In 1944, reports surfaced in the midst of Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign for a fourth term that at taxpayer’s expense of nearly $20 million, a navy destroyer had been sent to the Aleutian Islands not to monitor a “hot spot, but to collect a little Scottish Terrier.
It was said that “Fala,” FDR’s beloved Scottie, had been accidentally left behind while the President was there on tour. It was untrue, but FDR’s response was part of a speech he gave to labor leaders at the Statler Hotel in Washington, D.C. “…leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that…fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him — at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars — his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself — such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog.”
We’re not sure the President’s wording would have worked in today’s climate (Scots might have had a few choice words about his characterization of them), but it’s widely believed that Roosevelt’s response helped get him reelected.
Image of “Fala” listening to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech on the radio by George Skadding may be purchased as a fine art print at Art.com