Live coverage begins at 3 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. [cheering] we want willkie we want willkie we want willkie i stand before you without a single pledge or promise or understanding of any kind except for the advancement of your cause and the preservation of american democracy. [applause] as your nominee, i will have an aggressive fighting campaign. [applause] we want willkie the republicans in we want wi llkie. Wendell willkie ran for president in 1940. These are some images of him on the campaign trail. We are here with david willkie, his grandson. I want you to introduce the audience to some of the fervor. As were seeing from these Iconic Images from the 1940s campaign that surrounded your grandfather as he ran for president and tried to defeat Franklin Delano roosevelt, who was seeking a third term. What an exciting time in the country. We are entering the end of the hoover administration, eight years of the Roosevelt Administration. President roosevelt was right at the height of his power. That opened up a place for a dark horse candidate to come outside of the political spectrum. Keep in mind the state of the Republican Party. This was a party defeated by roosevelt in 1932. He defeated Herbert Hoover. What were the republicans looking for and why was your grandfather the person they chose . Nobody else had run for a third term before, going back to the time of george washington. When washington stepped down, no one had even dreamed of running for a third term for the presidency. When roosevelt announced that he did, it changed the whole dynamic of what was out there. Certainly looking at europe, world war ii, the nazis were going over to northern europe. It certainly opened up a time in which the republicans said, what do we do . It was the Republican Party that had Herbert Hoover who was hoping the party would come back to him. U. S. Senator thomas dewey of new york. U. S. Senator taft from ohio mr. Republican. This was a convention in philadelphia that went for six ballots. Nobody had come from the business side. Nobody had come from, how do we create jobs in the country . Nobody was actually doing that except for Wendell Willkie. He certainly rose up and had an electric personality and Magnetic Energy about him. You obviously never knew your grandfather. As you talk to family members who knew him, he died at the age of 52. We will learn more about his life. Why did he ultimately decide to run for the nomination . He did set the groundwork in 1939 for a possible president ial bid in 1940. He was always interested in politics from a very young age, even from growing up in his hometown of elwood, indiana, which is just up the road from here. He talked about it in his life, in his childhood with his parents, when they got to college in Indiana University. It was always an integral part of his life. We are in rushville, indiana, one of the homes of Wendell Willkie. We are inside the Historical Society. We will show you around coming up during the program. I want to turn back here and look at this postcard. If you can explain what this is, it may be representative of the campaign. This is a wooden postcard sent through the United States mail, sent from aberdeen, washington. All of the people in the town actually signed the back of the postcard to say we want willkie. We would like to have wendell wilkilkie run for the presidenc. What was the Campaign Like . You had your willkie clubs. You had boxes of buttons and banners. They were distributed around the country and some are on display here. People wanted something new and different that they had not had before. This is where the willkie name started to take off. Here was someone who had challenged the new deal successfully. He had been a strong proponent of individual freedom and liberty. People were drawn to the message. We are about a block off of main street. Your mother, Wendell Willkies daughter in law, lived a few indiana. The significance of this home to your family. It was my grandmothers home town. Although my grandfather grew up in elwood, when they married, this was the place they generally called home. In the family, my great great grandfather had lost his shirt during the depression. Instead of giving his father in law a handout, what Wendell Willkie did was buy farmland. He asked his fatherinlaw if he would manage it. How much time did he spend in rushville . On and off. Especially while he was in new york. His wife and his son would come back constantly, but during the campaign this was the , headquarters. We are in rushville. Where is elwood . Rushville is any east central indiana. Elwood is in the northeastern part of the state, north of rushville about an hour and a half from here, a little over an hour from indianapolis in madison county. Why is elwood so important to the 1940 campaign . For my grandfather, what he chose to do to accept the nomination, he held the acceptance speech in elwood, indiana. Still to this day, it is the largest political rally ever in the history of indiana. In the books here at the Historical Society, they said the people were honking horns and cheering that the hometown boy was the republican nominee. Something that seems improbable going into philadelphia. No question. He was the dark horse. During the nomination speech, you had stories of beer cans many feet high. It was such a hot, sweltering indiana day. It was a carnival atmosphere with books and paraphernalia. Some of it you may see here today. David willkie, who is the grandson of Wendell Willkie. Well be checking in with you over the next two hours. As we continue the series, the contenders, tonight we are coming to you from rushville, indiana. In a moment, well be joined by author and historian amity shlaes, the