note everyone cheered: ‘Distressed Father’ of Sale wrote to the Herald: “As a father of two sons fighting in Korea, I protest against Mr. Gordon Parker being given approval to bring his Eurasian children and Japanese wife here. We are fighting right now for the right of whites to live in their own country. We do not want Eurasian children to mix with our children in schools or anywhere else.”

The voyage to Sydney took a month. The press were in force to record the arrival of Australia’s first Japanese war bride. Trans Australia Airlines had laid on limousine to take them to the airport for the flight to Melbourne.

At the Parker home in Ringwood friends and family were gathered. A huge pile of cards and gifts from unknown well-wishers showed the better side of Australian society. On the other side, the threatening and abusive phone calls and letters would continue for months: Cherry was not allowed to answer the phone or open the mail.

Don’s father addressed the crowd. These may not have been his actual words, but they were his sentiments:

‘First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for being here today to celebrate Cherry’s arrival home. It is marvellous to see all of our family and friends here to welcome the three additions to our family in Cherry, Margaret and Kathleen. Plus the little one on the way.’

‘Today is a significant day in so many ways. It marks our family being finally reunited. It marks a change in government thinking as to who is permitted to live among all of us as our neighbours. And it marks a fundamental truth in that the power of love is stronger than any of us could have imagined. My son fell in love. Everyone told him it was the wrong type of love. His fellow soldiers. The Army. The government. But Gordon, channelling a level of stubbornness that can only be inherited from both myself and my wife, refused to listen. Why should the government decide whom he could marry?’

‘So Gordon fought. And he kept faith. Even in the face of impossible odds, he never gave up. Why? ‘Because he loved his wife, his two daughters, his third unborn child. He never stopped believing that he had a right to bring his family home. He never stopped fighting. And here we are. His belief changed a fifty-year-old immigration policy, a policy some would argue is carved in stone, to allow his family to be here today with all of us. It is my deepest wish that today be only the beginning of a long and happy life for both of you.’

And so it was. Gordon died in 2010, bringing this 62-year-old love affair to a close. In 1957 Cherry became the first Asian person to be granted Australian citizenship, though the White Australia policy would only be formally abolished in 1975. Tragically, in 1958 Gordon’s father, Harry, was killed by a drunken driver. His contribution to civic life is marked by the H.E.Parker reserve in Heathmont being named after him.

There’s so much more to this story. I’d encourage you to buy and read the book. You’ll be moved to tears by the tales of love and kindness, cruelty and prejudice. It was originally conceived as a screenplay and may yet become a film.

The book: At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker, pub. 2023 by Harper Collins Australia, ISBN 9781460763520

Life in Box Hill, one of Australia’s strongest Chinese communities (video 2:14):

Alli Parker talks about her book at the Leaf Bookshop (video 17:46)

Alli Parker talks about her book: Better Reading podcast  (video 32:20)

Warm welcome arranged for Japanese wife (Australian Women’s Weekly, July 1952)

Where goes Africa?

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Inside Africa frontispiece

Inside Africa frontispiece

In recent months I’ve been re-reading a chunk of John Gunther’s Inside Africa, mainly the chapters relating to what were British colonies. It runs to 960 pages (the index takes up 40) and recounts the author’s experience of travelling the continent with his wife during 1952-53. They visited 105 towns and cities and he took notes on conversations with1,503 people.

It was a time when nearly two hundred million Africans were ruled, for the most part, by five million white Europeans. But, as Macmillan would note in 1960, “the wind of change is blowing through [Africa]. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”

Gunther saw this this desire to shake off colonialism, talking to many emerging leaders, but on page 10 notes: “Many Europeans think that Africans, if they become free, will make a botch of freedom. But this remains to be seen. They also say that African exploitation of Africans could be worse than European …”.

But the desire for freedom could not be supressed. I just remember from my 1960s childhood seeing every few months on TV news another independence ceremony when a Union Jack was lowered, a new national flag taking its place, raised in a spirit of hope and optimism. As far as Africa is concerned the last sixty years, sadly, have proved otherwise.

At church we are currently studying the book of Exodus dating back more than three thousand years. Even if you’re not Jewish or Christian you almost certainly know the plot. The Israelites find themselves enslaved by the Egyptians, the ever-increasing oppression leading God through Moses to cry: “Let my people go.” And finally the moment arrives when they make their miraculous escape through the Red Sea on to a life of paradise in a land of milk of honey.

