The death of President Franklin Roosevelt (4-12-45)

[NormanStewart]

Stock exchanges to close Saturday

Markets, however, stay open today
Friday, April 13, 1945

The New York and Pittsburgh stock exchanges will close tomorrow in observance of the death of President Roosevelt.

Both exchanges and banks were open today.

Banks were awaiting federal and state action on closing in respect to Mr. Roosevelt.

Arthur E. Braun, president of the Pittsburgh Clearing House Association, said banks are legally compelled to operate until a holiday is declared by the Governor of Pennsylvania and the Comptroller of Currency.

Roosevelt lauded

Officers of the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange joined with governors of the New York Exchange in paying tribute to Mr. Roosevelt.

A statement by the New York governors said:

Since the beginning of the war period, the President himself more than once expressed great satisfaction that the Stock Exchange has been able to maintain an open market for securities in spite of the terrible shock of war.

We believe we should meet this new tragedy in the same spirit. Our country is financially sound, strong in arms and courage, and strong in determination to carry this war to victorious conclusion.

Must carry on

Our leader has died, but we must show our respect for him partly by carrying on the essential functions of our economy in spite of our natural feelings of grief.

We pledge our support to President Truman and his administration in the great task that lies ahead.

[NormanStewart]

President Roosevelt’s death removed his name from tonight’s schedules. He was to have broadcast a Jefferson Day talk at 9:55 from Warm Springs.

Networks and Pittsburgh stations canceled commercials last night and up to 1 p.m. today, while considering further action.

Network and local programs joined in tribute to Mr. Roosevelt’s memory. KQV presented Bishop Austin Pardue of the Episcopal Church, Father Quigley, head of Catholic schools here, and Rabbi Freehoff last night. They planned to pick up memorial services from Trinity Cathedral today.

Drew Pearson was in town last night and devoted his talk over KQV to the President, forgetting their differences of a year or more ago. He and a local commentator said they had confidential information of the President’s condition, which, of course, they didn’t have. Another said he got the flash at 5:11, which he didn’t. His newswire runs through the Pittsburgh Press building and is relayed to the station from this building. No one had it at 5:11.

John B. Kennedy climaxed a night of tributes at 11:45 when he read Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Requiem,” which Mr. Roosevelt had copied inside a book he gave Mr. Kennedy years ago.

Here is the verse:

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

It appears on the poet’s tombstone.

[NormanStewart]

Flashed ‘green light’ –
Baseball loses staunch friend in Roosevelt

NEW YORK (UP) – When President Roosevelt, early in his first term, answered critics of his policies with the words, “I don’t expect to make a home run every time I come to bat,” the sports world knew it had a friend in the White House.

Without the provisional “green light for baseball which he issued in one of his last press conferences there would have been little hope for continuation of the ‘sport into its fourth wartime season.

There had been hope to the last that he might follow up the “green light” declaration by throwing out the first ball at the presidential opener between the Senators and Yanks at Washington next Monday.

WASHINGTON (UP) – President Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators said today that the death of President Roosevelt would make no change in plans for the season’s opening game here Monday with the New York Yankees.

Mr. Roosevelt in urging the continuation of baseball for 1945 said he did not think the sport should use perfectly healthy men who could do something more useful in the war effort. The teams probably would be a little older and maybe not as proficient, he said.

Then he told the newsmen that he liked to see baseball games, even if played by sandlot outfits.

That removed the final vestige of doubt about whether there would be professional baseball this season.

Spurred night games

Similar “green light” declarations preceded the other wartime seasons the President emphasizing the need of the nation for the wholesome diversion of an afternoon or an evening out-of-doors when its way chores were finished.

He was considered responsible for extension of the major league mit on night games after a press conference in 1943 when he suggested that more after-dark games would be beneficial to the many government workers in Washington whose hours were in the day time. The major leagues promptly gave Washington Special dispensation to play an unlimited schedule of night games and last year extended the number of games for all clubs whose parks had lighting facilities.

It was the President’s fondness of swimming which led to his lifelong affliction from infantile paralysis. He was swimming at the family summer home at Campo Bello, Maine, in 1921 when he acquired the virus and shortly thereafter was paralyzed in both legs.

Swimming helped him

After that he swam to strengthen the weakened legs and it was only in his third term he had to discontinue his favorite sport because the press of duty was too great for him to spare the time. During his retreats to his second home at Warm Springs, Ga., he spent many hours swimming in his private pool there and attributed to the exercise his ability to walk at all.

On presidential vacations, which became more infrequent, he used U.S. Navy vessels for deep sea fishing cruises and he regarded it as a deep personal loss in 1942 when his favorite cruiser, the USS Houston, was sunk in the battle of Savo Island in the Pacific.

[NormanStewart]

Sports pay tribute

Roosevelt’s death curtails program

NEW YORK (UP) – The sports world joined the nation today in mourning and tribute to President Roosevelt.

Baseball, preparing for its fourth wartime season, called a halt to its final tune-up activities in respect of the man who had been responsible for the perpetuation of the sport since Pearl Harbor.

Many exhibition games were called off, but in Washington, it was announced that the season’s opener Monday against the Senators and New York Yankees will be played on schedule.

Presidents Ford Frick of the National League and William Harridge of the American forwarded to their club members a request from the advisory council to cancel all games tomorrow, the day of President Roosevelt’s official funeral.

In commenting on the President’s death, Harridge said: “Baseball had lost one of its best friends and greatest boosters.”

Today’s exhibition game between the Pirates and the Cleveland Indians at Muncie, Indiana, was called off, as were the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. the Yankees at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, the city series between the Cubs and White Sox in Chicago, and the Braves vs. Red Sox exhibition in Boston.

New York University officials announced that the Saturday baseball game between NYU and Brooklyn College had been moved ahead to Monday.

Promoter Mike Jacobs planned at first to hold a fight card scheduled for St. Nicholas Arena tonight. Later he announced, however, that the card, featuring Jake LaMotta vs. Vic Dellicurti would be postponed until next Friday.

[NormanStewart]

Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 14, 1945)

US-Präsident Franklin D. Roosevelt plötzlich gestorben

Der größte Kriegsverbrecher vom Schicksal ereilt – Große Schockwirkung auf der Feindseite – Truman der Nachfolger

oz. Berlin, 13. April – Wie amtlich aus Washington gemeldet wird, ist der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, am Donnerstag nachmittags in Warm Springs (Georgia) plötzlich an Gehirnblutung gestorben.

