Tories & Thomases

On a stormy autumn day in Worcester, Mass. last year little Catherine Murphy met a famous man. She was told that he was running for political office, but what impressed her most about him was the fact that he, too, suffered from infantile paralysis. He took crippled, nine-year-old Catherine Murphy by the hand, promised that she would some day receive the treatment which had enabled him to take his place among the nation's great in spite of his affliction.

Last week President Roosevelt did not forget his promise to Catherine Murphy. He arranged for her to start for Warm Springs, Ga. There she was to meet again her friend and benefactor, for the President had arrived at Warm Springs for his annual Thanksgiving fortnight of rest and treatment.

P: On his way to the Springs the President stopped off at Savannah, where he helped celebrate the bicentennial of his "other State" with a speech in which for the first time he took public notice of the crescendo of criticism of his monetary policies. As befitted the occasion, President Roosevelt studded his address with historical references. Herbert Hoover once publicly compared himself to Washington at Valley Forge. Franklin Roosevelt also linked himself with the Father of his Country when he declared:

"It has been remarked of late by certain modern Tories that those who are today in charge of your national government are guilty of great experimentation-and they are right. The same suggestion was used when Englishmen, protesting in vain against intolerable conditions at home, founded new colonies in the American wilderness as an experiment, and when the Washingtons and Adamses and Bullochs conducted another great experiment in 1776.*

"In all those years of the pioneer we must remember that even then there were the doubting Thomases, there was the persistent opposition of those who feared change. The saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities-a sense of humor and a sense of proportion. With the one they smile at those who would divide up all the money in the nation on a per capita basis every Saturday night and at those who lament that they would rather possess pounds and francs than dollars. With our sense of proportion we understand and accept the fact that, in the short space of one year, we cannot cure the chronic illness that beset us for a dozen years."

P: First visitor at the "Little White House" at Warm Springs was U. S. Ambassador to Cuba Sumner Welles, who had flown up from Havana. For weeks President Grau San Martin had been agitating the removal of Mr. Welles, on the grounds that his sympathies still lay with the de Cespedes regime. Following the U. S. precedent of never removing an envoy under fire without a policy change, President Roosevelt after a five-hour conference persuaded Mr. Welles to return to his post after a quick trip to Washington to see Acting Secretary of State Phillips.

P: While President Roosevelt was still in Washington, earlier in the week, newshawks spotted little William Woodin scurrying out of the White House carrying a leather case under his arm. "What have you got there?" they asked. "Medallions of the President," said the nominal Secretary of the Treasury, "and they are going right back to the Philadelphia Mint to be made over. The President doesn't like them. They make him too young and show him wearing an Army hair-cut." Next day the President made over his Treasury Department command (see p. 8).

P: Twenty guests of President & Mrs. Roosevelt, including Comedian Eddie Dowling and Cinemactress Lillian Gish, had dinner at the White House and saw a preview of a film adapted from Arnold Bennett's Buried Alive, featuring Miss Gish. At one point the President remarked: "Eddie, that music is too heavily scored." Mr. Dowling agreed. After the showing an English lady gushed: "I loved it! All those English scenes. I only wonder whether the American public will appreciate its subtle appeal?" "Tut. tut," replied the smiling President. "I'm one of the American mob and I enjoyed it thoroughly."

P: Alfred Emanuel Smith went to Washington to be installed as a trustee of Catholic University. Not since he had stopped off in Albany on his way back from campaigning in Massachusetts for Franklin Roosevelt last year had the two oldtime friends met socially. Happy at the railroad station, he told reporters inquiring about his health that he felt "like a whistle." A White House invitation brought John J. Raskob and Editor Smith, who has sharply criticized the Administration in his New Outlook, to the executive mansion for tea. There they met U. S. Ambassador-at-Large Davis, who had come to Washington to talk disarmament with the President, Mrs. Dall and her "Sistie" and "Buzzie." Greeted by the President as "Al," Editor Smith was in high spirits. He stalked about, gesticulating like an actor, acting out funny stories while other guests roared with laughter.* After 30 minutes he stopped at another teaparty of Mrs. Roosevelt's on the floor below, asked her how many grandchildren she had. "I've got eight," said Al Smith, "but don't give up, you've still got a chance." Later Al Smith emerged to tell reporters that politics had entered the conversation only once. "One of the children asked for another piece of cake. That has a political flavor." News that James Joseph Hoey, floor leader for the Brown Derby at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic national conventions, had been appointed collector of internal revenue in the second New York district came as a "surprise" to Mr. Smith.

