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THE purpose of the ball here at the Waldorf-Astona tonight, and of those five thousand other parties all over the country in honor of the President's birthday, must be familiar to nearly every American by now. It is, of course, to raise money for the fight against infantile paralysis. All the proceeds go into this war-chest; seventy percent being retained by the communities that raise the money to encourage and support local work, thirty percent being expended by the Warm Springs Foundation in its nation-wide campaign against the disease.

In 1934 and 1935 a fund of $2,074,000 was raised and spent in this way. Yet despite such a magnificent response from the American people the fight, in a sense, has only begun. Since the modest start made at Warm Springs ten years ago there has been real progress, particularly in the care of those left crippled after the acute phase of the disease. Experience In the underwater method of treatment has vastly improved the chances of restoring wasted limbs to mobility. But the precise cause of infantile paralysis, how it propagates, methods of immunizing against it and checking its progress are still largely mysteries. There are far from adequate facilities even for the after-treatment which is known now and practised. New York City, for instance, has between five and six thousand persons who could benefit from additional orthopedic care, but the facilities do not permit it.

Because of the magnitude of this problem of coming to grips with infantile paralysis it was decided in the beginning to invest the proceeds of the Birthday celebration directly in care and research, rather than in securities the income of which would continue to produce a smaller revenue for the purpose. Each year the whole fund has been used to the fullest advantage that scientific knowledge and experience could devise. It will be so with the 1936 fund. In this way it is hoped that a final conquest of the disease will be sooner made, and hundreds of thousands of American children spared injury and pain that slower progress would entail.

It is less than a hundred years since the first accurate report on infantile paralysis was made in this country, by an obscure bone-setter named Jacob Heine. Few Americans paid any attention to his information, and even fewer to the exercising and muscle-building machines designed for treatment of victims during the 1860's by Charles Fayette Taylor. It was not until the 1880's, when epidemics broke out, first in Sweden, that national and international notice was taken of the disease.

But scientists now tell us that infantile paralysis, under one name or another, has been known through the ages. Dr. LeRoy W. Hubbard, director of extension work for the Warm Springs Foundation of New York, recently reported that definite evidence of the disease had been found in Egyptian mummies. In fact, the only new elements are the name and epidemic proportions currently attained. Yet the first concerted drive in history to conquer it is the one which finds expression in the Birthday Ball tonight.

This occasion has been made possible by the combined efforts of many thousands of persons all over the country. The President, in his speech on January 18 to the National Committee, which was broadcast over the networks of the National Broadcasting Company, Columbia Broadcasting System, Mutual Broadcasting Company and independent stations from coast to coast, and which is reprinted on the following page, gave due credit to those who are engaged in the fight against infantile paralysis. Not only physicians and scientists actively battling the disease deserve such credit, but also the newspapers, radio stations, businesses and individuals who have so generously supported the movement to raise funds to fight infantile paralysis. And just as much as any of these, you who are attending the Birthday Ball tonight share in the praise and thanks of the National Committee.

Music and dancing and pageantry are yours to enjoy this evening in the happy knowledge that you are contributing to the recovery of cruelly stricken children and grown-ups -- to the ultimate stamping out of a terrible disease. In this case truly "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine."