One Year After

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

To celebrate the end of his first year in office President Roosevelt went to a vesper service in Washington Cathedral at which Bishop Freeman preached a New Deal sermon deploring the "moral laxity" of recent years. In the evening the President and Mrs. Roosevelt attended a dinner at the Mayflower Hotel given jointly by all members of the Cabinet, in lieu of ten separate dinners held in other years. All ten members of the Cabinet, nine of their spouses (only absent spouse: Paul Wilson, husband of Madam Secretary Perkins), the Vice President, the Speaker, the Budget Director, Mrs. Curtis Dall, Gracie Hall Roosevelt (brother of Mrs. Roosevelt), Frederic A. Delano (uncle of the President) and all the White House secretaries were present.

P: In Manhattan Mrs. Roosevelt visited the studio of Ellen Emmet Rand who was engaged last summer to paint the official portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be left hanging in the White House after his departure. In Washington and Hyde Park, Mrs. Rand did her job. Said she: "The President was a very good subject, a very willing sitter. All told we had about eight sittings. . . . Sometimes he received callers during the sittings, but I liked that. It made for a more natural expression. He was really very patient about it." As originally painted the portrait bore the famed Roosevelt smile. The President would have none of it, demanded that the smile be wiped off. So Mrs. Rand painted a new straight-lipped mouth which nobody seemed to like. Last week Mrs. Roosevelt went in to view the portrait wearing its third mouth. "Oh! I like it very much!" she cried. Then the First Lady hurried off to attend the 22nd birthday party of the Camp Fire Girls.

P: The President issued an order cutting the last link between the National Labor Board and NRA. To its eight members, he added five more: Clay Williams, president of Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Leon Marshall of Johns Hopkins Law School; Ernest Draper, Manhattan food packer; Gerard Swope, president of General Electric; and Harry Dennison, stationery supplies manufacturer. Thus was the first step taken to give the Labor. Board new powers to settle the Weirton Steel and Budd Manufacturing Co. labor disputes.

P: Corporal Robert Osman, U.S. A. was last year court-martialed in the Canal Zone for violating the 96th Article of War for "willfully and feloniously" communicating military secrets to persons not entitled to receive them (supposedly Communists). Cause of the trial was discovery of an undelivered letter allegedly sent by Osman to a girl in Brooklyn, a letter which contained a military plan of Fort Sherman. Result of the trial was that Corporal Osman was condemned to two years at hard labor, fined $10,000 (to be worked off at the rate of $500 a year). Last week it was revealed that President Roosevelt on the advice of the Army's Acting Judge Advocate General had canceled the sentence, ordered a new trial.

P: President Roosevelt sent a message to Congress asking that the principal of Home Owners' Loan Bonds be guaranteed just as Farm Mortgage Bonds were guaranteed two months ago: 2) ordered the Census Bureau to tabulate the citizen and alien population of New York City by blocks as basis for reapportionment for the State Legislature (a blow at Tammany) ; 3)announced that he would favor a law to prevent party officials, government officers and Congressmen from lobbying for government contracts, and also to outlaw professional lobbyists from similar employment.

P: Sylvester Harris, Negro farmer of Columbus, Miss., aided by a representative of the New Orleans Land Bank, last week got payments of the first and second mortgages on his farm postponed until autumn. He explained that he had telephoned the White House:

"De White House gentleman what answered de phone up there got mad and said, 'Quit calling de President,' but I keeps on and finally gets him.

"He say, 'Who dis,' and I say, 'It's Sylvester.'

"He say, 'Sylvester who?'

"I say 'Sylvester Harris, a Nigger down here in Mississippi. A man gettin' ready to take my land and I want to know what to do. De papers say call you and I does and here I is.'

"De President says quiet-like, 'Sylvester, I'll investigate and you'll hear from me.' "

P: Last week Speaker Rainey made public the following memorandum received from the President:

"Dear Henry:

"Mac has shown me your letter of February 21.

"Naturally when I suggested to you that I could not approve the bill for the payment of the bonus certificates I did not mean that I might let it become law without my signature.

"I don't do things that way.

"What I meant was that I would veto the bill, and I don't care who you tell this to.

"Let me know your thoughts on the next step.

"F. D. R."

None of the White House secretaries, when questioned by newshawks, would place responsibility for the grammatical error contained in the next to last sentence.

P: President Roosevelt sent a message to Congress advocating a renewal of the Hawes-Cutting Act for Philippine independence. That law lapsed Jan. 17 after the Philippine Legislature declined to accept its provisions. President Roosevelt would give the Filipinos until October to accept a second offer of freedom. Only important change suggested by the President was that the U. S. agree to withdraw from its Philippine Army bases, and negotiate a settlement about Naval bases.

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