4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Battle against Polio
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is remembered as the first and only person to be elected President of the United States four times, the founder of the New Deal, and the leader of the free world in the battle against the Axis during World War II. He also led the government in the repeal of Prohibition, helped create the United Nations, and established the Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, protecting the savings of American citizens from loss. He was beloved by many and reviled by many. He deservedly is remembered for these and many other things, all of which he accomplished as president from the confines of a wheelchair, having been stricken by paralytic illness in 1921. It was believed to be polio at the time, though diagnosis of his symptoms since his death attributed his paralysis to Guillain – Barre syndrome.
But it was polio which he believed he had, and he deserves to be remembered not only for his own long battle with his paralysis, but also for what he did to help others. In 1938 Roosevelt created a non-profit organization dedicated to combating polio by improving the health of children and expectant mothers, which he called the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Both Sabin and Salk received funding from the organization during their research into the vaccines they developed which brought polio under control. During a fundraising campaign in 1938, singer Eddie Cantor labeled the program the March of Dimes. In 1946, the American dime was redesigned to feature Roosevelt’s image, partly in homage to his founding of the March of Dimes and its battle against polio.