Louis Howe

Louis Howe
Howe (left) and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932
Secretary to the President
In office March 4, 1933 – April 18, 1936
President	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Walter Newton
Succeeded by	James Roosevelt
Personal details
Born	Louis McHenry Howe January 14, 1871 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Died	April 18, 1936 (1936-04-19) (aged 65) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Nationality	American
Spouse	Grace (m. 1899)
Occupation	journalist, political aide
Known for	political advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt

Louis McHenry Howe (January 14, 1871 – April 18, 1936)^[1] was an American reporter for the New York Herald best known for acting as an early political advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Born to a wealthy family in Indianapolis, Indiana, Howe was a small, sickly, and asthmatic child. The family moved to Saratoga Springs, New York, after serious financial losses. Howe married Grace Hartley and became a journalist with a small paper that his father purchased. He spent the next decade freelancing for the New York Herald and working various jobs. Howe was then assigned to cover the New York state legislature in 1906, and soon became a political operative for Thomas Mott Osborne, a Democratic opponent of the Tammany Hall political machine.

After Osborne fired Howe in 1909, Howe attached himself to rising Democratic star Franklin D. Roosevelt, with whom he worked for the rest of his life. Howe oversaw Roosevelt's campaign for the New York State Senate, worked with him in the Navy Department, and acted as an advisor and campaign manager during Roosevelt's 1920 vice presidential run. After Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921, resulting in partial paralysis, Howe became Roosevelt's public representative, keeping his political career alive during his recovery. He arranged Roosevelt's 1924 "Happy Warrior" convention speech that returned him to the public eye, and helped to run Roosevelt's narrowly successful 1928 campaign to become Governor of New York. Howe then spent the next four years laying the groundwork for Roosevelt's landslide 1932 presidential victory. Named Roosevelt's secretary, Howe helped the president to shape the early programs of the New Deal, particularly the Civilian Conservation Corps. Howe grew ill shortly after Roosevelt's election, and died before the end of his first term.

Howe also acted as a political advisor to Franklin's wife, Eleanor, and he encouraged her to take an active role in politics, introducing her to women's groups and coaching her in public speaking. Eleanor later called Howe one of the most influential people in her life. Franklin Roosevelt biographer Jean Edward Smith called Howe "a backroom man without equal in Democratic politics",^[2] and Roosevelt publicly credited Howe and James Farley for his first election to the presidency in 1932.