Show Fighting Spirit Necessary When The Body Rebels By BRUCE CATTON Cj In a certain middle western hospital hos has pital lies a policeman paralyzed from tram the hips to the toes He has been there for nearly three years year ever since he fought a gun battle with a I bandit and got a bullet in the spine For a long time he has been deeply despondent despondent-as as who in his case would not be But now he Is 15 beginning to feel hopeful again and it all aU happens because because be be- cause someone gave him a fancy ornate ornate or or- nate kind of clock which bears a little statuette of ot Franklin D. D Roosevelt standing at the helm of a ship The crippled copper explains it like this One day I happened to notice Roosevelt there and I began to think II Here I said Mid to myself Is the greatest man the In world And just look at the handicaps he overcame Why once his legs were as weak as mine And now look at him So I figured to myself i if a fellow fellow fel- fel low ow like that could get well and then go on to do the things Roosevelt has lone done done then there was Avas hope for tor me rae You know the more I thought about Roosevelt why the stronger I became be be- came 1 I dont don't even feel any pain any anymore anymore anymore more and it wont won't be long before Im I'm out of at here I X used wed to think that inspiration and that stuff was a lot of boloney That was before I got this clock and started thinking It would be hard to find a better illustrAtion tion of the power which a good example can have and nd It Is in In- ter sting t to see how faz tai reaching reaching the effects of ofa a It brave mans man's fight can be When a man comes to grips with pain and weakness and utter discouragement discouragement discouragement as Mr Roosevelt did more than a n de decade ade ago and faces them down and licks them to a frazzle and goes on on his way as If U he never had seen them he doesn't win his fight for himself alone He Ie may think so at the time but the there's theres es more to it than that This world is so constructed that a fight like ike that echoes for a long time Its It's a long way from a beaten vice presidential candid candidate te suffering from I I infantile paralysis in 1921 to a n wounded wound wound- wound wound-i ed policeman getting a new supply of hope and courage in 1933 but the connection is Is' direct after all t The great greatest st victory vIctorr Franklin loosevelt ever won was his victory over his own body and a victory like that keeps on working long after the fight ight Is finished For it Is a demonstration that what happens lappens to a mans man's muscles and bones and sinews Is not after all nU so very important so so long a. a as he keeps alive indomitable hat sp spark rk of fearl fearless de de- termination in his own heart |