author of the forgotten man, and jim madison professor of history at , the university of indiana. We are going to show you the scene in elwood, indiana, and the speech by Wendell Willkie as i walk into the next room and guestsce to you our coming up in a minute and half. I say that we must substitute for the philosophy of the scarcity, the philosophy of unlimited productivity. [applause] i stand for the restoration of full production and reemployment by private enterprise in america. [applause] the new deals effect on business has had the inevitable results. The investor has been appraised to has been afraid to invest his capital. Therefore billions of dollars , lie idle in our banks. The businessman has been afraid to expand his operations. Millions of men have been returned from the unemployment office. Low incomes in the city and irresponsible experiments in the country have deprived the farmer of his market. For the first time in history, american industry has remained stationary for a full decade. I charge that the course this administration is following will lead us like france to the end of the road. I say that this course will lead us to economic disintegration and dictatorship. I say that we must substitute for the philosophy of spending, the philosophy of production. You cannot buy freedom. You must make freedom. [applause] from elwood, indiana, in august of 1942 the Rush County Historical Society here in rushville, indiana. This is one of the postage stamps from 1992, a 75 cent stamp celebrating the centennial of Wendell Willkies birth. Amity shlaes is with the george w. Bush institute in dallas, texas. James madison, you have been a professor of history at Indiana University. Let me begin with that speech he gave in elwood, indiana. It lays the groundwork for why he was challenging Franklin Delano roosevelt. He ran against roosevelt and against the new deal and against the kind of policies and politics represented by the new deal. We will have a Good Opportunity to talk about those in detail. Let me just say that it was a fairly standard political speech, but not a fairly standard political rally. As david said, it was a massive rally. 150,000 to 200,000 people in the small indiana town in august at a time when as hoosiers say, you can hear the corn grow. It was 102 degrees that afternoon when willkie took the podium. He spoke with eloquence, yet the atmosphere was such that the speech was a bit flat in terms of the audience, in terms of the reception. It was not the best start for the campaign. We now know looking back that it was rather indicative of the campaign itself and some of the disorganization and difficulties that the amateur newcomer had. In making his case as to why the American People should vote roosevelt out of office and not allow him a third term. One note about the speech, it was heard on radio by millions of americans. This was the time for radio. People sat by the radio and listened intently. Amity shlaes, you have written extensively about the new deal. This is now eight years after Franklin Roosevelt promised a new deal for the American People, yet unemployment still in the double digits, still a lot of concern about the economy. Why was this the year the republicans turned to an outsider . Probably the only time in modern American History that a nonmilitary, nonpolitician was the party nominee. This was an incredible political expression. I see the speech as a enormous success of some kind. The Republican Party was failing the country. It was not giving an answer to what the democrats had offered. The democrats were not delivering recovery. The recovery was choosing to stay away. What willkie was an expression of his people. The gop had never expected a rally like that. It was a genuine grassroots event of a kind that is very rare in the u. S. You start way down there and get to the nomination for president. Let me ask the large question. Why him . What did he do to try to lay the groundwork that allowed the party to turn to this outsider, this businessman from indiana who spent some time in new york as the 1940 nominee . It is easy to underestimate willkie. The professional, the long term career politicians did just that. They underestimated this fellow. He did have now political experience to speak of. He had never ran for office. He never held office. He was a businessman, a lawyer, but very smart and very sophisticated. I think it is relevant that his business experience was really, in a way, political experience. He was a wonderful communicator. He knew how to work with people. He knew how to make a case, how to make an argument the kind of skills he deployed as a president ial candidate. Yet Alice Roosevelt longworth was quoted as saying it was a , grassroots of 1000 country clubs. You are smiling. The Grassroots Campaign is part of the politics of politicking. We the people was truly grassroots in what it intended, but willkie was not a common man. He was a wealthy corporate lawyer and businessman. He had an agricultural interest, but he was not a farmer. He said he farmed by conversation, not by actually farming. He was far from the grass roots, but he tried to appeal to the grassroots, the people of the grassroots. Amity shlaes, lets talk about the 1940 convention. This had the governor of minnesota delivering the speech. Longtime president ial candidate. Herbert hoover, former president , who is hoping the party would turn to him one more time. Tom dewey, and, of course, robert taft, who is hoping the party would turn to him. We get in a little trouble when we draw analogies. Dewey was the prosecutor from new york who overrated himself. We often have new yorkers come out and think they are going to win especially when they have a , legal background. Taft