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¶ Before he boarded the Potomac last week, the President completed action on the last of 937 bills passed and sent to the White House by Congress in its last session. Of the year's total, the President signed 897, vetoed 40. Last week at his Hyde Park desk, he signed: the Wagner-Steagall Housing Bill (TIME, Aug. 30); a bill to permit exports of helium in ''non-military" quantities; a bill authorizing $2,760,000 to be appropriated for restoring U. S. wildlife (see p. 48); a bill providing $2,000,000 to purchase reindeer herds for Alaskan Eskimos and Indians. He also issued an order to all Federal employes to celebrate Sept. 17, the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, as a half holiday.
¶ Most important measure the President vetoed was the Copeland-May Bill for the development of Washington's Washington-Hoover Airport, which the Airline Pilots' Association this summer declared unsafe. In his veto message the President suggested that instead of trying to improve an inadequate field, a new airport be developed at Gravelly Point, "Within ten minutes of the centre of Washington . . . for use in all good weather. . . ." Since low-lying Gravelly Point has many river fogs, he also recommended a second field farther away for use when flying conditions were unfavorable.