Letter, Harold Miller to Franklin Roosevelt

HAROLD H. MILLER 1150 Allen Street Phone Allentown 6716 10-15-37 ALLENTOWN, PA. Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Washington D.C. Dear Mr. President:- Its unlikely this will reach you in Washingtoh but you've likely left a forwarding address. One day I hear you are in Seattle and almost in the same breath everybody hears from you in Chicago and next thing we know you are in Hyde Park. I've often wondered about Hyde Park. Do they have Bulls and Bears there like in other parks? I'll just bet you if they do its going to be tough on the Bears this coming hunting season. I've been reading in the papers a lot recently about a battle ship by the name of Augusta. Now I've been married about twenty years but up to now I've been pretty successful and never actually needed a battle ship. Usually I duck and have up to now done a right good job of it. However I find myself being missed by narrower margins than formerly so I might need a battle ship soon. It seems to me that the guy who is boss of that Augusta insists upon keeping it where it is at present will soon have it for sale, cheap. All the buyer will have to do is float the darned thing and thereit will be, almost as good as new. The few holes in the side can be soldered shut at little expense. At the present rate of exchange. Just off hand it strikes me that they better camouglage this boat a bit. Lets change the name of it while we cstill have the name plate left and call it something else, like for example lets call it Herman. Now everybody takes a pot-shot at Herman and if the Japs and Chinx do likewise who are we to take exception? And by that method we can go back to the old saying "we kept us out of war" and everyone will be happy. Otherwise if we keep that schooner sailing under her own power we will wake up some morning to find that some body was talking when he should have been listening and we'll have a lot of somebody's hot chestnuts to pull out of the fire. To re-christen the S cow we could have quite a ceremony, really a political clam-bake so to speak. Out in the bay we could have three or four hundred WPA flag-men diverting other skiffs hither and yon while Herman floated majestically down the ways. We could put these flag-men in more or less sea-worthy row boats equipped with rubber oars, perforated of course, and the country would be the more safe for Democracy. This all may be unconstitutional, I didn't look that up but it does seem we should get poor Gussie out of the way of the guns she seems to be stopping now, remember she isn't the old gal she used to be. I submit this with the idea of helping you keep us out of war, not that the last war hurt the second Wilson administration however. Very truly yours,