1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN DELANO (1882-), American politician, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y., Jan. 30 1882. He was a distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt. He was educated at Groton, Harvard (A.B. 1904), and the Columbia Law School (LL.B. 1907). He was admitted to the bar in 1907 and began practice in New York City. He began his public career in 1910 when he was elected to the New York State Senate, being the first Democrat in 28 years to represent his district. He was an anti-Tammany man and was associated with the group that successfully opposed the Tammany candidate for the U.S. Senate in the session of 1911-2. In 1912 he was reëlected to the New York State Senate. The same year he strongly supported Woodrow Wilson for president and on the latter's election was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913. He then resigned from the New York Senate. In 1915 he was a member of the National Committee of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. After America's entrance into the World War he went to Europe in 1918 to attend conferences and to inspect the U.S. naval forces, and early in 1919 was in charge of their demobilization. He was a supporter of the League of Nations; he indorsed woman suffrage and was a strong advocate of civil-service reform for the post-office and consular appointments. At the Democratic National Convention in 1920 he was unanimously nominated for vice-president on the ticket with James M. Cox, but was defeated in the ensuing election.