Edward
Bok was a multi millionaire in the mid-1920s, having retired
from his lucrative career as publisher and editor of the
Ladies' Home Journal. Bok was interested in current
events and international relations, and wanted to use his
money in the service of peace. To accomplish this, Bok created
a prize worth $50,000 and asked for submissions that would
detail how the United States could contribute to the maintenance
of international peace and how it could remain aloof from
another war in Europe. The individual with the best plan
was to be awarded the prize (half to be paid when the judge
selected the plan and the final installment given when Congress
adopted the plan), but when Bok approached Professor Esther
Lape to judge the contest she refused unless she could
also work with her friends ER and Narcissa
Vanderlip. Bok agreed, and the three set to work evaluating
submissions and selecting other members for the "Jury of
Award." Eventually this group of prominent citizens decided
on a simple plan by an academic named Charles Levermore
who called for membership in the World Court and cooperation
with the League of Nations.
The 1920s were a self-involved
era in American cultural life, and this extended to the
realm of U.S. foreign relations where isolationism was
a popular attitude. Because of the large amount of money
associated
with the prize, the amount of attention it had gotten in
the press, and the shockingly internationalist tone of
the
winning submission, many members of Congress were suspicious
that the outcome had been fixed to influence public opinion.
Congressional hearings were held at which ER appeared with
Lape in defense of the jury's decision; both performed
so well that the investigation promptly ended soon after
their testimony. The incident provided the future first
lady with her first experience of being scrutinized by
the public for having adopted an unpopular viewpoint.
It was
a pattern that would continue to be repeated throughout
the remainder of her life.
Sources:
Cook, Blanche Wiesen. Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume One,
1884-1933. New York: Viking Press, 1992, 342-346.
Lash, Joseph. Eleanor and Franklin. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1971, 282-284.