"It Inspired Me"

It was a moment of extraordinary crisis for the White House police officer. Waiting for President Eisenhower to greet them in the Rose Garden, two of the 416 delegates to the 36th annual conference of the Junior Leagues of America had got the flowers of their spring hats tangled together. There they stood, like two stag elks with antlers interlocked, while the red-faced officer gingerly but successfully untangled them.

A few minutes later the Junior Leaguers added another fascinating episode to White House history. As they trooped into the Blue Room to shake hands with Mamie Eisenhower, a staffer told one of their leaders: "Tell them to give their names to the aide." But somehow the word aide got garbled, and Mamie Eisenhower stood bewildered while a procession of Junior Leaguers passed by murmuring their names--and ages.

These were among the more diverting moments of a week in which Dwight Eisenhower spent much of his time carrying out the ceremonial duties of his office. But there were somber, heartfelt moments, too, and one of them came when the President left his desk to present a "handicapped American of the year" award to Salt Lake City's Mrs. Louise Lake, a polio victim who became a professional physical therapist and, while using a wheelchair herself, has devoted her efforts to helping others out of theirs. Said the President of the U.S., obviously touched: "Last year, I recall, our outstanding physically handicapped citizen here was a lad in a wheelchair who made radios. I took home that radio, and it reminded me--it inspired me--to say to myself no matter how hard a man's job is, a man's will can do it so long as he is above ground. This year, and I think for the first time ... we have a lady who has been named the outstanding citizen of those who are handicapped. I have read her story . . . The thrilling part of it was that as she went through the entire experience of developing herself to do something, her thought was always for others. She helped them."

Last week the President also:

P:Told the Advertising Council, in an earnest off-the-cuff speech, that the Communist threat is measurably greater than a year ago. Said Ike: "Our prime need is still peace. Our great threat is still a dietatorship that is insensitive to human values, that is tyrannical and will not give up its publicly announced purpose of subjugating the world . . . They have built up a tremendous military machine . . . using weapons of the most destructive power . . . They turn more and more to the economic, the political, the propaganda types of invasion of these other countries."

P: Entertained Princess Astrid of Norway and Prince Bertil of Sweden at a White House luncheon featuring consomme madrileene, Cornish hen, fruit salad with Camembert cheese dressing, and pink champagne. Afterward Ike and Mamie showed them displays of the china used by past Presidents. The royal visitors were en route to Minnesota, 60% of whose citizens are of Scandinavian origin, to take part in the state's 100th anniversary celebration.

P:Heard of Vice President Richard Nixon's stoning by agitators in Peru (see THE HEMISPHERE), commented admiringly: "Dick's got a lot of guts." Later, Ike dictated a warm personal message, which Acting Secretary of State Christian A. Herter relayed by radiophone as Nixon's party flew from Peru to Ecuador.

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