Franklin D. Roosevelt: Typed Letter Signed "F.D.R." as President....

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Franklin D. Roosevelt. Typed Letter Signed. One page (conjoining leaves), The White House, Washington, March 25, 1940, as FDR was gearing up for his third campaign for President of the United States, to Dorothy McAllister (Mrs. Thomas F. McAllister). FDR writes: "Dear Dorothy:/ I am delighted with the copy of the new ‘News Letter.' May you multiply your circulation ten times./  Always sincerely,/ FDR." Dorothy Smith McAllister became the Director of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee in 1937. At the 1940 Democratic National Convention, only months after this letter by FDR was written, she became the first woman to deliver a full-fledged speech on a policy matter before a Presidential convention. Her speech demanded that women be given equal representation on all of the convention's major committees. Although a feminist, she opposed a resolution before the 1940 convention that proposed a women's equal rights amendment.   She believed such an amendment actually would cause women to lose some of the protections they already had. She reportedly persuaded Eleanor Roosevelt to write a letter to the convention in opposition to the amendment. Later in life she was appointed to several Michigan state commissions as well as several Federal commissions. A wonderful letter from a key female supporter of FDR during a critical moment in his political life.