NEW PRESIDENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 267, 10 November 1932, Page 7

NEW PRESIDENT.

WALKING MIRACLE.

Roosevelt Cured of Infantile Paralysis. \ VIGOROUS PUBLIC LIFE. Essentially an aristocrat by birth, upbringing and surroundings, and regarded to-day as a physical miracle, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Governor of New York State and President-elect of the United States, has shown that he is a fighter ever since his first campaign in 1910, when he was elected to the Senate after a sensational defeat of the powerful ultra-Democrat body, Tammany Hall. He became popular as* the only man who could break Tammany, and two years later he did it again and handed New York to Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat President of the war years. Franklin received his initial Ministerial honours under Wilson, serving as Assistant-Secre-tary for the Navy. Before America entered the war in 1917, he spent many unauthorised millions of the nation's money in preparing the navy for what lie regarded as an inevitable step. After the war he supported Wilson at Geneva in founding the League of Nations, demobilised the Navy with notable success, and was nominated Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1920. He made over 1000 speeches, but went down before Warren Harding's "back to normalcy" campaign.

Shortly afterwards he was attacked by infantile paralysis, as tlifi result of swimming in the ice-cold waters of the Bay of Fundy. When partially recovered, he took to crutches and led Al. Smith's succcssful New York campaign for Governorship of New York. Condemned for life to crutches, he discovered warm springs in Georgia, and within a year his crutches were burnt and he was riding horseback and driving his own car. To-day he walks with a cane and supporting braces for the legs, but he is practically cured. He has poured money into the resort, and now it is the Mecca of victims of poliomyelitis, where many sufferers have been cured or relieved. Until 1928, through his illness, Roosevelt was not only out of politics, but refused to re-enter. However, nominated for the Governorship of New YorkState against his wishes, he defeated his old friend Smith by 25,000 votes. He subsequently broke with Tammany, but at the 1930 State elections he scored again with a 750,000 victory. Tammany was once more dealt a hard blow by the Governor when lie called upon Mayor Jimmy Walker this year to account for certain alleged financial inconsistencies and graft. Walker was dismissed unwillingly by Tammany, and Roosevelt was given the Democrat nomination for the Presidency at the Chicago Convention after four ballots.

Personally, Roosevelt has charms. He hates having enemies. He hates having to offend anyone, so he seldom docs. Like Hoover, he is a home-lover. He is fond of farming and sport, and has many hobbies. Wall Street fears he has Socialistic leanings, as he has several times been outspoken on the sorrows of the man in the street and the evils of private ownership of public utilities. He is pledged to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment to the Volstead liquor law, and this has been a powerful plank in his platform. He has also pledged himself to protect the small investor wherever possible.