Roosevelt sits during speech to ‘make it easier’ for him
President apologizes, saying he has 10 pounds of steel around legs and has made long trip
WASHINGTON (UP) – President Roosevelt, contrary to his practice in the past, addressed Congress sitting down today. He apologized and explained why.
In one of his rare allusions to the physical disability – the result of infantile paralysis – which makes it impossible for him to walk like other men, the President said Congress would realize that talking while seated “makes it easier for me.”
It was easier, he said, not only because he carried “10 pounds of steel around the bottom of my legs” but also because he had “just completed a 14,000-mile round trip” to and from Yalta.
The President digressed from his prepared address at the outset to explain why he was sitting down this time instead of standing on the rostrum. He also took note of the rumors that he had been ill.
“From the time I left I was not ill a second until I arrived back,” the President said, “And then I heard all the rumors that had been current.”
The President rolled into the House chamber in his wheel chair and transferred to a red plush seat in the well of the Chamber – the space on the floor just in front of the rostrum.
Directly before him were his Cabinet members, including Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins in the same style of three-cornered hat she has worn for more than a decade. Next to Madam Secretary sat the old curmudgeon, Harold L. Ickes, looking glum.
Back of the Cabinet were the Senators, and in the rear the 400-odd Representatives, with a scattering of Ambassadors and Ministers on the edges.
‘I saw Sevastopol!’ grim Roosevelt says
WASHINGTON (UP) – It was a grim President Roosevelt who told Congress today what the Nazis left behind them in the Crimea.
He said:
I had read about Warsaw and Lidice and Rotterdam and Coventry, but I saw Sevastopol and Yalta.
And I know there is not enough room on earth for both German militarism and Christian decency.
Roosevelt chides traveling family
WASHINGTON (UP) – The President poked fun at the traveling Roosevelts in his message to Congress today.
“I return from the trip – which took me as far as 7,000 miles from the White House – refreshed and inspired,” he said.
“The Roosevelts are not, as you may suspect, averse to travel. We thrive on it.”
Since his first inauguration 12 years ago, Mr. Roosevelt has traveled an estimated 300,000 miles.
In the same 12 years, Mrs. Roosevelt has traveled around 320,000 miles, beating her husband by about four-fifths of the distance around the earth.
‘Iwo situation well in hand,’ President says
WASHINGTON (UP) – U. S. Marines om Iwo Jima, as they invariably do sooner or later, “have the situation well in hand.”
So said President Roosevelt today in his speech to Congress.
He said the combined British and American chiefs of staff at Malta made plans to step up the attack on Japan. Japanese warlords have already felt the force of American B-29s and carrier planes, and, he added, they have felt our naval might and “do not appear very anxious to come out and try it again.”
He added:
The Japs know what it means to hear that “the United States Marines have landed.” And we can add, having Iwo Jima in mind: “The situation is well in hand.”