Leafy Spurge & Creeping Jenny

Fortnight ago spring cyclone cut a swath of political destruction through a group of New Deal lieutenants who had sought to "purge" Senator Guy Mark Gillette from the party in Iowa's Senatorial primary (TIME, June 13). Last week Franklin Roosevelt picked up the pieces and prepared for more rough political weather. He was at pains to soothe hurt feelings by inviting Senator Gillette to Sunday luncheon. Son James, who had helped "My Friend Otha Wearin," Gillette's opponent, wrote the Senator a nice note.

At the same time the President: 1) announced that he thought WPAdministrator Harry Hopkins had been well within his rights when he applauded the candidacy of Otha Wearin, 2) discouraged the movement in the Senate to investigate WPA's political practices, 3) sent a note to Minnesota's WPAdministrator, Victor Christgau.

When Harry Hopkins fired Victor Christgau last month, Mr. Christgau said it was because he had refused to let Governor Elmer Benson get control of 60,000 Minnesota jobs for his Farmer-Labor Party, to help him get re-elected in November. Chief quarrel between Mr. Christgau and Mr. Benson had been over a $700,000 project to have 2,000 or more WPA laborers eradicate weeds--notably leafy spurge, creeping jenny--from Minnesota farms. Mr. Christgau announced he would be fired by no one but the President, who had hired him. Forced to choose between Victor Christgau and the Farmer-Labor vote in Minnesota, the President wrote a curt note, demanded Administrator Christgau's resignation, gave no reason, not even leafy spurge or creeping jenny.

P: Warming to the heart of Franklin Roosevelt were words from Britain's cherubic economist, Josiah Stamp, newly created Lord Stamp of Shortlands, who landed in Manhattan last week "to find out what the length of your depression will be." Said Lord Stamp:

"We are anxious to learn the reaction of business here toward Roosevelt's gestures toward your business. I think there's a good deal of 'I won't play' among your businessmen, and we do hope business here gets over that attitude. . . . You should remember that the personality of your President is not an argument. It has only an artistic or emotional bearing."

Not so pleasing to the ears of a President who faces elections in the fall was Lord Stamp's remark:

". . . You can't possibly recover within the next six months."

P: With hordes of lobbyists pouring into Washington to grab PWA allotments for their localities from the new Lend-Spend millions, the President announced that such lobbyists would only weaken their localities' cases.

P: To one of the vacancies in Philadelphia's Third Circuit Court of Appeals (TIME, June 13), the President elevated cute, caustic, gangling District Judge William Clark, 47, foe of the late 18th Amendment,* now presiding over C.I.O.'s suit for an injunction against interference with civil liberties in Jersey City.

P: To U. S. aviators hiring out to help fight revolutions against recognized governments, the President issued warning that their U. S. pilot's licenses might be revoked. This was a pat to Loyalist Spain. At the same time, Secretary Hull urged U. S. plane manufacturers not to sell ships to nations which bomb civilians (Japan).

P: The President signed a bill, passed unanimously by Congress, obliging all persons employed by foreign propaganda agencies in the U. S. to register with the Secretary of State.

P: With a record U. S. wheat crop in prospect, the President ordered his State and Agriculture men to study European wheat supplies and needs, try to find foreign outlets.

*Rarely reversed, he pronounced the Prohibition Amendment invalid in 1930, was promptly overruled by the Supreme Court.

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