Shouts and Murmurs

From the Senate cloakroom to the Carlton bar, the wiseacres whispered: look out for more Administration changes. Washington seethed with plots, rumors, counterplots. Besides the President, who remained mum, last week's big cloak-&-dagger drama had three leading actors.

Jesse Jones, it was now clear, could not be brushed off without a real White House struggle. Franklin Roosevelt, the gossips insisted, had returned to Washington after the election in a tough frame of mind. Determined to fire several subordinates, the President's suddenly stern eye fastened on Jesse Jones. At the first postelection Cabinet meeting, Mr. Roosevelt politely asked Jesse if he had any matters to bring up. Jesse did, and promptly began to rattle them off. While he was still reciting, it was said, Franklin Roosevelt blandly addressed the next man at the table. By the time this performance had been repeated, everybody had the idea. But Jesse Jones, who has held more New Deal jobs at one time than anyone else,* has also acquired an army of powerful friends, in & out of Congress. Last week Jesse's friends rallied round: businessmen befriended by RFC, fellow Southern Conservatives Kenneth McKellar, Walter George, and even old Cordell Hull, who was not too ill for a little political maneuvering. The President got word that it would not be "practical" politics to chop off Jesse's white-thatched head.

Franklin Roosevelt, having told intimates that he means to fire Jesse Jones, faced a knotty dilemma. The probable out: Jesse will stay, but the Commerce Department will be whittled down.

Henry Wallace stood amiably by, still waiting for that big job. The Wallace silence was balanced by the loud speculation of Wallace fans. After all, his friends reasoned, the Commerce Department might not be quite big enough. The Labor Department might be confining. What would really suit the Wallace talents--his backers said--was something with global overtones, e.g., working out the Roosevelt plan for 60,000,000 postwar jobs. This might involve coordinating the U.S. economy with the whole economic world.

Harry Hopkins, to the surprise of no one, emerged once again as a potent White House adviser. Safely hidden away in his remodeled Georgetown house, he was beyond the reach of captious Congressmen. Close observers spotted the Hopkins hand in the appointment of Secretary of State Stettinius and his new assistants (see FOREIGN RELATIONS). Again, the Hopkins trademark appeared on the brief campaign which boomed OPAdministrator Chester Bowles for Commerce. Now, for any new shifts in the offing, Washington kept its eye on the house in Georgetown, where the unofficial Assistant President of the U.S. still spun his webs.

* In the summer of 1943 Jones held, simultaneously, 18 jobs. On the total number of jobs held during twelve New Deal years, he trails. Thus far, Harold Ickes has held 141 New Deal posts; Henry Wallace, 127; Henry Morgenthau Jr., 122; Cordell Hull, 86; Frances Perkins, 85; Jones, 83.

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