Week's Work

The two busiest times of a President's year are the week Congress convenes and the week it adjourns. Last week Franklin Roosevelt had three messages to Congress to prepare. On the evening of the official Cabinet dinner at the White House--after midnight when the guests had departed-- his wife and his secretaries joined him in his study to hear the final rehearsal of his message on the State of the Union (see col. 3).

The President held a special cramming session for newshawks to instruct them in the intricacies of his budget message 24 hours before he sent it to the Capitol (see p. 16). His third message, on Government Reorganization, which goes to Congress this week, required two preliminary sessions. Sunday afternoon he spent an hour and a half priming Vice President Garner, Senators Joe Robinson and Pat Harrison, Speaker Bankhead, Representatives Rayburn, Buchanan and Doughton on the Re-organization Plan so that they would be prepared to defend it from the first moment that opposition reared its ugly head.

Next day he re-explained it to the newshawks. This was probably the most important of his week's business, for although his other messages might escape serious criticism, any Reorganization Plan was certain to provoke opposition.

P: In a big way, President Roosevelt had labor trouble on his hands. It came to him in the form of a delegation of hosiery workers bearing a somewhat questionable piece of persuasion, an unexploded gas bomb used in a recent Reading, Pa. strike.

Secretary Mclntyre substituted for the President in receiving this object. But no one could substitute for the President when Myron Charles Taylor, chairman of the board of U. S. Steel, asked permission to call. Obviously Mr. Taylor came to discuss his company's side of C. I. O.'s drive on the steel and motor industries (see p. 17), but Mr. Taylor told the press: "This is not the time for talking."

P: The President sent a letter to the governors and governors-elect of 19 States whose legislatures are meeting or about to meet. He wrote: "Do you not agree with me that ratification of the Child Labor Amendment by the remaining 12 States whose action is necessary to place it in the Constitution is the obvious way to early achievement of our objective? I hope that you will feel that this can be made one of the major items in the legislative program of your State this year." Ordinarily Franklin Roosevelt does not look for endorsement of his sentiments from the quarter whence these were presently endorsed.

"The President is right. The Child Labor Constitutional Amendment should be passed now. It has already been ratified by States covering a majority of the country's population. . . .

"The major reason for its ratification is the rights of children to health and a fair chance. But it is also important that we have orderly constitutional change instead of pressure on the independence of the Supreme Court." This statement was issued to the press at Palo Alto by Herbert Hoover, his first formal statement since last election.

P: Son Franklin Jr. arrived at the White House from Boston to rest after his illness.

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