Stop Throwing Pop Bottles at the Umpire!

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Stop Throwing Pop Bottles at the Umpire!

Letters to President Roosevelt Concerning the Court Packing Proposal

The Roosevelt Administration received thousands of letters during the Court Packing crisis, and used those letters to bolster their claim that the American people backed the President's proposal. Indeed, favorable letters in the archives of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library outnumber anti-Roosevelt correspondence by approximately three to one. However, public opinion polls taken at the time by the newly-created Gallup Research Corporation revealed a more evenly divided public.

The following are twenty-two letters from the archives of the FDR Library. The writers reflect a broad range of opinions concerning the Court Packing controversy and clearly demonstrate the attention the American public gave to the matter. With the exception of the publisher Frank Gannett, whose call-to-arms was received—and passed on to the President—by hundreds of attorneys and prominent local leaders, the identity of these writers has been withheld to respect their privacy.

Date	Author	Location	Quote
February 6, 1937	W— H—	No Location Given	"the disagreements come from representatives of "economic royalists" who want no reform that is not re-formed in their favor."
February 11, 1937	P— M— D—	Orlando, Florida	"you can match Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler both as to rubber stamp legislatures and rubber stamp courts"
February 13, 1937	A— F— H—	Beloit, Wisconsin	"I am behind you with my support and I find that all ordinary and common people with whom I come in contact are behind you too."
February 14, 1937	J— E— D—	Summit, New Jersey	"I feel that the method you have chosen to correct this situation constitutes a direct blow at the independence of the judiciary"
February 14, 1937	R— H—	South Orange, New Jersey	"STICK TO YOUR GUNS THE HUMBLE AND THE WEAK AND THE YOUNG ... ARE STILL WITH YOU"
February 16, 1937	D— P— D—	Schenectady, New York	"I pray that you will not put in the hands of future enemies of liberalism such weapons of power as the precedent set by your recent Court Proposal would do"
February 17, 1937	Mrs. A— D—L—	Saranac Lake, New York	"You are now attempting to make changes in the judiciary. I am at direct odds with you on the Court issue. I can no longer follow you, boost you"
February 20, 1937	C— P— H—, D.D.S.	Grand Rapids, Michigan	"The big corporations, the big bankers and the same crowd which opposed you last fall are against you now."
February 21, 1937	A— N— D—, Jr.	White Plains, New York	"Please stop throwing pop-bottles at the umpire. The Supreme Court is only calling them as it honestly sees them."
March 1, 1937	Frank Gannett	St. Louis, Missouri	"The fight to protect our Supreme Court from subordination to the executive CAN BE WON."
March 5, 1937	W— H—	Oakley, California	"The workingmen are 100 percent with you and approve of your Judicial Actions."
March 7, 1937	R. L. H—	St. Louis, Missouri	Get your own men on the Supreme Court bench— men who think of and for the common people of America— not for the privileged few.
March 8, 1937	H— H—	New York City, New York	"His name is Franklin Roosevelt, 1 fine old chap, But when the N.R.A. came in there was an awful scrap."
March 8, 1937	E— D—	New York City, New York	"I could scarcely believe... that you really advocated such a dangerous un-American, and short-sighted program."
March 8, 1937	M— D—	Ransom, Kansas	"This letter is against your proposal for changing the Supreme Court and I trust your secretary will get it in the right category"
March 9, 1937	A. Democrat	Portland, Oregon	"A life long Democrat I cannot stomach this Supreme Court proposal."
March 10, 1937	D.G. D—, M.D.	Endicott, New York	"It does seem that a five-four vote is a difference of opinion rather than a decision."
March 10, 1937	R— B— D—	New York City, New York	"Your chat last night had the dangerous ring of a speech of a demagogue. You are leading the poor, ignorant people into errors"
March 12, 1937	C— F— H—	St. Louis, Missouri	The voters got a "crack" at the reactionary Hoover and Herbie is no more... so why can they not have a voice in the retirement of McReynolds and several others.
March 12, 1937	F— J— D—	Yonkers, New York	Your metaphor about the three horses fastened to the plow is most unfortunate.... the Supreme Court was never intended to be a plow horse
April 5, 1937	H— B— D—, M.D.	Minneapolis, Minnesota	"it is you, Mr. President, who is preventing the plowing from being done."
July 19, 1937	R— W— D—	New York City, New York	"The masses of the people who have supported you... do not wish to risk a major defeat now"