In sämtlichen aus Nordamerika eingegangenen Meldungen wird betont, dass keine Nachricht seit Kriegsbeginn einen solchen Eindruck auf die Öffentlichkeit in den USA gemacht hat, wie die Nachricht vom Tode Roosevelt, auf die niemand vorbereitet war. Roosevelt hatte sich am 30. März auf seinen Landsitz begeben, um sich, wie er damals erklären ließ, bis zum Beginn der großen Konferenz von San Franzisko zu erholen. Am Donnerstag nachmittags klagte er plötzlich über schwere Kopfschmerzen. Wenige Minuten später wurde er ohnmächtig. Ein herbeigerufener Arzt konnte nur noch feststellen, dass Roosevelt von einem Gehirnschlag getroffen worden sei. Mittlerweile war die Nachricht an das Weiße Haus in Washington weitergegeben worden. Noch während der telefonischen Unterhaltungen zwischen dem Arzt in Warm Springs und dem Stellvertretenden Präsidenten Truman verschied Roosevelt. Sofort nach Bekanntwerden seines Todes wurde der neue Präsident Truman verfassungsgemäß als neuer Präsident der USA ein geschworen.

In einem Bericht der schwedischen Zeitung Dagens Nyheter aus Neuyork heißt es:

Wenige Minuten nach 18 Uhr Neuyorker Zeit gaben die nordamerikanischen Sender die Nachricht vom Tode Roosevelts bekannt. Die Zeitungen waren nicht im Geringsten auf diese Nachricht vorbereitet und konnten daher auch mit ihren Extraausgaben erst viel später kommen.

Die Wirkung auf die Öffentlichkeit ist verständlich, wenn man berücksichtigt, dass niemand wusste, dass die Gesundheit des Präsidenten sich verschlechtert hatte. Zunächst wurde berichtet, dass anlässlich des Todes Roosevelts die große Konferenz in San Franzisko aufgeschoben werden solle. Aber Außenminister Stettinius gab am späten Abend bekannt, dass nach Übereinkunft mit dem neuen Präsidenten Truman die Konferenz entsprechend den ursprünglichen US-Plänen abgehalten werden solle.

Die ersten aus London eingetroffenen Berichte besagen, dass die Nachricht vom Tode Roosevelts auch in England geradezu Bestürzung ausgelöst hat. Man weist darauf hin, dass Churchill und Roosevelt sehr eng befreundet waren, dass also die Todesnachricht für den britischen Ministerpräsidenten und viele seiner Mitarbeiter sowohl ein persönlicher wie offizieller Schlag war.

Roosevelt wurde am 30. Jänner 1882 in Neuyork geboren. Er wählte zunächst den Beruf eines Advokaten, geriet aber durch seine weitverzweigten Beziehungen und durch seine Zugehörigkeit zur Weltfreimaurerei, deren höchsten Grad er zuletzt bekleidete, ins politische Fahrwasser. Hier gelangte er 1913 unter Wilson zum erstenmal in ein hohes Staatsamt als Unterstaatssekretär der Marine. Schon damals trug Roosevelt keine saubere Weste und zeigte, dass er Politik sehr gut mit persönlichen Geschäften zu verknüpfen verstand. Im Jahre 1921 erkrankte er an spinaler Kinderlähmung und musste sich lange Zeit dem politischen Leben fernhalten, nachdem ihm ein deutscher Arzt das Leben gerettet hatte.

Der zweite Abschnitt in Roosevelts politischem Leben begann 1928, als es ihm gelungen war, Gouverneur des Staates Neuyork zu werden. Das Sprungbrett zur Erfüllung des größten ehrgeizigen Zieles, Präsident der USA zu werden, war erklommen. 1932 setzte die Clique um Roosevelt seine Wahl durch. Seither blieb er durch mehrmalige Wiederwahl, die ein Novum in der US-Verfassungsgeschichte darstellte, an der Spitze des Staates.

[NormanStewart]

Kriegsverbrecher Nr. 1

Von Hubert Caspers

Das Schicksal ist doch gerecht! Auf dem Höhepunkt des von ihm in erster Linie angezettelten größten Krieges aller Zeiten hat es mit Franklin Delano Roosevelt den Kriegsverbrecher Nr. 1 hinweggerafft. Roosevelt hat seinen Krieg nicht mehr überleben dürfen. Er steht jetzt vor dem Stuhl seines höchsten Richters. Tausende und aber Tausende von hingemordeten Frauen und Kindern, die das Opfer der Luftgangster Roosevelts wurden, Tausende und aber Tausende toter amerikanischer Soldaten, die der Kriegsverbrecher – der einmal seine Wiederwahl zum Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten mit dem Versprechen an die amerikanischen Mütter betrieb, er würde dafür sorgen, dass die Jungen der USA niemals auf einem außeramerikanischen Kriegsschauplatz verbluteten – in den Tod schickte, klagen ihn an. Ein wahrhaft gerechtes Schicksal tilgte einen Menschen in dem Augenblick aus, in dem er sich auf dem Höhepunkt seiner Macht fühlte und davon träumte, auf den Erfolgen seines verbrecherischen Krieges die Herrschaft der Welt antreten zu können.

