THE PRESIDENCY: Not for Publication

The voice from the presidential yacht Williamsburg read off the week’s most vapid comment on the election. “The President is gratified over some results and disappointed with others,” said Press Secretary Charles Ross in a radio-telephone message to newsmen. “He was pleased by the size of the vote.”

For five days, the newsmen bobbed behind the President’s ship in a rented yacht in the hope that Mr. Truman would be a little more specific. They waited in vain. Near the end of the cruise through Chesapeake Bay, Charlie Ross, asked about it again, achieved an effect he probably did not intend: “The President has not commented on the elections in any extensive way—certainly not in any way that could be used for publication.”