He [Harold Ross] was reminded of a pleasant afternoon that the two of them [Ross and Mrs. Roosevelt] had spent a few years earlier, talking for hours as they rode along in Mrs. Roosevelt's sedan. At one point the former First Lady suddenly allowed as how “old people ought to be bumped off when their usefulness is done.” . . . [H]er remark took Ross by surprise. “I mildly raised the question of who would make the decision as to when the moment had come,” he recalled,” and she didn't have a ready answer for that. —Thomas Kunkel, Genius in Disguise: Harold Ross of The New Yorker (1995)
This brief scene from Kunkel's biography of Harold Ross captures in miniature the whole story of progressivism in America.
Let's have Eleanor Roosevelt represent the progressives, those in government imposing progressivism by the power of government and the ones outside of government cheering on the progressive project. She is perfect for that role. Ross, then, makes an interesting choice to represent the rest of us. Like many Americans who overcame impossible odds to achieve much in life—one thinks of Lincoln, Grant, Edison, many others—he does not look the part (he's a “genius in disguise”). And as with many ordinary Americans, he was not greatly interested in politics; he always resented how the horrors of the 20th century kept interfering with his vision of a magazine dedicated to great writing and sophisticated humor.
Read Full Article »