Roosevelt war der größte politische Hochstapler, der jemals in der Weltgeschichte umhergeisterte. Er rechnet auch unter jene Männer in der Geschichte der Völker, die kraft eigener charakterlicher und geistiger Unzulänglichkeit namenloses Elend über die Völker gebracht haben. Es gibt in der Geschichte kaum einen Fall von schlimmerer Scharlatanerie, als der Franklin Delano Roosevelts, des viermaligen Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten. Er stammte aus einer der alten, sehr vermögenden amerikanischen Familien, die ihre Ahnenreihe auf die Kolonisationszeiten zurückführen können. Aber er hatte inzwischen jüdisches Blut in die Adern bekommen, ebenso wie seine Frau jüdisch versippt ist. Dem reichen, ehrgeizigen Mann stand der Weg in die Politik offen. Er beschritt ihn so skrupellos, wie es nur je politische Großgangster in den Vereinigten-Staaten getan haben. Seine Weste war nie weiß. Eines seiner übelsten politischen Geschäfte startete er – das ist kennzeichnend für den blindwütigen Deutschenhasser – nachdem er bereits im ersten Weltkriege Unterstaatssekretär für die Marine und dann Teilnehmer der Versailler Konferenz gewesen war – gegen Deutschland, als dieses auf dem Höhepunkt seiner von den Feinden erzwungenen Inflation stand. Unter den Aasgeiern, die sich damals am deutschen Nationalvermögen schwer bereicherten, war auch Mister Roosevelt. Er betrog dabei gleichzeitig sein eigenes Volk und begann damit die politische Linie, der er als Präsident bis zu seinem Tode treu geblieben ist. Roosevelt war 1922 Präsident der Schiebergesellschaft United European Investors Limited, die die amerikanischen Sparer überredete, deutsche Papiermark zu kaufen und mit ihr zu spekulieren. Was am Ende bei der plötzlichen Stabilisierung dabei herauskam, ist sattsam bekannt. Der amerikanische Sparer verlor, Roosevelt aber hatte für sein Privatkonto in großen Mengen AEG-Aktien und andere hochvalutarische Papiere erschoben, die AEG-Aktie zu 22 8 Dollar, die am 31. Dezember 1913 mit 538,20 Dollar notiert worden war. Er verdiente am deutschen Zusammenbruch und mit den Geldern des kleinen amerikanischen Sparers damals Millionen.

Solche Gangsterstücke und die Zugehörigkeit zur alten amerikanischen Gesellschaft, die Tatsache ferner, dass er jüdisch versippt und mehrfacher Hochgradfreimaurer war, machten Roosevelt zum geeigneten Objekt jener Kreise, die in den Vereinigten Staaten die Politik recht eigentlich „machen.“ Die jüdische Großfinanz hob den vielversprechenden Ehrgeizling auf ihren Schild. Sie fasste ihn mit jüdischer Raffiniertheit an seiner schwächsten Stelle und hielt ihn bis zu seinem verdienten Ende fest in ihren Netzen. Seine im Mannesalter eingetretene schwere physische Behinderung durch eine spinale Kinderlähmung, die ihn zuerst an den Rollstuhl und bis zuletzt an die Krücken fesselte, hatte einen starken Minderwertigkeitskomplex erzeugt, den er durch eine große Karriere in Stellungen und Ämter abreagierte, denen er geistig keinesfalls gewachsen war. So wurde er das hilflose Opfer seines jüdischen „Gehirntrusts,“ der Juden Frankfurter, Baruch, Rosenman, Morgenthau und anderer. Seine Reden machten Juden, seine Gedanken entsprangen der morbiden Ideologie jüdischer Gelehrtenschulen, die Reklame für ihn machten Film-, Presse- und Rundfunkjuden – er selbst und seine sattsam bekannte Frau brauchten nichts zu tun, als das jüdische Geschmuse wirkungsvoll vorzutragen und mit dem Sternenbanner ihres alten Amerikanertums zu drapieren.

So entstanden die Präsidentschaften dieses unheilvollsten aller amerikanischen Präsidenten seit der Unabhängigkeitserklärung. Sein jüdischer Gehirntrust hat ihn als einen Messias verschrien, der gesandt war, mit seinen – vom Juden entliehenen – Ideen Amerika aus der schlimmsten Wirtschaftskatastrophe seiner Geschichte nach dem berühmten Schwarzen Freitag des 23. Oktober 1929 zu erretten. Als er 1932 zum ersten Male ins Weiße Haus einzog, startete er mit seinen Hofjuden das berüchtigte „New Deal,“ das neue Wirtschaftssystem, das angeblich dem kleinen Mann helfen sollte und mit staatssozialistischen Grundsätzen dem Großkapitalismus ans Leder wollte. In Wahrheit dachten natürlich Roosevelt und seine Juden gar nicht daran, den Massen zu helfen, sondern sie wollten selber ins Geschäft. Nach wenigen Jahren waren Milliarden von Dollar in eine sinnlose Unterstützungswirtschaft hineingepumpt, Millionen von Partnern waren trotzdem von Haus und Hof gejagt, 12 Millionen Arbeitslose lagen buchstäblich auf der Straße und hungerten, das Großkapital aber trat das Erbe des amerikanischen Farmers an und zahlte nach wie vor höchste Dividenden.

Die Vereinigten Staaten standen nach der Pleite des New Deal vor einer neuen Katastrophe. Ihr Präsident musste gleichzeitig sehen, wie in denselben Jahren seiner inneren Katastrophenpolitik in Deutschland der Nationalsozialismus eines Adolf Hitler das Arbeitslosenproblem restlos löste, Staat und Wirtschaft stabilisierte, die Volkswirtschaft von fremden, nicht zuletzt amerikanischen Ketten befreite und die arbeitenden Massen des Volkes glücklich machte, dem völkischen Unternehmertum den Gemeinnutz als verpflichtende Richtschnur gab und das jüdische Parasitentum in jeder Form ausschaltete. Dieses nationalsozialistische Beispiel drohte bei den betragenen und notleidenden Volksmassen der Plutokraten in England und den Vereinigten Staaten zum Nachdenken über die Fehler im eigenen Lande und ihre Verursacher anzuregen.

