WENDELL WILLKIE, 1892-1944
Republican, Indiana
1940 Electoral College Result:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (W) 449 – Wendell Willkie (L) 82
A product of two Hoosier (Indiana natives) lawyers, Wendell Willkie also became an attorney and a corporate executive. He earned a generous $36,000 a year, in 1929, as a law partner in the New York firm of Weadlock & Willkie. He made his political mark as a critic of FDR’s New Deal policies. After his defeat, his book One World – which was published in 1943, and argued against colonialism and imperialism – sold over two million copies. He was also known for his progressive civil rights views.
For several years the government has taken definite action to show its hostility to business. It must now take definite action to demonstrate the sincerity of its desire to cooperate…The chief reason why government officials and business men fail to understand each other is because one thinks and speaks the language of politics and emotionalism, while the other thinks and speaks the language of economics and realism. - Wilkie
Too much power in the hands of a few men; use of money to influence political decisions; manipulation of the markets; destruction of all opposition – these were the charges hurled against the economic monopolies of the first quarter century. They are the charges which we make today against the present form of government. The banners used by the true liberals today are the same banners used by the liberals in that other time. -Wilkie
No man has the right in America to treat any other man ‘tolerantly,' for ‘tolerance’ is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are the equal rights of every citizen.
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