Charm

Nearly everyone who meets Franklin Roosevelt pays tribute to his personal charm and graciousness. When in Hawaii last summer he drove to the brink of Kilauea. Just as barefoot natives have done from time immemorial, he tossed into the inactive volcano a handful of red ohelo berries, traditional offering made to propitiate Pele, goddess of volcanoes. For six weeks Pele did nothing about it. Suddenly last week Kilauea belched forth a cloud of smoke, vomited millions of tons of molten lava. Natives concluded these were signs that Pele, too, had succumbed to Franklin Roosevelt's charm.

Swifter than Pele in reacting to Roosevelt charm was ex-Socialist Upton Sinclair, now Democratic nominee for Governor of California. On the night before a visit to Hyde Park Mr. Sinclair, by his own ad- mission, was nervous and slept badly. At 5 o'clock the next afternoon he entered the President's study at Hyde Park for an hour's conference. It was two hours before he emerged. He stripped off his coat, sat down with newshawks and began to burble: "I had the most interesting two hours' talk I ever had in my life. I talked with one of the kindest, most genial, frank, open-minded and capable men I have ever met. We talked for two hours and that was his fault not mine.

"I told him at the start that what we talked about would not be mentioned by me. ... I don't think I ought to say anything about what he said about the California or national situation.

"The President said he had only one grudge against me. That was that when he was young his mother read The Jungle aloud to him at the breakfast table. I asked him 'And it spoiled your lamb chops?' and he said 'Yes.' "

Next morning the Sinclair enthusiasm had not cooled:

"Last night, tired as I was, I slept like a baby because I said to myself that Roosevelt can run the country."

From Hyde Park the Californian went to Manhattan, met Postmaster General Farley who said "Call me Jim," went on to Washington, saw Relief Administrator Hopkins, Secretaries Morgenthau and Ickes, Chairman Jesse Jones of RFC, Chairman John H. Fahey of the Home Loan Bank Board, Governor William Irving Myers of the Farm Credit Administration. Still enthusiastic, Mr. Sinclair declared: "I won't quote anybody as approving my campaign but I will say that . . . not one official expressed the opinion that my plan [End Poverty In California] was not practical. ... I am going back to assure the people of California that the Federal Government endorses my plan-- as far as it can legally. I find out that modifications of my plan are already in effect under Federal auspices. . . . My plans, if elected include disregard of the Legislature. I shall ignore it. ... I shall ask for the same powers that Congress gave the President. . . ."

P: Less effusive was another Californian who followed Mr. Sinclair as a visitor to Hyde Park. Senator William G. McAdoo returned from Europe by no means pleased at Sinclair's nomination over his own candidate, George Creel. "Personally I like Mr. Sinclair very much," he admitted noncommittally. Then he entered the Roosevelt study. Later the President told newshawks that "very little, if any," politics had been discussed.

P: Correspondent Chesly Manly of the Chicago Tribune reported a Presidential press conference: "President Roosevelt today . . . exhibited for the first time, in the opinion of White House interviewers, a state of irritation and uneasiness with respect to the credit of the U. S." What the President did not like was the attention paid by the Press to recent weakness in Government bonds, on the eve of a great refunding operation (see col. 3).

P:For the second time President Roosevelt gave a job to one of Herbert Hoover's aides. Riding to the Capitol for the inauguration on March 4, 1933, President Hoover asked his successor to find a job for White House Secretary Walter Newton. President Roosevelt named Newton to the Home Loan Bank Board for one year (TIME, June 19, 1933). Last week President Roosevelt named George Akerson, President Hoover's first secretary, to a $6,000 job as a member of the Board of Veterans' Appeals.

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