P: Also in Washington on the same day was Tammany's badly trounced Boss John F. Curry, visiting his son, an undergraduate at Georgetown University; but no White House invitation got he. On the contrary, the President appointed to the politically potent post of collector of internal revenue in the second New York district a man who had bolted the Tammany ticket and had run on the McKee ticket with an endorsement from his intimate friend, Al Smith. Name: James Joseph Hoey.

P: The President's technique of entertaining potent guests in the presence of others to preclude political gossip was again exhibited when J. Pierpont Morgan and U. S. Steel's Myron C. Taylor were White House tea guests. At dinner two evenings previously, the President had entertained Bernard Mannes Baruch, a onetime adviser whom he had not seen since July. The result of a clever design of happy coincidences, these visits had the effect of assuring the nation's businessmen that although Franklin Roosevelt might be pursuing a highly experimental monetary policy, he still was breaking bread with important "hard money" men.

A week after his dinner "HardMoney Man" Baruch blasted inflation by publishing in the Satevepost a resume of his last February's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. He wrote:

"The plan [inflation] is deliberately designed to double some prices but not others. ... In other words for every one citizen that it helped, it would harm five citizens by exactly as much as it helped the one."

P: Harking to the pleas of Missouri's Governor Park, onetime Governor Caulfield and Senator Bennett Champ Clark, President Roosevelt pardoned Conrad Henry Mann, president of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Republican leader and good friend of Herbert Hoover. Mr. Mann had been convicted of operating a lottery for the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1930. Another prominent Republican, Senator James John ("Puddler Jim") Davis, was acquitted of a similar charge in connection with a Moose lottery last month. Fat, white-haired Mr. Mann served in Manhattan's Federal House of Detention four hours of his five-month term, paid his $10,000 fine. He was said to have brought suit against his New York attorneys for "recklessly, negligently, unskillfully" conducting his defense.

P: The President signed an NRA code for the newsprint, paper and pulp industry, which is subject to revision after 90 days.

P: In the absence of Secretary of State Hull, Secretary of the Treasury Woodin escorted Mrs. Roosevelt in to her first State dinner. Mrs. Roosevelt had chosen pink chrysanthemums and pompons for her table decorations. Her menu: clear soup with whipped cream, Thinsies, filet of trout, tomatoes & cucumbers, turkey, green beans, creamed cauliflower, sweet potatoes, cranberry jelly, cream cheese balls & pineapple salad, beaten biscuits, ice cream & cake (see p. 26).

P: At Mrs. Roosevelt's invitation, Mrs. Elizabeth Donner Roosevelt, Elliott's divorced wife, and her son William, aged 1 year, arrived at the White House for a two weeks' stay. As soon as her guest was comfortably settled, the First Lady made off to Groton to see her son John, to Boston to be with James. She planned to be in Warm Springs by Thanksgiving.

P: Mrs. Roosevelt made it known that she had taken the physical examination for an airplane pilot's license. So far, however, she has had no instruction. "Franklin said it would be foolish to take lessons unless I owned a plane myself," she explained, "and it would be too expensive to do that, of course. ... If I ever get a chance to fly to Europe in an airship, I will go in a minute."

*Archibald Bulloch (1729-77) of Savannah, famed Georgia Revolutionist, was a maternal ancestor of Theodore Roosevelt, hence also of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt and of Franklin Roosevelt's children. *Never a professional, Actor Smith won gold and silver medals for oratory while in St. James' Parish School, appeared in most of the parish dramatic club's plays. His favorite part: Congressman Bardwell Slote in The Almighty Dollar.

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