THE PRESIDENCY: Before Departure

The heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa steamed out of Norfolk under sealed orders. It carried special equipment for the President’s use. Off Culebra Island, between the Virgins and Puerto Rico, naval maneuvers were scheduled for early December—and there the Tuscaloosa had been originally assigned. In Washington, in a week of rumors and counter-rumors, President Roosevelt told his press conference that he was leaving for a long defense inspection trip, and though it might take him more than twelve hours from Washington by rail, he would fly back if an emergency called him to the White House. Early this week he set out to join the Tuscaloosa on the Florida coast.

But before he left the President had several matters to consider. Foremost among them was how to finance the U. S. Government and its defense program next year. To an informal White House supper went Congressional chiefs of the revenue committees, Treasury and Budget Bureau heads: Mississippi’s Pat Harrison, Georgia’s Walter George, of Senate Finance; North Carolina’s Robert Doughton, Tennessee’s Jere Cooper, of House Ways & Means; Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Assistant Secretary John L. Sullivan; Budget Director Harold Smith. Their problem was to raise a hoped-for $10,000,000,000 of Federal revenue for fiscal 1942, as against fiscal 1941’s expected $7,000,000,000. On coming out, stogie in mouth, Pat Harrison paused to tell reporters that personal and corporate income taxes would not again be raised retroactively on 1940 income.

Whether $10,000,000,000 revenue was possible without such a change remained to be seen. Perhaps it was. Secretary of Commerce Jesse Holman Jones, the big, cold-eyed right bower of Franklin Roosevelt, announced last week that estimates of the nation’s (not the Government’s) income in October were $6,671,000,000. This was the highest monthly income for the U. S. since May 1930. If good business continues, it will carry national income to about $74,000,000,000 for 1940, compared to $70,000,000,000 in 1939. Since personal and corporate income taxes on 1940 incomes were raised during the present Congressional session, it means much bigger Federal revenue in 1941.

The President also announced a new Budget method: a domestic Budget which will be balanced if possible; a separate Defense Budget, so that the citizenry may see what the U. S. spends on the terrible necessity of arms. Concurrently Mr. Morgenthau indicated financing operations would come on Dec. 15, when the Treasury might sell a block of the $4,000,000,000 worth of special national-defense notes authorized by Congress. One possibility considered was the sale of defense certificates directly to the public, after the manner of Liberty bonds.

>Lord Lothian spent three hours in conference with President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull, and emerged saying, “My discussion on conditions was optimistic—providing we get some help from you.” Washington’s mood about aid to Britain probably kept Lord Lothian from being too hopeful. The President had decided to postpone any attempt to repeal the Johnson Act to permit British credits until the next Congress meets in January. There were stories that President Roosevelt was becoming disposed to go slow on aid to Britain, possibly fearful that Britain might soon be past aid.

On top of this Joseph Kennedy announced his resignation as Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, his intention of devoting himself (in private capacity) ”to help the President keep the United States out of war.” To Britons this had an ominous ring. Whatever he has said in public, Joe Kennedy’s private disposition has long been well known: for several years he has believed that the world was going to hell at a very early date. He believed in the Munich appeasement because he feared that England was doomed if she fought in 1938. His feeling has never changed—as his Boston interview (later repudiated) showed last month. So far the world has never fallen on the date Joe Kennedy set, but some day it might. If he is going to advise the President, U. S. foreign policy may well take a turn toward great caution if not appeasement.

But before President Roosevelt boarded his train, it became clear that he had not made a complete turnabout on aid to other democracies. A terse White House announcement—coming on the heels of Japan’s peace treaty with her puppet Nanking regime—made known that the U. S. had arranged to make $100,000,000 available to China. Half of this would come from the Treasury’s stabilization fund to support Chinese currency ; half would be put up by the Export-Import Bank, against Chinese shipments of wolframite (tungsten ore), antimony, tin, for the U. S. strategic materials stockpile.

Furthermore, Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles announced that the U. S. was giving “sympathetic and favorable consideration” to Greek appeals for help. How the U. S. could help Greece, having already promised all available aid to Britain, was another matter.

>To the White House went Martin Dies, fuming with defiance. Out last week was a 1,000-page Dies Committee report on Communism in the U. S. It outlined the program of the Communist Party, named names, charged the Reds with plotting to disrupt defense industries, destroy the morale of the armed forces of the U. S., discourage enlistments, foment civil war. Popping with ideas, Dies, in Texas, had telegraphed the President for a conference.

The conference, at week’s end, lasted 50 minutes. From it the burly Texan Redhunter emerged still defiant, refusing to comment on the interview. Said Mr. Dies flatly: “I am going to do the job that Congress gave us to do.”

Rumor in Washington had it that the President thought FBI could better handle subversive activities singlehanded, was looking around to see whether enough votes could be mustered in the House to prevent Mr. Dies getting an appropriation of $1,000,000 to carry on next year.

>Effusive Joseph E. Davies, chairman of inaugural ceremonies for Term III, appointed Columnist Dorothy Thompson head of a special committee to “make the voice of the country articulate in these ceremonies.” Other plans: fewer parading troops, “extreme democratic simplicity.”