‘Singing in the rain’ –
Gay crowd of 300,000 welcomes Roosevelt on return to capital
President ‘hopes it won’t be intimated’ that Washington is his ‘permanent home’
By Frederick C. Othman, United Press staff writer
Roosevelt guess on electoral vote is far too low
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt confessed to a news conference today that he had guessed the electoral vote would be 335 for himself and 196 for Governor Dewey.
In latest returns today, Mr. Roosevelt had won or was leading in states with 432 electoral votes against 99 for Governor Dewey.
Asked whether he had won his 25-cent bet with Frank J. Lewis of Chicago on the outcome in one undisclosed state, Mr. Roosevelt said that he had called the bet off because he had gotten scared.
Washington –
The four-time winner and still champion came home today and was acclaimed by thousands in a triumphal victory procession to the White House.
The jovial Franklin D. Roosevelt, despite a steady rain, responded to the cheers of the admiring throngs and drove through the heart of the city in an open car.
Wearing a light Navy rain cape which was buttoned up around his neck, Mr. Roosevelt rode from the Union Station with Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Vice President-elect Harry S. Truman both sitting at his left. Mr. Roosevelt waved to the sodden crowds in front of the station, and said:
I hope it won’t be intimated that I expect to make Washington my permanent residence for the rest of my life.
He laughed, his neighbors cheered, the photographers’ flashlight bulbs exploded, the reporters and Secret Service agents crowded around his car, both the Army and Navy bands tootled in a haphazard unison, and Mr. Roosevelt sailed down Pennsylvania Avenue with sirens screaming and headlights boring into the 9:00 a.m. gloom.
District Commissioner J. Russell Young estimated that 300,000 persons were in the crowd that welcomed the President, 25,000 at the railroad station and the other 275,000 lining the streets along the route to the White House.
The President arrived by special train from Hyde Park at 8.20 a.m. waited in the station until 9 o’clock before piling into jus car, and emerged just as there spread over the sky a heavy black cloud.
The chauffeurs switched on their headlights, the government clerks lining the walks snapped up their umbrellas, the police standing every 15 feet buckled their paunchos around their necks, and as soon as President Roosevelt started to talk the rain poured down harder than ever.
The bandsmen struggled to protect their drums, the radio experts tried to cover their machinery with raincoats, and hundreds of banners, bearing such slogans as “A United Nation for United Victory,” and “We’re United With Roosevelt and World Peace,” turned into ribbons of wet cardboard.
A soaking wet Marine who tried to climb the back of a granite lion in the plaza fountain was chased off.
A federal clerk with a Roosevelt button eight inches across on one lapel and another saying “I told you so,” cheered hoarsely,
President Roosevelt was met inside the station by such stalwarts of his administration as Secretary of Labor Perkins (in her fancy triangular stormproof hat), Secretary of Agriculture Wickard, Secretary of Commerce Jones, Postmaster General Walker, Acting Secretary of State Stettinius, Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of the Interior Ickes.
There was nothing secret about the President’s homecoming. Every radio station and newspaper carried the exact time of his arrival plus exhortations to turn out behind the steel cables and the cops on either side of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Washington’s weatherman, however, ruined hopes of a crowd of 500,000 when he turned on the celestial faucets for the wettest day of the fall.
It rained so long and so hard that veteran Secret Service agents said they were reminded not only of Mr. Roosevelt’s recent campaign parade in New York City, but also of his original inauguration in 1933 when almost the entire city was on the verge of drowning in its efforts to see the new President.
Thanks workers
The four-time President didn’t say much to the crowds at Union Station – just thanked them for the “very wonderful homecoming” on such a rainy morning. Then he asked Washington reporters not to assume that he wished to make Washington his permanent home.
He concluded:
I want to thank you, especially the government workers, for what they are doing to win the war. And when I say government workers, I do not wish to exclude the rest of you, who make it possible for them to live here and work.
The President’s car and the others in the procession then started for the White House through streets lined three and four deep.
Crowd cheers
As the procession swung into Pennsylvania Avenue – the historic route of Presidents who have traveled it from inauguration ceremonies at the Capitol to the White House – cheers came from the crowds. Mr. Roosevelt responded by waving to them.
A large part of the crowds was composed of government girls who carried multi-colored umbrellas.
At the White House, members of the President’s staff waited in front of the south portico. As the President’s car arrived, the clerical staff and servants cheered and shouted “Welcome home.”
Mr. Truman was taking it easy in Kansas City when Mr. Roosevelt phoned to ask him how he’d like to take a 12-minute auto ride from the station to the White House. Mr. Truman said he’d like that fine, and the next thing he knew he was en route to Washington on an Army bomber.
This afternoon he’ll catch another plane back to Kansas City and if that seems like a lot of trouble for a spin down Pennsylvania Avenue, you’ll have to ascribe it to 12 years of tradition.
Fifth term query brings a laugh
Washington (UP) –
President Roosevelt’s first news conference since his reelection was largely a session of cheerful banter today, but there were these serious news developments:
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Asked about another meeting between himself, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin, the President confirmed that they did want to meet again when it could be arranged. But he said that nothing had been worked out yet as to time and place. He added that when the time and place were determined, he would not tell the reporters about it.
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He said he had heard nothing yet from Governor Dewey.
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Asked about the appointment of a new Ambassador to China, he said he had not thought about it recently.
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Asked when he intends to appoint a board to supervise the war surplus property administration, he said this was being held up by one name and that he was waiting to hear from this person.
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He said Secretary of State Hull, now in the Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Maryland, is getting along well and he supposed he would be back on the job at the State Department soon.
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Asked whether he had received a peace feeler from Germany, the President said no and commented that the question sounded to him like a pre-election inquiry.
“Let me be the first to ask you if you are going to run in 1948,” a reporter asked.
Mr. Roosevelt roared with laughter, saying he was asked the same question in 1940 – or was it 1936? – but that at any rate it was a hoary question.
