Part III: THE FEUD WITH FRANK
This essay is the third in a four-part series on the life and career of Senator Patrick Anthony McCarran (D-Nev.) An accidental icon in American insurance history.
Beginning in 1920, Patrick A. McCarran and Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew each other. The years between, 1924 and 1929 found the two men distantly allied in the effort to elect New York Governor Al Smith to the presidency. After Roosevelt’s election to the governorship of New York, and Smith failed presidential campaign, the relationship between Roosevelt and Smith faltered, which poisoned McCarran’s view of Roosevelt.
Roosevelt entered national politics in 1912, at the same time that McCarran first won a seat on the Nevada Supreme Court. Then a New York State Senator, Roosevelt attended the Democratic National Convention. His boisterous demonstrations on Woodrow Wilson’s behalf caught the attention of a Wilson confidante, who happened to be an insurance executive.
The executive, George L. P. Ratcliffe of The Fidelity and Deposit Insurance Company of Baltimore, Maryland (The F&D), would mentor Roosevelt’s private and public sector career for many years to come.
But this discussion of the Roosevelt-Radcliff connection gets ahead of our story. Let us return to Roosevelt and McCarran’s sour relationship.
In 1920, the doomed James M. Cox for President Campaign sent the vice-presidential candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on a Western tour. Like most presidential campaigns, the Cox people had no idea what “to do with the VP.” So, they put Roosevelt on a train and told him to talk to people in the West. As the Ohio Governor and newspaper publisher’s electoral fortunes faltered, reports from the West became more glowing about Roosevelt.
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