Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1933, Page 70

. Maj. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Grand Ma::!.c! of the Inaugural Parade. Underwood & Underwood Photo. BY ARMISTEAD W. GILLIAM. ASHINGTON has given its wel- come to a new President of the United States with s characteristic enthusiasm that burst over the bounds of digni- fied ceremcny and into the realm of lavish, colorful celebration. To Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty- second President, the National Capital, host to sccres of thousands from all over the country, gave vent to a spirit that has been repressed for many years in opening wide its portals to the man who promises a “new deal™ to & people sorely tried by the worst depression the Naticn has ever known. : Starting out as a “simple, Jeffersonian cere- mony” asked for by Mr. Roo:evelt shortly after his election on November 8, the 1933 inaugural, Jast of the inaugurals to be held on the tra- ditional March 4, developed into a monster celebration, the like of which has attended the induction of no other Chief Executive. Without meaning to disregard Mr. Roose- velt’'s wishes in the affair, Washingtonians, longing for the old-fashioned gayety that accompanied inaugurals of other days, literally “lifted the lid” from the 1933 inaugural to let out all the repressed celebration it has had in its system since the style for the more formal type of inaugural came into fashion with the troublous days of Woodrow Wilson and the World ‘War. The powers that directed the inaugural, headed by Rear Admiral Cary T. Grayson, per- sonal physician to Woodrow Wilson during that President’s eight years in the White House, realized long ago that Washington would mo . longer be repressed in its welcome of a Presi- dence in the White House yesterday. If they'd had & mind to do it, they could no more have stopped Washington from having this celebration than they could have stopped the mighty tides of the joceans, and no effort was made by those who had in charge the . planning. Instead, the spirit was fostered, and the jubilant Democrats, 12 years without & leader in the White House, were encouraged in their spirit of celebration by the Inaugural Committee in the hope that some of that spirit would carry far into the Roosevelt adminis- tion and make the Chief Executive’s task lifting the spirits of the people out of the muck of depression and onto the dry, firm fooi- ing of optimism and faith in the country an easier one. IG business methods were applied to the . B task of sustaining the enthusiasm with which the country in the last election swept Roosevelt -and his running mate, John N. Garner, .into _office through the inauguration which Wash- ington and thousands of visitors witnessed yes- . terday. The country wanted to dance and sing and forget the troubles that have beset it for the past three and a half years, and the Inaugural .Committee decided that the inauguration was a time to do it, and that spirit was foetered in the plans for the inaugural throughcut by Admiral Grayson and his committee. When it was found that the inaugural ball, which carried the inaugural gayety far into the wee, small hours of this morning, would accom- modate a mere handful of the merrymakers who would come to Washington for the in- mugural, and who would want to danee, the committee cast about and found the great ceremonial avenue of the future, Censtitution avenue, where - Washingtonians ‘have held Halloween revels before, available for plenty of overflow from the inaugural ball, and Wash- ington danced to welcome the new President. Thus all through the preparations for the Washington “Lifted the Lid” From Yesterday’s Celebration and Gave the New President and the New Vice Presi- dent of the United States a Royal Welcome Which Echoed Through the Streets of the Nation’s Capital Thronged With Visitors. greatest inaugural of modern times was the plan carried on throughout. Stands for twice as many pecple to view the inaugural parade were provided and acccmmodations prepared for twice a> many visitors. They came, they cele- brated, and the country today is entered upon & new administration in a spirit that has accompanied few inaugurals. The groundwork for the great celebration was laid by nearly 3,000 Washingtonians drawn officially into the monster Inaugural Committee which Admiral Grayson drew about him. There was drawn no line of political par- tisanship, of race, in the preparations of the Inaugural Committee which prepared Mr. Roosevelt’s welcome, Republicans and Demo- crats, whites and colored, alike working in har- mony, to show not only that the National €apital is glad to see Mr. Roosevelt take up his residence in the White House, but also to show the Nation that there exists here, and elsewhere in the Nation, as evidenced by the hordes of visitors, a faith in the integrity of the Nation and in its ability to lift itself out of the economic troubles in which it has found itself. - Working side by side these Democrats and Republicans, whites and colored, prepared in & short time the ceremony and show, without friction, and in a manner best calculated to erase all the disappointments that might have been felt by the losing party of the last election. It was a new Washington, too, that welcomed the thousands of visitors to their National Capital—a Washington that is assuming more and more every day an added beauty, a statuesque dignity, an ordered regularity which is in keeping with its position as the seat of the National Government and the fount from which the administration, the legislation and the supreme justice of Government flows. Admiral Grayson offers this as Washington’s welcome to those who came to see Mr. Roose- velt become President: “The people of Washington, without respect to party, have co-operated generously. They " have not only contributed their money to make this inauguration a success, but they have come forward by the hundreds to offer their per- sonal services. Those of you who have come to Washingtan may truly test the quality of their hospitality, not as a group, but as a com- munity—the Capital City, acting as host to all our people.” T was a mighty task that was put upon the shoulders of the small, unassuming Admiral Grayson, and at first he was downright em- barrassed. He did not want the job, and he told the Democratic leaders who had chosen him that he did not want it. He was & busy man already. He had many things to attend to in connection with his presidency of the Gorgas Memorial Irstitute, and many private interests, not the least of which is a siring of race horses and a large stud farm down in Virginia. His friends, however, sought to override his objections, pointing out that he was the man of all men to handle the job with the necessary tact that a man who had ministered to presi- dents and paupers alike could apply. They pointed to his long personal friendship with the President-elect, and to his standing in the Democratic party as a national organization. ‘They would not let him refuse the job, but he still, very frankly, did not want it. It was not until several days after his selection that he plunged into the task with the will that brought it to its conclusion in a blaze of glory. Mr. Roosevelt was passing through Washington on a train and had sent word along that he would like to see Admirei Grayson for a few minutes while he was here. Admiral Grayson was on hand, asti almost the first thing Mr. Roosevelt did after greeting the admiral heartily was to point a finger at the naval officer and say: “You're it,” meaning, he insisted, that Admiral most his entire time to mittee, setting up its offices after a conference still later velt at Warm Springs, Ga., visiting Mr. Roosevelt at Admiral Cary T. Grayson, chairman of the Inaugural Committee. Harris & Ewing. the inaugural plans as worked out by himself and his committee. Admiral Grayson reported Mr. Roosevelt more interested in the ceremony as it concerned him- self, and his taking over the officc of Chief Executive, than in the celebration that would attend the event. It was just as a bridegroom pays more at- tention to the ceremony that unites him and his bride than to the celebration of the fami- lies thus united. Mr. Roosevelt weni over the whole traditional ceremony, from the beginning to the end with Admiral Grayson, but he paid little attention to the plans of the Inaugural Committee for celebrating the coming of a new President to Washington. Long before he had taken the attitude that the people of Washing- ton could welcome him as warmly as they liked, so long as their plans did not entail the expenditure of Federal or State funds. He let it be known, as a matter of fact, that “the lid was off” so far as he was concerned with the celebration part of the inaugural, and the Washington merchants, pinched by the times and with no such opportunity for doing busi- ness with the country at large in many years, greeted the decision with a whoop of delight, and immediately set about attracting as many visitors to Washington for the inaugural as the town would hold. But throughout it all, Admiral Grayson and his Inaugural Committee held all the strings that worked the show. Instead of the efforts of the various trade bodies being expended as individual efforts, overlapping, in many in- stances, as they were bound to do, his commit-