Mighty Warm for March

On the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House, the big round pansy bed was in vivid bloom, and the oriental magnolia trees were suddenly heavy with purple-edged white blossoms. The wide, deep lawn was a bright green. To the passer-by the Executive Mansion seemed whiter, dressier, gayer than at any time since five springs ago.

But there was no gaiety inside the White House. Mrs. Truman kept to her rooms most of the week, with a heavy cold. Daughter Mary Margaret kept to her bed, with influenza and a severe gastrointestinal upset. The President kept to his desk, with severe international complications.

Harry Truman put in a grueling week. Fast-walking Jimmy Byrnes darted in & out of the White House side door several times a day with the latest news of Iran and Turkey. W. Averell Harriman, the retiring Ambassador to Moscow, conferred with the President. So did Chief of Staff General Ike Eisenhower. Winston Churchill came in to say thanks and goodbye. At week's end General of the Army George C. Marshall, back from China, hurried from his plane to give the President 65 minutes of bad news from Manchuria and fair news from China (see INTERNATIONAL).

President Truman saw a long list of other callers, many of them merely PRs (payers of respects). He sandwiched pressing domestic matters between his frequent conferences, disposed of many routine chores. Twice he called in his Congressional Big Four. He had his Cabinet in for lunch, later for a meeting. He gave Democratic National Chairman Robert E. Hannegan an unscheduled hour in which, presumably, the surgery to end the pain of the Pauley appointment was approved.

To Ed Pauley the President wrote a long letter: "With full confidence in you, I shall reluctantly withdraw your nomination [as Under Secretary of the Navy]. . . . You stand before your countrymen after vicious and unwarranted attacks with integrity unscathed, with ability unquestioned, with honor unsullied."

After weeks of considering scientists, soldiers and statesmen for the important post, the President nominated aged (75) Bernard Mannes Baruch to be the U.S. representative on the United Nations Atomic Energy Control Commission.

Not a Single Joke. Harry Truman's week went unrelieved by fun. He got in four afternoon sessions of exercising and splashing in the pool. He got away from the White House only once--to the Mayflower Hotel suite of Artist Douglas Grahville Chandor, where he admired the almost completed portrait of Citizen Churchill.

Back at work he canceled plans for a weekend cruise, stood by for more news. It was one of the most difficult periods Harry Truman had been through in his 49 weeks as President. While he did not show grave concern, there was no mistaking the White House atmosphere. One of his helpers summed up the official attitude. Said he, plainly worried: "There hasn't been a joke cracked around here all week."

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