Evening star., 1934-06-08
FIRST LADY ENDS
DAY BY WRITING
Finishes Puerto Rico Article
After Visiting Home
stead Project.
Nv the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt returned
late last night from l2-speech day
in West Virginia. She spent the last
hour on the train. after It was too
late for crowds to come to stations,
writing an article on Puerto Rico.
On the trip here, Bernard Baruch,
noted financier, turned newspaper re-
porter, because he considered the ac-
companying newspaper women had
been barred from the best story Of
the trip-Mrs. Roosevelt's intimate
chat with Reedsville homsteaders OF
the first subsistence project.
Gathering the press girls about him
in a Pullman car, he gave a vivid,
first-person story of a meeting he
termed the most remarkable per-
formance I ever saw in my life-you
should have seen those peoples
faces"
Wanted Figure Breakdowns."
Before he Joined the tense group in
the "Old Arthur Mansion" the so
men and women who will settle in
Reedsville homes, Baruch was all the
financier, asking as many fact-and-
figure questions as Mrs. Roosevelt
herself Baruch wanted figure break
downs"
After the meeting, he was just a
newspaper reporter. frankly thrilled
with the human iISerest story and
anxious to get it across to the country.
You missed great story in there" +"
he said, "the most remarkable thing
of the whole trip. 1t was really the
most remarkable thing I ever saw
when Mrs. Roosevelt spoke to those
people.
There is no doubt about their
earnestness. They are not the ordinary
folks who will be helped by the Gov
eminent and call it a day. You felt
their sense of responsibility
weren't going to let down Mrs. Roose-
welt. this woman who was interested
in them and had given them their
great chance. They were interested; f;
wanted to make good"
Homesick for Homes.
Baruch picked as the high spot of
his story a question which voiced the
disappointment of the crowd. which,
because of contract technicalities, has
been unable to move into the project
Mrs. Roosevelt, when are We going
to get into these houses? We are
homesick for them" Baruch quoted
one homesteader as asking.
He said Mrs. Roosevelt questioned
o. B. Smart, general manager of the
project, and was informed that the
electric light contract, one of the last
two hurdles, was signed yesterday.
"They wouldn't just listen to her
talk" continued Baruch. ''They were
asking questions. One wanted to
know when they'd get their cows.
They asked when the church would
be built-they were all eager on that
question.
Husband Adores Onions.
when they gave her the first fruits
of their soil, bunch of radishes and
onions, she said my husband adores
onions and that made them laugh.
And there was lovely thing when
1t ended. The president of the Home
steaders' Association, Andy Goldstrom
said I think we ought to offer up a
prayer for the blessings that the
Great Jehovah-he used the word
Jehovah-has given u.s.
Later Mrs. Roosevelt said one man
told her "all my life I've wanted to
own something and never have. At
last I see a chance"
Before entraining for Washington
at Terra Alta last night, Mrs. Roose-
welt told gathering in her tenth
outdoor speech of the day, MRS. Ickes
and have agreed we're not the least
bit tired because We have been really
interested every bit of the way"
She had motored more than 200
miles, attended the Davis & Elkins
College commencement and a large
luncheon party, greeted crowds along
the countryside and formally opened
"a new pattern for living" subsistence
homesteading, by visits to the Tygart
Valley and the Reedsville projects.