Charles Henry Tuttle Quotes
The Governor has been as blind, deaf and dumb as Tammany Hall could wish him to be.
Roosevelt’s first gubernatorial term was shaken by the Stock Market Crash and the Failure of the Banks 1929 and the passivity of the Herbert Hoover administration in Washington in coping with the economy and the Great Depression. Reform of Tammany Hall and other State problems took a back seat to trying to create jobs and stabilize the state economy. The Republican candidate Tuttle could not argue against FDR’s economic policies as he would then have to defend President Hoover who was becoming exceedingly unpopular. So he went after the corruption of the Tammany Hall Machine and Roosevelt’s relative passivity. The voters were ok with FDR’s priorities.
Charles Henry Tuttle, 1879–1971, Unsuccessful Republican Candidate for New York State Governor, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Campaign Attack on then Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1932
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Tammany Hall was the political machine that controlled New York City in the first half of the 20th century.
Roosevelt was running again for the presidency, however this time as a Third Party Candidate. He lost to Woodrow Wilson but outpolled the Republicans. This was the Third Party performance since Abraham Lincoln.
San Francisco Machine Boss Abraham At that time, there were very few jurisdictions with primary elections. Most, like California, selected the party candidates at party conventions. At the time the Railroads had bribed or employed enough delegates to the Party Convention to veto any candidate they did not like. And Pardee was in their sights as he was a supporter of the Theodore Roosevelt concept of preservation of public lands. That meant less land for the Railroads to obtain, develop, build a railroad line and station in the area and then sell the land in smaller parcels at a huge profit.
