NATIONAL AFFAIRS
THE PRESIDENCY
Greatest Accomplishment
Most amazing of President Roosevelt's accomplishments in office has been the all-time highwater mark to which he has brought and held his personal popularity. Without this popularity he would never have been able to execute all his policies. Last week, ever watchful of popular support, the President had one more evidence that it is not yet waning: students of Valley Forge Military Academy at Wayne, Pa., holding a poll on the greatest U. S. President, voted 43 for Abraham Lincoln, 44 for George Washington, 202 for Franklin D. Roosevelt.
¶ After a Cabinet meeting at which was discussed the problem of bringing down liquor prices to put 'leggers out of business, the President announced that after present liquor import quotas expire April 30, liquor imports would be permitted for two months from every country without limitation.
¶ In his customary jocular vein, the President looked over his conference of newshawks, told them that they looked pale and tired and needed a rest and therefore he was going to order them to take five or six days' vacation in Florida sunshine. Thus he playfully conveyed the information that he himself had decided to take a rest in Florida the end of March.
¶ "I always preferred being a man without a country rather than become a citizen of a foreign nation. Feeling as I do, I would not like my children to be citizens of any other country than America. My mother is now almost 73 years of age. ... A stroke of your pen, Mr. President, could give her a few years of happiness. ... I think, Mr. President, you will agree with me when I say that 14 years of exile is a far greater punishment than five years in a military prison." The President received this plea last week from the namesake of another famed Democratic President, Draft-Dodger Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, now living in Germany. The President sent it to Attorney General Cummings.
¶ Last week "Lizzie" McDuffy, black White House maid, was faced by a demand from the presidential grandchildren. Said "Sistie" Dall, "Duffy, why can't something be done so that I may be called Eleanor?" Cried her young brother "Buzzie": "I want to be called Curtis.".
¶ One morning the President announced that he felt fine. Reason: He had completed work on a new book, a compilation of his writings and speeches to be published under the tentative title of On Our Way, succeeding his previous book Looking Forward. Keith Morgan, who ran the "Birthday Ball" drive for an endowment for the President's Warm Springs Foundation, last week wound up his job, went to Florida on vacation. Results of the drive fell below expectations. Net collections last week without allowing for campaign expenditures amounted only to some $937,000.