Almost

Ten Congressmen saw a rare spectacle: Franklin Roosevelt red-faced with embarrassment.

The members of the House Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation called on the President to present him with three handsome, white-leather-bound copies of their hearings on the development of the Columbia River. Mr. Roosevelt spied North Dakota's grizzled William Lemke, Union Party candidate for President in 1936.

Said Mr. Roosevelt: "Hi there, Bill! Are you going to run against me for President this year?" There was a breathless pause, then a titter of laughter. Mr. Roosevelt's face turned red. Then he added swiftly: " --that is, if I am a candidate." Replied Congressman Lemke, smiling: "Maybe it would be better if we both didn't run." Newspaper speculation, spurred by the Lemke incident, began to assume more & more that Mr. Roosevelt will broadcast his July acceptance of the Democratic nomination in the most glamorous manner possible -- that he will take full politi cal advantage of his position as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, perhaps from a strategy conference in London. In London the iron railings in front of the American Embassy are getting a fresh coat of paint and gold trimmings, fancywork denied even to Buckingham Palace since 1939. Said Painter Joby Plumb: "This 'ere gilt paint, it's worth houses. Ain't seen none like this for years.

Must be sumpin' big's going to 'appen 'ere." The President also:

>> This week welcomed Polish Premier Stanislaw Mikolajczyk for a talk about Russian-Polish boundaries. His arrival now gave added weight to Prime Minister Winston Churchill's remark last week: "I have an impression that things are not so bad as they may appear on the surface between Russia and Poland."

>> Hailed the fall of Rome with the phrase "One up and two to go." The President praised the spirit of Italy, warned Italians that they no longer need an empire, and by inference invited them to migrate to the U.S. and South America.

>> Found yet another name for the war. Dissatisfied with his earlier appellation of "The War of Survival," he now adopted a suggestion sent in by a 68-year-old invalid, J. N. Snyder of Murfreesboro, Tenn., that the war be known as "The Tyrants' War." But most people would probably go on calling it World War II.

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