THE PRESIDENCY: Quiet

Last week President Roosevelt spent his quietest seven days since the war began. He traveled from Hyde Park to Warm Springs, with a brief stop-over in Washington, dedicated a community centre, made a joke about the third term, carved a turkey at the Thanksgiving dinner for the patients at the Warm Springs Foundation, looked over his 2,500-acre Georgia farm, held a press conference at the roadside while sitting at the wheel of his car, discussed taxes, and in general provided reporters with nothing to write about.

Molehill mountaineers of the press consequently had to make what they could of the record:

Visitors. At Hyde Park: Poet Archibald MacLeish, Librarian of Congress; Candidate Paul McNutt; Representative Keller; Painter Henry Billings, who talked over the paintings for the new library.

At Washington: Artist, ardent leftist and Eskimo-lover, tall, long-jawed Rockwell Kent, who designed this year’s National Tuberculosis Association Christmas seals; Harold Ickes; Norman Davis, Red Cross head; James Farley; Henry Morgenthau.

At Warm Springs: Budget Director Harold Smith, who talked about cutting non-military expenses; Mayor the Reverend Mr. Woodfin G. Harry, who made a speech; the Warm Springs Women’s Club, which sang;* pretty, yellow-headed Patient Ann Smithers, age six, who won the right to sit at the President’s table at the Thanksgiving dinner, gnawed a drumstick despite the fact that her baby teeth are falling out; the Georgia Congressional delegation, minus Senator George, who withstood the New Deal’s purge. “There was no invitation for me to go,” explained Senator George.

Third Term. The Gallup Poll showed a 2.2% decline in the President’s popularity. But on the third term issue the FORTUNE Survey indicated the greatest shift of public opinion that it has recorded. In its December issue, FORTUNE revealed that 47.4% of the people favor a third term, an increase of 12.5% since the war began.

Post Office. To astonished Warm Springers, well-pleased at the growth of their village, the President began talking about a new post office, wondered why they had not demanded one. “What have we got?” he asked, “we have got a little over a year left,” went on to explain that the next Administration might not provide a post office, and that if Warm Springers demanded hard enough, he might take Jim Farley by the neck “and squeeze a new post office out of him.”

Ambassadors. Because Ambassador Kennedy announced in London that he had been summoned home, and Ambassador Davies in Brussels prepared to return, dopesters prophesied a council of ambassadors, including Biddle of Poland, Bullitt of France. This the President denied, said that Ambassadors Davies and Kennedy were coming home on their own initiative, for Christmas. Dopesters promptly began talking about Cabinet posts for both.

* Chorus: “Our nation needs a leader just like you, you, you.”