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More significant than the gloom among the sedentary, grumbling Republican professionals was the continued parade of bolters to Willkie, evidencing the belief that this man's cause was just, even if he was a successful businessman.
Biggest bolt was the New York Times supporter of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936, and a bolter only twice before in its history—both times against William Jennings Bryan, 1896, 1908. The Times gave 2,500 reasoned words for its shift, but to the public and the rest of the press the simple fact was sufficient.
Other bolters-of-the-week: Walter N. Rothschild, director of Abraham & Straus, huge Brooklyn department store; the Oregon Journal, traditionally Democratic Portland paper; Bess Streeter Aldrich, best-selling novelist and Hollywood scenarist; former Democratic Governor Charles H. Martin of Oregon, former Democratic Governor William A. Comstock of Michigan, Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Schrembs of Cleveland.
With these new seconds in his corner, Willkie came through at San Francisco with a wholly successful speech. This time he struck clean, solid blows. Said he:
"I charge that this Administration has contributed to the downfall of European democracy. I charge it must bear a direct share of the responsibility for the present war. . . ." He flatly accused Franklin Roosevelt of having wrecked the London Economic Conference of 1933: "For a short time after his inauguration he did indeed regard the London economic conference with favor. He did not, however, see it for what it was: A magnificent opportunity for the leader of the world's greatest democracy to do something tangible to rehabilitate the democratic world.
"On the contrary, after his delegates had arrived in London, Mr. Roosevelt, violently and without warning, repudiated the instructions he had given them. Sitting in a boat off the coast of Maine, he hastily adopted a brand-new experimental monetary program for the United States. He denounced the proposal of the conference as a 'specious fallacy.' . . .
"This rash decision wrecked the conference, and put an end to any immediate hope for stabilized international exchange. ... It thus weakened the structure of the democratic world and opened the way to the aggressive designs of Hitler.
"Four years after the London Conference, after Mr. Roosevelt was inaugurated a second time . . . there were two things that the United States should have done. First, we should have assured the domestic recovery that the democratic world was waiting for. And secondly, we should have taken immediate steps to repair the damage in 1933 at the London economic conference. We should have adopted a vigorous policy for the promotion of trade and commerce. We should have set about creating a strong and prosperous era of peace.
"But on Jan. 20, 1937, when Mr. Roosevelt was inaugurated for a second term, what did he undertake as his first great job? A scheme for packing the Supreme Court of the United States.