Publish Date: May 28, 1923
Cover Story: Construction Halts
How TIME Covered the News: In 1923, after serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and running as the Democratic candidate for Vice President, future four-term president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was installed as the head of the newly-created American Construction Council — an organization designed to unite America’s building labor force. In one of the group’s earliest pronouncements, the council recommended a brief suspension of all new building projects in the U.S., to combat what they deemed “speculative construction.” Roosevelt would go on to appear on TIME’s cover 11 times (thrice as “Man of the Year”).
“Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the American Construction Council, refuses to be categoried with Hays and Landis as a “Tzar.” He apparently seeks to make his position one of moral influence rather than of responsible authority. The first step, in either case, is to bring together into a coherent whole the 1,001 varieties of building trades.”