The Pittsburgh Press (October 21, 1944)
Foreign policy speech tonight –
Roosevelt takes campaign to sidewalks of New York
Two million expected to see President as he braves drizzle in open car
New York (UP) –
President Roosevelt took his fourth-term reelection campaign to this vast damp city today in an open car, 50-mile motor tour despite wet weather and gray skies.
Bare-headed and without the cape which had sheltered him earlier, the President made the first major station of his citywide swing at Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ ballpark, where he called upon an estimated 16,000 persons to return Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY) to the U.S. Senate.
He speaks tonight before the Foreign Policy Association.
KDKA and KQV will broadcast the speech at 9:30 p.m. EWT.
Bad weather, brushed over the metropolitan area by the diminishing force of a hurricane-at-sea, cut crowds and took some of the sparkle from the occasion. But the President made good on the promise that he would parade “rain or shine.” He did so at the head of a motorcade of about 50 cars which was destined to be on the streets for four hours or more. Near noon the schedule was lagging by half an hour.
Will tour five boroughs
From the Brooklyn depot, where he arrived just before 8:30 a.m., Mr. Roosevelt will move for four hours or more through all but one of the city’s five boroughs. He will see and be seen by more persons, than could be mustered in many a prairie state in a matter of days.
Military courtesies were not wholly observed at the beginning of the city-swing. There was no 21-gun salute at the Army depot and it was as Candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt and not as the Commander-in-Chief that the President came to town. The party left the Brooklyn depot at 10:02 a.m. for the first leg of the journey to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The next was Ebbets Field, home grounds of the Brooklyn Dodgers, where the rally for Senator Wagner attracted additional thousands because the President appeared.
Route well-guarded
Ten thousand policemen – vacations and other leave canceled in this wartime political emergency – were guarding the route. Rooftops were ordered cleared and the Secret Service, and probably the FBI, were on unostentatious duty. This is Mr. Roosevelt’s first wholly public appearance since Pearl Harbor.
He has travelled far and often since then but his plans have been unannounced and his route as much of a military secret as a war plan. This avowedly political public appearance was undertaken under pressure of the President’s campaign advisers who believe there are thousands of yotes to be gained by presenting the President in person to the curbside crowds.
Crowds gather early
And if his health is an issue in this campaign, it doubtless will be remarked by the electorate that the President was not fearful of spending hours in an open car on a day which promised at any moment to send even the ducks indoors.
Hatless at the start of his tour, the President arrived at the Navy Yard at 10:18 a.m. Mrs. Roosevelt awaited him there. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and other municipal and party leaders were in the parade. Mr. La Guardia in the presidential car for the first leg of the ride.
Child greets Roosevelt
Four-year-old Carol Levine, a Brooklyn beauty, came up with the first placard of the thousands which are expected to greet the President today. It was homemade, mailed to a suck and read: “Long Live Roosevelt.”
The first Roosevelt speech of the day was at Ebbets Field where some 7,500 persons had gathered well in advance of the President’s arrival as Senator Wagner began his preliminary remarks. The President will speak later today at Hunter College, a WAVE installation, in the Bronx.
Tonight, he will make the third of his formal and avowed nationwide political broadcasts before a Waldorf-Astoria Hotel dinner of the Foreign Policy Association.
Police seem apprehensive
A raw drizzle in the Ebbets Field section of Brooklyn dampened the occasion and the stands blossomed umbrellas by the hundreds. The area of the Navy Yard was cleared of all spectators before the President’s appearance. Police and others responsible seemed apprehensive.
The President’s battered old campaign fedora, a veteran of 1932, came into view early as the procession got underway.
Municipal politicos alternated in the open car with Mr. Roosevelt. But he had one constant companion – Fala, the White House dog. There were two secret service men on each side of the car, assigned to the running boards for an anxious four-hour tour of duty. Military bands – one of them powered by WACs – sent the party away from the Army depot with a blare of sound.
Bad weather cuts crowds
Mr. Roosevelt was 23 minutes behind schedule when he reached Ebbets Field at 10:58 a.m. Bad weather had cut the crowds on the early laps. But there were cheers, banners and shouts from windows and from the curbs. The sidewalk crowds were in knots of 500 here and 1,000 there, concentrated largely where the President was expected to make brief stops.
It was a colorful procession. City and national flags and the President’s own standard flew from the handlebars of the 50-motorcycle escort. Each time the motorcade slowed a dozen Secret Service men loped up alongside the presidential car to screen its flanks.
Rain fell steadily as the procession rolled at 30 miles an hour into the downtown section of Brooklyn.
The President and his wife smiled and nodded to the crowds, Mr. Roosevelt giving from time to time with a two-hand, overhead gesture or with a wave of the old hat acknowledgement. Women observed that Mrs. Roosevelt wore a dark red, fur-collared coat and a felt hat. Crowds stood three-deep along downtown Brooklyn curbs.
There was a buzz of curbside comment as the President passed by. “He looks swell” was a frequent judgement, and there was comment that in the long procession of cars only one top was down – the President’s.