Evening star., 1933-02-20
NEWF|RST LADY
TO CUT EXPENSES.
Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt to
! Act as Housekeeper at
White House.

In an effort to reduce White House
expenses Is per cent IN line with the
promise of her husband to reduce
general governmental costs in this
amount, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt is
planning to take over in person the
duties of housekeeper of the White
House. She will be the first mistress
of the White House since Mrs Theo-
dore Roosevelt to act as her own house
keeper
AS q part of her new duties Mrs
Roosevelt will take over the work of
the White House bookkeeper-no small
task in view of the fact that there
are three distinct accounts to be kept.
The bookkeeping in the past has been
done by the White House bookkeeper,
but 1t is believed to be the intention
OF Mrs. Roosevelt, in accordance with
her announcement that the White
House will get along with nine or
ten fewer servants" to do that work
herself.
No Small Task.
: And in a house that has been run
ming for more than 100 years, with
experts ever endeavoring to economic,
she will have no small task in carrying
out her own "one-fourth off" order.
Here are soma of the complications
The White House is a public build
Ing" swarmed over by tourists, visited
by delegations, utilized for business pur-
poses, and as such the Office of Public
Buildings and Parks pays its mainte-
nance bills.
1t is also private dwelling, and the
master thereof pays his own bills.
And 1t is the scene of State functions.
gestures of friendlinesS to diplomats
And Epdpya1 iole nh
charged to the expense account of the
Executive Office.
Expenditures must be allocated
adroitly. The Federal Government, in
providing quarters for its President,
seeks to give all the accommodations
that would be accorded in modern
furnished hotel apartments-ligh
heat, servants.
But up pop prickly problems like
laundry. The White House used to do
Its own, and sheets tapped outside the
windows of the room where the cabinet
met, until the laundry was turned into
offices by the Hoovers.
Now there isn't any laundry. And
the laundry bills have to be divided
into what pertains to the house and its
upkeep, and what would be listed as
personal"
For the food that supplies their own
table the Roosevelts must pay. For
that served at State functions the
Executive Office pays.
Presidential Family Supreme.
Theoretically, the Office of Public
Buildings and Parks, keepers of the
White House pay roll. have the right
to hire and fire the servants, but in
practice the presidential family is
considered as supreme in its own
domain.
Twelve employees will leave the White
House on the Tuesday morning after
inauguration, when the extra work of
that period will be over and the corps
brought in by the Roosevelts will be
functioning
On repairs and requirements, the
Office of Public Buildings often takes
the initiative, suggesting, for instance
that if it's convenient to the President
they'll paint the place.
Before that Office was established
the Army. which still moves the be-
longings of Presidents, had the Job of
running the White House, and an officer
IN the Engineering Corps still serves
as its head. He is Col. U. S. Grant, Sd,
whose grandfather was a President.
But he's now awaiting transfer to
the Army War College. His aide on
the job, Lieut. F. B. Butler, has been
reported slated for a tour of duty at
West Point and Mrs. Roosevelt, in her
expense -chopping, would in that event
have to call for the cooperation of
other men in the new deal"