Thursday, July 12, 2012

July 12, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 12, 1944:



 
President Says
He's Reluctant
But Will Be Good Soldier
If People Want Him
WASHINGTON, July 11.—(AP)—
President Roosevelt, with a nonchalant smile on his face but his hands atremble with emotion, announced today that he would accept a 4th term nomination
and, if elected, would serve "reluctantly, but as a good soldier."
The announcement, which surprised newsmen and politicians only as to its timing, was made at a White House news conference. The President read a letter from
Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the Democratic national committee informing him that more than a majority of convention delegates are already "legally bound" to support his renomination and asking that he "again respond to the call of the party and the people."
Then he read his reply:
"If the convention should carry this out, and nominate me for the presidency, I shall accept. If the people elect me, I will serve."
At one point in his reading, he threw down the correspondence, and remarked that he had to have a cigaret. When his hands trembled, apparently from scarcely suppressed nervous emotion, he quipped that it was too bad the cigarette was not a Murad—traditionally associated with nonchalance in the advertising columns.



ejt

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