So wurde aus der inneren Katastrophe, aus Ehrgeiz, Eifersucht und Hass Roosevelt zum Kriegshetzer Nr. 1. Es war die erste außenpolitische Tat seiner Juden gewesen, mit den Sowjets ins politische Geschäft zu kommen und den im bürgerlichen Amerika verhassten Bolschewismus salonfähig zu machen. Seit der ersten Wiederwahl 1936 hat Roosevelt alles darauf abgestellt, die Welt in den Krieg gegen Deutschland zu hetzen, und was an dem toten Roosevelt allein bewundernswert bleibt, ist die raffinierte, zielbewusste Systematik, mit der er seinen Krieg betrieb, indem er die englischen und französischen Demokratien in Europa zunächst ins Feuer schickte und gleichzeitig sein eigenes Volk mit Schlangenhafter Beharrlichkeit für die Teilnahme am Kriege und damit für die Schlachtbank vorbereitete. Seine jüdische Propagandameute stürzte sich in infernalischem Hass gegen ein Deutschland, das die Juden zum Teufel geschickt hatte, auf seine Aufgabe, in wenigen Jahren aus einer streng gegen jeden Krieg in Europa eingenommenen Volksmeinung eine vorbehaltlose Kriegsstimmung zu erzeugen. Zugleich steigerte Roosevelt seine unverschämte Aggressivität gegen das nationalsozialistische Deutschland von Jahr zu Jahr; von seiner berüchtigten Quarantäne-Rede 1937 gegen die Staaten des Führerprinzips über die diplomatischen Geheimverhandlungen seiner Botschafter in Europa, das Pacht- und Leihgesetz, die Zerstörer Lieferungen, den Schießbefehl an die Flotte bis zum 8. Dezember 1941, als er endlich den Krieg hatte, hinter dem er verzweifelt hergelaufen war, führt eine gerade Linie. Mit welchen ungeheuren Mitteln die amerikanische Rüstungswirtschaft diesen Krieg schon in langen Jahren des Friedens vorbereitet hatte, fühlen wir heute am gewaltigen Rüstungspotential unserer Gegner.

Dem Kriege selbst war Roosevelt neben Stalin und Churchill auf der Feindseite der stärkste Motor. Mit dem Kriegsausgang stand und fiel der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten. Infolgedessen ist der plötzliche Tod dieses Kriegsverbrechers für die Feindseite ein unverkennbar starker Verlust, so zweifellos es auch ist, dass zuerst einmal sein Nachfolger nichts anderes tun kann, als in seine Fußstapfen zu treten. Aber immerhin: Roosevelt trat in einem Augenblick von der politischen Bühne ab, in dem nicht die militärische, wohl aber die politische Situation auf der Feindseite im Zeichen der größten Schwierigkeiten steht. Hier wird Roosevelt, der unselige Vater des Krieges, bitter fehlen. Der Judenklüngel im Weißen Haus zu Washington wird seine repräsentative Drahtpuppe sehr vermissen. Überhaupt sehen wir Alljuda an der Klagemauer stehen und sich verzweifelt die schmutzigen Kleider zerreißen, weil der Messias gestorben und verdorben ist, der mehr als jeder andere politische Judenknecht der Welt für die Begründung der jüdischen Weltherrschaft getan hat.

Uns aber erfüllt der plötzliche Tod des Kriegsverbrechers Roosevelt mit höchster Befriedigung. Er ist uns in Wahrheit die Strafe Gottes, die uns daran glauben lässt, dass auch im Ablauf dieses von Roosevelt angezettelten Krieges sich die Gerechtigkeit des Schicksals am Ende doch durchsetzen wird. Roosevelt musste sterben, als er dachte, den Zipfel des Gewandes der Siegesgöttin fest in der Hand zu halten – ihm half kein Gott und kein Teufel, er wurde im rechten Augenblick vom Schicksal ausradiert. Denken wir dagegen an das Walten der göttlichen Vorsehung am 20. Juli des vergangenen Jahres, als der Tod rings um den Führer stand und seine Ernte hielt und uns der größte Gegenspieler Roosevelts nur durch ein Wunder erhalten blieb – der einzige Mensch, der imstande ist, diesem Krieg der Juden, Plutokraten und Bolschewisten das Ende zu bereiten, das er nehmen muss, wenn die Geschichte ihren Sinn behalten soll. Vergleichen wir jenen 20. Juli 1944 und diesem 12. April 1945 und wir gewinnen die Kraft, die uns den Glauben gibt, der Berge versetzt!

[NormanStewart]

Funeral of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
April 14, 1945

Broadcast audio (NBC):

The funeral procession for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt April 14, 1945

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (April 14, 1945)

Hushed throngs in Washington pay last tribute to Roosevelt

Truman heads crowd as body is returned – Eden flies to funeral

WASHINGTON (UP) – President Roosevelt’s body was borne through the hushed streets of the nation’s capital today to receive the people’s tribute.

The special train drew into Washington’s Union Station just before 10 a.m. and came to a slow halt where President Truman and the leaders of the government who worked with Mr. Roosevelt in peace and war were waiting. Mr. Roosevelt died Thursday at Warm Springs, Georgia.

In the plaza outside and along the troop-lined avenue leading to the White House, silent crowds stood in silence in the sultry April sunshine.

It was a wartime ceremony in keeping with an America whose forces were fighting toward victory in Europe and in the Pacific.

Simple funeral services were set for 4 p.m. at the White House.

British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden flew here to represent Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Battalions of soldiers, sailors and Marines marched slowly ahead of the shrouded caisson that bore Mr. Roosevelt’s body from the station to the White House.

G.I. troops in olive drab with fixed bayonets and their dusty working leggings and G.I. shoes stood every three paces along the cortege route.

Only one son present

Only one of the President’s four sons – Brig. Gen. Elliott Roosevelt – reached Washington for the ceremony. The others were with the Navy and the Marines at their war posts in the Pacific.

Elliott, the four Roosevelt daughters-in-law and Mrs. John Boettiger were the first to board the funeral train where Mrs. Roosevelt waited. They were followed by Mr. Truman, Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace, and former War Mobilization Director James F. Byrnes.

A moment later, enlisted soldiers and sailors gently lifted the flag-draped casket from the train and passed it to the body-bearers – noncommissioned men representing each of the four service arms.

Marine Band plays

As the casket was placed on the black-draped military caisson, the U.S. Marine Band played “The Star-Spangled Banner,” followed by “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Rock of Ages.”

Battalions of the armed services led the procession through the crowd-packed streets with the Marine Band leading and marching at funereal pace.

The crowds were so quiet that the clumping tread of the marching men down Constitution Avenue sounded like distant surf.

Mrs. Roosevelt composed

Mrs. Roosevelt, outwardly composed as she has been since the tragedy struck, was clad entirely in black. She wore a heavy dotted black veil and rode with her son Elliott and her daughter Anna immediately behind the horse-drawn caisson.

In the next car were the President’s daughters-in-law, and in the third, Mr. Truman, Mr. Wallace and War Mobilization Director Fred M. Vinson.

As the cortege made its slow progress through the streets, squadrons of Flying Fortresses and Liberator bombers – symbols of American aerial might – roared overhead.

