Bearers of Tidings

Three months ago President Roosevelt read in his morning papers that Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, had become King of the Belgians. There was no doubt of it whatever in his mind, for the Press carried pictures of the ceremony. But Belgium was not sure that the President had read the papers. Nor was she sure that the President would believe Ambassador May should he call at the White House with the news.

Therefore one noon last week four eminent Belgians, who had traveled 2,500 miles across the sea, drove up to the White House portico. First to step down from his limousine was M. Emile Francqui, head of Belgium's largest bank, the Societe Generale de Belgique. Next was M. Camilla Gutt, of Belgium's great Katanga Copper Company in the Congo. Third was their fellow Tycoon Etienne Allard and fourth was a distinguished young member of the Belgian nobility, Count Philippe d'Arschot. Escorted by Ambassador May and members of his staff, they had come to carry out an ancient rite, to which Belgium, of all nations, now alone adheres. Their sole mission was to inform the President in person that Leopold III now sits on the throne of Belgium.

M. Francqui was familiar with the White House and its portals. Sent to the Congo as a youth he helped secure for Belgium the vast territory that now holds her famed copper mines. A born empire builder. Emile Francqui was soon serving his country elsewhere. In China where he went as economic adviser to the Government he met a young U. S. engineer named Herbert Hoover. Some years later, during the World War, he was Herbert Hoover's chief coadjutor in distributing Belgian relief. After the War his contacts with the U. S. multiplied. He was a member of the Belgian debt mission to the U. S., a member of the committee that formulated the Young Plan. During Depression he called often and quietly on his old friend Herbert Hoover at the White House.

Last week he reentered and was introduced by Ambassador May to the new White House occupant. Then & there he told the President that, beyond any doubt, Leopold III now sits on the Belgian throne.

P: President Roosevelt found himself in an uncomfortable dispute over his favorite piece of legislation, the Stock Exchange Control Bill. The House originally passed the bill providing that the Federal Trade Commission should regulate the exchanges. The Senate amended it to place control in the hands of a separate new commission. Senator Glass, chief proponent of the change, won the President's approval of it. After the bill had passed the Senate, Federal Trade Commissioner Landis persuaded the President to change his mind. The President last week announced that he now was in favor of the House version. To carry out his wishes, Chairman Fletcher of the Senate Banking & Currency Committee did not name Senator Glass and Senator Wagner to places in the conference committee to compromise with the House. In wrath. Senator Glass resigned from the Senate Banking & Currency Committee. The whole Senate felt it had been injured by the President's about-face after it had acted. Result: The Senate threatened to revolt, to reject compromise with the House, to insist on its own version.

P: To the Senate President Roosevelt dispatched a message urging ratification of the convention signed in Geneva in 1925, providing for international control of the traffic in munitions of war. At the same time he had introduced in the Senate a resolution authorizing him to declare an embargo on arms shipments to Bolivia and Paraguay for their warfare in the Chaco (see p. 17).

P: Past the White House marched a ''bonus army'' of veterans like that army which was driven out of Washington with bloodshed in 1932. Little cause did the President have to worry over it. The new army, camping peaceably at Fort Hunt, Va., and fed by the Government, recruited only 600 men compared to 20,000 two years ago.

P: After a restful overnight cruise on the Sequoia during which he drafted a message to Congress on silver, the President went to the Capitol and personally addressed a joint session of Congress in honor of the 100th anniversary of the death of Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette. Standing before the Speaker's desk, with the sword ordered made by La Fayette for George Washington in a case beside him, the President told the diplomatic corps, the Cabinet, seven Justices of the Supreme Court, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, Mrs. Roosevelt, Count Rene De Chambrun, La Fayette's descendant, of La Fayette's last visit to the U. S. in 1824.

P: To Congress the President sent a message asking for the final appropriation of the year: $1,322,000,000 for PWA and relief, including $285,000,000 for the CCC, $100,000,000 for highways, $325,000 for a new wing on the White House offices. Bulk of the appropriation, however, he asked to be authorized for use at his discretion on whatever projects later will seem best. One slip he made when he declared: "It was my thought in January and is my thought now that this sum should be appropriated to me under fairly broad powers because . . . no one . . . can determine the exact needs under hard and fixed appropriation headings." No President within the memory of any politician had ever used the phrase "be appropriated to me" for even a small sum. much less a billion dollars. Its kingly sound-grated rudely on the ears of those who make stump speeches to the common people.

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