The Roosevelt Week

Boarding a special train last week in Washington with Postmaster General Farley and Senator Glass, President Roosevelt swung down the Southern Ry.'s main line through central Virginia. Governor Peery was picked up as the special passed through Senator Glass's Lynchburg and by the time lunch was over the Presidential party was at Roanoke.

Officially the President was there to dedicate a $1,700,000 hospital to treat nervous diseases of War veterans. Actually he was there to serve notice on the American Legion, meeting this week in Miami, that this is no time to revive its campaign for prepayment of the Bonus. Not once during his eight-minute talk did he mention the Bonus by name, but the President made it quite clear that the nation's destitute had first call on the nation's purse. Said he: "The veterans of the World War, today in the prime of life, are better off from the point of view of employment and annual income than the average of any other great group of our citizens." From Miami, where Legion politicians had already lined up a third of the organization in a Bonus bloc, National Commander Edward A. Hayes cracked back: "I cannot agree." Mrs. Roosevelt flew right back to Washington as soon as the ceremonies were over. The President & friends drove to Yorktown, boarded the Sequoia for a weekend cruise up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac.

P: No sooner was the President back in the Capital than he took up the microphone to launch the 1934 Mobilization For Human Needs.*

P: Last week President Roosevelt appointed a man with a big name to a small job. The man: Oscar Wilder Underwood Jr., son of Alabama's late great Senator. The job: the Mexican General Claims Commission. This agency was created to settle damages incurred by U. S. citizens during Mexico's 1910-20 period of revolutions. Graduated from the University of Virginia, Oscar Underwood Jr. was in Paris as a law clerk for a U. S. firm when war broke out in 1914. Back home in 1916, he served on the Mexican border with his Alabama militia regiment, then to France in 1917, did not take off his uniform until 1919. Now 44, he is identified with the anti-Bonus American Veterans Association, is a partner in the Washington firm of Underwood & Kilpatrick, is currently engaged in practice before the German Mixed Claims Commission.

P: An appointment-of-the-week which did not come off was that of President Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of Chicago to be NRA's chief enforcement officer. Young Mr. Hutchins took train in Chicago, went to Washington, was closeted with the President. Then, just as abruptly, Mr. Hutchins entrained for Chicago again. Observers guessed that either Mr. Hutchins had at the last minute, decided to stick to the University of Chicago or that NRA officials had snuffed his appointment.

*President Roosevelt was shocked to learn that in twelve states there were movements afoot to disenfranchise unemployed as paupers. He indignantly remarked that no court in the land would countenance such procedure.

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