Happy Birthday

Harry Truman was as cheery as the big, frosted cake which he got last week on his 63rd birthday. He said he felt no older than when he came to the Senate in 1935. He had lunch with his staff in the White House mess, a dinner party, with Mrs. Truman and Daughter Margaret along, at Washington's swank F Street Club. Among his birthday presents: three dozen ties, a Panama hat, 63 roses and congressional talk of something more substantial--a pension of $50,000 a year on retirement. After paying taxes and White House operating expenses, he had only about $4,200 left of his $75,000 yearly salary. But delivery of that gift was uncertain.

Actually, the birthday frosting covered some doughy problems which hardly warranted such good spirits. The President would soon have to face the ticklish problem of vetoing or not vetoing the labor bill with which Congress is now in labor. Just over the horizon John Lewis was laying for him: on June 30 the Government's coal contract expires. Foreign relations were getting no simpler. But Harry Truman put off all such serious matters but one--a request to Congress for $25,000,000 to pay for a loyalty checkup of Government employees.

On Saturday he entertained Lord & Lady Halifax at lunch. At 6:15 a.m. Sunday, he boarded the Sacred Cow for a Mother's Day trip to Grandview, Mo., there to receive some pleasant news to top a pleasant week. After a setback, his 94-year-old mother was recovering satisfactorily from her hip fracture. He returned to Washington the same day, much relieved.

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