Show M Round Merry e By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT ALLEN Trado Mark 4 WASHINGTON The The relationship between the president and his mother has been one of unusual close closeness ess and understanding understanding-so so close in fact that today Mrs Roosevelt senior still treats the president of the United States very much as if he were the small boy in knee breeches whose life she once ruled in the old- old fashioned parental manner Sara Delano Roosevelt has one son And on that son she lavished not only all a mothers mother's norm normal love but after her husband died when Franklin was in his late teens the devotion she once had given him as well It is said by relatives of the family that in his youth Franklin did not buy a necktie without without without with with- out consulting his mother He even brought his budding lady friends around for maternal supervision Most of these she rejected as ruthlessly as a stage director passing on a chorus until finally Eleanor Roosevelt young Roosevelt young attractive slender er a distant cousin cousin came came along Sara Delano Roosevelt Roosevelt Roose Roose- velt permitted Eleanor to enter the family Matriarch 1 But once Eleanor was in it Mrs Roosevelt Sr proceeded to dominate her law in as completely as she had always dominated her son Eleanor Roosevelt had little to say about anything If one of the children were sick her mother-in-law mother called in the doctor She and herson herson her herson son took the situation in hand completely Eleanor Eleanor Eleanor Elea Elea- nor was a virtual outsider It was not until the presidents president's illness that his wife really supplanted his mother as the dominant woman in his life Rebellious Offspring Once at a family Sunday night dinner at which were present Mrs Roosevelt Sr Sam former member er of the brain trust now N New v York supreme court judge and others others others oth oth- ers the presidents president's mother remarked Now Franklin I want Sam to sit on your right But mother replied the president in a voice of feigned pet petulance lance I dont don't want Sam to sit on my right But I want him to sit on your right Again he replied But I dont don't want Sam to sit on my right All r right announced his mother then Sam will sit on my right This started the president off Mischievously he went out of his way to shock his mother Mrs Roosevelt Sr almost fell under the table Drunken Statesmen Then the president unmercifully ully switched to of drink His mother while not a strict prohibitionist is strong for temperance Liquor her son claimed has produced some of the greatest statesmen the country has known He particularly cited General Ulysses S. S Grant and Daniel Webster as the hardest drinking statesmen in the country's history Mrs Roosevelt looked down her nose and said nothing Loyal Tory Mr Mrs Roos Roosevelt velt is an an an old tory and disapproves heartily of most of her sons son's policies But outside the family no one would ever guess it The grapevine stories spread against her son by political enemies arouse in her a mixture of wrath and humor One of ot the latest was told her by a close f friend ien of the president after Roosevelt especially especially espe espe- asked him to break the news to mother The friend began by saying Mrs Roosevelt have you heard the story about the presidents president's birth His birth Guess I ought to know all about that He was born right here No but that isn't the story You recall that your husband was the president of the Monon railroad I Uy Yes And on one occasion you were traveling west in 10 his private priva e car and visited an Indian reservation Yes Well while I there you became attracted toa to toa toa a little half-breed half Indian boy child boy child of an Indian mother and an unknown white father You adopted him and he is now president of the United States Mrs Roosevelt looked like a volcano about to erupt rupt Then with a smile she said Well aJ at last we have a real American in inthe inthe inthe the u White r House Copyright 1036 1936 by United Feature Syndic Syndicate Inc IDe t |