Cloud

It may have been merely a cloud passing across the sun. But more than one observer noted last week that a cool wind was blowing and a shadow had fallen on the President's popularity--his popularity not with the public but with that circle of a few thousand men who constitute official Washington. To the people who voted for him last November, Franklin Roosevelt was Mr. Right, but to official Washington he has been, even more, Mr. Big. They might occasionally grumble at his tactics, but they had much the same practical faith and trust in Roosevelt the victor of 1932, 1934, 1936 that the officers of the Grand Army had in Napoleon the victor of Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena.

No particular incident last week caused discontent in the officers' mess. Among Congressmen the growing suspicion that before summer's end they would be called upon to vote more taxes was disquieting. Senator Pat Harrison and Representative Bob Doughton, the Administration's Congressional tax champions, were in a state of high dudgeon. Again save for a zealous minority, few of the President's Congressional followers had any real enthusiasm for the Supreme Court proposal which he had tossed to them to carry out. On that issue a whole division of Democratic Senators were kicking in the traces: Connally of Texas, Clark of Missouri, Bailey of North Carolina, Van Nuys of Indiana, not to mention old revolters such as Glass. Burke and Wheeler. And finally, on the other great issue of the day, the Sit-Down, they were irritated by his bland refusal to take any stand whatever. The President's great & good friend James F. Byrnes of South Carolina was responsible for the revolt in the Senate against his inaction, and not a Democratic Senator voted against his anti-Sit-Down resolution last fortnight. Where there was this kind of public smoke, issuing even from Administration leaders, there was no lack of private fire, its flames still hidden but its sparks feeding inwardly on a spirit of dissatisfaction and antagonism. Franklin Roosevelt may have sensed this the evening he attended the spring Gridiron Club dinner, given by Washington's newshawks. First he was caricatured as Don Quixote exclaiming to Sancho Panza Garner: "Seest thou not yon fortress of privilege, yon castle of finance?" ("Them's windmills. Boss." said Sancho.) Next he was Pharaoh, telling ''Little Joseph" Wallace: "I had a dream last night. There were seven nice fat budgets all printed in black ink and along came seven scrawny budgets all printed in red!!!"

Final thrust was a Supreme Court scene, with 15 Justices resembling Caspar Milquetoast chorusing

So if we're pressed to state our view,

We'll hold our noses and say to you,

"It's deliberate, it's deceptive,

"It's deplorable, it's delirious,

"It's de novo, it's de limit,

"It's de bunk, it's de-lousy!"

The show reached its grand finale with the Justices rubber-stamping decisions and tossing them toward the President in time to the music:

One, two, better get through,

Put on your coat and hat,

We do a job like that When we're working for you. . . .

Nine, ten, stamp 'em again.

Gee, but we get a thrill,

In our judicial mill,

When we're working for you.

P: To Congress the President sent a message accompanied by a letter from Attorney General Cummings opining that since the Supreme Court had upheld the State of Washington's Minimum Wage Law (TIME, April 6), the City of Washington's similar law was, after 14 years in limbo, restored to the statute books. If Congress wished to revise the Act, it was time to take action before the District of Columbia Commissioners appointed a Minimum Wage Board. Promptly Ruth Carnett, waitress, claiming she has been paid $10.40 a week instead of $16.50 as required by law sued her employer for the difference since the date of her employment, Jan. 13, 1936. P: To questioners at press conference the President reiterated that he knew nothing about plans to cut the price of gold as a check on inflation. P: President Roosevelt, with Harry Hopkins at his side, gave audience to Governors Lehman of New York, Benson of Minnesota, La Follette of Wisconsin, Quinn of Rhode Island, who urged him to maintain WPA rolls at their present size (2,200,000), which would make Relief costs about $1,750,000,000 for fiscal 1938, unbalance the budget by about $250,000,000.

P: On Speaker Bankhead's 63rd birthday, the Wagner Act's Constitutional "birthday", the President telephoned the Alabaman: "Many happy returns of the day to you, and incidentally, it's a pretty good day for all of us, isn't it?"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.