President's Week

The President last week:

> Appointed urbane, forthright Joseph Bartlett Eastman, 59, now chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, as director of a new war agency: The Office of Defense Transportation (see p. 60). ODT supplanted the last vestige of the now-extinct NDAC, the first defense organization set up by the President in May 1940. Out of a job (unless he accepts a post under Eastman) was Rail Coordinator Ralph Budd, exponent for 19 months of the theory that the railroads are ready. ODT's Eastman will boss rail, motor, inland waterway, coastal & intercoastal transport, and pipelines.

> Signed the final version of the draft amendment, subjecting all U.S. males from the ages of 20 to 44 inclusive to military service, selectively; and registering all between ages 18 and 65.

> Signed a bill awarding soil-conservation benefits to farmers whose land is commandeered by the Government for national defense.

> Proclaimed Jan. 1 as a National Day of Prayer.

> Received a letter from the Catholic Bishops of the U.S. pledging full support to the war, and placing themselves at his service.

> Designated wry, dry, slick Lowell Mellett, Director of the Office of Government Reports, to be Coordinator of Government Films as well.

> Signed a war-appropriation bill providing $512,000,000 worth of housing, school and sanitary facilities for defense-cramped communities (see p. 29).

> Nominated bush-browed liberal David J. Winton of Minnesota as the first U.S. Minister to New Zealand--to Mr. Winton's surprise.

> Gave up his fight for an earlier Thanksgiving, signed a bill to make Thanksgiving always the last Thursday in November.

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