Of the many roles played last week by Franklin Roosevelt, none was more admirably played than his performance as host at a White House party for the 119 new members of Congress.
The stage was the brilliantly lit, richly appointed state dining room. Tuxedoed Secret Service men stood on guard, colored waiters came & went, a homely beer barrel was cunningly concealed in a feathery bank of fern. (Cheese & crackers went with the beer.) At the room's south entrance the President sat in a big red leather chair, the famed ivory cigaret holder tilted audaciously, the famed charm sparkling and bubbling like champagne. So seductively supercharged was the Roosevelt manner that it shocked one of his guests to a state of real alarm. Said Nebraska's dapper freshman Senator Kenneth S. Wherry, come to take the place of good George Norris: "No man who has that persuasive power, such personal charm . . . should serve more than two terms. . . . We've got to safeguard the American people."
Not many were so chary of his charm. Scores of the oats-feeling young Congressmen went away impressed almost to the point of real fondness for the President. Two days later the normal reaction came. The House, 268-to-129, figuratively aimed a swift kick at the President by adopting the Disney bill (see p. 12), in angry and direct repudiation of Government by directive.
The spotlight was on the President to an unusual degree all week. News came out of the White House in a steady stream; outside events focused swiftly in that direction.
The President:
>Turned thumbs down on Beardsley Ruml's popular pay-as-you-go tax plan (see p. 12), although in his annual budget message he asked Congress "to put our taxes as far as feasible on a pay-as-you-go basis."
>Played possum when the question of Term IV was raised for the first time at a press conference. Asked if he had any views to express on recent interviews with Democratic Party members, during which Term IV was mentioned, the President suggested "Let's get on with the war." But even while the President was holding his conference, other conferences were being held with Democratic bigwigs in the Midwest by evasive Democratic National Chairman Frank C. Walker, head of the delegation that called on the President a fortnight ago mumbling a request that he run again (TIME, March 15).
>Opened the doors for speculation that he might be planning a war conference with Premier Joseph Stalin. Reminded that when he returned from Casablanca he indicated that he hoped for an eventual meeting with Stalin, he was asked if plans had taken any definite shape. Not yet, he said, almost winking.
>Lunched with the New York Stock Exchange's President Emil Schram, heard that the present bullish stockmarket was healthy. But, said Schram, mindful of the bargain boom in "cats & dogs": "I told the President I was determined to keep uninformed people out of the market. I am going to continue to say to people who don't know what they are doing to stay out."
>Sent one of the heaviest documents in U.S. history to Congress, the National Resources Planning Board's 5¾lb., 721-page postwar security plan (see p. 13).