Crowds stand five deep

The crowds which stood five deep along Constitution Avenue where the procession passed down the broad avenue of government buildings – most of them erected in the early days of Mr. Roosevelt’s administration – watched quietly.

Here and there in the crowd a woman fainted in the unseasonable sticky heat. Some stood on chairs or boxes to get a better view and many shielded their faces from the hot sun with newspapers.

The procession was about a mile long and it required 35 minutes to pass a given point.

Guard of honor there

At 11:14 a.m., the caisson entered the White House grounds where a combined Guard of Honor – Army, Marine Corps and Navy – was drawn up before the white columns of the center White House portico. Between the guard and the White House was the Navy Band and over the Executive Mansion flew the flag at half-staff.

As the casket was borne into the White House, the Marine Band softly played “Lead, Kindly Light.” Walking behind the casket was Mrs. Roosevelt and, at her side, Vice Adm. Wilson Brown, Mr. Roosevelt’s aide.

Behind them were Elliott. Col. and Mrs. John Boettiger, and, walking together, the four daughters-in-law. Mr. Truman quietly separated himself from the party, leaving the White House to Mr. Roosevelt’s family.

Turning to the executive offices he walked in, hat in hand, and sat down at his desk for his first caller of the day, the New Orleans shipbuilder Andrew J. Higgins.

Burial tomorrow

The cortege leaves tonight for Hyde Park and the burial tomorrow.

The train rolled northward at a deliberate, funereal pace – north from the rolling countryside and red clay roads of the President’s “other home,” in Warm Springs.

At every town and city, mute crowds lined the trackside to watch the cortege pass. Some women cried and men bared their heads.

Each time the train paused – at Atlanta; at Greenville, South Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Salisbury, North Carolina; Danville, Virginia – masses of flowers were put aboard the car where the casket rested.

Flag drapes casket

The casket, draped by an American flag, was placed on a small platform toward the rear of what had been the lounge car of the Presidential Special. Overhead lights illuminated the car brilliantly and through the three wide windows the crowds could see the casket, the increasing mound of flowers and four guards posted at each corner.

Every two hours, the guards – each representing a branch of the Armed Forces – were changed.

Aboard the train there was quiet – and grief. The impact of their loss was beginning to be felt upon the President’s staff. Mrs. Roosevelt bore the strain. Stephen T. Early said, “with great courage and heroism.”

In keeping with a nation critically engaged in war, the funeral arrangements were simple.

Horses draw caisson

The caisson, drawn by six grey horses with a seventh to lead, awaited the presidential casket. Eight pallbearers were selected – two non-commissioned officers from each branch of the Armed Forces, the Army. the Navy, the Marines and the Coast Guard.

The Army Air Forces Band was summoned to play funeral airs while the casket was being placed upon the caisson.

The route of the funeral procession was not the familiar, well-traveled route of Pennsylvania Avenue. and the Presidential inaugurations. Instead, the cortege was routed by way of Delaware Avenue down Constitution Avenue – the broad plaza lined with great Government office buildings, largely erected in the early days of the President’s New Deal.

Police lead procession

From Constitution Avenue, the route swung over to 15th Street, past the Commerce and Treasury Buildings to Pennsylvania and into the northwest gate of the White House.

A detail of Washington police was assigned to lead the procession, followed by the escort commander and the commander of the military district of Washington.

Next came the U.S. Marine Band, a squadron of scout cars, a battalion of Field Artillery. a battalion of Army Air Forces and Army Service Forces personnel, a battalion of Marines, a battalion of bluejackets and a battalion of women members of the Armed Forces.

Elliott arrives

The clergy preceded the caisson, followed immediately by Mrs. Roosevelt, members of the Roosevelt family, including the four wives of the Roosevelt sons and Gen. Roosevelt who arrived in Washington early today by plane from Britain.

Attendance at the simple Episcopal services was limited to the Cabinet, the Diplomatic Corps, representatives of the Army, the Navy, the judiciary, Congress, the President’s personal staff and family friends.

The ceremonies were in charge of the Rt. Rev. Angus Dun, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, assisted by Rev. Howard S. Wilkinson, pastor of St. Thomas Episcopal Church. It was there on the morning of his inaugural March 4, 1933, that the President prayed as have all Presidents since the time of James Madison.

Wesley Steele, organist and choirmaster of St. Johns, will play the President’s favorite hymns, probably “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” – the Navy hymn dear to Mr. Roosevelt’s heart – “O God Our Help in Ages Past” and “America.”

Other services planned

At the Washington Cathedral and at other churches in Washington, memorial services were arranged at 4 p.m. for those unable to attend the White House ceremony. And at that hour throughout America the nation will pause in respect to Mr. Roosevelt.

The Armed Forces around the world wherever they are not actively engaged in combat will observe five minutes of silent prayer at 4 p.m. and at that moment in thousands of factories, offices and homes all work will cease for a moment of tribute to the late President.

[NormanStewart]

Burial will be in flower garden

HYDE PARK, New York (UP) – A secluded flower-bordered garden on the bank of the Hudson River was prepared today for the sad ceremony which will make it a historic national shrine.

The peaceful grassy plot, set apart from the rest of the Roosevelt estate was abloom with spring flowers as if nature had prepared its own funeral garlands for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Mr. Roosevelt will be buried in his favorite retreat, within sight of the home he loved so well, at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Rev. W. George Anthony, pastor of St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, where Mr. Roosevelt was senior warden, will officiate at the service.

[NormanStewart]

New Jap premier extends ‘profound sympathy’ to U.S.

Suzuki says ‘Roosevelt’s leadership is responsible’ for ‘advantageous position’
By the United Press

Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki has extended his “profound sympathy” to the American people on the death of President Roosevelt, the Jap Domei Agency said today.

An English-language dispatch reported by the FCC quoted Suzuki as telling a Domei correspondent:

I must admit Roosevelt’s leadership has been very effective and has been responsible for the Americans’ advantageous position today. For that reason, I can easily understand the great loss his passing means to the American people and my profound sympathy goes to them.

Domei reported that Suzuki “candidly” said, however, that he did not expect America’s war efforts against Japan to change because of the President’s death.

The dispatch said the correspondent was “almost taken aback” by Suzuki’s reaction to news of the death, “but he quickly realized it was not strange coming from s man of large caliber as the new premier is.”

