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It is not blind hero worship to say that Franklin D. Roosevelt himself is the heart of the spirit at Warm Springs which brings patient after patient out of the gloom of blasted ambitions. Mr. Roosevelt came up from the blow of infantile paralysis to heights he might never have reached as an able-bodied man. That is the inspiration which feeds the Spirit of Warm Springs.

The cynic, reading this, will probably label it "hooey." He may call it rationalizing, but he must accept the fact that many people have come to Warm Springs determined to maintain a cynical attitude and have remained to be impressed with a spirit that changes paralytics from afflicted creatures to living, expanding, personalities.

The Spirit of Warm Springs is very real to us, because we are "parals." We cannot possibly convey with full force to you able-bodied people the transformation made by the realization that the twist of Fate which banished us forever from the carefree life of the physically perfect may have been the twist which meant a better, fuller, life. Perhaps you cannot understand that the paralysis which made us weaker animals might compensate by making us stronger men.

We all seek a mysterious thing called happiness. We can find it neither in the blindness of the ignorant nor in the sophistication of the cynic. The man who has met and conquered infantile paralysis has, of grim necessity, learned that his happiness must lie within himself. He is luckier than most mortals. He is one of the beneficiaries of the Spirit of Warm Springs whether he has come to Georgia or not.