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Roosevelt, without overcoat, takes 4th term oath in cold
Voice is clear as he delivers shortest talk
By Frederick C. Othman, United Press staff writer
Washington – (Jan. 20)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only man at the inaugural without an overcoat, looked across the thousands crowded into his snow-covered backyard today and swore solemnly to uphold the Constitution for a fourth term as President of the United States.
Mr. Roosevelt’s eyeglasses glistened in the spotlights. His hands may have trembled, but his voice was strong and clear as he repeated the oath after Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone and then delivered the shortest inaugural address he ever gave – 540 words.
On his left was the blue presidential pennant, on his right the American flag. Behind him were the members of his personal and official family. Below him on the ground were the others who were lucky enough to get invitations and hardy enough to brave the wet and the cold.
Wallace swears in Truman
The entire ceremony lasted only 13 minutes.
Sharp at noon the Marine Band broke into strident ruffles and flourishes, then “Hall to the Chief” signaling the President’s arrival at the center of the portico.
Men in the snowy crowd bared their heads for the invocation. Mr. Roosevelt watched retiring Vice President Henry A. Wallace administer the oath to his successor, Harry S. Truman.
The band sounded more ruffles and flourishes, and the President was escorted to the speaker’s rostrum by Marine Col. James Roosevelt, only one of his four fighting sons who was able to come here.
Speaks in clear voice
The President, standing bareheaded, spoke the oath in a clear, resonant voice, his left hand on his old family Dutch Bible and his eyes focused on Chief Justice Stone.
Then after shaking hands with Justice Stone, the President turned slowly toward the crowd, opened his familiar black notebook and delivered his address.
The crowd had applauded when he swore to do his duty as President, and gloved hands clapped again when he completed his speech.
The President stood silently gazing toward the Washington Monument while the minister said the benediction, the band played the “Star-Spangled Banner” and the crowd stood hatless under the dripping trees.
Shortest ceremony in years
Mr. Roosevelt waved his hand to the crowds, which responded with men waving their hats and women shaking handkerchiefs toward the portico.
The President then turned and went back into the White House to the tune of “Hail to the Chief,” thus ending the shortest inauguration in many, many years.
The weather got progressively better after snow stopped falling about 8:00 a.m. and a few minutes before the ceremony began at noon, the skies became considerably lighter. No actual sunlight filtered through the gray overcast, however, and the temperature remained near freezing.
‘Ain’t like old times’
Beyond the iron White House fence, a good two blocks from the mansion, upwards of 6,000 non-ticket-holding spectators spilled over into the ellipse beyond East Street and stood silently in the snow as Mr. Roosevelt’s words came clearly over loudspeakers.
One man, apparently a veteran of other inaugurations, shook his head as he stamped about outside the fence.
“It ain’t like old times,” he said.
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Mrs. Roosevelt kept busy tending her grandchildren
First Lady, wearing tailored gown, stands in background during inauguration
Washington (UP) – (Jan. 20)
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt cast herself more in the role of grandmother than as First Lady at her husband’s historic fourth-term inauguration today.
Throughout the brief ceremony she stood well in the background of the circular portico and was not visible to the crowds.
But before that she busied herself seeing to it that the grandchildren were properly placed on the curving stairs descending from the portico and she went down and spoke to them.
In wartime fashion
Her tailored inaugural gown was in keeping with the fashion she has adopted for wartime.
The dress of dark blue, a shade almost blue-black, was splashed at the neckline with appliques of lighter blue.
Her three-quarter-length coat of the lighter blue was topped with a sable scarf. The sailor hat of dark blue was accented by a cluster of flowers in a shade of pink called, for the fourth inauguration, “Mayflower mauve.” Around her smartly groomed gray hair in back was a band bow of blue velvet.
The First Lady carried a large bouquet of parma violets.
Friends, maids there
At least 10 of the Roosevelt grandchildren, ranging in age from 2 to 17, were there. So were a number of their friends and maids.
Two-year-old Anne Sturgis Roosevelt, tow-headed daughter of Lt. John Roosevelt, made a splash of color in the congregation of children with her red snow suit and cap.
Mrs. John Boettiger, President and Mrs. Roosevelt’s only daughter, was visible to the audience only when she descended the steps to speak to her three children – Anna Eleanor, 17; Curtis, 15, and Johnny, 5.
Daughter with Mrs. Truman
She took a nosegay of violets to Anna, who saw her grandfather take the oath of President for the first time when she was five and who long ago outgrew her nickname of “Sistie.”
Mrs. Harry S. Truman, wife of the new Vice President, and their daughter, Margaret, took places at the railing of the portico 15 minutes before the ceremony. Mrs. Truman observed the crowd quietly most of the time, but Margaret engaged in intimated conversation with Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, widow of President Wilson.
A black Persian lamb coat concealed Mrs. Truman’s black inauguration gown. A cluster of purple orchids was pinned to her handbag, and a green feather topped her small black hat.
Truman becomes Vice President
Wallace temporarily off U.S. pay
Washington (UP) – (Jan. 20)
Harry S. Truman of Independence, Missouri, got a $5,000 raise today without having to clear it with the War Labor Board or the Treasury.
At the same time that Mr. Truman’s senatorial salary of $10,000 was increased to the Vice President’s rate of $15,000 per annum, Henry A. Wallace went off the federal payroll.
Everybody seemed to believe, however, that the 56-year-old Wallace, a New Dealer of the 1933 school, would be back on the payroll in a matter of days, probably as Secretary of Commerce.
Mr. Wallace ceased as of 12:02 p.m. ET today to be Vice President, having at that moment administered the oath of office to his friend and successor, the former Senator from Missouri.
Mr. Truman intends to be his own kind of Vice President. He won’t “make a habit of making speeches,” the way Mr. Wallace did, and he does not have his eye on any outside jobs in the administration.
The 60-year-old, slow-speaking, hard-working Missourian, who as chairman for three years of the Senate War Investigation Committee became the “watchdog of the war effort,” recently formulated this conception of his new role.
Editorial: The President
To Franklin Delano Roosevelt, yesterday inaugurated for the fourth time as President of the United States, his fellow citizens extend their earnest best wishes.
May God preserve his health. May he have strength to bear the heavy burdens of his office. May the four years now beginning bring early victory in war and the dawn of an enduring peace. May our President lead wisely and justly; and may he see his hopes, and ours, realized in a country busy, happy, united and free.
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