Watching a President At Work

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23067, 18 June 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

Watching a President At Work

tude was always the sapie, hands upon his knees, fingers moving as if for a keyboard exercise, the fine head thrown back, a cigarette in its holder sticking up at a sharp angle from the mouth. During the few seconds while we were moving from one floor to the next ho would make brief, good-humoured inquiries of one or another of us. There was no waste of time or of words, yet I think of those interludes as being curiously intimate and revealing. Government Appointments "I think you'd better go round the whole department first," the President suggested. So I. was taken to see the secretaries' offices, the file room, the sorting office (whenever the President makes a speech the order is, "Ciear the decks" for incoming, letters), the switchboard room and various other offices, each adorned with two or three pictures painted under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration and chosen by Mrs. Roosevelt. I was surprised to learn that the White House is allowed to fill only 36 appointments to the Government Office staff. The rest are made by the various governmental departments. This tour done, I returned to the room in which the President gives audiences, and faded into the background. This was the famous Oval Room. I sat there while all manner of business was done; interviews, the signing of docu-

MORE than once I heard the story of the man who, after visiting President Roosevelt, was chiefly ? impressed by the fact that he did not continually ring bells or send messages, and took it to mean that/he could not possibly be d dictator. > Naive though that evidence appears, it is something of an indication. I was allowed to spend a whole morning with •the President, while he carried out a normal programme of work, and I saw nothing and heard nothing that suggested the dictatorial temper. The reader' will be thinking that possibly this was a performance for my benefit; that, like the visitors to TJ.S.S.R. or to any other experiment} ing country," I was permitted to see only the fairest show of things. But in this matter I claim my share of ordinary human judgment, and shall say that if that particular morning had been staged for my benefit, something, whether a voice-inflection or a sign of Unreality or of self-consciousness, would y have told me so Reassuring Smile No, this was an average Monday morning for the President of the United States, and I have not yet arrived at tlie stage where I am persuaded that m'v presence could have the smallest' effect upon the manner in which State affairs are conducted. The morning was passed in this way First I had breakfast with Mrs |{oom> *elt at the eastern end of the long gallery which rnns right through the first floor of the White House. The L'resi dent, I was told, would be ready at about half-past ten, and. if I • would HiPet him then outside his room (which w as on the same floor), we could go to the Government Department together At twenty minutes to eleven the Presi dent was ready, after having been at tending to the morning mail since before breakfast. "Good morning." 1 heard him say He had seen me first and 1 turned to be greeted with the renowned smil« (which, tor all that it lends itself so

easily to caricature, is the most reassuring of all the smiles I have ever seen), and to feel that massive handgrip. His negro attendant wheeled him into the lift and he began to tell mo of the arrangements for the morning. "Not a very exciting schedule, 1 am afraid," lie added, "but perhaps it will give you an idea of how things go on here." ■ Many pictures of. Franklin Roosevelt are fixed in my mind, but none clearer than the memory of those occasions when, as on this morning and before and after dinner, two or three of us stood beside him in the lift. His atti-

Guest's Revealing Pen of Roosevelt "On and Off Parade"

"WE SEEK UNION WITH ALL WHO LOVE FREEDOM"

By BASIL MAlNE—(Copyright)

AS a privileged guest in President Roosevelt's family circle within recent months, the writer of the following article is able to portray the serene but vigorous personality of the President as he deals with problems of administration and world affairs in the wellregulated, businesslike atmosphere of the White House. He was also with Mr. Roosevelt during hours of relaxation at the home of Mrs. James Roosevelt, the President s mother.

ments and so forth, and had the queer sensation of having been transformed into something inanimate, as though I had become one of the flags or one of the marine pictures that were hanging there, or one of the toys that were piled up on a table behind the President's chair. The interviews wero seemingly quite informal. Quiet conversations they were, moving easily between official aud personal matters. One man, having shown to the President the draft of a proposed report and having received from him suggestions as to its wording, suddenly brought from his pocket a photograph of himself and a large fish he had caught. Roosevelt beamed admiringly, spoke of one of his own recent catches and steered the man back to business. Bulwark Against Callers After two or three of these interviews, Mr. Marvin Mclntyre appeared. His is the office adjoining the Oval Room, the last line of defence. Numbers of people who are hopeful of interviewing the President get as far as Mr. Mclntyre's office and then, with good grace, retire, persuaded that, though they have failed to reach their goal, they have achieved the next best thing in talking to Mr; Mclntyre. An ambassador came in, and it was then that 1 realised that I had not been forgotten after all. The President turned to me and said, "Afraid I'll have to ask you to leave us a moment

