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Show ! I Entire Nation Moi7rns Death 1 Of Franklin D. Roosevelt; I yiiiimHs ace rj t f y , , i - ' - I ' : .V V - - 1 ; I . V ' 7 7 I 1 I v :! V;'fr : . I I S-k' I t ' "- . - i- ; . V - - - , - - V- , - ,. : FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT JANUARY 30, 1882 APRIL 12, 1945. AS THE guns of America's fighting forces sounded ever closer the doom of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia, where he had been resting for 10 days. Death resulted from a cerebral hemorrhage at 4:35 p. m. on April 12. Mr. Roosevelt was 63. He had been President for 12 years, one month and nine days. The White House was announced as the site of the funeral, with interment at the family estate at Hyde Park, N. Y. Less than four months had elapsed since he had taken his historic oath of office for a fourth term. Only a few weeks before he had returned from the Yalta conference-where in company with Marshal Stalin of Russia and Prime Minister Churchill of Great Britain he had labored to build an enduring endur-ing peace. Fate denied Franklin Roosevelt the chance to enjoy the fruits of victory over the Axis. Yet history seemed destined to enshrine him as one of the immortal American Presidents. And every citizen who mourned the untimely passing of the Commander-in-Chief felt that he was a ciasualty of the war just as surely as every G. -I., Marine and Sailor who had fallen in battle. Never before had an American President died in wartime. Abraham Abra-ham Lincoln fell under Assassin Booth's bullet just five days after the surrender of General Lee's army at Appomattox in 1865. Woodrow Wilson lived to see victory over Germany in World War I, but he fought a losing battle for the League of Nations and died early in 1924, a defeated leader. Many historians believe Lincoln's greatness great-ness might have been dimmed in the conflicts over reconstruction that followed the War Between the States, just as Wilson's prestige was lost in the conflict over the league that followed World War I. Thus Franklin Roosevelt, dying at the height of his career just as victory vic-tory was to be achieved over Germany, Ger-many, seemed likely to live in history his-tory as a great man. As the American people from Main Street to Riverside Drive mourned the death of Franklin Roosevelt, their prayers went up for his successor, Harry S. Truman. For on the shoulders of this slight, gray, 60-year-old Missourian had been laid a responsibility such as no American President had ever borne. What the consequences of the President's death would be to the United States and the world, time alone would tell. But as Americans recovered from their first shock at the news, they quickly determined two things. The war must be prosecuted to as speedy and victorious a finish as possible. Lasting peace must be established. estab-lished. And so, regardless of party or of past political differences, the people peo-ple have rallied behind Mr. Truman. The new President faces the immediate im-mediate task of directing American participation in the United Nations' blueprints for a permanent world , organization. He likewise faces the responsibility of establishing working work-ing relations with other members of the Big Three, so that the personal per-sonal cooperation which existed between be-tween Franklin D. Roosevelt, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill in leading the Allies toward victory PRECEDENTS OUT: Throughout his career as President, Presi-dent, Franklin D. Roosevelt was known as the "precedent breaker." That title was first conferred in 1932 when he flew out to Chicago from Albany, N. Y., to address the Democratic Demo-cratic convention that had nominated nomin-ated him. It continued after his election as a result of his informal methods of transacting business. J HARRY S. TRUMAN j 33rd PRESIDENT OF V. S. : may be maintained in helping win ' the peace. He faces the long-range job of guiding the nation to postwar economic prosperity once Nazi Germany Ger-many and Japan are finally defeated. Known as a plain, modest 1 man who has not dramatized himself personally, President Truman nevertheless has demonstrated dem-onstrated on many occasions that he can be a leader of force and determination. His work as chairman of the Truman com-J com-J mittee in the U. S. senate investigating in-vestigating the conduct of the war is cited as an example of this. And his conduct of the Vice Presidency has shown that he can work successfully with political leaders of both parties in getting needed measures passed and in reconciling opposing op-posing points of view. The 33rd President was born in Lamar, Mo., May 8, 1884, although the home of the family for four generations had been on a farm ire.r Independence, Mo. Served in World War I. When World War I broke out, Truman became captain of Battery Bat-tery D in the field artillery of the 35th Division and saw action ac-tion at St. Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Back in Independence, Truman and a war buddy opened a haberdashery haber-dashery business. He married his boyhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace, and they have one daughter, Mary Margaret. Truman later turned to politics for a career, which started with his election as County. Judge of Jackson Jack-son county, Mo. In 1926 he became the presiding judge of Jackson county, with the endorsement of Tom Pendergast, political boss of Kansas City. |
