Harry Hopkins With FDR On 1935 U.S.S. Houston Presidential Cruise
After a short cruise in Alaskan water, the cruiser U.S.S. Houston returned to Seattle and embarked President Roosevelt, together with his adviser Harry Hopkins, again on October 3, 1935 for a vacation cruise to the Cerros Islands, Magdalena Bay, Cocos Islands, and Charleston, South Carolina. During the 1930s, FDR made four leisure trips on the Houston. Hopkins sent this commemorative envelope to Secretary of The Interior Harold Ickes on October 11 from the Cocos Islands. Ironically, Hopkins and Ickes were feuding at that time over the Works Projects Administration (WPA). Harold Ickes wanted to head the new agency and argued that Harry Hopkins was an irresponsible spender and was not "priming the pump" but "just turning on the fire-plug". Ickes wanted the money spent on heavy capital expenditures whereas Hopkins advocated putting to work as many men as he could who were presently on relief. Roosevelt's main objective was to reduce the numbers on relief and he gave Hopkins overall control of the WPA. The mailing to Ickes may have been Hopkins' way of rubbing in the fact that Roosevelt invited him along on the cruise instead of Ickes.
FDR Fishing On Board The U.S.S. Houston, 1935