Three Days Out

Before many hours had ticked by, H.R. 1776, passed by the Congress, would lie on the President's desk. Toward that landfall Franklin Roosevelt worked last week, like a sailor polishing brass, whistling as he worked because he knew port was near. On dogwatches he conferred lengthily with Harry Hopkins, back now with the most complete report on wartime England yet made by an American; he consulted again & again with the Government's managers of defense, of money, of diplomacy and of the armed forces. While the sailorman President's back was tactfully turned, many a New Dealer was dropped overboard with a quiet splash. As the new horizon drew nearer, the new crew looked more & more like a Who's Who of Industry.

No one knew what would happen when the Ship of State docked in this foreign port. No one knew what new commission, board or bureau the President would set up. But something was coming, something bigger than any commission, board or bureau, some vast new voyage to which the U. S. was already committed. Sailorman Roosevelt polished the brass.

When land was sighted, when the bill was signed, everyone expected that ordinary times would end. The decks, already a clutter of unusual activity, would be cleared for action. Even the passengers knew that this was no Caribbean pleasure cruise. They looked at Sailorman Roosevelt, whistling and polishing away so cheerfully, as if they knew that he could wear gold braid and bark commands if he wanted to--as if he might, when the time came. There had been rumors in the First Class that guns were being run out, that there might soon even be a shortage of butter in the dining saloon.

Sailorman Roosevelt polished away, whistling as he worked.

Last week the President:

> Named William Averell Harriman as "expediter" of aid-to-Britain in the U. S. Embassy in London. Glossy, youngish (49) Expediter Harriman until last week was OPM Materials Chief. His job: to handle the receiving end of aid-to-Britain.

> Continued the current shake-up of U. S. diplomats, replacing political appointees in Latin-American posts with career men. To replace genial old (74) Indiana Novelist Meredith Nicholson as Minister to Nicaragua went Pierre de Lagarde Boal, 45, now Embassy counselor in Mexico City. To replace genial, middle-aged (55) Findley Burtch Howard as Minister to Paraguay went Wesley Frost, recently Embassy counselor in Santiago, Chile.

> Named veteran Careerman Gardiner Howland Shaw, 47, of Boston, Assistant Secretary of State. Shaw, a thin, monastic, handsome bachelor, a Harvardman, joined the Department in 1917. Careerman Shaw has three passions: his job, his religion (he is a Catholic convert), prison reform. An amateur psychiatrist, Shaw became so knowledgeable on prison methods that the Turkish Government once used him as an unofficial adviser on penal institutions, named a hill in Imrali Island penal colony after him. He has been chief of the Near East division (1927-31), Embassy counselor at Istanbul (1930-37), Foreign Service Personnel chief since 1937.

> Signed a bill raising the Federal debt limit from $49,000,000,000 to $65,000,000,000, and authorizing for the first time in U. S. history the issuance of fully taxable Federal securities. The last taxexempt, due in 1965, will probably be called by 1960. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. planned to sell a defense issue of postal-savings stamps, at prices from 10, 25, 50-c- to $1, convertible into Federal bonds at $18.75. Baby bonds become taxable on March 1.

> Put up "No Trespassing" signs on eleven islands and one bay in the Pacific, Alaska and Caribbean defense areas. After May 14, Culebra Island, off Puerto Rico; Guam, Rose and Tutuila Islands in Samoa; Palmyra, Johnston, Midway, Wake Islands and Kingman Reef (stepping stones between Honolulu's Pearl Harbor and the Philippines); Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii; Kiska and Unalaska Islands, off Alaska, will be forbidden ground to all but U. S. armed forces.

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