Lovesick Couple

He has been all but crowned by the people--William Allen White.

Americans are following Mr. Roosevelt . . . as the Israelites followed Moses--

The London Morning Post.

The Republicans have had a saying . . . "The Roosevelt honeymoon is over." They were mighty poor judges of a lovesick couple. Why, he and the people have got a real love-match and it looks like it would run for at least six years--Will Rogers.

With a gleam in his eye, but without his flashing smile, he boarded the train that took him back from Hyde Park to Washington. On the train he received his entourage of newshawks. Sitting erect, foursquare, with the bearing of a victor, he answered questions, but declined, with the same gleam in his eye, to speak of his victory. His only post-election comment was a commendatory reference to an editorial by Editor Cleveland Rodgers of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.* Whether uncrowned King, Moses, or lover, he was going forth to play his part with the confidence that his part would be whatever he chose to make it.

In Washington his first act was to play host at luncheon. His guest: Robert Marion La Follette, the first Senator of the new Progressive Party of Wisconsin (see p. 12). Had the election gone otherwise, they might have had time to mention a conventional political subject. National Cheese Week (Wisconsin produces 65 % of U. S. cheese). Cheese Week was the pet project of Wisconsin's Democratic Governor Schmedeman whose political doom had been sealed by the Progressive Party&# 134;and the two gentlemen lunching at the White House were each thinking in terms of the future and the political mandate which they had received.

With no tattoo of manifestoes did the President resume his charted course. The usual banter was lacking when he held his first official press conference. He spoke forcefully and with a new determination:

In December he would broadcast a "fireside" talk to the nation laying down his relief and agricultural policies for national acceptance before Congress assembled. Undersecretary of State Phillips was making new overtures to Premier Bennett of Canada. The New Deal Congress would be expected this time to approve the St. Lawrence Waterway Treaty. The White House was very definitely against currency inflation.

With equal deliberation and determination he let his acts speak for themselves.

P:He conferred with Chairman Buchanan of the House Appropriations Committee and outlined a program to get the annual appropriation bills drafted in advance and put through Congress in short order. The Budget will be about the same size next year as this--7 1/2 billions.

P:He appointed Marriner Stoddard Eccles Governor of the Federal Reserve Board (see p. 59). Governor Eccles will run the Federal Reserve as the White House wants it run.

P:He moved toward stability in international exchange by approving his Secretary of the Treasury's lifting transfer restrictions in force since last January. Fearing no flight of U. S. capital, the Treasury will henceforth permit the free transfer of credit and all kinds of currency except gold.

P:He had his Secretary of Commerce deliver a post-election radio address to reassure business, induce it to speed recovery. Significant Roper passages:

"The Government must encourage business profits in order that the Government itself may survive and function. . . . This does-not mean that business will be shouldered with excessive taxes for it is plainly evident that this would prevent the return of normal and prosperous conditions. . . .

"If we wish to exercise the right of not working, that is to strike, this right should be safeguarded; but in so doing we should defend the right not to strike, that is, the right to work without molestation. In the relationships which develop between employer and employe . . . each must be just as responsible to the public and must be held to just as strict accountability as the other."

P:He sent to President Kalinin of the U. S. S. R. a message: "Please accept on this [17th] anniversary of the establishment of the Soviet Government the assurance of my best wishes for the welfare and prosperity of your country."

* Excerpt: "The campaign just closed provided plenty of examples of the crudities, superficialities and exaggerations that are typical of such contests. But it would be a mistake to take a cynical view that Democratic government is a failure because ignorance and prejudice play such an important part in elections. "What is more important is the fact that in time of worldwide political ferment and economic distress, the United States goes its way, employing the usual methods in settling vital Questions of government, without undue excitement. Democratic government is functioning today, as it has in the past, and outwardly there is nothing to suggest the unusual." /-Sole White House recognition of National Cheese Week came from Mrs. Roosevelt who graciously accepted a Grand Champion American Cheddar from Miss Virginia Kelly, Cheese Queen, of Wisconsin.

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