Quips & Cranks

At the first press conference after the AAA decision. President Roosevelt sat back in his chair with chin up, cigaret holder cocked rakishly out of a corner of his mouth, a tight-lipped grin on his face, waiting for unwelcome questions. Every inch of floor space was covered by newshawks waiting with pencils poised. The President's grin widened. There was no news, he announced, except--and he stopped to cast a roguish look over his shoulder at the tousled-headed Democratic National Committee publicity man-- except that Charley Michelson needed a haircut.

Pressagent Michelson hesitated not an instant: Somebody in the Administration, he declared, must economize.

The President, in unison with the Press, roared with laughter.

P: All week long President Roosevelt was face to face with the embarrassing problem of what to do about the late AAA (see p. 18). Once during the week he came face to face with a far more embarrassing situation: six Justices of the Supreme Court in person. Standing with Mrs. Roosevelt before a wall of potted palms in the Red Room, the President held out his hand and a gleam of special pleasure came into his eye as Mr. Chief Justice Hughes and his Lady appeared at the official White House reception for the Judiciary. The same gleam of personal pleasure glowed again for Mr. Justice Van Devanter, for Mr. Justice Sutherland, for Mr. Justice Stone who wrote the AAA minority opinion, for Mr. Justice Roberts who wrote the majority opinion, for Mr. Justice Cardozo. The Justices and their ladies circulated on through the State Dining Room, put some lemonade to their lips, got away home as soon as they could.

P: Bedeviled by the problem of how the votes of the West were to be won in 1936 without the aid of AAA, President Roosevelt drove out to see the annual military pageant at Fort Myer, Va. This year's subject: "The Winning of the West."

P: Two years ago the President, under the Gold Reserve Act, fixed the value of the dollar at 59.06-c-. Power was given him to keep changing the dollar's value anywhere between the limits of 50-c- and 60-c-. This power was to expire the end of this month unless renewed for a year by Presidential proclamation of an emergency. Last week the President renewed his power, proclaiming: "The emergency which existed on . . . the date of approval of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 has not been terminated by international monetary agreement or otherwise, but, on the contrary, continues and has been intensified in divers respects by unsettled conditions in international commerce and finance and in foreign exchange."

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