Exceptional TLS signed in pencil, one page both sides, 7.25 x 10.5, Forest Hills, New York letterhead, July 15, 1938. Letter addressed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in full: “Your telegram offering to appoint me as a Civilian Member of Committee to make prices for products by the blind is an honor which I greatly appreciate, and I cannot express the genuine regret with which I must decline it. When your message was conveyed to me over the telephone, I gave consent with the understanding that no work would be involved. Now, however, I have learned that it would mean attending countless meetings, constant travel, detailed routine for which I have neither the professional experience or the comprehensive knowledge required. Therefore, embarrassed and troubled as I am, I must withdraw my consent, and hope that a far better qualified person may be found to fill a position of such significance to the well-being of the blind throughout the nation. I bless you for considering the blind in these desperate days of the world when life-and-death problems are tugging at all thinking minds, and statesmanship is being conscripted wholly for their solution. Remember, dear President, the handicapped as well as the normal everywhere will be the stronger for whatever your titan courage retrieves of democracy and peace to war-scourged peoples. With the fervent prayer that your present campaign, carried on under such difficult, wearisome conditions, may result in mightier service to America and to humanity.” In fine condition.
On March 3, 1938, President Roosevelt designated the date as National Helen Keller Day, proclaiming that it ‘will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first meeting between Helen Keller and her great teacher—a day which Miss Keller regards as her spiritual birthday. In honoring Helen Keller, the nation honors all who are today achieving happy and successful lives in spite of physical handicap, and in honoring the memory of the late Anne Sullivan Macy, the nation extols all who, like her, work to bring light to those who sit in darkness.’
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