was mr. Republican. People had heard about him before. Taft was a name. We had a president called taft. That was not particularly new. Herbert hoover a wonderful man of talent who had become a great vanity. He was getting in the way of the progress of the party because he kept wanting to run again. His time was probably past. What was exciting about willkie was he went to hear Herbert Hoover and could not bear that hoover would hog the nomination. Hog the party. He said, let it be someone i have heard about. In that way willkie was , grassroots. He, himself, was not of the grass entirely. He was chosen by people who were revolting against the party. The other names were the party. Willkie came in as somebody different, not who we expected should not who we expected. He retired and an exciting man. I think for many people, it was none of the above. It was the perfect atmosphere for an outsider who promises and looks very different from the republican standard of the late 1930s. What was the state of the democratic party, amity shlaes, and Franklin Roosevelt and his support in 1940, eight years after the new deal at a time when most president s would step down . Tonguetied because roosevelts victory, 46 out of 48 states in the preceding election was so hard to get , past. Even as the party was beginning to get past it, this idea of having a third term the war was coming closer. War in 1940 had already been declared in europe. Germans had invaded poland and britain. All of a sudden, roosevelt was just when you say roosevelt could not run again, roosevelt was a naval president. All of a sudden, people bit their tongue or were tonguetied and did not protest against roosevelt. Still, it was quite amazing that here they were for a third time. Professor madison, the headlines in the summer of 1940 with willkie as the republican nominee, hitler moving to france and declaring victory. Juxtapose the politics of 1940 and the looming clouds of war. James willkie it worked very much to advantage that france surrendered to the nazis before the convention began. That turned americas attention very forcefully to this war in europe. They did not want to be a part of it, they knew it might mean we needed a wartime leader. Insevelt looked a lot better that context than did any of the republicans. Host we are coming to you with some of the scenes from the Rush County Historical Society in rush county indiana, about an hour from indianapolis and one of the homes of Wendell Wilkie. He was born in elwood, indiana. Our focus this week is on Wendell Wilkie and we want to hear from you. There are so many images from that campaign, tickertape parades that we dont see in modern campaigns. Why was that significant and what does that tell you about the support that he had from certain sectors of the public . James of course, there is no television. The candidate has to get out there with the people. He spends a lot of time crossing the country on trains. Retail politics in towns and cities across america with all the hoopla and stuff that gets people engaged and excited about the campaign. Host was Franklin Roosevelt worried about Wendell Wilkie . Amity i think he enjoyed it. He says im not going to pretend this is an unpleasant duty for me. Franklin roosevelt was a warrior and wilkie was a warrior and both of them enjoyed that process. He respected him as a contender from the beginning. You see him dropping comments, that one i am worried about, unlike the others. He was ready for the battle. Host we are going to hear from Franklin Roosevelt in a moment, but who are some of the names our audience might be familiar with . James . Willkie had the good fortune to meet people in the newspaper and Publishing Business in particular who bought in by the barrel. Russell fortune, who is the editor of forbes magazine, rita vandoren, the book editor of the tribune, henry luce of time life and others. These people in the publishing world like him very much and were very strong behind the scene working for his nomination and election. Host and yet he was a democrat before becoming the republican nominee. Amity in that way, he had more credibility. He backed the league of nations, he was wilsonian and was a democrat right up until 1935. You can find documents with willkie associated with democrats. That gave him more power because he was a dark horse and not a party man and he had become a republican out of conviction. He saw from the inside what was wrong with the democratic philosophy of government. When you look at the beginning of his career as a businessman, he thought he was a utilities businessman and he came to see the government was hurting the private Utilities Company and grew angry. So it was speaking truth to power. That is what willkie represented. And it was real. He was angry with what happened to his company and shareholders. There was something fresh about it. It was not canned. Hed seen his shareholders lose money and his company be hurt. Thats different than somebody observing from the political sphere. Host and the Unemployment Rate in 1940 was what . Amity the Unemployment Rate was 10 or below. It is a little muddy because you are moving toward world war ii, but the average rate was in the teens. Thats the important thing to know. Some say 14, some say 16. Its the difference between terrible and awful. Host talking about unemployment and jobs in hoboken, new jersey. Were going to listen to part of that and part of the recordings of president roosevelt in the oval office from 1940 as willkie he discusses the discusses the willkie challenge. There are things as i was dried that struck me as i was driving up the streets of hoboken, a vacant store window had pictures of my opponent and his associates on the new deal