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Chapter 24: Governor of New York
The bustling office of the Navy Department in Washington faded from Leo’s consciousness like a sepia-toned photograph.
The scene shifted again.
This time, the impact was stronger than any before it.
Leo saw Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair.
In 1921, an unexpected bout of polio robbed him of his ability to walk.
He was no longer young. Years of illness and political battles had etched deep wrinkles into his face, and his temples were streaked with gray.
But there he sat, his back straight as ever.
His eyes were firmer, deeper—eyes that had endured hellish suffering and risen again.
He was on the steps of the New York State Capitol, hand on the Bible, taking the oath of office as Governor of New York.
His voice, amplified by microphones and broadcast across the state, carried a strength that no illness could destroy.
Less than a year into his term, on October 29, 1929—Black Tuesday—the stock market on Wall Street collapsed like an avalanche.
An unprecedented economic depression began to spread rapidly from New York, engulfing the entire United States and, eventually, the world.
"My third step," Roosevelt's voice-over intoned, now heavy with gravitas, "was to govern a region and create a model."
"Fate gave me its harshest test—and its most precious opportunity."
Leo’s perspective soared like an eagle circling above crisis-stricken New York State.
He witnessed heart-wrenching scenes.
In Buffalo, once-bustling factories lay silent, their chimneys smokeless, their gates chained shut.
In New York City, angry and desperate crowds gathered outside banks. Their life savings vanished as the banks collapsed.
In rural farms, milk was poured into rivers because prices had plummeted below the cost of transportation, while children in cities went hungry.
Millions were unemployed.
They wore thin clothes, standing in long lines in the biting winter winds, hoping for a bowl of free soup and a slice of relief bread.
Leo could “feel” the despair and fear suffocating society.
President Herbert Hoover, ensconced in the White House, stubbornly clung to outdated classical liberal economic principles.
He assured the nation that "prosperity is just around the corner." He believed government should not intervene in the economy, trusting the free market’s mythical self-healing powers.
All he could do was urge business owners not to lay off workers and philanthropists to donate more.
These words rang hollow against the backdrop of a massive economic crisis.
But in Albany, the capital of New York State, the governor’s office told a different story.
The lights burned all night.
Roosevelt summoned some of the brightest and boldest minds in America to his side.
Economists from Columbia University, law professors from Harvard, seasoned social workers, and even some reform-minded businessmen who despised Wall Street.
They gathered here, forming what would later be called the "Brain Trust."
Together with Roosevelt, they worked tirelessly to design a bold treatment plan for an economy on the brink of death.
Leo’s perspective zeroed in on the policies that would later become the prototypes of the New Deal, as they took shape step by step in New York State.
He saw the establishment of the first state-level "Temporary Emergency Relief Administration" in New York.
This was a groundbreaking move.
For the first time, it established that providing relief to the unemployed was an irrefutable responsibility of the government—not charity from the wealthy.
Leo’s perspective followed an unemployed construction worker.
He hadn’t worked in months, and his family was starving.
He walked into the newly opened relief center, submitted an application.
A few days later, he received his first cash relief payment.
Holding those crumpled bills, the man, in his forties, stood at the entrance of the relief center, tears streaming down his face like a child.
That money wasn’t just money—it was his dignity as a human being.
Leo saw large-scale public works projects unfold across New York State.
Thousands of unemployed workers were hired by the government, picking up their familiar tools once more.
They were no longer aimless wanderers.
They planted millions of trees in the suburbs of New York City and built new parks.
They constructed hiking trails and fire lookout towers in the Adirondack Mountains.
On Long Island, they built new highways connecting the city to the beaches.
What they gained wasn’t just a paycheck—it was the pride of transforming their homeland through their labor.
Leo watched Roosevelt sign one reform bill after another at his desk.
He reformed New York State’s banking regulatory system, forcing bankers to strictly separate depositors’ funds from their high-risk speculative activities.
He pushed for rural electrification programs, bringing electric lights to thousands of farmers for the first time.
To protect ordinary investors, he established specialized regulatory agencies to combat financial fraud on Wall Street.
These policies were attacked by conservative newspapers and businessmen as "poisonous weeds."
But they brought tangible hope to ordinary people struggling in the crisis.
"That was the true foundation of my eventual rise to the White House, the real reason I earned the absolute trust of the people."
Roosevelt’s voice-over was filled with power.
"I proved to the entire nation, through New York State’s successful experiments, through those real jobs, through those relief payments handed to the unemployed, that my methods worked."
"I proved that the government can—and must—be the protector of the people in times of crisis."
"I proved that I could save this great nation from the depths of the Great Depression."
All the images disappeared.
Leo’s consciousness returned to his tiny apartment.
Roosevelt’s narration had ended.
Leo was silent for a long time.
For the first time, he saw a clear path from a young, inexperienced idealist to the pinnacle of power.
"Do you see it, Leo?" Roosevelt concluded. "Each stage of this journey has a clear goal. Its core is simple: enter it, use it, and ultimately transcend it."
"Now, let’s return to the opportunity before you."
"The Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations—this position sounds nice but holds no real power. It’s a trap, a gilded cage designed to lock you away, making you spend your days dealing with trivial neighborhood disputes until all your fighting spirit is ground away."
"We cannot accept this position."
"But we can use this opportunity, leveraging Cartwright’s eagerness to co-opt you, to demand something truly valuable—a starting point where we can begin accumulating strength and building a model."
"What kind of starting point?" Leo asked.
Roosevelt smiled.
"A place where we can transform the prestige we gained in the community center battle into enduring institutional power."
"A position Cartwright considers insignificant but is crucial for us."
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