F.D.R. Goes Fishing

THE PRESIDENCY

Rain fell on Washington, cold, dismal rain. Along riverfront streets pocked with puddles the President drove through the chilly evening to the yacht Potomac's mooring. He boarded her, set off down river for a few days' rest. He could keep in touch with Washington by wireless. Any urgent message could be transmitted to him.

The President had hoped to fish for striped bass, but the cold, blustery rain continued for most of the week; there was no fishing. It was easier to withstand than the Nazi rain that was falling on London, on Coventry. Even more serious for England was the war Nazi Germany was waging at sea, hacking at the British lifeline. If England could not get the cargoes of food and material she ceaselessly needed, she might be starved into submission. No one understood that better than the man aboard the Potomac.

Two months ago, he had presented England with 50 overage destroyers to help her through. His authority to make the deal, in which the U. S. received in return bases in the Atlantic, had been bolstered by an opinion of Attorney General Robert H. Jackson. Last week, in the party aboard the Potomac, besides Postmaster General Frank C. Walker and Mrs. Walker, Harry Hopkins and Marguerite Le Hand, was Mr. Jackson.

So far as aiding Britain or waiting for the war to reach American seas was concerned, the U. S. had already made its choice. Supplies, implements of war were being shipped to England with all possible speed. Franklin Roosevelt did not reveal what he had in mind but it was just possible that his thoughts ran parallel to those which were voiced last week by the English magazine Aeroplane; "Americans have elected to keep [the war] at a distance by arming the one nation which seems to have a chance of holding it off. . . . They will have to take a share in securing delivery of the goods if they want their henchmen to do the job. . . ."

In Washington, where people never tire of trying to predict what unpredictable Mr. Roosevelt will do, people predicted: the release of 75 more destroyers, a deal to turn over to England a large proportion of the U. S. merchant marine, an assembly plant to turn out standardized ships for Britain in wholesale quantities, the repeal of the Neutrality Act, the repeal of the Johnson Act (prohibiting loans to govern ments in default on World War I debts). In official circles, outright repeal of the Johnson Act or a scheme for circumventing it was freely prophesied. The raid which gutted Coventry, one centre of the British aircraft industry, started speculation as to whether the President would change his "rule-of-thumb" by which England was to get 50% of U. S. airplane production, and give her a larger share.

Few believed that the President had just gone fishing for bass in the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay. Last week the nation waited to see what he and Mr. Jackson brought back to Washington.

Last week the President also:

>Acting on the recommendation of Jesse H. Jones, authorized the Federal Housing Administration to increase its mortgage insurance to the lawful limit: $4,000,000,000.

>Thanked all who had sent him congratulations on his election, promising to work "shoulder to shoulder with all who place true Americanism above all other considerations."

>Worried newsmen by canceling both of his week's regular press conferences.

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