"Everything's Lovely"

What was the President going to do about the phone strike? Would he veto a tough labor bill? What about prices? What about Henry Wallace? While the questions went unanswered, insouciant Harry Truman ducked his regular press conference and had a week of fun.

He got off to a good start by buying the first poppy of the Veterans of Foreign Wars' 1947 sale from six-year-old Saundra Fay Hall, gave her in return a little silver sombrero he had picked up in Mexico. Later that afternoon he drove over to the Bethesda Naval Hospital to pin a Medal of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster on ailing, aging former Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

He found time for everyone. Round-the-world Flyer Milton Reynolds and crew (see BUSINESS) came by to receive the President's congratulations and give him a Reynolds ball-point pen. Democratic bigwigs dropped in to talk politics. Said Jersey City's Boss Frank Hague: "Everything's fine--everything's lovely."

At week's end, the President drove through cheering crowds to throw out the first ball at the postponed Senators-Yankees baseball opener. To the consternation of newsmen who had billed him as a southpaw, Harry Truman first tossed out a blooper with his right arm, obligingly threw another with his left for the cameramen. Then he settled back to sip a Coke in the bright spring sunlight, unexpectedly popped up half an inning early for the traditional seventh inning stretch. Final score: Yankees, 7; Senators, 0.

This week the President turned to graver matters. Everything was still lovely, but for that troublesome cloud shadow on the spring landscape--high prices and the danger of a recession. Speaking at the annual luncheon of the Associated Press in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria hotel,* Harry Truman ringingly reiterated his familiar formula for avoiding depression: "Prices must be brought down."

He said little that he had not said before. He quoted figures: house furnishings were up 23% above 1945; clothing up 24%; food up 31%; wholesale prices were even higher all along the line. Once prices were lowered, he expected labor to do its part by following his "counsel of moderation," farmers to keep production high. Government could help best, he said, by keeping taxes up, reducing the debt, holding fast to rent, export and credit controls.

Said the President: "Only if we maintain and increase our prosperity can we expect other countries to recognize the full merits of a free economy . . . the responsibility of preserving our free enterprise system will continue to rest upon the joint efforts of business, labor, the farmers and government."

* Before leaving the capital, the President had a new vaccination as a precaution against Manhattan's smallpox scare.

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