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Show IP Notes of a Newspaperman: Letter to Woodrow Wilson from Fraukhn D. Roosevelt: "My dear Mr. President: 1 entirely forgot on Sunday evening to speak to you of a personal matter which might come up during my absence the question of my nomination for the Governorship Governor-ship of New York. I have tried in every way to stop It, but some of your friends and mine have talked of the possibility of forcing this while I am away, and of asking you to encourage me to accept it. "I sincerely hope the mntter will not come up. 1 hnve made my position posi-tion entirely clear that my duty lies In my present work not only my duty to you and the country, but to myself. If I were at any time to leave the Assistant Secretaryship it could only be for active service. "Furthermore, may I say that I am very certain thnt it would be a grave mistake for either you or any member of the Administration to ask that I give up war work for what is frankly very much of a political po-litical job in these times. I cannot accept such a nomination at, this time with honesty or honor to myself. my-self. I think I have put off all danger dan-ger of it, but in case you are appealed ap-pealed to, I want you to know what I feel and I know too that you will understand and that you will not' listen to the appeal." Regardless of what you hnve heard and rend. FDR never wanted 3rd Term. ... A few months before his 2nd Term was about to end, Mrs. Roosevelt invited kin of Ed Flynn to spend a night in the White House. She especially wanted their two tots to sleep there "so that they never will forget the thrill of it." . . . "Considering the people (we do not really know) who have been here," she said in effect, "I want the children chil-dren to be with us for a night and this positively is their very, very last chance!" After a press conference in his White House office a reporter told the President of a story that had come in the mail. Did he mind its publication? . . . "It was at the Gridiron Dinner," said FDR. "You'd better clear it with some of the boys who were there." ... A famed Republican Re-publican Senator, it appears, was teasing FDR about his "lucky Inaugural In-augural suit." . . . "If you run for a third term," heckled the Senator, "let me borrow that suit, and I'll run against you and win!" . . . FDR told him he couldn't let him borrow his "lucky" suit . . . "Because "Be-cause I may need It myself!" "You mean," was the retort, "that you ARE going to run again?" "I mean," said Mr. Roosevelt wearily, "that I may need it myself. my-self. I do not consider it my Inaugural In-augural suit. It Is my funeral suit." Another of the favorite FDR stories sto-ries deals with the White House visitor visi-tor who remarked: "Mr. President, how in the world did you acquire such patience with all Uie bores you meet in a day?" FDR grimly replied: "You acquire ac-quire patience after you've spent two years learning how to wiggle your big toe again." Men who were trusted by President Presi-dent Roosevelt were never frisked when they were admitted to FDR'a office. The Secret Servicemen knew his friends, of course. . . . One newly new-ly appointed agent, however, took no chances. ... A newspaper man he had never seen before (and who hadn't held his White House pass high enough for the agent to see) was suddenly jerked out of the crowd swiftly marching In for the press confab. The newspaper man (when he got his bearings again) was irked no end. . . . Later, alone with the President, he kidded about it. "I thought everybody down here," he said, "knew who was on your team!" . . . "Well," replierAhe President, "It is comforting to that the boys are careful." wr "Not so careful," said the visiter, displaying a loaded pistol- ' Among one reporter's thrills war hearing him guffaw. When the gag was funny he would howl. The vaudeville comics would call it "a belly laugh." . . . The reporter thinks, too, he is one of the few who ever saw him weep. ... It hapnened when ex-Cong. Lambert-son Lambert-son and others were criticizing the war records of his sons. . . . Mr. Roosevelt was miserable about a letter that came (that morning) from one of them. It concluded: "Pop, sometimes I really hope one of us gets killed so that maybe they'll stop picking on the rest of the family!" . . . When he read it, FDR's- lower lip started to quiver, and the tears came. This Republic is governed by the will of the people. That expressed will has been interrupted by the will of God, in the passing of President Roosevelt. Now, President Truman, the due constitutional choice of the American Amer-ican people, is entitled to the fullest loyalty and cooperation as Com- mander in Chief. This is not a time for slackening of effort. On the contrary, this new, unexpected and grieve js challenge to the American people is a challenge chal-lenge to Democracy itself. |