The Face Is Familiar

The swearing-in of a new Congressman is usually a ceremony as perfunctory as a politician's handshake, but this one was something special. The House gallery was packed and a battalion of photographers prowled impatiently outside the chamber. The cause of all the fuss, a suntanned young man with a face that looked familiar, stood somberly in the well of the House and responded to the oath with a quick "I do." The gallery applauded vigorously; House Democrats pushed up to pump the hand of their new colleague. Eleanor Roosevelt sat beaming in the presidential gallery, remembering (she reported later) all the times she had watched her husband sworn in to public office. This time another Roosevelt--brawny, 34-year-old Franklin D. Jr.--had stepped onto the national political stage.

Franklin Jr. had a well-prepared little statement for newsmen: "My only political intention is to represent my constituents of the 20th District of New York . . . I'm not a crystal-ball gazer, and therefore don't go any further than the immediate foreseeable future." Later, he went to the White House to assure President Truman of his loyalty. "We had a nice chat," reported Congressman Roosevelt. "I told him there was no question that I was a member of ... the team of which he was captain and quarterback." A reporter wanted to know if he felt at home in the White House. "Yes--if you mean being with President Truman," said Roosevelt, carefully. He had once calculated, he said, that during all the time his father was President he had spent only three weeks, two days and a few minutes in the White House.

Next day, Franklin Roosevelt sat down in an inconspicuous seat on the Democratic side, dutifully boned up on House procedure, and whispered occasionally to his colleagues. With his name, his smile, his war record and his apparent political charm, he had a potential political future that no other American of his age could match. His own major problem, it now seemed, would be how to deserve all that might be thrust on him.

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