Evening star., 1942-01-25
By Marquis ". Childs

PreStdenL ROOSeDett IS ptcLnref
Americas declaration of Udr again
resort rs miles south Of Atlanta. He was
persuaded to try a cure there. The pos
sibilities of the place captured his ready
imagination. He felt that physical exer-
else in the warm spring water and re-
peated massage definitely helped him
and he wanted to help others.
Two years later through his efforts
experimental work under expert super
vision was begun when % patients were
placed under observation for periods OF
from to II weeks The following year
the Warm Springs Foundation, nom
profit organization, was formed to pro-
mote what was fast becoming center
for the treatment of sufferers from in
fantile paralysis.
Yielded to Smiths Plea.
Believing he would be able to walk
again If he persisted in his cure, Mr..
Roosevelt resisted all efforts for many
months to draft him as candidate for
the race for Governor Of New York. But
when his old friend, Al Smith, put 1t on
the basis of party loyalty and helping
along the national ticket he yielded.
Thereafter he was to see Warm Springs
only on vacation and at more and more
infrequent intervals. Each time he went
there he was restored in body and spirit.
The President had remarkable capacity
for putting aside one set of preoccupa-
tions and taking up another. Coming
from Washington, he left behind the
burdens of state and threw himself en-
Enthusiastically into the development Of
the health center. He took a personal
interest in each new building that went
up, in each new patient and doctor. Out
of this project he drew warm sense of
contributing toward helping others who
had suffered from the same disease.
During the crowded years in Wash
ington-it's nearly nine years now-one
imperative demand has been an oc-
casional interval of escape. To get
away on a boat was almost as curative
as Warm Springs. The important thing
has been the respite. And when the
presidential conscience held him to his
desk, the Presidents personal physician,
Admiral Ross McIntire, was stern. His
old sinus trouble, the only chronic all
ment he has, fared up when he got
too tired. Then he was told to cut down
on cigarettes.
The President has always been a
source Of amazement to the men around
him. Working tirelessly, he saw other
perfectly normal, healthy individuals
fall away with fatigue or with that
change of purpose and direction which
is a kind of fatigue. Through the in
tensive campaigning Of 1886 he rode
with a nght-hearted gaiety not really
extending himself in contest which
he knew to be one sided.
Seldom Showed Worry.
As the shadow of the coming Eu-
ropean war grew longer across the world,
the President now and then let his
close advisers see the worry that gnawed
at him. But for the most part the public
at large, in spite of the increasing
gravity of his references to foreign
affairs saw no change in the bithe
campaigner who could laugh at his
stuf1y critics and make millions of peo-
pie laugh with him.
Outwardly the change has been slight.
For those who have seen him week IN
and week out it has been almost imper-
ceptible. To realize the difference you
have to turn back to the pictures Of
that still young looking man who was
inaugurated for the first time on March
4, 1888. He had then quality of youth
which has been supplanted by look
of settled maturity. Above all it is
curious way seems to have grown more
massive. It was always an outside
head. Now 1t seems to have taken on
heroic proportions; the jutting brow
with the now almost white hair that
has grown sparser: the often caricatured
jaw; the broad expanse Of cheek and
cheekbone.
Outwardly, too, his environment has
changed but little. The number of
gadgets on his desk--donkeys, dolls,
souvenirs-has increased so that of
necessity the overflow has been accom-
modated on side table. Steve Early is
there. Old Charlie Nicholson. Many of
the familiar faces. But the President
himself is aware Of the changes that
have occurred. His devoted disciple, the
gnomic Louis McfIenry Howe, died In the
first year in the White House.
During the past year there have been
two blows The Presidents mother, Mrs.