this is eddie kanter bringing you the chase and sanborn hour. tonight i would like to speak with you regarding the march of dimes, to allow all people, even the children, to show our president we are all with him in this battle. >> two days after this radio address, the white house supported a modest increase in volume. two days after that she the roof fell in. first 5,000 letters. then 30,000. then 150,000 letters poured in, all carrying dimes. >> the united states government stopped functioning because we couldn't clear away enough dismse >> the basic strategy remained the same. >> rely on small donations from the masses. >> giving millions of ordinary people a stake in the crusade. by the 1950's in america, polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the u.s. in 1952 alone, nearly 60,000 children contracted the disease. thousands were paralyzed, and over 3,000 died. >> the combination of a national leader having a personal experience with polio and a public motivated by zpeer compassion paid a portion fina