Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Oil Burning System to be Used by F.R.

President Roosevelt Will Install Competing Fuel System in New Hyde Park Home

In all the pride that Luzerne County residents felt over the selection of Arthur H. James as one of the outstanding political candidates in the United States by Life Magazine, another item in the same issue escaped attention at first.

This item was to the effect that the new summer home being built by "Architect" Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park is to be heated by an oil burning system.

As talk about this begins to get around in Luzerne County, great indignation is being expressed. It will be remembered that the United Mine Workers of America contributed $500,000 to the election campaign of the President in 1936. No statement has ever been made concerning the contributions of the oil workers.

Trained observers feel that the President is not only making a political mistake in using oil, but that he has been inadequately informed regarding the comparative merits of oil and anthracite as heating fuels. They feel that the influence of John Lewis in the White House has either been over-rated or else that Mr. Lewis himself is ill-informed on the subject.

Miners Wondering

Miners who had to contribute to the political assessments of the United Mine Workers' Executive Council from their greatly curtailed earnings are reported to be wondering as are unemployed miners eking out a miserable $60.50 a month on WPA projects. They feel that one of the greatest problems facing the anthracite industry today is the problem of educating the country, from the lowliest even to the President, concerning the merits of the two fuels.

They also feel that one who has expressed to Governor Earle great concern over the fate of the anthracite regions should know more of its problems. Expressions of concern are easy. A genuine feeling on the subject is a different matter.

The President's selection of oil for his new home is particularly important because of the report of Life that he designed the home entirely himself; that the name of a Georgia architect as associate appears only because the President does not hold an architect's license.

There is also speculation as to whether the plans for the new cottage were being put into its final shape at just the time that the Democratic candidates from Pennsylvania descended on Hyde Park about three weeks ago in order to pose for pictures with the President and to receive his edict that he would not come to Pennsylvania to stump for the besmirched candidates during this campaign.