[NormanStewart]

End-of-war hint stirs England

Churchill cancels proposed trip to U.S.

LONDON (UP) – Britain was torn today between mourning the death of President Roosevelt and a mounting tension led by persistent and thinly-veiled hints in the press that the formal end of the war in Europe might come at any time.

Prime Minister Churchill was described as persuaded by the possible imminence of great events to cancel the preparation of a plane and specially-picked crew to take him to the United States for Mr. Roosevelt’s funeral.

Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden was commissioned instead to represent the British government.

Wilson Broadbent, The Daily Mail’s diplomatic correspondent, said the news of Mr. Roosevelt’s death apparently was one of the greatest shocks Mr. Churchill ever suffered. The secretary who broke the news withdrew for five minutes. When he returned, he found Mr. Churchill’s eyes wet, a half-smoked cigar cast aside, and dispatches scattered open before him.

Mr. Roosevelt’s death was recorded in the court circular last night. For the first time it referred to the death of the head of a foreign state not related to the British Royal Family. It said:

The King has received with profound regret the news of the death of Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America. His Majesty mourns the loss of a staunch ally and a great personal friend.

Memorial services for Mr. Roosevelt will be held Tuesday at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

[NormanStewart]

I DARE SAY —
The old, old fashion – death

By Florence Fisher Parry

If I should die before I wake
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.

Death is so simple and quiet and ordinary. It comes to many while they sleep. They sigh, they let go, they are dead. And the pulse of life goes on, losing only the infinitesimal beat of one heart, now through with its labor.

Such a death without pain or struggle came to our President. It is a boon which God grants to the great, it would seem. He makes the going easy. Wilson died so. Lincoln. Wendell Willkie. A slipping away, a soft silent merging, as a river slips its water into the sea…

And in contemplation of this ancient miracle the mind of the world stands hushed today, the solemn shock of the President’s death eased by reminder of the mercy and pity of God that He should have lifted the burden of life so gently from our wearying leader.

And the comfort comes; if death is so simple a transfer; if the veil is so thin between this world and that. Other that one can slip through so gently – surely then, there can be little difference between them; they are borne on the same current, there is no break in the flow… the banks merely grow wider, wider, until they disappear and one is embarked on the sea…

I think of what Charles Dickens called it – The Old, Old Fashion. The old, old fashion – Death. So very old, so common.

The waste

And it is curious. Death being the certitude it is, that it should be regarded as such a convulsion, such unnatural tragedy. Surely, we knew our President was failing in health. By slow reluctant inches he had been dying this long time now. Do we not believe our eyes?

But no, we are gamblers, we in America. We risked his life, thinking it could be charmed into some kind of extension. Our shock that we lost the gamble should give us pause, provide reminder never again to trifle with the fate of nations and peoples.

Such shock came at Lincoln’s death – but it was violent, a dislocation, something unnatural. In his case, too, there had been made no provision. Who remembers (ask the man on the street) who succeeded him?

And we paid for that improvidence.

We cannot afford to keep on pacing such price…

Now the nation is bowed in grief and panic sweeps through the souls of those too long used to dependence on one man. This is a penalty deserved; who shall say we husbanded what alternates were offered us to keep in reserve? We have been wasteful of strong men, we know that now.

But there are some who remain. Give them growing room. This is the greatest land on earth to grow big men in. There need not be “a lonely place against the sky” if other lordly cedars are given room to spread their branches, too.

I am thinking of these men, and the hurried emergency call upon their greatness now! Let them arise from the mourning bench, when the day of mourning is over, and stand erect each one, and proffer their unpurchasable souls to their country never so much in need of them as now!

We are America

They are in our Congress. They are in our Cabinet. They are in places of power in Industry. They are – yes – they are in our political bodies, some of them still honest, wanting to strain loose from the toils of political corruption. They are in labor, trying to match their decent strategy against the gangster rackets of the czars. They are on our Main Streets, that last stronghold of small Enterprise. They are on the farms and in the pulpits and in our science laboratories. Call them the Unpurchasables.

If they arise and serve, there is nothing to fear. But we need them, every one, a solid front of good Americans to face the Questioners who, from all countries, are ever now converging upon us with the uneasy query: Now that you have lost your leader, WHAT?

We mourn, but we dare not despair. We are America, invincible even in our sorrow.

[NormanStewart]

Guffey confident of new President

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Joseph F. Guffey (D-Pennsylvania), who organized Pennsylvania Democrats in support of President Roosevelt’s first presidential nomination in 1932 and took rank as “Pennsylvania’s No. 1 New Dealer,” said today President Harry S. Truman will “carry forward the Roosevelt policy, both domestic and foreign.”

Mr. Guffey added:

In the death of President Roosevelt, mankind has lost its truest friend. The nation and the world are eternally enriched by the life of Franklin Roosevelt.

He died on the eve of his greatest triumph, for it is unthinkable that the San Francisco conference will end in anything but success. That should be his greatest and lasting monument.

It is a great satisfaction to know that our new President, Harry Truman, is so fully equipped for the heavy duties that have so suddenly come upon him, and it is reassurance for the world that he will carry forward the Roosevelt policy, both domestic and foreign.

“I am confident President Truman will have the support of every loyal American,” Sen. Guffey concluded.

[NormanStewart]

Many ‘firsts’ chalked up by Roosevelt

Vast powers gained by federal government

WASHINGTON (UP) – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 31st President of the United Sates, guided American destiny through 12 of the most momentous years in history.

Years that made the federal government a vastly more powerful instrument affecting the welfare of everyone.

Years that carried the nation into its greatest wars and close to victory in Europe.

First President to fly

Mr. Roosevelt held the nation’s highest office longer than any man and was first to be elected to third and fourth terms.

He was the first President to fly.

He visited more foreign countries on the business of his office than any President before him.

He was the first President to leave the country in wartime.

His administration spent more money, taxed higher than any in history.

Loved and hated

But above all, he made of the federal government the most potent force of the American people. Some like this, some didn’t, to some, he was the champion of the “forgotten man.” To others, he was the hated man whose policies they regarded as destroying free enterprise.

Each of his terms was filled with drama. They began with dark depression and the first two were marked by major domestic reforms.