Save that it didn’t work out that way. No sooner were they free than the complaints started. People were telling one another that they’d be better off in Egypt [Ex.16:3]. Moses was worn out settling disputes between people [18:13-26] and when they were given a set of laws – the Ten Commandments [20:1-17] – for the better regulation of society they forgot them in no time. It would be decades before they (or rather their descendants) were able to enjoy a settled society. The 40 years spent wandering in the wilderness was for many a lifetime.

What of Africa? We’ve seen terrible things happen in so many African countries: thousands dead in the Matabele massacres, vast numbers dying as a result of the Biafran civil war, Rwandan genocide and other conflicts. Up to the 1970s South Korea  and Zimbabwe enjoyed much the same per-capita GDP. Now the ratio is something like 24:1. And that’s not because Zimbabwe has nothing going for it: it used to be called the bread bowl of Africa, has massive mineral resources, at independence was left with pretty good infrastructure (rail the legacy of Rhodes) and has one of the greatest sights in the world in the Victoria Falls. What has it lacked? There’s a good summary here.

But perhaps it doesn’t have to be like this. Check out this 2008 paper by Icelandic Economics professor Thorvaldur Gylfason:

“Believe it or not: in 1901, Iceland’s per capita national output was about the same as that of Ghana today. Today, Iceland occupies first place in the United Nations’ ranking of material success according to the Human Development Index that reflects longevity, adult literacy, and schooling as well as the purchasing power of peoples’ incomes. Can Iceland’s rags-to-riches story be replicated in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world? If so, what would it take?”

The author’s answer can be found here. The now 1.3 billion Africans were ‘freed’ from colonialism in the 1960s by the winds of change observed by Macmillan. They now deserve to be freed from poverty and bad government. “Formerly one of the world’s poorest countries—with a GDP per capita of about US$70 per year in the late 1960s—Botswana has since transformed itself into an upper middle income country, with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.” shows us what can be done.

A literary wall quiz

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For much of my adult life in UK each new year was seen in at a party given by my dear friends Arthur and Betty, both, sadly, no longer with us. The evening included a number of regular events, terminating in a short meditation and prayer for the new year, then listening to BBC radio for the chimes of Big Ben which would be the sign for glasses to be raised, “Happy New Year”.

My contribution to the evening was to compile a wall quiz, the questions being written on Post-It notes which were spread round the house. Finding all twenty was one challenge, answering the questions another. Here are the questions from 2007, though you won’t get far if you’re not into English literature. Feel free to copy and use if you wish. I’ll post the answers as a comment in a day or two.

Each of the people below is the leading character in a novel. Name them. The date when the book was published is in brackets

1. Given to matchmaking (1816)
2. Cedric, heir of the Earl of Dorincourt (1886)
3. Mentored by Mr Micawber (1850)
4. The boy who wouldn’t grow up (1904)
5. You may think this one somewhat obscure (1895)
6. Nobody (1892)
7. She met an angel but was hanged for murder (1891)
8. Finds her own Mr Darcy (1996)
9. She’s dead but her presence hangs over her successor (1938)
10. Expelled from chapel after being wrongly accused of theft (1861)
11. The opposite of Flashman (1857)
12. He married the widow of a fellow matchbox collector. Revisit this clue if it’s too hard (1945)
13. Not just a card (1911)
14. Sold his wife (1886)
15. She came not from one place but five (1902)
16. The ends of her roof were eco-friendly (1908)
17. She always looked on the bright side of life (1913)
18. Finds dreadful secret in the attic (1847)
19. Hides dreadful portrait in the attic (1891)
20. They seek him everywhere (1905)

Enjoy!

The Blue Lake

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David Sornig

David Sornig, author

Ten days ago I had the pleasure of attending the official launch of David Sornig’s new book, Blue Lake. The lake, also known less flatteringly as the West Melbourne Swamp, was situated just north of where I live in Melbourne’s Docklands. In pre-settlement times it was a meeting place and rich hunting ground for Aboriginals, but over time it became a dumping ground and a place to situate noxious trades, then between the wars it then became the home of the notorious Dudley Flats, a shanty town where the lowest of the the low lived. It’s now been taken over by the dockland and urban freeways.

David Sornig tells the story through three residents: Elsie Williams, a singer of Afro-Caribbean descent, once billed as “the Coloured Nightingale”; Lauder Rogge, a German-born sailor who, though a naturalised Australian, was interned during World War I; and Jack Peacock, a stunt rider, horse trader and scrap dealer who made a good living on Dudley Flats.

I’m currently about one third through the book and it’s proving an interesting read.