The President's Week

Junketing in California, Vice President Henry Wallace was asked the inevitable question at a San Francisco press conference. He replied:

"There is no doubt in my mind that the President will run. Perhaps there is a doubt in his mind. . . . As for me, I am in the lap of the gods."

This was pretty official on Term IV; its acknowledgment could come from only one higher source. That source, as usual, was mum.

Last week the President, besides being mum:

P: Handed the OWI intra-bureau warfare (TIME, Feb. 7) right back to OWI. He told OWI Boss Elmer Davis and Playwright Robert E. Sherwood, head of OWI's Overseas Branch, to settle it themselves. The settlement this week: Bob Sherwood's three top men in New York--Newsman Joseph Barnes, Economist James Warburg, Editorial Chief Edd Johnson--resigned; Sherwood will go to London. This seemed a clean-out victory for Elmer Davis--his first in 20 months.

P: Admitted he had less nerve than Wendell Willkie, who urged a $16 billion tax bill in place of the President's $10 billion bill and Congress' bill for $2,315,200,000, which this week reached the President.

P: Signed a bill for veterans' mustering-out pay (maximum: $300).

The President also had a little gag for White House newsmen. Appearing at his press conference with a bandage on the nape of his neck, he said it was because he had had a growing wen removed. He mentioned this, he said, so that Secretary Steve Early could have a respite from reporters who had heard that the President had been under the knife.

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