THE PRESIDENCY: Visitors

In the White House in Washington last week Eleanor Roosevelt lay on her back recovering from grippe and thinking kind thoughts of the world—kind thoughts of the venerable G. A. R., whose martial music she could hear through her window; kind thoughts of Steve Vasilakos, the peanut merchant on whose behalf she interceded for the second time when police tried again to oust his pushcart from the White House corner; kind thoughts of her own husband. For as Mrs. Roosevelt reported in My Day, the President “asked Mrs. Scheider who was doing my column and she said, ‘Mrs. Roosevelt.’

“His response was, I meant to tell you I would be very glad to do it for her.’

“His offer was deeply appreciated. . . .” However, until week’s end when Mrs. Roosevelt was well enough to rise and entrain for New York she could not enjoy the kindly President’s company, for he deserted her in order to attend his mother’s 82nd birthday party at Hyde Park. Here all week in squirely fashion he entertained such notables as Winfield and Maria Jeritza Sheehan; Joseph E. Davies and Mrs. Marjorie Post Hutton Davies; Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney; Secretary Wallace; Edward A. O’Neal of the Farm Bureau Federation; John G. Winant of the Social Security Board; Charles Gay of the New York Stock Exchange; Major General John F. O’Ryan; Under Secretary of the Interior Charles West; Mayor LaGuardia and Bishop Francis J. McConnell of New York City. Among them too was Alpha R. Whiton, Democratic chairman of Putnam County who by personal request is making an attempt to rid the Squire of Hyde Park of an old grievance—the indignity of being a constituent of an arch-Republican, Representative Hamilton Fish Jr.

None of these visitors, however, matched in importance a group of 27 who descended in a body on Hyde Park one afternoon. For three long months of an important political campaign Franklin Roosevelt had not appeared before the public save in his full magisterial dignity as President of the U. S. In that non-partisan role he lost little if any campaigning advantage. Although he could not directly attack his political opponent, he could draw audiences, obtain free radio time, effectively expound his own political doctrines not as though seeking power but with the noble air of using his power for the public good. So well were some of his advisers satisfied with this form of campaigning—including, last week, his deft anticipation of Alf Landon’s crop insurance pronouncements (see p. 16)—that they had no wish for him to change. But nonaggressive policy, no matter how successful, does not fit the born temperament of Franklin Roosevelt. Last week therefore, the hour struck when the candidate’s desire to be up and doing could no longer be restrained.

To his press conference he announced that he was going to hold a conference of Democratic leaders. It would be a “political” meeting. “And that’s news” he added, with a satisfied smile. When the 3:16 p. m. train set down the conferees in Poughkeepsie, news photographers grinned appreciatively as they went to work on one of the most impressive collections of high-powered Democrats ever gathered in so informal a fashion. The group included one Vice President, two Cabinet members (Cummings & Farley), nine Senators (McKellar, Connally, Byrnes, Robinson, Wagner, Donahey, O’Mahoney, Guffey, Black), one of the Party leaders of the House (John J. O’Connor), and the head of the Democratic Finance Committee (James W. Gerard). Others who dodged the cameramen were: Cordell Hull, Daniel Roper, three more Democratic leaders of the House and eight Party officials, including Press Agent Charles Michelson.

At Hyde Park, seated in a high-backed rocker beside the fireplace in the huge living room which occupies the whole south wing of his mother’s house, Franklin Roosevelt beamed, puffed cigarets, gathered his chieftains around him to discuss just how the Democratic Party would enter the campaign of 1936. Two hours later the visitors issued forth and Mr. Farley issued a brief statement telling nothing.

Newshawks were able, however, to piece together the outline of the campaign agreed on. The Pacific Coast was too safe to waste effort on. The candidate would make no appearance west of Denver. There would be a series of Roosevelt speeches through the uncertain Midwest, in the industrial East as far north as Massachusetts, beyond which Democratic hopes do not go. This program would be carried out not in one great speaking tour but preferably in several shorter trips. The first of these was to begin this week when Nominee Roosevelt, after returning to Washington, goes to garner votes at Elkins, W. Va., thence to speak in Pittsburgh Oct. 1.

Last week Alfred E. Smith in a telegram to Hyde Park called attention to the fact that for his speech at Pittsburgh the President had hired radio time at 9 p. m. Mr. Smith had scheduled an anti-New Deal broadcast from Manhattan at the same hour. Wrote Mr. Smith to Mr. Roosevelt: “In deference to the high office of President which you hold I do not desire to interfere with your having a nationwide audience; therefore I have canceled that portion of my contracted period which would conflict with your half-hour and shall not begin my radio address until 9:30 p. m., when you will have finished.”

Back went an answering wire from Hyde Park:

“The President asks me to thank you very much for your telegram.

Marvin Mclntyre.”

¶ By upping Kansas’ onetime Governor Harry H. Woodring of Neodesha from Assistant Secretary of War to (temporary) Secretary, the President satisfied the law which required vacant Cabinet posts to be filled within 30 days, kept his War portfolio on the list of first-class jobs available for distribution after Nov. 3, at the same time pleased Kansas Democrats.