Home for Christmas

The White House looked like Christmas. Mail piled up; huge wreaths splashed greenery from the windows; the great rooms sparkled with holly, poinsettia and mistletoe. On the south lawn, the towering national Christmas tree winked merrily to passersby. But for all its holly, the White House was not filled with the Christmas spirit.

The Trumans wanted to spend Christmas at home--and home was Independence, Mo. Bess and daughter Margaret had already left for Missouri; the President could hardly wait to fly there on the morning of the 25th.

In a frazzled way, Independence would be happy to see him. Harry Truman had caused his home town a great deal of trouble. Zealous merchants, who had put out $3,000 to decorate Independence in splendid' Christmas trappings, fidgeted last week when the revolving display on the courthouse cupola refused to revolve. Then the lights on the town Christmas trees would not work, and the choir boys, who were to sing carols over the public-address system, turned up some discouragingly deep bassos. But Independence's worst frustration came from the President's time schedule. After 24 hours, most of which he would spend closeted with his family, he would fly back to Washington.

Clearing his desk for the holidays, the President:

P: Worked furiously with Budget Director James Webb to complete his budget message to the new Congress.

P: Appointed a nine-man commission to draft a U.S. peacetime universal training plan. The chairman, chosen by the commission members: Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Karl T. Compton.

P:Expressed dissatisfaction with U.S. shippers because, he said, they had transported only 4,767 qualified European immigrants to the U.S. by Oct. 21, and announced that four merchant ships would speed the movement. (Shipping authorities pointed out that Government records showed that over 20,000 immigrants had been transported, and that three of the four ships mentioned by the President had been carrying immigrants for months.)

P:Received the first annual report of his three-man, five-month-old Council of Economic Advisers, took an optimist's exception to its finding that a U.S. business recession in 1947 was "easy to visualize." The President said he did not admit any such thing.

P:In a Christmas message to U.S. war-wounded expressed the hope that "peace can be won by the patient cooperation of men and women everywhere, working together in unity."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.