Arms & the Man

Since the attempt on the President's life, the west office wing of the White House had taken on the atmosphere of a medieval castle. Only the portcullis and moat were missing. Armed Secret Servicemen and uniformed cops, the indispensable sentinels of modern day, surrounded the building and grounds. The street which Harry Truman crossed, to hold his weekly press conference in the archaic State Department Building, was blocked off by new picket fences and sentry boxes; of the many side doors in the building, all were locked but one, and that was guarded closely by a man who insisted on a White House pass for anyone who left or entered.

Protected as he was from physical attack, the President still had to contend with the shafts of the press. For this he wore his usual armor--the quick, thick Truman smile. The archers of the fourth estate commenced target practice as soon as Mr. Truman finished reading his pronouncement on China, and the first shaft rang against the armor: "Some Republicans interpret the election as meaning that you should ask for the resignation of Mr. Acheson."

Guesses. Dean Acheson is going to stay --period, said the President; you might as well stop speculating about it. (On the same subject, Dean Acheson said last week: "Despite some rumors to the contrary, I am looking forward to further years.")

"This is the first press conference since election . . ." another newsman began. The President said he was expecting this subject to come up. "As I remember it," continued the archer, "you made some rather hopeful predictions before the elections." That he had, the President confessed. He guessed he was like all the rest of the pollsters--it didn't come out the way he thought it would. But he was used to that. People should remember, the President added, that it was an off year.

What about Senator Taft's victory in Ohio? The President wasn't even blue about that, he said. Any state can elect anybody they want, he added, and besides he had never had any personal falling-out with Mr. Taft; they just don't agree on public policies. Didn't the election returns mean that the President would have to slow down his Fair Deal program? Not at all, said the President. Most of the elections turned on local conditions, he insisted.

Explanations. But the armor of good humor seemed to fall off as he spoke. When another newsman asked if the whole Fair Deal program would be laid before the lame-duck Congress Nov. 27, the President replied acidly that time & time again he had explained, in words of one syllable, that the Fair Deal program would be presented to the new Congress in January.

The conference ended. Harry Truman, flanked by his protectors, marched back into "the castle, there to consider anew how to lay siege to that fortress down at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, where the enemy had added such powerful reinforcements on Nov. 7.

--

The President last week picked the man to head his Point Four program for helping the world's underdeveloped areas. To direct what the President proposed in 1949 as "a bold new program" and for which Congress appropriated a not-so-bold $34.5 million, Harry Truman named 63-year-old Dr. Henry G. Bennett, president of Oklahoma A & M. An expert in agriculture and mining, Bennett also has a reputation for getting money out of legislators. Last April Bennett did a little Point Fouraging on his own when he went to Ethiopia to advise Haile Selassie on agriculture. Bennett has five children. The name of one daughter should endear him to the loyalty board: Liberty Loven.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.