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What is Warm Springs? What is the fight against Infantile Paralysis? Why, since 1934 have we been celebrating President Roosevelt's birthday throughout the nation? Why has the Committee for the Birthday Ball for the President, under the Chairmanship of Henry L. Doherty, been organizing several thousand Birthday celebrations throughout the nation? Why has the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, under the far-sighted leadership of President Roosevelt, been coordinating every available agency in the country to combat this disease, to enable children and adults to face their future with a new-born confidence and faith?

Why has money and strenuous effort been put into research laboratories, in a far-flung endeavor to locate this disease and eventually bring it under control? Why are you asked, from time to time, to open up your pocketbooks and direct some of your hard-earned dollars into this great cause?

The answer to these questions is a story full of throbbing human interest and emotion. Infantile Paralysis is a plague which strikes terror to some place, to somebody, every year of the calendar in the United States; a plague that can leave in its wake not merely hundreds but thousands of crippled victims, frustrated futures, ruined careers, and what is more important, lives.

Who is not familiar with the boy college -- young, straight, athletic, filled with determination and the light of the future, suddenly rendered physically helpless? Who is not familiar with the little blue-eyed golden-haired girl left wholly or partially paralyzed, looking up into the of the oldsters and asking, "Why?"

What strange freak of fate is it that singles out the adult, the youngster in his teens, the boy or girl, or the infant, and leaves its mark?

This we know -- Infantile Paralysis is a costly and long disease from to recover. Its after-effects may be only slight, but all too often it is complete and devastating.

"Warm Springs," which has become the public description of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, means something entirely different than what its name implies. It is not a general "cripples" hospital; it is not a spa using its warm waters as a so-called "cure"; it is not a mecca to which everyone who turns can be admitted. It is something far and beyond that. It has become embedded in the public heart and mind as the symbol of a great man's determination to do his part towards getting rid of something which has afflicted American humanity.

The Georgia Warm Springs Foundation was created almost nine years ago with one firm purpose in mind -- to become the spearhead of a nationwide fight against this dread disease. It treats only Infantile Paralysis and is what you might call a laboratory for the constant study and experimentation in finding new ways and methods to physically and mentally rehabilitate those afflicted. Its purpose is to disseminate throughout the country the full benefit of its knowledge.

It has a definite policy of accepting patients which allows each state, during the year, to send a certain quota of selected cases for treatment, regardless of the social position or financial standing of the applicants.

There are several hundred thousand cases of Infantile Paralysis existing in the United States and several thousand added to this number each year. No one institution, doctor, clinic or hospital can possibly cope with the enormity of these numbers. Necessarily, therefore, the treatment of these numbers must be decentralized and placed in the hands of competent treatment facilities within each community itself.

The National Committee for the Birthday Ball for the President, under the direction of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, has established almost 6,000 committees in every large city, town and hamlet of the country. For the past two years and again this year 70 per cent of all the money raised at these functions will remain in the hands of each committee, to help those unable to help themselves in or nearby their homes.

To aid and expedite this decentralized practical treatment, the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation has created what is known as the Office of Coordination which is daily in touch with almost every orthopedic doctor, hospital and clinic.

How does this work? For example, a sorely distressed mother or father writes from a small town in any state of the Union -- or, from a large city -- or from a farm -- with or without means -- with or without any previous attempt to restore the usefulness of the family's afflicted member -- writes to the President -- writes to the Institution at Warm Springs -- writes to the National Committee or some other group. All of these letters almost immediately find themselves on the desks of those in charge of this Office of Coordination.

Then the wheels begin to turn. First, the person writing the letter receives a communication asking for full details and a complete medical report. If no medical report is available, they are advised at what nearby spot they can seek this. After the information has been received the report is studied and then referred to the nearest chairman of a local committee asking that this afflicted person be given immediate medical supervision. In some cases this goes to one of the 700 orthopedic surgeons in the country -- in other cases it goes to an orthopedic clinic or hospital or a general hospital with an orthopedic division, or to the State Crippled Children's Commission, or one of the fraternal hospitals.

Many times an operation will help; in many cases a new piece of orthopedic equipment such as a brace, corset, new crutches, canes, specially constructed shoes, or wheel chairs are required.

The majority of these cases receive aid from the local committees, and those who come within the broad requirements of admission of the Institution at Warm Springs are accepted for special treatment, the results of which become available to the entire medical profession.

This in brief is a summary of the actual practical work of the Foundation's coordinative task.

But what about stamping this disease -- why cannot something be clone, you ask -- why must we go on having this disease? Great strides have been made in tuberculosis, in diphtheria, smallpox, yellow fever, typhoid -- why not Infantile Paralysis?

This is the heart of the entire problem. In 1935, recognizing this, the Trustees of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation recommended that it receive no part of that year's fund. Seventy per cent remained in the communities and the other 30 per cent was given by the President to a specially created Research Commission which was made up of 11 outstanding citizens in the country.

This Commission appointed an Advisory Committee of four prominent researchers and bacteriologists. It has done a remarkable job. It has studied in great detail every applicant for research assistance, and financial grants have been made to approximately 15 of the leading laboratories of the nation in this long, arduous job.

Today, as a result of this, the Research Commission is extremely hopeful about the solutions which have been prepared in the form of nasal sprays, and the United States Public Health Service, working with the Foundation, is also optimistic that at last a method has been discovered which will help ward off the disease during epidemic periods.

This effort may fail as have others in the past, for the simple reason that as yet how the disease is carried, why it flares up periodically every year, where it breeds, why it breeds, what it lives on and all of the elementary questions propounded are still in the dark field of the unknown.

But some day medical science, human ingenuity, grit and determination will win and it will be brought under control.

By giving freely of your time and effort you become a crusader, you become a "Warm Springser," you join with the President in the full knowledge of the severity of the fight and you become a part of a battle which must be won.

Warm Springs is a symbol of a great humanitarian ideal to which the Americans of today and of the future will feel grateful.