THEY SHALL NOT WANT

[Music] and welcome to my dressing room and to the theater oh this has been a great day in my life and and I want to share with you some of the inspiring hours of this day that I've loved and that I'll never forget so visit with me a little while will you before WR call how I wish that you could have been with me this afternoon and felt with your hearts what my heart felt when I saw what your March of Dimes money is doing in one of the great respirator units and hospitals in this country it's the hospital called Rancho Los Amigas Ranch of the FR where drama far beyond the power of playwriter actress goes on day after day night after night the human fight against pain the human fight against the pain of polio my heart gave a great leap when I open the door of that cathedral built to combat suffering and my mind flew across the country to another respirator Center so small but so courageous the Mary M Au respirator Center in Welsley Massachusetts named for my daughter the first of a dozen such centers that you have made [Music] possible here in Los Angeles the fight to bring the victims of polio back to almost normal living goes on with a pace undreamed of a few years ago for here in the Los Angeles area as in many parts of the country polio has struck it again and as you learned the tragic story you responded with generosity of heart a generosity which grew in your hearts as your hearts grew great with understanding and compassion my guide your guide was a young girl who has called this Hospital her home for more than 12 months Karen is 14 only 14 such a wondrous age to be already dreaming of Glory to come first party dress first dancing slippers completely equipped with wings such Wonder Karen may never know what she has known intimately is the iron lung the rocking bed and then because the care you helped pay for was constant and good at long last the wheelchair she introduced me to her friend Jeff who missed one thing most in all his imprisoned World laughter his own laughter for the iron lung can breathe for you but it cannot laugh for you yes I found young Jeff friendly and smiling smiling the next best thing to laughter and a found him so interested in the polio vaccine he had heard about would it work would it keep polio from hurting other boys and girls could he hope that the day was near when his sister might be free from the threat of crippling Polio I told Jeff that all his Hope was justified that he could and should let his hope grow even stronger I told him about the almost incredible amount of work now going on to evaluate the history making vaccine field trials I told him too that a lot of vaccine was being stockpiled against the hour when the final word of its work would come to us vaccine held in reserve for easy access so that not a day would be lost in getting it to all parts of the [Music] country at the side of little Jenny I felt as I'm sure you would have too a rushing surge of pity felt too a raging indignation at the thought that for her any vaccine would come too late she's one of the new polio patients stricken at the very time when hope of final victory over the disease is so high and the bitter irony is that in many a home across the country even where you and your children live polio will strike again and again because we cannot stop it just yet just as it did here long long ago struck at a young woman a month before her baby was born her little boy is a healthy youngster and as happy as a child can be who has never known his mother's arms holding him close for little lane was born in an iron lung and his mother has never been able to leave the smallest delivery room the world has ever known but she's alive and Alive with hope you have given her that someday she may be able to make those terribly important steps that will bring her home again the rocking bed the chest respirator and the wheelchair I wonder if you know how many how many thousands of young men and women have been severely stricken with polio during the past few years the dangerous to life bulbar Poli polio so much the most expensive to care for and almost all of them dependent on you on what you give to the march of dime Mary knows what you're doing for her I didn't have to tell her she knows the miracle of having friends she has never seen and you must continue to be her friends and the friends of thousands like her as together we do all within our power through your National found Foundation to help return them to their real homes and you make this possible oh yes constantly you are helping the stricken not only to Better Health but to a measure an Ever growing measure of happiness and the greatest happiness comes to these patients through hope the hope that you give them when we left the room where all was Stillness except for the sobbing of the Bellows of the iron lungs Karen and I came to a room where all was movement the movement lifegiving life saving of the rocking bed this rocking bed was designed not at the desk of a Furniture maker but in the searching Mind of a medical scientist sang Up and the diaphragm of the patient is pulled down swing down and the diaphragm is pushed up the rocking bed is as truly a breathing machine as the iron lung and for the patient who has graduated to one the rocking bed is like Swinging on a Star free if only for an hour or two a day at the beginning of his recovery from the Captivity of the iron lung the greatest decency man is capable of putting his mind to work in an effort to save another's life is responsible for this piece of equipment and how much all this equipment costs and how much it costs to increase the ranks of men and women with skilled hands trained hands the doctors the nurses the physical therapists and all of those who must be constantly at hand to keep the equipment going here and in hospitals all over the country and your March of dime's money is truly merciful helping polio patients to really live as well as just stay alive think of the anguish of this young father his family's bread winner when polio stilled his Working Hands the creative hands of the aeronautical engineer he was told he must get better and he believed the words for they were true true for him and true for his neighbor for polio hit next door not many days after Fred felt its cruelty and now Fred and James are neighbors again and both of them look forward to going home again for one of the great jobs of your National Foundation is the rehabilitation of polio victims wherever and whenever possible and when Karen introduced me to Bobby my heart went out to him and to his parents such a pitifully hurt little boy such a gallant child he rode to greet me scooting down the corridor on his treatment board pushing his way towards me like a young athlete riding the surf challenging the sea it's polio he's challenging the enemy that struck him down long before he had seen two bright candles on his birthday cake but he'll get up from the floor yes someday Bobby will walk not as your strong and healthy children but the lurching Walk of a child on crutches you know what Karen said to me as I was leaving God be with you yes God be with with you with all of you who are on the side of the Angels you saw with me only one of hundreds of hospitals where the country's polio stricken lie where the country's polio stricken strive to get well to go home again to live again even as you and I live a vaccine will come oh yes but if it should come even as I speak to you now it would come too late for so many so so very many I know that when you were asked to join the March of Dimes you will join and you'll keep on the March and in the March as long as your dimes and dollars are needed cut and call Miss Hayes oh thank you come with me now into the theater [Music] the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures he leadth me beside the Still Waters he restoreth my soul he leadth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever [Music] [Music] [Music] aen dear friend give generously give generously with all your hearts to the march of dimes for just before I left the hospital I made a promise I told them because of you they shall not want [Music]