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National Patients' Committee Meeting

A special meeting of the National Patients' Committee was called on November 4. Miss Mildred Kerry was elected secretary to succeed Dr. Robert Wallace, who was forced to resign because of other duties.

Parals of Both Parties Celebrate!

It was the night of election, and on the Foundation
The patients were awaiting the returns of the nation.

In the minds of all patients there was no doubt
That their own Franklin D. would win out.

And with torches and sirens and noise,
The whole countryside heard much of our joys.

On the golf course was lighted a fire,
And old man depression was burned on the pyre.

The valley was alight and echoing loud
With the flare and fandango of a riotous crowd.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only election could bring such glee.

Twenty-five thousand dollars in the next year for the Patients' Aid Fund was the objective set by the National Patients' Committee at their meeting on November 9, as their share of the Foundation objective of $50,000 to use for the aid of patients during 1933. A drive was launched to obtain as many new memberships as possible by Founder's Day, so that they might be presented to Franklin D. Roosevelt at the annual dinner. The task of sending out nine hundred personal letters was assigned to the members.

Foundation residents were entertained by the music of twelve charming ladies, members of Rich's Mandolin Club of Atlanta. The concert, which also featured Fred Botts, our singing business manager, was held in Meriwether Inn on Sunday, November 13th.

On November 19, the patients were the guests of the Auburn-Georgia Athletic Association and the city of Columbus at the football game between the University of Georgia and Auburn.

The game, which was one of the biggest in the South this season, ended in a victory for Auburn by a 14 to 7 score.

There were no ceremonies or official greetings when Franklin Do Roosevelt arrived at Warm Springs on Thanksgiving morning, but his friends and neighbors were on hand to give a warm welcome to our next president.

Accompanying the president-elect to Warm Springs were Mrs. Roosevelt; their daughter, Mrs. Curtis Dall; Prof. Raymond Moley, of Columbia University, the Governor's advisor; Colonel Louis McHenry Howe, his political secretary, and Miss Marguerite LeHand, his personal secretary. There was also Gus Gennerich, the Governor's fun-loving bodyguard.

Waving to friends on all sides, the Governor drove from the village through the Foundation grounds to the "Little White House," his Warm Springs home. As he passed by Meriwether Inn, a salute of aerial bombs was fired from the campus and the patients waved in greeting.

"This night we hold an old accustomed feast,
Where to we have invited many a guest,
Such as we love, and you among the store,
One more, most welcome, most esteemed;
In very truth our joy's complete as ne'er before."

The old accustomed feast of Thanksgiving Day has become a tradition at Warm Springs. This year the Warm Springs family again celebrated with Franklin D. Roosevelt the starting of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. This was the seventh annual Founder's banquet.

This Founder's Day, however, stands out above the others. It marked the first time that Franklin D. Roosevelt had bee back to his Southern Home since his election to the presidency. Mr. Arthur Carpenter expressed the feeling of Warm Springs when he said: "Twenty-one million Americans have just discovered what we have known for years."

The Governor recounted the history of the Warm Springs Foundation. He told of the first Founder's Day dinner in 1926, which was attended by only thirty-five people and which occupied only one corner of the dining room of the Meriwether Inn. This year, two hundred and seventy-five patients and friends were gathered to celebrate the growth of the Foundation since that small beginning. During the dinner, every-body joined in singing songs, among them "The Old Grey Hat," a song by Steve Helburn, a patient, about the hat worn by Mr. Roosevelt in the presidential campaign. Other features of the entertainment were songs by Bob Wallace, a patient; piano selections by Mr. Harry Cooper, a radio artist from W. S. B. in Atlanta, and some humorous sketches by Miss Susan Myrick, of Macon, Ga.

Mr. Carpenter, toastmaster, read special messages for the occasion received from Mrs. Lee Pattison, Mr. Mark Graves, Mr. Frank F. Harris, Dr. LeRoy W. Hubbard, Mr. Terrill Fields, Mr. Josh Evans, Mr. Keith Morgan, and Mr. George Foster Peabody. Miss Mildred Kerry, secretary or the National Patients' Committee, also read a special message from Dr. John Ruhrah, twice president of the National Patients' Committee.

Jack Korber, National Patients' Committee vice-president, took a roll call by States.

Interrupting the program, two messenger boys appeared bearing a huge envelope addressed to Mr. Roosevelt. Upon opening it he round over one hundred letters carrying personal greetings and new memberships to the Polio Crusade. This stunt, carried out to a splendid conclusion by Mrs. Lillian K. Donovan, Chairman or the Polio Crusaders Group, was planned as the committee's tribute to Franklin D. Roosevelt as Polio Crusader Number One.