Tonic

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Rain fell, a sleety, chilling March drizzle. Up the green slopes of Arlington Cemetery rolled a black limousine. On a roadway near a freshly dug grave it stopped. Inside, Franklin Roosevelt leaned back against the beige upholstery and looked out on a dismal scene. They were burying big, bluff "Pa" Watson, the man whose boisterous laugh and high good humor had never failed to cheer the President. If Franklin Roosevelt's lean, set face showed any emotion, no one could record it. The rain streaming down the windows curtained the man within. He was left to himself, and his thoughts.

Such was the homecoming from Yalta.

On the long voyage home Franklin Roosevelt, sunning himself on the cruiser's deck, had made a decision to report to Congress on Yalta, in person and as soon as possible. Except for the blow of Pa Watson's death, he had returned from the Crimea refreshed in body, mind and spirit. Thirty-six hours after his return, he went to the House chamber.

It was his first appearance there in 26 months. The gallery was packed. Ranking diplomats were there and Administration bigwigs; in front-row gallery seats sat Eleanor Roosevelt and Daughter Anna, notepaper in hand. The floor, too, was filled: Representatives (some holding youngsters in their laps), Senators and all the Cabinet except Secretaries Stettinius and Forrestal, who were out of the country.

Franklin Roosevelt had made another decision: to leave his leg braces at home. There was a momentary hush as he came into the chamber in an armless wheelchair. Then there was an ovation. The President slipped into a red plush chair in the well of the House, behind a table lined with a dozen microphones. As the flashbulbs popped and newsreels ground, he turned to wave to Vice President Truman and House Majority Leader McCormack on the dais.

Ten Pounds of Steel. He began by frankly noting what everyone had wondered about: "I hope you Will pardon me for the unusual posture of sitting down . . . but I know you will realize it makes it a lot easier for me in not having to carry about ten pounds of steel around the bottom of my legs and also because of the fact that I have just completed a 14,000-mile trip."

The audience applauded, and it laughed and applauded again when he said "I was not ill for a second [on my trip] until I arrived back in Washington and heard all the rumors. . . . The Roosevelts are not, as you may suspect, averse to travel."

Thus Franklin Roosevelt set the tone for what may come to be one of the most historic speeches of his career. It was a confidential, informal speech, all but devoid of the ringing Roosevelt oratorical tone. There was none of the usual recrimination, reprimand or warning. In his studied informality, the President departed often from his prepared text (49 times for a total of 700 words).

It was not a great speech. Franklin Roosevelt revealed almost nothing which had not been said in the Yalta Communique, or in semi-official explanations afterward, or by Winston Churchill in his report to the House of Commons (see FOREIGN NEWS). Going into the chamber, the President had said: "I hope to do in one hour what Winston did in two."