Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-04-10
Violent Controversy Still SwirIs
About Roosevelt, 10 Years After Death

/ ments. This view was shared by
Admiral Leahy and Charles E.
Wilson.
Mr.. Baruch and Mr.. Rosenman
also mentioned erection of a
framework for building peace
through the United Nations.
Former Assistant Secretary of
State A. A. Berle, jr., listed his
| greatest single failure as mot
winning Russia to becoming a
cooperative member of the fam
lily of nations"
| But Mr. Berle credited him
with mastering the fact, and
| communicating it to the world.
that probably no country, and
at best no two or three great
land masses. could go it alone"
Mr.. Wilson who was later to
head the Office of Defense Mo-
bilization and is not related to
the present Secretary of Defense.
listed a softness toward Commu-
nists as among F.. D. RS mis-
takes and failures.
Mr. Sherwood says Mr.. Roose-
velt's worst error was clinging to
blind faith in Chang Kai-shek
as representing the future of
China"
Raymond E. Moley spoke of
wartime decisions that shaped
the world. and not for good"
Probably the criticism will roll
endlessly on of Mr.. Roosevelt's
abortive effort to revamp the
Supreme Court. his unsuccessful
attempt in 1888 to purge the
Democratic Party of key conser-
vatives. his wartime call for "un-
conditional surrender" and his
negotiations at Yalta.
But at the instant of his death,
much of the controversy over his
acts subsidized for the moment
beneath waves of shock.
For many months rumors had
circulated about FDR's health
he had cancer, a bad heart. a
failing mind: he was in some
hospital or sanitarium.
His family and his physician,
Vice Admiral Ross T. McIntire,
retired, insist all were untrue.
Nevertheless, Mr.. Roosevelt did
deteriorate preceptibly in his last
year. His voice and hearing
weakened. His cheeks sank in.
His clothes bagged loosely and
he had a pallor. His appetite
faded.
More and more. he made pub
lie appearances in a wheel chair.
He didn't want to carry steel
braces on his polio-shrunken
legs.
But on that fateful day in
1915, when word flashed from
the White House at Warm
Springs, Ca, that Mr.. Roosevelt
was dead, numbness, disbelief,
and then grief swept across the
Nation and beyond.
Thousand Wept
Thousands on thousands of
people stood ,hushed and fearful
through the night as the funeral
train travelled northward toward
Washington.
When he had talked with the
people in those famed Preside
chats, it was a personal sort of
thing. They were sure he meant
it when he called them my
friends"
At the moment of funeral serv-
ices at the White House, the
throb of cities, factories, trans
portation and communications
ceased.
The late Senator Robert A.
Taft of Ohio-Mr. Republican
called Mr.. Roosevelt "the
greatest figure of our time"
Soviet Ambassador Andrea A.
Gromyko praised the fallen
President as "the greatest states
man the world has ever known"
The President was buried on
a brilliant spring morning in the
hemlock-bordered rose garden
Of the Hyde Park, IN. ". estate
where he was born and lived for
63 years. That was the spot he
loved above all others-the
ancient trees, the broad fields.
the sprawling, comfortable. clut-
tered house overlooking the
tWinkling Hudson,