President's Week

Franklin Roosevelt stuffed another cigaret in his ivory holder, leaned far back in his big chair, told his press conference, as usual, that he had "no news except. . . ." Then he proceeded to fill out the "except."

Postwar. Franklin Roosevelt wanted newsmen to understand he was not "cool" toward the Ball resolution for early action on postwar objectives. The details, he said, were something for the Senate to work out; but he endorsed the general idea. He thought it would be helpful for the world to know that the U.S. is ready & willing to help in maintaining future peace. In fact, plans are already afoot for as many as six United Nations conferences on various phases of the whole postwar problem. One such conference, to ponder questions of nutrition and food distribution, would be held within two months--in some small town, he hoped, any town other than Washington. In Washington the press gave too much interference.

The Press. Smiling but half serious, Franklin Roosevelt read newsmen a lecture on the press. The trouble with the Washington press, said he, was its efficiency. That was why he wanted to hold United Nations food conferences safely outside Washington. The President said newsmen had "pets" among many of the officials, and the officials had "pets" among newsmen. The North Atlantic and Casablanca conferences, he implied, were successful because the press was absent.

Manpower. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and Under Secretary Robert P. Patterson had endorsed compulsory national labor service. Newsmen scented an Administration quarrel. But their questions struck no fire: there was no disagreement, said Franklin Roosevelt. The only question was when, if ever, such a law would be necessary. The law would create a lot more Government machinery, make life more complicated, lead to increased regimentation. And while there had to be some regimentation in time of war, the President hoped the National Service Act could be avoided. At least it should be delayed as long as possible.

People. Before his press conference, Franklin Roosevelt had spent a crowded week. Into his office had marched a long parade of visitors. Vice Admiral Raymond A. Fenard, 56, balding chief of the Giraud-ist French naval mission, had brought a model of the 35,000-ton French battleship Richelieu. Builder Henry J. Kaiser brought another model, of the new 514-ft. aircraft carriers that will roll off the ways of his Vancouver shipyards at the rate of six a month by the end of 1943. Bearing no gifts, but only urgent business, had come such men as Cordell Hull, Sumner Welles, Lieut. General George C. Kenney, Allied Air Forces Commander in the Southwest Pacific.

At week's end, after a week's hard work as President, after deciding as a rationed citizen to give up his breakfast coffee for milk*, Franklin Roosevelt came down with a cold, his second in a month.

*For a viewpoint that would be unsympathetic to this change, see p. 56.

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