Week I, Term III

The day after his inauguration for the Third Term, President Roosevelt held his press conference as usual. Only new note: he dodged unwelcome questions with a new excuse--that he was too sleepy to answer, his children having kept him up late. He praised Joseph Davies, chairman of the inaugural committee for his handling of the ceremonies: "the most perfect thing of its kind that has yet occurred." Last week the President also:

> Saw Jane Cowl and Peggy Wood in a special White House performance of Old Acquaintance.

> Talked with John Winant, generally considered his selection as Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. (From London came advance reports that King George VI and the British Government had approved Mr. Winant; from Washington came flat declarations that Tobaccoman S. Clay Williams would accompany him as the U. S. Minister to Britain.)

> Dispatched his Administrative Assistant Lauchlin Currie to Chungking, to help General Chiang Kai-shek bolster up Chinese currency.

> Received from the Inaugural Gift Committee (design and binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, London, who used 6,650 pieces of inlaid leather) for his Hyde Park library a special edition (estimated value: $5,000) of 20 cobalt-blue volumes, bound in French Levant morocco, of the Grolier Society's Book of Knowledge.

> Pollster George Gallup found last week that: 1) Franklin Roosevelt's personal popularity had reached 71%--highest figure in the Institute's seven-year "vote of confidence" index; 2) of all Roosevelt 1940 voters, only 5% disapprove his present policies; of all Willkie voters, 38% now approve Roosevelt policies.

> Lost his right-hand stenographer, sleek, black-haired, punctilious Henry M. Kannee, 40, his shorthand-man since Sept. 12, 1932. Scrupulous Henry, who worships F. D. R., left behind in the White House a file-full of his stenographer's notebooks, fat with more than nine years of secrets; left with the high regard of White House reporters, who were eternally grateful to him for many things but especially one--the night of Feb. 15, 1933, at the Miami Bay Front Park when Giuseppe Zangara shot at Franklin Roosevelt, fatally wounded Chicago's Mayor Anton Joseph Cermak instead. All White House reporters were on the train a quarter-mile away. Henry ran the quarter-mile, gave them a thorough fillin, saved their jobs to a man. Kannee last week resigned his $6,000-a-year position to get "considerably more" as assistant to Chairman-President James H. Rand Jr. of Remington Rand, Inc.

> Moved to improve U. S. -Soviet relations (already secretly healthy) by removing the "moral embargo" against shipments of planes and plane equipment to Russia. Physical effect: none; as Britain has first and full call on all planes. Diplomatic effect: plenty; as a continuation of mutual efforts to remove points of irritation between the two nations, and as a small move in the vast power-politics courtship of Russia by both Axes.

> This week was given a preview of his birthday (59th on January 30) cake--baked four days ahead--immediately fell sick of a cold, took to bed.

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