"Ain't I Lucky?"

The President's daily schedule of appointments is usually pretty dull: a conveyor belt of officials and politicians who pass through his office at intervals between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. and dump their problems and requests on his desk. One day last week President Eisenhower got a welcome surprise when Lynda Widerberg, a pretty blonde in a soft blue organdy dress, walked into his office and announced, "I was going to kiss you."

Ike was delighted. "Well, why don't you?" he shot back. And with that he picked up three-year-old Lynda and kissed her. Then, beaming, he turned to greet Lynda's sister and brothers, her mother and her father, Willard Widerberg, 34, a seventh-grade teacher from De Kalb, Ill., who had just been named "Teacher of the Year" by the U.S. Office of Education and McCall's magazine.

"I Got a Medal." A moment later the photographers crowded into the office and posed the Widerberg family around the President. In the midst of the picture-taking Ike suddenly slipped his shell-rimmed glasses over the nose of Gregory Widerberg, 6. Greg blinked in surprise. After the pictures, the President went behind his great desk and beckoned to the kids in his best grandfatherly manner. "Come on around here," he said, rummaging through the desk drawers, "and we'll see if I haven't got something for you." As the children gathered around him, Ike fished out two quarters and two dimes, tried to divide them among the four children. But Lynda was too quick, scooped the two dimes from the desk.

Then Ike found a small penknife. He glanced at the older Widerbergs, got an approving nod, and gave it to Will. For Dawn the President inscribed a photograph. A small gold-cornered notebook made a fine souvenir for Greg, and, as an added prize, the President found a silver dollar for Lynda. "Oh, Momniie," she said, "I got a medal." As the Widerbergs were ushered out, Lynda held up the silver dollar, exclaimed to reporters, "Ain't I lucky?"

"I Was Astonished." The children's hour was the President's only public respite in a busy week. One day he faced a restive press conference, ran into a barrage of questions about the Army-McCarthy hearings and his executive order barring testimony on the now famous meeting of Jan. 21 (see below). Said the President: "I have no intention whatsoever of relaxing or rescinding the order because it is a very moderate and proper statement of the division of powers between the Executive and the Legislative. Now when I saw in the paper allegations to the effect that the issuance of that order could be used as a reason or excuse for calling off hearings, I was astonished."

The Jan. 21 meeting had been called, he continued, because the Army "had to have advice. That was the purpose of that meeting . . . Now the only reason I issued the order was because I saw . . . that there was going to be a long sidetrack established . . . that had no possible connection with this investigation. Far from me trying to get any investigation off the track, I was merely trying with the timely statement to keep it on the rails ... I want to see this thing settled conclusively ... let the chips fall where they may."

The President thought the shipment of Red arms to Guatemala (see HEMISPHERE) was "disturbing." He hinted that the Caracas resolution, calling for united action against Communist domination or control in the Americas, might eventually be invoked.

Last week the President also:

P:Flew to Charlotte, N.C. for ceremonies commemorating the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration, a document supposedly adopted by the citizens of Mecklenburg County, N.C. 14 months before Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. (Jefferson denounced the Mecklenburg Declaration as spurious, and some historians hold that it is a confused version of the much milder, conditional Mecklenburg Resolves of May 31, 1775.) The President's real purpose in making the trip was to give an assist to Representative Charles R. Jonas, 49, who is up for re-election this year as North Carolina's sole Republican Congressman. Without any open endorsements or overt politicking, Ike managed to give Jonas his beaming blessing. The President, said a G.O.P. strategist, "is like a man with an umbrella--everyone wants to stand under it with him."

P:Paid tribute, at the annual dinner of the Women's National Press Club, to Mile. Genevieve de Galard Terraube, the gallant French nurse who was captured at Dienbienphu and finally released by the Communists this week (see FOREIGN NEWS). Said the President: "She stirred the pride of every individual who loves freedom."

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