"If the People Command Me"

Franklin Roosevelt lobbed the weekly quota of hopeful political questions back high and easy, like a bull pen catcher on a hot afternoon. Then Elizabeth May Craig of Maine newspapers, famed among correspondents for her unabashed demeanor at Presidential press conferences, fogged one over in her come-out-and-fight soprano: "Mr. President, would you care to say whether you think Governor Dewey would make a strong opponent?"

Newsmen roared. The President threw back his head in laughter. Said he: I'm taking notes on the methods of the White House Correspondents' Association. Do you draw lots? Last week a young man over on the other side asked the same type of question. Embattled Elizabeth Craig waited with Maine-&-Vermont determination written on her face. When the laughter died down she said snippily, "It's a secret," and then added briskly: "Mr. President, do you mean you didn't want to answer the question?" Franklin Roosevelt, still chuckling, said, Let's see . . . who was the little girl in the stories? Pollyanna? Elizabeth Craig was still uncrushed, her pencil poised.

Four days later, at the close of his next press conference, the President changed his tune. When another reporter--this time the New York Herald Tribune's Bert Andrews--asked him if he had anything to say about Term IV, the President grinned, said the reporter was only guessing but this time he was guessing right. Whereupon Franklin Roosevelt read to the correspondents a letter he had just dispatched to Democratic National Chairman Hannegan.

Much as he wanted to retire, the President had written, "If the Convention should . . . nominate me for the Presidency, I shall accept. If the people elect me, I will serve. . . ." And, Mr. Roosevelt told Mr. Hannegan, he would not "run" in the ordinary political sense, "but if the people command me to continue in this office and in this war, I have as little right to withdraw as the soldier has to leave his post in the line."

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