The last two found him an active war leader, making dangerous trips across ocean and continents to map strategy first-hand with leaders of the United Nations.

New Deal is born

Hardly had he taken his first oath when he called Congress into special session for what proved to be the famous “100 days” birth of the New Deal.

He took the United States off the gold standard, devalued the dollar to approximately 60 percent of its former worth.

Then, under his sponsorship, reform legislation flowed out of the halls of Congress in a steady stream. From these came the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, with power to curtail crops; the National Recovery Administration, which placed unprecedented controls on business, big and little; the Public Works Administration and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, designed to care for the needy and to “prime” the pump of the nation’s depressed economic machinery.

Under fire, too

As new agency after agency piled up on the governmental pyramid, the New Deal of President Roosevelt began to find itself under fire. Its critics charged the government was seeking to regiment the people and the economic life of the country. Court tests of the constitutionality of some New Deal measures were instituted.

The Supreme Court held the NRA unconstitutional. It held the same for the crop control provisions of the AAA.

Undaunted, the President went on with his reform, program.

In 1937 came the “court-packing” incident which caused the most bitter intraparty strife of the President’s administration up to that time. He asked Congress for authority to add six justices to the Supreme Court if the Court’s members over 70 did not resign.

The President lost out on this one. Congress rebound. But he accomplished his purpose when the older conservative justices resigned one by one and he named their successors.

Sought to avert war

Few if any Presidents were more keenly alert to world developments than Mr. Roosevelt. During the series of international crises which preceded the present war, he resorted to every diplomatic device to head off the almost inevitable world conflict.

When Germany marched into Poland, and Britain and France declared war, he reconvened Congress. After six weeks of wild debate, Congress approved Mr. Roosevelt’s first national defense program.

He lifted the arms embargo, permitting Britain and France to place large orders for armaments here. He proclaimed a limited state of national emergency, instituted a neutrality patrol of coastal waters, and added to the manpower of the Armed Forces.

Lend-Lease follows

Later came the Lend-Lease Act, which permitted large-scale material aid to the Allies even before the United States was itself at war. In August 1941, he met at sea with Prime Minister Churchill and framed the Atlantic Charter.

Finally, the Japs tipped the scales at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The United States found itself at war not only with Japan but with Germany and its satellites.

After this, he met with the wartime leaders of the United Nations here and abroad. He went to Canada, to North Africa, to Egypt and to the Crimea to confer with Churchill, Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek.

He died at 63, just as victory over Germany appeared near at hand and as American fighting men were knocking at Japan’s front gates.

[NormanStewart]

Cabinet to regain powers under Truman leadership

Roosevelt’s group merely carried out policies which ere decreed by President
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON – A reemergence of the President’s cabinet as a stronger, more influential part of the government is one of the first changes forecast for President Truman’s administration.

The reasons for this flow from the vast differences in personality and characteristics between Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

Mr. Roosevelt came to Washington a dominant, powerful figure, full of ideas for his New Deal in American social progress. He himself and the little group of brain-trusters about him developed the policies and his cabinet took a secondary role.

Cabinet members didn’t formulate such policy, they were instead administrators of departments which carried out policies Mr. Roosevelt himself decreed. The President was always regarded as being pretty much his own Secretary of State, even when Cordell Hull held that office, and in considerable degree this held for the other cabinet departments.

But with President Truman, those who know him believe, the story will be different.

Good record

Mr. Truman comes into the presidency with a record as the capable and courageous head of a Senate War Investigating Committee. which has done a superior job. But, say his friends, he realizes well that there are many areas in the vast field of government in which he has had little experience, and here he will rely heavily on men who know these subjects.

Hence Cabinet members and agency heads will have greater influence in their own right than in the last 12 years, it is reasoned, and so some personnel changes are being predicted.

James F. Byrnes flew in from South Carolina to meet the President yesterday and he said afterward that, as private citizen James F. Byrnes he had offered his help to Mr. Truman. Already the signs point to his being Secretary of State to succeed Edward R. Stettinius.

Hannegan for Walker?

President Truman, in the first hour after Mr. Roosevelt’s death had become known here, asked the present Cabinet to remain. But changes are considered pretty certain. At this stage, it is hardly more than speculation, but the names of fervent New Dealers like Secretary of Labor Perkins, Secretary of the Interior Ickes and Attorney General Biddle are always at the top in this speculation.

Another shift frequently mentioned as possible would put Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan into Postmaster General Frank Walker’s place.

Wallace’s position

Henry Wallace is expected to stay as Secretary of Commerce. But for a long time, the liberal group in the Roosevelt camp has talked up Mr. Wallace as the man they want to support for the presidency in 1948. If this move ripens into something approaching an obvious candidacy, it probably would be difficult for Mr. Wallace to remain in the Truman Cabinet.

Mr. Roosevelt always had a little group of close-in advisers between him and the Cabinet – Tommy Corcoran, Ben Cohen, Ray Moley and others in the early days, and Harry Hopkins and Judge Sam Rosenman in later days. Often Cabinet members resented it, but couldn’t do much about it. The odds are now that many of the old FDR advisers will fade from the scene.

On his first day as President, Mr. Truman went back to Capitol Hill to have lunch with his Senate colleagues, and that, too, betokens a new trend – closer relations between the White House and the Congress.

[NormanStewart]

Truman friend of small business

Convinced of menace of ‘monopolies’
By John W. Love, Scripps-Howard staff writer

WASHINGTON – If President Truman has developed his ideas in the economic field, they include the belief the government ought to do all it can to foster small business. In particular, government ought to make sure the war-built plants in the Midwest are kept in operation after reconversion.

Mr. Truman as a Senator was convinced of the menace of “big business.” Monopoly appears to be primarily a regional concept in his mind. Monopoly to him is also bigness and power, but so far as he has expressed his ideas of what should be done about it, they run to regional solutions. He has also favored such things as competitive bidding for railroad securities.

Good experience

Certainly, few men have had a better opportunity to obtain a vast insight in the detail of American production. His Senate Investigating Committee examined the record of steel, rubber, aircraft, light metals, oil, ships and building construction, and paraded a great quantity of facts.

If an intimate examination of industry can produce a man sympathetic with the problems of production, then this country never had a man of the same preparation in the presidency.

