The Roosevelt Week

No President of the U. S. has ever had greater political power of tongue than Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he has spoken the country has arisen and followed him as a prophet. His unique power to explain simply and convincingly, to gain acceptance for ideas, has been his most powerful political tool. Last week in Washington his political advisers were urging that it was time for him again to use that tool, to bring 122,000,000 people once more enthusiastically to their feet, to cheer them, convince them again of the merit of his aims, and win back the support of those who have begun to straggle.

The advantages of waiting until Congress adjourns before broadcasting a nationwide exposition of his intentions and purposes suggested that use of his great tool might be temporarily postponed. But last week there was evidence that, consciously or unconsciously, the President was already leading his Administration temporarily toward the Right and disowning the label of radicalism which opponents have attached to his policies.

In his message to the Chamber of Commerce (see p. 65) the President himself made the point that ''it is time to stop calling 'wolf.' " He continued to turn a polite but unyielding ear to the radical inflation proposals of the silver bloc. More specific, Representative Pettengill told the House that the essentials of the stockmarket control bill dated back 25 years to Charles E. Hughes's proposals when he was Governor of New York. And the President's friend, Raymond Moley, took occasion in an address to the Advertising Club of New York to belittle the radicalism of the Administration's program by asserting flatly that: 1) the essentials of NRA had been proposed not by the Brain Trust but by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce; 2) exchange regulation "will hurt nobody except those who should be hurt."

More reassuring to businessmen was the introduction in the Senate of a series of Administration amendments to take the worst sting out of last year's Securities Act. These amendments would abolish the liabilities of officers and directors for false statements made on information received from, accountants and other experts; would limit the liability of underwriters to their share of issues underwritten; would shorten the period in which suits might be brought; would require proof that misleading statements had actually led to losses by investors; would prevent blackmail and nuisance suits by requiring litigants to post bond and pay costs if they lost. This amounted to an indication on behalf of the President that business was to get reasonable consideration, not merely to be the butt of the New Deal. P: "Deeply shocked and distressed" was President Roosevelt when he heard that his onetime Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin had died in Manhattan-- whispering in his coma as he lay dying "Yes, Governor . . . no, Governor ... I don't think so, Governor" (see p. 72). Two days later, accompanied by Vice President Garner and members of the Cabinet, he went to Manhattan to attend the Woodin funeral. P: To Congress, the President sent a special message asking it to authorize return to Canada of the mace of the Parliament of Ontario, seized by the U. S. Army in 1813 (see p. 19). P: Soviet Ambassador Troyanovsky visited the White House to discuss Russian debt negotiations and presented the philatelic President with a volume containing a new issue of Soviet stamps, sent by Commissar Litvinoff. P:By two strokes of his official pen the President: 1) vetoed a bill which would have guaranteed minimum incomes to substitute mail carriers in the Post Office; 2) abolished the office of Alien Property Custodian established during the War to take over some two billion dollars worth of firms and securities owned by Germans and Austrians, most of which have now either been returned to their owners or dissipated by mismanagement and peculation. P: At "street fair" given by the National Women's Press Guild, Daniel Krassner, circus weight guesser, was suddenly confronted by the First Lady of the Land. "This little lady--" he stammered, "she weighs--er--155 Ib." Mrs. Roosevelt then sat on a swinging scale which registered 145 Ib. Guesser Daniel gave her a cane as forfeit.

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