The U. S. Postal Service and the March of Dimes

Relations between the U. S. Postal Service and fund-raising for polio pre-date the founding of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes) in 1938. In the 1930s, the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, owned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, inaugurated an annual fund-raiser, the President’s Birthday Ball, which was organized by the Committee for the Celebration of the President’s Birthday. Keith Morgan, chief fund-raiser of Georgia Warm Springs, involved the U. S. Postal Service in the following way:

To establish the network of regional volunteers that would be needed to manage the events in each community, Morgan took a short cut through the back room of contemporary politics, tapping an organization of influential local leaders who had no known interest in polio, but who did have unparalleled access to all parts of their communities. The organization was nothing less than the United States Post Office Department, under the direction of James A. Farley, recently promoted to postmaster general after his success as Roosevelt’s presidential campaign manager. In short order, the postmasters in each community were named as honorary chairmen of the local Birthday Ball Committees, with the double duty of drumming up support for the new charity and finding the local volunteers who would be needed to manage the details of each event. (Jane S. Smith, Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine, 1990, pp. 69-70)

This kind of mandatory association to raise money for a charity would be illegal today, and when the March of Dimes entered the picture, it of course never used these methods. The National Foundation still maintained a positive relationship with the Post Office over the years, and many postal officials and workers have stepped forward independently to support the mission of the foundation. The March of Dimes fondly remembers the association of James A. Farley (1888-1976) with its founder, President Franklin Roosevelt. Farley was Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1932 to 1940, and Postmaster General of the United States from 1933 to 1940.

The March of Dimes Archives contains a rich heritage of collaboration and cooperation with the Post Office through documents and photographs. Postal photo subjects include ceremonies relating to issuing commemorative postage stamps, local postmasters at fund-raising rallies, scenes at post offices, polio vaccination scenes of postal employees, National Foundation mailroom scenes, mail carriers, and much more. There are photos of two U.S. Postmasters General are in the archival collections. Two are photos of James Farley at the New York State Democratic Convention (Sept. 29, 1938), and four are photos of Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield at the March of Dimes commemorative stamp ceremony, January 1957. On January 15, 1957, the Post Office issued the 3-cent postage stamp, Honoring Those Who Helped Fight Polio, and on October 24, 1994, the Post Office honored Virginia Apgar with a 20-cent postage stamp in the Great Americans Series. Dr. Apgar was the March of Dimes Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs in the early 1970s.

February 12, 2004 / David Rose / March of Dimes Archives