Or if Hugh Fulton, who directed the inquiry, is the one who acquired the broader knowledge in that realm, then Mr. Fulton’s association with Mr. Truman would amount to the same thing. But Mr. Truman was ever the investigator of war production, never its organizer or leader, and the country will not know for some time what climate he will seek for American enterprise.

Inflation fight true test

Probably the greatest test of his resolution in domestic problems will be found in the degree to which he guides the fight on inflation. Pressures for higher prices and wages are tremendous. A new man in office, no matter how capable, will find the struggle harder than did his predecessor The end of the war in Europe will intensify it.

How far will Mr. Truman be able to resist the inevitable clamor for removal of controls on materials and price as soon as Germany collapses? Will he make sure that goods again flow in full measure before he lifts the restraints?

[NormanStewart]

Trumans to live in Blair House

WASHINGTON (UP) – President and Mrs. Harry S. Truman will move within a few days to Blair House, the official government menage for visitors of state, and will remain there until the Roosevelt family has had time to move from the White House to Hyde Park.

Blair House is a famous, century-old mansion across the street from the White House. It has served as guest house for visiting foreign dignitaries since 1942.

[NormanStewart]

Fulton hinted as successor to Hopkins

Young lawyer has Truman’s confidence

WASHINGTON (UP) – A little more than four years ago when Harry S. Truman of Missouri was appointed chairman of the Senate’s new Special War Investigating Committee, he sought a counsel who would neither “smear nor whitewash” war activities under committee scrutiny.

He asked the Justice Department to recommend a man. The Department said that Hugh Fulton, a special assistant to the Attorney General in the Criminal Division, would fill the bill.

Yesterday, Hugh Fulton was the first man to confer with President Truman as he took over the Chief Executive’s office at the White House.

New job for Fulton

Mr. Fulton spent an hour with Mr. Truman. He would not talk about it afterward, but that the meeting at such a critical hour started a strong thread of speculation running through official Washington.

The talk was that Mr. Fulton would resume his former role as a close and trusted adviser to Mr. Truman – this time in the White House instead of the Senate. There were rumors that he might become President Truman’s “Harry Hopkins.”

Before March 1941, when the “Truman Committee” was established by the Senate, Mr. Fulton and Mr. Truman had never met. But when they did, the Senator from Missouri was impressed. Mr. Fulton got the job.

Fulton not yet 37

Mr. Fulton remained with the committee until Mr. Truman resigned the chairmanship to campaign for the vice presidency last year. The chief counsel resigned at the same time but remained with Mr. Truman as his political adviser during the political campaign. Mr. Fulton then went into private law practice.

Big, boyish-looking, fair complexioned and mild-spoken, Hugh Fulton is not yet 37. He was born in North Baltimore, Ohio, May 24, 1908. Although a hefty fellow, Mr. Fulton has been ruled physically unfit for military service.

Educated at Michigan U

President Truman won national prominence as head of the Senate’s war effort investigations. But he always gave Mr. Fulton a substantial share of credit for the committee’s success.

Mr. Fulton joined the Justice Department in 1940 after serving as an executive assistant to the U.S. Attorney in New York for a year. Before that, he was in private law practice with a firm in New York. He was educated at the University of Michigan.

[NormanStewart]

Eden may sound Truman on early meeting of ‘Big Three’

Churchill, Stalin believed desirous of discussing situation with new premier

WASHINGTON (UP) – British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who came here by plane for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s funeral today, may take an early opportunity to sound out President Truman on the idea of an early meeting of the new “Big Three.”

The question of a new Polish government and the rapid approach of victory in Europe are creating new problems and Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph Stalin may want to survey the situation personally with their new partner.

Mr. Eden was sent here as Churchill’s personal representative at the Roosevelt funeral. Before he leaves Washington, he will talk with the new President about the role in international affairs that Mr. Roosevelt had carved out for the United States.

No change in policy

Mr. Truman has already assured his allies and the world that his foreign policies will be those of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He did so by retaining Secretary of State Edward B. Stettinius Jr., and the rest of the Roosevelt cabinet. And yesterday he formalized it by authorizing Stettinius to state: “There will be no change of purpose or break of continuity in the foreign policy of the United States government.”

That policy falls into two broad categories: (1) making certain that Nazism or Prussian militarism never again can threaten the peace of the world; (2) creating a world organization to preserve world peace and permanently outlaw the forces of aggression.

First major test

The first major test of the new administration will be at the World Security Conference in San Francisco April 25. It will mark the first time that Mr. Stettinius will be, in effect, on his own.

Mr. Truman is first to admit that he is a neophyte in the field of foreign affairs. But he will have the help of men who have been closely associated with the late President – Harry Hopkins, who served as a special Roosevelt emissary on many important occasions, and James F. Byrnes and Mr. Stettinius, who were at the recent Yalta Conference.

Mr. Roosevelt had planned to open the conference. The new President is now being urged to attend to allay any feeling that he feels less strongly about the great project.

Before the conference opens, Mr. Truman may come fact to face with a diplomatic problem that had plagued the Roosevelt administration – the Polish question. Attempts to form a new Polish government have bogged down and, barring a miracle, Poland will not be represented at San Francisco for the opening.

Many of the plans Mr. Roosevelt had for the future in foreign affairs were drafted in his historic meetings with Stalin and Churchill. It will be one of Mr. Truman’s most difficult jobs to step into that spot and carry on.

[NormanStewart]

Jap diplomat lauds Roosevelt

By the United Press

A former Jap diplomat in a signed editorial in one of Tokyo’s newspapers today termed the late President Roosevelt “one of the world’s great leaders” and acknowledged that the Pacific War would be fought “to a finish.”

The statement, a reversal of previous Jap propaganda which had blamed the Pacific War primarily on Mr. Roosevelt, was made by Kumatoro Honda, former Jap Ambassador to Germany and China, broadcast by Radio Tokyo. In a signed editorial in the newspaper Nippon Shimbun, Honda said:

Roosevelt has died but the design he made for world hegemony will not, I think, change… Roosevelt’s death is purely an American internal affair and will have no bearing on the war against Japan.

No matter who may succeed Roosevelt or even his successor will carry on the war to a finish with Japan.

His death is a loss of one of the world’s great leaders and in that respect, it was not without a feeling of regret that I heard the news.