Wikipedia:Peer review/Wendell Willkie/archive1

Wendell Willkie

I've listed this article for peer review because…I'm hoping for feedback pre-FAC.

Thanks, Wehwalt (talk) 15:43, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Comments from Tim riley

Very slim pickings from me. This is my meagre clutch of quibbles:

• Lead
  • You've blue-linked FDR twice in the lead.
• Youth, education and World War I service
  • "All four of his grandparents emigrated from Germany" – this leads me to wonder where the surname Willkie came from. It doesn't look at all German to me (and I speak as one who is one-eighth German, from my Horbach great-grandfather).

Will research further.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:41, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

• • I often think we all put too many blue links on WP pages, but be that as it may, at FAC someone is sure to ask for a link to a suitable page for the 1848 uprisings.
  • "moving to Indiana after the territory was opened to slavery" – this reads as though the latter was a cause of the former, though it isn't obvious why it would be.
  • "An army clerk transposed …" – was it the clerk or Willkie who was unwilling to invest the time to get the mistake corrected?
• Akron attorney and activist
  • "at the advice of his wife" – wouldn't on the advice be more usual?
• Dark horse candidate
  • "Roosevelt's decision making" – I think I'd hyphenate this. The OED and Merriam-Webster both do.
• Convention
  • "Willkie's campaign was run from clandestine rooms" – curious adjective. "Secret, private, concealed; usually in bad sense, implying craft or deception; underhand, surreptitious", says the OED.

It's the best I can think of. Willkie was still maintaining the pose that while he wanted the nomination, he wasn't doing much to secure it other than his own in-person efforts. That wasn't truthful, though of course the politician taking that pose is as old as politics.

• • "Massachusetts' favorite son" – I clicked on the link and I see the article is being considered for deletion. I merely mention the point.

I'll have to look at that discussion, but for now I think it should stand.

• • "the vice chair, Sam Pryor" – I bet he was never referred to by that gender-neutral title.

"chairman" added to Mx Pryor's title.

• General election campaign
  • "even if he lost the presidency" – reads a bit oddly, losing something one has never had.
• Visit to Britain
  • Éamon de Valera – you might indulge de Valera's affectation of the aigu in his adopted name.
  • "I have not become the King's first minister" – The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, The Times (11 November 1942, p. 4) and The Manchester Guardian all capitalise "First Minister" in this quotation.
• Duplicate links
  • "favorite son", "Republican National Committee", "Rushville, Indiana", and "Eastern Establishment" are all linked twice from the main text.

I've axed the favorite son, the others are either far apart or in one case (RNC), I link first to a mention of a committeeman.

And that really is all I can find to carp at. I much enjoyed Mr Willkie's company and I look forward to meeting him again at FAC. – Tim riley talk 11:05, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you indeed. Except as noted, I've implemented. He was quite a character, and will no doubt get more attention if the presidential polls stay as they are.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:41, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Comments from BB

A first instalment, mostly minor nitpicks or suggestions:

Lead

• "He sought support from uncommitted delegates, while his supporters, many youthful, enthusiastically backed his campaign". Something is slightly odd about the latter part of the sentence. His supporters backed his campaign – well, they would, wouldn't they? Perhaps a slight rewording, to avoid "support...supporting", and resolve the tautology?
• "and gave the president his full backing as nominal leader of the Republican Party" needs to be flipped: "and as nominal leader of the Republican Party, gave the president his full backing."

Youth etc

• "Willkie learned skills during the nightly debates around the dinner table that would later serve him well" should become "Willkie learned skills that would later serve him well, during the nightly debates around the dinner table".

I've tweaked it a bit but think the order should stand

• "at age 4": the low numeric should be written. And why not "aged four", the format used later in this section?

Akron attorney

• You should introduce the abbreviation "C&S" when the corporation is first mentioned. I'd also add a small clarification to the final sentence: "to be C&S's corporate counsel"

C&S executive

• "their affair was well-known": No hyphen here.
• Did Willkie succeeed as board chairman in June 1934?

I've decided to delete it. Willkie was making policy and was speaking for C&S.

