The Roosevelt Week

The White House last week filled with preholiday social activities. As house guests the President and Mrs. Roosevelt had Mrs. William Randolph Hearst and Mr. Jacques F. Danielson & wife (Fannie Hurst). After a large dinner the Sedalia Singers of Palmer Memorial Institute, Sedalia, N. C. performed at a musicale.* Next day Mrs. Roosevelt entertained Mrs. Hearst and Miss Hurst by taking them into one of the President's regular press conferences.

P: Hot on the heels of this dinner the President and Mrs. Roosevelt held their first state reception for the diplomatic corps. The President and First Lady (in cream brocade) greeted the Cabinet headed by Secretary of War and Mrs. Dern (pale grey satin)--Madam Secretary of Labor Perkins (black velvet) arrived late--and passed into the Blue Room to "receive." Instead of assembling on the stairs and marching counterclockwise (according to precedent) through the first floor, the guests started from the East Room, marched clockwise to the Blue Room. Head of the procession was Dean of the Diplomatic Corps Ahmet Muhtar, Turkish Ambassador (no lady); next major diplomat, Britain's Sir Ronald Lindsay (Lady Lindsay absent, ill). A second breach of precedent became evident as the diplomats toiled past. Instead of simply shaking hands like Mr. Coolidge or of saying "How do you do?" like Mr. & Mrs. Hoover, President and Mrs. Roosevelt greeted familiars by their first names, caught from aides and unerringly repeated such names as "Accioly," "Hsia," "Zaldumbide," "Garreau-Dombasle." After China's Minister and Mme Sao-ke Alfred Sze (black brocaded chiffon kimono and diamond tiara), after Siam's Minister and Princess Damras (black velvet and ermine)--at the tail end of the diplomatic line--came the first representative of Russia to appear at a White House reception in 15 years: Soviet Charge d'Affaires and Mrs. Boris E. Skvirsky (gold satin with train). Amid the bourgeois pomp they smiled, carried themselves with haughty dignity.

Next precedent broken occurred when, after receiving the Congressional delegation including Speaker and Mrs. Rainey (blue satin), Representative and Mrs. Sol Bloom (violet blue crushed velvet) et al., the President retired upstairs. Mrs. Roosevelt, unlike other First Ladies, remained behind to watch the dancing. Instead of giving the guests ice water for refreshments, the Roosevelts had fruit punch and cake served in the State Dining Room.

P: The President gave the better part of a day to interviews with George Peek, Henry Wallace, Rexford Tugwell over dissensions in the Agricultural Recovery program.

P: The President signed NRA codes for furniture; garages & parking; fireworks; excelsior; asphalt & mastic tile; waste manufacturers.

P: Abandoning all cares of office and wearing his best smile, President Roosevelt went to the Washington newshawks' semi-annual Gridiron dinner to see his Administration lampooned. There he heard a pseudo-Acting Secretary of the Treasury sing,

Just a field of new mown hay, Where the statisticians play, Just a formula to shield me from all harm, Where the propaganda grows, And the chart blooms like a rose. . . .

He listened while a pseudo-Secretary of State sang,

Franklin and Raymond were buddies-- Old friends right from the start, But Raymond went to London, And now they have drifted apart. A pseudo-professor replied in song: Franklin and Cordell were cronies, I suspected the worst. We had a race back from London, But Cordell got there first.

P: The same evening Mrs. Roosevelt had the faculty of Manhattan's Todhunter School to dinner. Afterwards Mrs. Roosevelt was mistress of ceremonies at a female Gridiron show for female officialdom including the lone female member of the Cabinet. "Mrs. Democratic" told "Mrs. Republican'' that she had solved the public servant problem by letting a lot of college boys "willing to earn while they learn, work their way through the Administration."

P: Turning back to business after his bout of fun the President got busy with Budget Director Douglas on final budget figures to go to Congress in January.

*Among the guests was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Hewes (and Mrs. Hewes) who two days later appeared at the President's office with a "memorandum" (presumably his resignation). Mr. Hewes, good friend of Attorney General Cummings and college classmate of Dean Acheson, had been virtually stripped of authority by Mr. Morgenthau, was "on the skids." Another guest: Henry Bruere (and Mrs. Bruere), president of Manhattan's Bowery Savings Bank who since early autumn has functioned as the President's financial liaison officer. Three days later Mr. Bruere, also reported as not setting along so well with the new regime at the Treasury, gave up his job, said a hearty good-by to the President, departed saying he had "finished his tour of duty."

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