Time for a Breather

For months, Harry Truman had been stubbornly resisting the urging of aides, advisers and his physician to get out of Washington for a vacation. The President, overworked and notably edgy, had his reasons: there were too many problems that needed his attention in the capital; furthermore, he would get a lot of sniping from his critics if he relaxed while U.S. Soldiers were fighting in Korea.

Finally, he gave in a little. Early last week he sent his naval aide, the chief of the Secret Service detail, an assistant and a communications expert across the country to lay out a cross-country trip. If he made a tour of defense plants and military installations, he felt, he might be able to settle down for a week of rest in California or in the Southwest without stirring up trouble.

The scouting party came back with an adverse report. The problem of housing and protecting the President in unfamiliar surroundings and setting up adequate communications raised all sorts of complications. Besides, local politicians had already gotten scent of the enterprise and would clamor for the President's ear wherever he decided to relax. Harry Truman listened, then wearily agreed to postpone the trip. But he admitted at last that he needed rest--except for two quick trips to Missouri, he had taken the heavy hammering of Washington for eight straight months.

In all logic, there was only one place to go: his favorite vacation spot, Key West. He could fly there almost as easily as driving around the block, and in complete privacy. Sunshine, flowers, Marine guards, a beach and the breezy Little White House with its teletypes and multiple telephone lines were ready and waiting. Last week the White House announced, in a carefully worded communique, that he would "transfer his base of operations" to Key West on March 2 and stay there three weeks.

Last week the President also: CJ Decided to take another look at the inflationary dangers of Treasury Secretary John Snyder's "easy-money" policy (TIME, Feb. 19). He conferred with Under Secretary of the Treasury Edward Foley. Mobilizer Charles Wilson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Thomas McCabe and requested a full review of the whole credit problem. Wilson promised a report within two weeks.

P:Buried the hatchet with Georgia's Southern Democratic Senators Richard Russell and Walter George. After almost two years of denying them federal patronage, he asked the Senate to approve the nominations of a federal judge, three U.S. attorneys and two U.S. marshals whose names the senators had suggested. P:Purchased the first RCA Victor album of daughter Margaret's first recordings--a group of colonial-period songs written mostly by early U.S. Composer Francis Hopkinson.

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