• "Al Smith, his successor as New York's governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Speaker of the House John Nance Garner, and former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker sought the nomination." Something slightly confusing about the beginning of this sentence. A casual reader might assume that Al Smith was Hoover's successor as mayor. I'm sure a slight adjustment can resolve this.
• "Willkie backed Baker" I'd follow this with a comma.
• "A disappointed Willkie still backed Roosevelt" – I'd reword this: "Although disappointed, Willkie backed Roosevelt..." etc

TVA battle

• "took the opposite tack" – interesting phrase, not sure it quite makes sense.
• What was the fate of the October 1934 lawsuit?
• "farmers were told corporate representatives that lines from the new Norris Dam could not carry enough power..." Is there a "by" missing after "told"?
• "...the company ran "spite lines" that might not even carry power in an effort to invoke the non-compete agreement over broad areas". Can this be stated more clearly? I'm not sure I understand it at present.
• "Landon won only Maine and Vermont." I'm not sure this detail will make much sense to non-US readers. "won only two of the 48 states" would emphasise the scale of FDR's victory, but you could simply end at "overwhelming landslide".

Landon winning only Maine and Vermont is fairly well known (still, I hope) and it's also relevant to what Willkie had to deal with in 1940 starting from the base of only two states won by the Republicans last time (he did win both Maine and Vermont in 1940).

Continuing.... Brianboulton (talk) 21:28, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. If I haven't commented, I have done it, or worked around it.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:38, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Concluding

Dark horse candidate

• "Willkie had been spoken of as a possible presidential candidate as early as 1937" – as a Democrat, presumably, since this was his party alignment until 1939?
• Punc: I believe the colon after "attachment" should be a semi.
• "delegates had second thoughts": some, not all, as Dewey was the early leader when balloting began.

Convention: Nothing, all fine

General election campaign

• A couple of trivial points: to Brits, "Broadmoor" is a top-security hospital for criminal psychopaths, an odd choice for a holiday destination. Secondly, if he went for a working vacation, he can hardly have expected peace and privacy.

He was somewhat surprised at becoming what amounted to a tourist attraction. I've clarified inline that it is a resort.

• Is the emphasis shown in the Luce quotw from the original, or added here?
• The hyphen issue again in "well-covered"
• I don't know whether it's worth mentioning, but I have read that Willkie's total vote of 22,348,480 (not mentioned in the article) was the largest by any Republican presidential candidate to that time, a million more than Hoover's 1928 "landslide". I know that there were factors such as the increased electorate that explain this, but it still might be worth a footnote. (After all, you do give the mildly absurd Stassen an explanatory note – are you going to work on his article some time?)

I've got to get you Agnew first. Footnoted.

Visit to Britain

• "due to" → "because of" (twice: nearly always better)

Wartime leader

• I've some doubt about the section title. He was (nominally) the leader of the Republican Party, though largely disowned by it. It's hard to see that he was a "wartime leader" other than in this formal sense, although he served Roosevelt adequately in various capacities.
• "Willkie had been inspired to visit Russia when three reporters there urged him by telegram to do so,[97] He went to the Soviet Union..." Some oddity here: (a) the comma should be a full stop or semicolom, (b) confusion between "Russia" and the "Soviet Union", (c) surely, the first statement is in the wrong place here? The telegram presumably predated the whole trip, not just the Soviet leg of it.
• The Ho Chi Minh boxquote would have more force if linked to the text by an explanatory sentence, or some readers may wonder what it's doing there.

I don't have any text on it. The source I have contains the poem and a brief note on Ho's career. I think it's worth including and let the reader make of it what he will. It's very good in my view.

• Civil rights activist: No issues

1944 campaign

• "Willkie had not taken Wisconsin's electoral votes, though he had won all parts of the state but Milwaukee" Clarify that this is a reference to the 1940 election.
• I would delete the name "Willkie" from the second line of the fourth paragraph.

Final months and death

• " There were additional discussions between Willkie and the White House, but Willkie never spoke of them and there are no known documents" – so how do we know there were discussions?

Third parties were aware. I'll clarify slightly.

• Is there a reason for the New York funeral when he was to be buried in Rushville, Indiana?

NY Times talks of public demand, but I'm dubious. The interment was delayed until his son, who was serving at sea, could arrive. I'm inclined to let it stand.

Assessment

• "argued that Willkie in gaining the nomination" → "argued that in gaining the nomination, Willkie..."
• I would elide the final two sentences of the second paragraph, to read "was Gerald R. Ford, who wrote many years later..." This would avoid any possible uncertainty about whom you meant by "the president".

That's all - very illuminating. I might have voted for him (I wonder if he and Bessie would have got on?). A great article. Brianboulton (talk) 16:54, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

I am sure they would have gotten along. He visited a pub whilst in London and the regulars spoke well of him after his death. They would have had views in common though their methods might have differed. Thank you for the kind words and the review. I am shamed to say I knew little about Willkie before I picked up a book on the 1940 convention.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:40, 12 December 2015 (UTC)