Citizen of Zion

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

1 "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned: but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

5 He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved."

To 100 reporters who filed into his sanctum on the fifth anniversary of his first inauguration and the first Friday in Lent, Franklin Roosevelt last week promptly announced that the proper lead for the story he was about to give them was this psalm, which he had just heard read at St. John's Episcopal Church. Furthermore, said the Harvard Crimson's onetime chief, make-up editors should put it at the top of the page.

The arch-Republican New York Herald Tribune's make-up editor obeyed the President's injunction, but to most of the U. S. press, Franklin Roosevelt's remarks about the U. S. seemed considerably more pertinent than David's about a citizen of Zion. They were a review of his first five years in office, a highly metaphorical explanation of administrative policies in terms of "the old ship of State." Since March 4, 1933, the President said, enormous gains had been made toward some of his goals, more gradual gains toward others. The goals in any case remained the same. In a 1935 press conference, to which he referred the reporters, he had defined them:

''To try to increase the security and happiness of a larger number of people in all occupations of life and in all parts of the country; to give them more of the good things of life, to give them a greater distribution, not only of wealth in the narrow terms, but of wealth in the wider terms; to give them places to go in the summer time--recreation; to give them assurance that they are not going to starve in their old age; to give honest business a chance to go ahead and make a reasonable profit, and to give every one a chance to earn a living."

An ardent small-boat sailor. Franklin Roosevelt naturally conceives of the ship of State as a small yacht, steered by a hand tiller which, to keep the boat on a straight course, the skipper must shift as the wind changes. Said the President: A year ago when inflation threatened, the helm was shifted far to starboard. Last autumn, warned of a threatened deflation, the Administration put it hard to port. While his listeners were trying to calculate what, if anything, all this meant in terms of political Right & Left, the President made his main point: that to regard a shift of the helm as a shift of policy was a fundamental error--of which reporters are often guilty because it makes a story.

P: On occasions when White House Secretary Steve Early incurs the gratitude of his chief by a spectacularly able job of work, he is likely to get a penciled memorandum: "Well done--F. D. R." Last week, Secretary Early got his first such memorandum in two years, after a press conference of his own in which he explained that the President will keep none of the money he gets from newspaper and magazine contracts for his State papers; that he will ask Congress for special legislation to dispose of the money.

P: At the Department of Labor's 25th anniversary dinner, a message from the President to Madam Secretary Perkins was read aloud. Excerpt: "Today there is general recognition that there should be a floor to wages and a ceiling to hours. . . ."

P: Reported favorably by a 17-to-7 majority of the House Ways & Means Committee last week was the 1938 Tax Bill revising provisions for Federal revenue from capital gains and undistributed profits (TIME, Jan. 31). In his anniversary press conference, Franklin Roosevelt deplored the fact that the new bill makes no provisions for publishing salaries of corporation executives (see p. 13).

P: To the office of Collector of Customs for the Port of Los Angeles Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on the recommendation of Senator William Gibbs McAdoo, appointed a well-to-do 48-year-old Los Angeles lawyer who bears one of the most famed names in U. S. political history: William Jennings Bryan Jr.

P: In London, Professor Lloyd James, linguistic adviser to the British Broadcasting Corp. announced that Franklin Roosevelt's pronunciation should serve as a standard for the English-speaking world (see p. 28).

P: After a White House conference with Philatelist Franklin Roosevelt, Postmaster General Farley announced the first complete revision since 1923 in the regular series of U. S. postage stamps. The new series, not yet designed, will commemorate deceased U. S. Presidents in chronological order, starting with George Washington on 1-c- stamps.

P: Major Washington social event of the week: the Cabinet's dinner to President & Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt in the Mayflower's Chinese Room, with roses and white lilacs on the tables, warbling by Helen Jepson.

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