Pittsburghers recall visits Roosevelt made to city
60,000 jammed Forbes Field in 1936 to hear him campaign for reelection
Friday, April 13, 1945
Thousands of persons in the Pittsburgh district were saying in voices solemn with sorrow but filled with pride: “I remember him when…”
They were recalling that night in October 1932 when Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, made one of the most important speeches in his first campaign for President – on the soldiers’ bonus question – at Forbes Field.
They were reminiscing, too, about that night in 1936 when a harvest moon shone down on 60,000 persons hammed into Forbes Field to hear President Roosevelt campaign for reelection.
No political speeches
And they were remembering October 1940 when the President last visited this district. He was his party’s candidate for a third term.
While here, President Roosevelt did not make a political speech. He visited “national defense plants,” as they were called before Pearl Harbor, and dedicated the Terrace Village housing project.
They were remembering the battered campaign fedora which President Roosevelt waved as banner as his car passed through streets lined with cheering crowds, the famous smile, the upturned cigarette holder, the silvered hair, the intoned opening phrase of his speeches, “My friends.”
60,000 in Forbes Field
Thirty-five thousand persons were present when Gov. Roosevelt gave his position on the soldiers’ bonus question and pledged himself to a 25 percent reduction in governmental expenses.
Four years later, again in Forbes Field, he spoke to 60,000 wild-cheering supporters in defense of his New Deal He came to give an accounting of his four years as Chief Executive and to outline the route he intended to follow in the future.
Gets medal from Fagan
He was the “old-time campaigner” that night. All the hoopla of a presidential campaign was staged. A youth dressed as Uncle Sam rode a donkey before the laughing spectators. Mr. Roosevelt took a bouquet of roses from Carol Gene Trainer, then five, of Wilkinsburg. He waved happily, smiled broadly and hit hard as he delivered his address.
He was visibly pleased when Patrick T. Fagan, then president of District 5 of the United Mine Workers, presented him with a gold medal “and the 40,000 votes of the miners in District 5 and the votes of every union miner in America.”
Mr. Roosevelt was a candidate for a precedent-shattering third term when he returned to Pittsburgh on October 11, 1940. His opponent, Wendell Willkie, had been here the week before.
President Roosevelt came to visit the plants then producing munitions for an England with its back to the wall. France had gone under and war was spreading toward the United States.
At the Carnegie-Illinois plant at Munhall, Mr. Roosevelt saw armor plates bearing placards of warships they were made for. One placard read: “USS Juneau,” the cruiser sunk by the Japs in the South Pacific. The five Sullivan brothers went down with the ship.
His last act here was to dedicate the housing project and to give to tenants Mr. and Mrs. Lester Churchfield a gold key for the 100,000th housing unit built under his administration. After the ceremony, Mr. Roosevelt remarked jocularly, as he frequently did: “Well, I’ve got to rum to catch a train.”
Democrats postpone Jefferson Day dinners
WASHINGTON (UP) – The Democratic National Committee has indefinitely postponed Jefferson Day dinners scheduled to be held here and in other parts of the country tonight.
President Roosevelt was to have addressed the gatherings by radio from Warm Springs. The Pittsburgh dinner was held Wednesday night.