The White House Week

THE PRESIDENCY

The White House Week

P: By an executive order President Coolidge increased the U. S. soldier's daily food ration from 35? to 50?. Some items in the new daily ration: Beef, fresh or frozen, 18 oz.; bacon, 6 oz.; flour, 18 oz.; beans, 1.2 oz.; rice, 8 oz.; potatoes, 17 oz,; onions, 5 oz.; prunes .384 oz.; sugar 4 oz.; butter, 1.75 oz.; pickles, .08 gill; cinnamon, .014 oz. Simultaneously, the War Department reduced the weight of the soldier's pack to 51 pounds.*

P: Having asked for $185,000 for ventilating and dehumidizing the Senate chamber (TIME, Feb 7), President Coolidge last week submitted to Congress an estimate of $245,000 to perform the same operation in the House.

P: Ezra Brainerd Jr., onetime Vermont boy who has made good in Muskogee, Okla., as a lawyer and banker, was nominated by President Coolidge for the Interstate Commerce Commission. The "Senate had previously refused to confirm Cyrus E. Woods of Pennsylvania, the President's original choice for this post.

P: The President signed the Lenroot-Taber bill which prohibits importation of milk or cream except on permit from the Secretary of Agriculture.

P: Vermonters, unable to find any single mountain upon which to bestow the name of their distinguished native son, have decided to christen four mountains "Coolidge Range." The bill to accomplish this, now pending in the Vermont legislature, originally included Killington, Pico and Shrewsbury Mountains. Last week Salt Ash Mountain was added to "Coolidge Range."

P: Harvey S. Firestone and his son, Harvey S. Jr., Akron (Ohio) rubbermen, had luncheon at the White House; told the President about their 30,000-acre rubber farm in the Negro Republic of Liberia.

P: The White House winter social season came to an official end last week when the President and Mrs. Coolidge, beneath flags in the Blue Room, received officers of the Army & Navy and many another guest-2,500 in all. General John J. Pershing was present.

P: The President received from Congress the McNary-Haugen farm relief bill, discussed it with his Cabinet, read it, pondered long-thereon (see p. 10).

P: Charles Dewey Hilles of Manhattan, Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee, set forth on a month's tour of the South, Middle West and Far West. He will endeavor to find out what other Republican bigwigs think of a third term for President Coolidge. He does not know, he says, whether the President intends to be a candidate.

*Probably the lightest pack carried by any infantryman in the world. During the World War the U. S. soldier car

ried 79 pounds.