The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-09-28

this thing has jelled a damned sight more than it has yet"
 And walking into the White House he put up the battle of his life, It was one of those ver- bal battles w hic h few men -- certainly no one around Wash ingtofl-can equal. In the MIRA, Johnson had been in the habit of walking in to a conference room with a group of hard boiled industrialists, asking a few pertinent questions to get the drift of the argument, and then by the sheer force of his personality, the power ana choice of his vocabulary, shat tering the opposition and bring ing them to his viewpoint.
 And on more than one occa- sion he did this with the presi- dent.
 Roosevelt, it must be remem- bered, has been tremendously fond of his MIRA administrator. No man could work like a slave, s h o W such unquestioned loyalty and devotion as Johnson. and not touch responsive chord in the president. Besides this, Roosevelt got a tremen- dous kick out of the stories, the variegated passwords. the turbulent life of the ex-cavalry officer.
 DIPLOMACY
 So he tried to ease him out of the picture as gently as possi- ble.
 He suggested first of all an MIRA board, of which Johnson would be a member.
 sI'm not going to have any
 - board running me-" was the generals retOrt.
 There were other com promise offers, among them research trip to Europe. All got the same reaction. Johnson would accept no compromise. He was going to be boss or be fired.
 The FINAL STRAINS that fin- ished Johnson with Roosevelt came only recently. One was his reference to conferences with Justice Brandeis. This did not go down well with the president.
 The fact was that friend of Johnson took him to see the supreme court justice one day without Brandeis knowing he was coming. Since then they have talked on the telephone and otherwise, perhaps three times.
 MOTHER STRAW was Johnsons statement that textile labor leaders had violated a specific pledge to him when they declared their strike. This was flatly disproved by the presi- dents special textile labor board.
 ANOTHER THING which rii- ed Roosevelt was Johnson's statement that his "heart bled" for George A. Sloan, chairman of the Textile Institute. This came after the president had . secured an explicit promise from Johnson that he would not get embroiled in the textile strike. Roosevelt also got a re- port on Johnson's general be- havior when he made the speech and it did not go down we'll.
 Thus one of. the most color ful, dynamic and at one { I m 2 most genuinely useful members of the ROOsevelt's family grad- unlly eased himself out of big influence in the New Deal. HOUSE-CLEANING
 One of those rip-snorting old time house-cleanings - actual. not figurative-is now gripping the senate end of the Capitol.
 With rugs removed. chairs gone. desks half dismantled, and walls partly scraped, the senate chamber looks like a picked sparrow. The cloakrooms and and the lounge are being redec- orated, with much gold leaf.
 All rugs and carpeting (an6, by the way, there are some priceless specimens of imported orientals among fhem) are be- ing carefully cleaned by a com mercial rug dealer. A crew of workmen has been assigned to the chamber. to go over every senatorial desk with linseed of and rottenstone, and hand-rub the mahogany tops to a mirror finish.
 Each chair Is being checked over with care, lest some slightly Ovcr-ampie s0IOn might crash through t0 the floor in an excit- ing moment of debate.