The President's Week

The White House physician, Rear Admiral Ross T. McIntire, seemed content. Recently he had been able to talk his patient into a little extra exercise--occasional car rides, more frequent dips in the White House pool. The Roosevelt weight was just what the doctor likes: 187 lb.

Then, for no good reason, Franklin Roosevelt woke up one morning with red eyes, a deep, froggy voice, unmistakable sniffles. Admiral McIntire was firm: no appointments. Grumbling, the President went back to bed. After a four-day rest he looked somewhat better, and joked playfully with reporters at his Friday press conference.

He had dined with dreamy, earnest Aubrey Williams, onetime chief of the National Youth Administration, now an organizer for the National Farmers Union. Williams, a frequent White House dinner guest, said he left "with the distinct impression that Mr. Roosevelt wouldn't run again, although he didn't say so directly." Added Mr. Williams: "He looked so tired and worn that I was shocked."

During the week, the President:

P: Agreed politely with the American Chemical Society that it would "deter the conduct of the war to take young chemists, chemical engineers and physicists away from work" and put them into uniform.

P: Received a protest from the National Civil Service Reform League about the Starnes Bill--which would give veterans inside track on some Government jobs.

P: Accepted the resignation of Leo T. Crowley as Alien Property Custodian. Now, said the President, Mr. Crowley could devote all his time and his "superior abilities" to managing his other two agencies (FDIC, FEA).

P: Bade godspeed to frail, silver-haired Presidential Assistant Lowell Mellett, for six years a zealous New Deal employe, not conspicuously employed since Pearl Harbor. Mr. Mellett, once a Scripps-Howard executive, will pundit a political column for the Washington Star.

P: Announced the resignation of the Treasury's mild-mannered General Counsel Randolph Paul, who may get a Federal judgeship for his three years of attempts to sell Congress on higher taxes that would not bite the low-income groups.

P: Promised a "statement" soon, on the new soldier-vote bill.

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