while wo talk foreign affairs." There was humour in his voice, and I almost expected him to add: "Not that it would matter much if you stayed and listened." 1 went into Mr. Mclntyre's room and there waited. 1 saw with what smiling tact he turned away a busy-looking woman who seemed confident that she was about to break through the last lino aud talk to the President himself. Message to Poland While 1 was considering these things a mpssage was brought to inc. At 12 o'clock the President would be broadcasting a speech from the Diplomatic Reception Room, and it was suggested that 1 should accompany him there. So in a few minutes the President was being wheeled again through the cloistered way that leads,from the Government Offices to the room which is called "Diplomatic Reception," and which on this occasion was to be the origin of a diplomatic transmission to Poland. That particular day was Pulaski Day, that is, it was set aside as a tribute to General Casimir Pulaski, the Polish hero of the American Revolutionary War. To mark the day the remains of General Krvzanowski were removed from Brooklyn to Arlington National Cemetery. President Roosevelt's speech was a tribute to these Polish patriots, "whose very names," he said, "are watchwords of liberty and whose deeds are part of the imperishable record of American independence." Being watchwords, these names had to bo correctly pronounced, and, before broadcasting his speech, the President, with a laugh against himself, was making sure that he had them right. Cigarette While Waiting The words which, by emphasis and a slower pace, he made the keynote of his talk, were these: "We as a nation seek spiritual union with all who love freedom. Of many bloods and of diverse national origins, we stand before _ the world to-day as one people united in a common determination. determination is to uphold the ideal of human society which makes conscience superior to brute strength, the ideal which would substitute freedom tor force in the Governments of the world. In the room were five or six press photographers (who could not have worked with more frenzy had this been their last chance of taking pictures of Franklin Roosevelt) and a little group of broadcasting people. Two covipanies were taking _ the speech, Columbia and the National Broadcasting Company. To one who is used to the quiet, orderly announcing at Broadcasting House, in London, it was bewildering to hear two announcers at two microphones introducing the President at the same time. One made a longer introduction than the other, yet they finished exactly together That, too, was a little bewildering. But President Roosevelt was taking all this in his stride. While he was being an-

nounced, he lit a cigarette and put his manuscript in order. Then lie becan. The presence of a few people did not tempt him to put on the orator's manner. This was to be a man-to-man affair, after the style of his famous fireside talks. It was an attractive piece of reading. Art and skill were there, yet were made subservient to the message. The effects of stress, pause and varied pace were not superimposed but came from the speaker's feeling for the words. At Hyde Park From Washington 1 returned to New York, hoping that 1 would not be long in acquiring the habit of sleeping through the night in that city of alarms. But 1 was not given time to get used to the place. Next morning at nine o'clock Mrs. James Roosevelt, the President's mother, telephoned to invito me to her country house, Hyde Park. She told me that the President was coming there that morning for a few days' rest, and that 1 had better come as soon as possible before people began to track him down. I packed a bag and took the afternoon train to Pouglikeepsie. Just before five 1 was at Hyde Park. Mrs. James Roosevelt, leaning on a walking-stick to help an injured ankle, was in the hall to greet me. 1 had not seen her for several years, but the admiration I had felt for her before was immediately stirred again as 1 heard with what zest she described incidents of her travels in Europe. Above all did J admire her for her independence of opinion. "You'll find the President sitting by the fire." she said. ''This is where he was born, you know. He loves the place. Go through. We'll have tea soon." His Stamp Collection In the big room at the southern end of the hall I found Franklin Koosevelt sitting alone by a log hre and giving all his attention to his collection of foreign stamps. Lt was the same figure that 1 had so. recently seen at the White House, but another man. Kven the greeting he gave me told me so. He seemed relaxed and unexeited He was wearing country clothes 1 also remained quiet and still, thinking that it was a better way of corning to understand him at that moment than to talk for the sake of making sounds. My impression was that while he was turning over the leaves of

his stamp-books, looking at old stamps, putting in new ones, he was waiting for all this environment of his boyhood to take possession of him. Every public man feels the need of going apart from time to time to recover his natural self. Whenever he feels that need Franklin lioosevelt returns to Hyde Park. Everyone there was telling me how much iie loved the place. His mother took me to the garden to show me some of the associations of his boyhood. So, from those who knew him best, and with the help of my own eyes, I gathered in impressions of what the spirit of this place meant to Franklin Roosevelt, and of how much a part of him it had become. From my bedroom on the west side I could look over treetops toward the Hudson River and toward the hills that, flanked the opposite bank. 1 could see oaks and hemlock and also a small orchard. In the sunshine

of morning or in the blue of evening shadow, it was. a scene that would have spoken of solace and a safe retreat but for one intrusion. Just below mv window was a kind of sentry-box. a shelter for one of the' men who formed the President's bodyguard. A shelter stood on each side' of the house; and near each; placed on the ground and. turned up at an angle .of 45 degrees, were floodlights which were switched on at dusk to illuminate all the immediate approaches to the houge. Had I stayed there i few weeks perhaps I should have become accustomed to these stark reminders of reality; perhaps they would have gradually become as picturesque and friendly as the sentry-boxes outside Buckingham Palace. As it was, I could cfeiily be thinking how hard it was for the President of the United States to call any'place his home. •