This Week in Texas Methodist History  February 25

Texans Look Forward to Uniting Conference in Kansas City, 1939

In April 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church united to form the Methodist Church.  By doing so Methodists undid breaches that had occurred in the 19th century.  

Naturally this was a grand affair of reconciliation of the three denominations and Kansas City was determined to put its best foot forward as the host city.  As was customary invitations were sent to dignitaries including President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  In keeping with the theme of reconciliation, if the president attended, he would be welcomed by Governor Alfred Landon of Kanas, FDR's Republican opponent in the election of 1936.  Landon was a lay delegate to the conference.  A nationwide radio broadcast was planned for the event in which Landon presented Roosevelt to the conference and the president responded.

Roosevelt declined the invitation, and it is easy to see why he had other priorities.  He had returned from the baths at Warm Springs, Georgia to a world on the brink of global war. 

As the delegates made their way to Kansas City, FDR was exchanging letters with Adolph Hitler, asking in the strongest terms for peace.  Hitler rejected his plea.  FDR met with Charles Lindbergh a well known fan of Germany.  The same week FDR signed an appropriation bill to provide funds to build 571 bombers.  He then asked for another appropriation to build naval air bases.  

On April 30, while the Conference was in session, Roosevelt went to New York City to speak at the opening of the World's Fair.   For you trivia buffs, that was the first time a president appeared on television.  That same day Germany and Italy formalized their alliance.  

Eleanor Roosevelt often represented her husband in ceremonial matters, but she was also in the news in April 1939.   Marian Anderson had been denied use of Constitution Hall, owned by the DAR, for a concert.  Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR.  Ms. Anderson gave her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9.  The concert attracted 75,000 attendees and millions more via radio, but Mrs. Roosevelt was condemned in newspaper editorials not just from Southern newspapers, but all over the nation.  

Both FDR and Mrs. Roosevelt had good reasons for not attending the United Conference in Kansas City, but there was another complicating factor.  On April 8, Tom Pendergast was arraigned for failure to pay taxes.  It gets worse.  He income he did not report was a bribe he needed to pay off gambling debts.  Pendergast was the political boss of Kansas City.  He had delivered Missouri votes to help get FDR elected and many CWA and PWA projects in Missouri were funneled through him.   He was responsible for elevating Harry Truman to the Senate.   FDR probably wanted nothing to do with Kansas City in April 1939.