THE PRESIDENCY The Roosevelt Week

THE PRESIDENCY

The Roosevelt Week

Last Sunday evening President Roosevelt sat comfortably down before a microphone in his upstairs study at the White House, ground out a cigaret stub and proceeded to broadcast to the nation a neighborly 15-minute talk on banks & banking. On the morrow the country's sound banks were to start reopening. During the sensational week they had all been closed by his decree, the President had done some extraordinary things. Now in A. B. C. fashion he wanted to explain his actions to his countrymen and persuade them, by simple word and confident voice, not to repeat their own extraordinary behavior of the week prior when all at once they attempted to convert their bank deposits into currency, precipitating crisis.

"My friends," began the easy Rooseveltian voice in countless homes, ". . . when you deposit money in a bank, the bank does not put the money into a safe deposit vault. It invests your money, puts it to work. . .. What, then, happened? There was a general rush so great that the soundest banks could not get enough currency to meet the demand. ... It was then that I issued the proclamation providing for the nationwide bank holiday. . . . The second step was the legislation promptly and patriotically passed by Congress confirming my proclamation and broadening my powers. . . .

"Why are all the banks not to be reopened at the same time? Because your Government does not intend that the history of the past few years shall be repeated. We do not want and will not have another epidemic of bank failures.

"If your bank does not open the first day, you are by no means justified in believing it will not open.

"There is no occasion for worry. The banks will take care of all needs-- except of course the hysterical demands of hoarders. When people find they can get their money, the phantom of fear will soon be laid. I can assure you it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.

"It has been wonderful to catch the note of confidence from all over the country. . . . Confidence and courage are the essentials of success. You people must have faith. You must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system and it is up to you to support it and make it work."

Creation of that machinery had occupied all the days and most of the nights of President Roosevelt's first week in office. To Congress when it assembled one noon in special session he sent his first message: "I ask immediate enactment of legislation giving to the executive branch of the Government control over banks. ... A continuation of the strangulation of banking facilities is unthinkable."

Shortly after a liver & onions dinner that same night President Roosevelt was handed the banking bill passed exactly as he wanted it. Mrs. Roosevelt entered the study as cameramen set up their tripods to record the signing ceremony. Secretary Woodin dashed in belatedly from the Treasury. Meggie, the Roosevelt Scottie, barked excitedly. Mrs. Roosevelt cried: "Franklin, fix your hair!" The President grinned. His wife called to Mr. Woodin: "Mr. Secretary, please help Franklin brush his hair down." Mr. Woodin gave the President's head a few playful pats. President Roosevelt took a $1.50 fountain pen from Miss Nancy Cook, family friend, signed his first bill. After a second proclamation continuing the bank holiday, he turned administration of the new law over to Secretary Woodin.

Veterans. Unlike most Presidents, who burden a new Congress with a mass of unrelated recommendations at the outset, Franklin Roosevelt waited for the bank bill to pass before sending his second message to the Capitol. Now he boldly asked authority to slash Veterans' expenditures and Federal salaries which Congress had feared to touch. Said he:

"For three long years the Federal Government has been on the road to bankruptcy. . . . Thus [by June 30, 1934] we shall have piled up an accumulated deficit of $5,000,000,000. ... Too often liberal governments have been wrecked on the rocks of loose fiscal policy. We must avoid this danger. ... I am asking for new legislation laying down broad principles for the granting of pensions and giving to the Executive the authority to prescribe the administrative details. . . . Such economies will affect some of our citizens but the failure to make them will affect all of our citizens. The benefits of some must be subordinated to the needs of all."

His economy bill quickly passed the House, though not without some trouble. Should it not be held up by the Senate, President Roosevelt saw "a reasonable prospect" of balancing the Budget in a year.

Beer. When the nation's banks reopened Monday, citizens with any lingering doubts or misgivings were suddenly given something new to think about. In a third, unexpected message the President said to Congress: "I recommend . . . immediate modification of the Volstead Act in order to legalize the manufacture and sale of beer . . . and to provide by substantial taxes a proper and much needed revenue for the Government." Impatient House members who had passed one Beer Bill last session (which the Senate killed) chanted: "Vote-vote-we want beer."

P: Though by tradition a President never goes calling. President Roosevelt dropped in to see Oliver Wendell Holmes, retired Supreme Court Justice, to wish him many happy returns on his 92nd birthday. For 40 minutes they sat chatting in the Holmes study. When the President came out on the street again, hundreds of citizens cheered and clapped uproariously. "Gosh, but it sounds good to hear that again," whispered Richard Jervis, chief of the Presidential secret service, who had served through four years with Herbert Hoover.

P: President Roosevelt held his first two press conferences. To the first went 120 newshawks who applauded when he announced his system of verbal questions & answers, "off the record" confidences and short-hand record of everything said. To the second conference flocked 60. The President sat through it with his right leg cocked over his left knee and his right trouser leg hiked up almost to his knee. Asked if he enjoyed his first night in the White House, he replied: "Off the record, I haven't got much sleep since I've been here." Associated Pressman Francis Stephenson: "On the record I can say, we haven't either."

P: Except for major jobs the White House declared a moratorium on patronage until after the banking crisis.

P: Sara Delano Roosevelt, the President's mother, returned to Hyde Park. Anna Roosevelt Dall. his daughter, went back to Manhattan to prepare her first commercial broadcast for Best & Co., Fifth Avenue women's and children's store. Son-in-law Curtis Dall applied for membership on the Chicago Board of Trade. Groton School again saw Sons Franklin and John with many a tall tale to tell of the Inaugural. Son Elliott chucked his New York advertising job because too many clients counted on his "Washington pull." At his first press conference the President kissed Elliott good-by as he started to motor to Arizona and look for a rancher's job. Son James who got a new position with Travelers Insurance Co. stayed on temporarily at the White House. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt held a press conference of her own in the Red Room, met the wives of new Representatives and Senators at the Congressional Club.

P: President Roosevelt had gone to bed early when he was suddenly awakened by a secretary at 10:45 p. m. and told of the California earthquake. At his order the U. S. turned its military and civil facilities to disaster relief.

P: Louis McHenry Howe, Roosevelt Secretary-crony, took up permanent residence in the Lincoln Room at the White House. A small man, he refused to sleep in the 9-ft. Lincoln bed which was moved into another room.

P: President Roosevelt started calling all members of the White House staff by their first names.

P: The day Eddie Savoy, 77-year-old Negro who has served 21 Secretaries of State as doorkeeper, retired. President Roosevelt sent his car across the street to the State Department, had him transported to the White House for a farewell handshake as he ended 64 years of Federal service.

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