The White House Week

P: The President announced simply and tersely that he would not withdraw from the Senate the nomination of Judge Wallace McCamant--the man who nominated him in 1920. Judge McCamant, who has the enmity of Senator Hiram Warren Johnson (TIME, Feb. 8, POLITICAL NOTES), allowed himself to be forced into saying that Theodore Roosevelt "was not a good American," and the Judiciary Committee of the Senate refused to recommend him for office.

P: Professor William Zebina Ripley of Harvard called at the White House by request to discuss with President Coolidge the possible evils of the general issuance of non-voting stock in industry. The Professor said that he did not see that there was much which the national government could do, as the stock is issued under state corporation laws.

P: The President gave his formal assent to the presentation by Secretary Wilbur of the Navy Cross to Captain George Fried, a Naval Reservist, who was in command of the U. S. liner Roosevelt which rescued the crew of the British freighter Antinoe at sea.

P: The President also wrote Captain Fried a note: "This incident has added lustre to the record of our Navy, in which you, Captain Fried, were trained, and to the ability and character--of the American merchant marine."

P: Major U. S. Grant 3rd,* Army officer in charge of public buildings in the Capital, reported to the House Appropriations Committee that the roof of the White House has settled since 1912, when it was repaired, that the trusses supporting it have slipped and that much of its weight now rests on interior partitions. He said the roof should be repaired and the attic rebuilt, but it would cost $500,000 and the President did not approve of the expenditure at present.

P: A gentleman of 83 stepped last week into the White House, which used to be his home as a young man. He came to attend the hanging of a portrait of his mother, the first of her to be hung there--the portrait of a dark lady in a crinoline hoopskirt and drop-shoulder gown with a wreath in her hair. The scene of the hanging was in the oval room on the ground floor, under the famous Blue Room used for formal receptions. The gentleman was Robert Todd Lincoln. At his request the portrait of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln had been painted by a relative, Miss Kate Helm, from photographs taken in Civil War days.

P: Because of what was described by his physician as a slight cold, the President one day canceled all but two of his engagements, spent a minimum of time in his office and retired to the privacy of his bedroom.

P: Andrew J. Volstead, onetime Congressman, now a legal adviser of the Prohibition unit, called at the White House office. The President had a cold; so Mr. Volstead departed. As he came out a bevy of cameras ("stills" and "movies") focused their lenses upon him. In desperation he began to run. He dodged and raced over the grass (which is strictly forbidden), behind bushes, around trees, and finally escaped with the cameras still clicking after him.

P: The President destroyed his cold by remaining in bed for an entire day.

P: On Sunday the President remained away from church upon his physician's advice, in order not to contract another cold.

P: To newspapermen the President intimated that he did not think it would be good policy for the Federal Government to buy all medicinal whisky as a means of reducing leakage from warehouses. He also intimated that he thought the Italian debt settlement should be approved by the Senate, since he thinks that the American Debt Funding Commission is as competent as any body that could be selected to determine Italy's capacity to pay. Towards the close of the interview the President's white collie, which was present, let out an agonized yelp. "He does not," said the President to the newspapermen, "like to have you get on his feet."

P: The President received a check for $7,000, a refund on income taxes paid by him in 1923. The refund was made in accordance with a decision by the Supreme Court that a tax constitutes a diminution of salary, and the Constitution forbids increasing or diminishing the salary of a President during his term in office. The decision will save the President some $60,000 during his term of office, and the estate of President Harding will receive refunds of about $26,000.

P: Colonel John C. Coolidge, the President's father, was visited at Plymouth, Vt., by William Wallace Stickney, law partner of Attorney General Sargent and onetime Governor of that state (on whose staff the elder Coolidge held the title of Colonel). Mr. Stickney had to go twelve miles by snowmobile to reach the Coolidge farm, and even this machine had to be dug out of a drift near the Colonel's home.

P: The President spoke informally upon General Washington before The National Educational Association: "The end of Washington's school days left him a poor cipherer, a bad speller and a still worse grammarian...."