The President's Week

The President surveyed his army of guests--550 delegates to the fifth annual National Citizenship Conference--and quietly decided to save himself the ordeal of 550 hearty handshakes. Instead, Mr. Truman escorted the visitors outside to the White House gardens, got up onto a black wrought-iron bench near some fragrant rosebushes and made a little speech.

"I think it is the greatest honor in the world simply to be a citizen of the United States," said he. The President remarked indignantly that his morning mail had included a postcard from a Californian who thought that Americans should "surrender to Russia" because it would be better for them to lose their freedom than lose their lives in a war. "Now what do you think of that?" the President exclaimed. "That is Patrick Henry in reverse, if I know anything!"

"My Boy's a Girl." Next day, the President found himself talking off-the-cuff again. Visited by members of Ohio's Farm Bureau Federation, ex-Farmer Truman explained that two of his nephews, Gilbert and Harry (sons of brother Vivian), were working the 600-acre Missouri farm that the President had once tilled. "My boy's a girl," said the President. "Of course, I wouldn't trade her for any two boys, but I wish I had some. These boys are good farmers and they have that sort of reputation. The only handicap they have is that their uncle is President of the United States . . . you know what a terrible handicap that is to a family ..."

It was a fine week for getting political hay in. When he wasn't greeting travelers, the President was rewarding old friends. The Congress, having approved 16 of the 21 Hoover reorganization plans sent up to the Hill by the President, had given Harry Truman a chance to do some reshuffling among his bureaucrats. To his closest non-Missouri political crony, ex-Senator Mon C. Wallgren (once national amateur 18.2 balkline billiards champion), the President gave the chairmanship of the Federal Power Commission; he made onetime New York Senator James M. Mead, another old Senate buddy now on the Government payroll, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.

He also offered a helping hand to another aspiring politician. Clad in a wide grin and a sharply honed tan suit, Ohio

Democrat Joseph ("Jumping Joe") Ferguson assured the President that he would beat Robert Taft by 250,000 votes in November, and asked the President to travel Ohio "up & down and crisscross and every which way" in his behalf. Harry Truman promised to help.

Like Potsdam? The President's last chore of the week took him to National Airport where, with a beaming smile and a warm handclasp, he welcomed Secretary of State Dean Acheson back from the fruitful Western powers' conference in London. "I want to congratulate you," the President told Acheson. "I think it was the most successful international conference since Potsdam." The congratulations were heartfelt, but the compliment was questionable : it was at Potsdam, Mr. Truman's only meeting with Stalin, that free elections were promised to Poland, and Germany was pledged to joint occupation by the four friendly victors.

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