Elliott Speaks Up

From time to time for several months the House of Representatives has been lectured by Kansas Representative William P. Lambertson on a theme that engrosses him: that President Roosevelt's four sons (James, Elliott, Franklin Jr., John) are getting preferential treatment in the armed services, have been coddled and "jerked" from combat zones. Republican leaders tried in vain to silence the Kansas sniper. Last week Democrats made a crushing answer.

Up rose Texas Representative Fritz Lanham to read a letter he had received from his constituent with the Army Air Forces in North Africa, Lieut. Colonel Elliott Roosevelt. Having seen the Lambertson charges in a newspaper brought to Casablanca by his father, Lieut. Colonel Roosevelt wrote:

"I am here with the troops. . . . My brother Franklin has been on a destroyer in the North Atlantic. . . . James has insisted on active duty, even though he is not physically up to the strain of combat.

. . . John is in the Naval Supply Corps. He's been fighting like hell to go on foreign service and my father or anyone else isn't going to stop him before this show is over.

"Such criticism aimed at men who are fighting for their country strikes me as sort of unfair. They can't answer back. We feel we are fighting for all America. We are not in politics. In the forces there is a unity of purpose -- the continuation of American freedom and American ideals.

"We, as soldiers, don't care whether or how much [Lambertson] disagrees with the President, but for God's sake let us fight without being stabbed in the back for the sake of politics. . . . If I ever get home and am out of the Army, I'll be glad to stand up for my own honor. ... I don't care whether a man is a Republican or a Democrat. Let's get together and get this damn war won! I'm tired and I want to go home and live in peace on my ranch."

When Representative Lanham finished reading, Democrats and Republicans alike stood up, clapped, cheered. Said Constituent Roosevelt's mother: "Why did he bother with it? I don't think Elliott should even have written a letter."

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