The daily independent., 1937-06-26
nAns HAAh
By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN

Roosevelt, Most Hard Working
President, Is Also The Most
Junketing; Record Shows Long
List OF Vacation Trips Started
After Bank Crisis; Costs OF
Voyages On Navy Cruisers Runs
Into Several Million Dollars;
Keeps In Constant Touch With
Office; Never Really Free From
Duties.
Washington-Tlhe Presidents
fishing trip to the Gulf Of MeXi-
co while Congress was in session,
together with his implied rebuke
of the Supreme Court for recess
ing with important work undone,
has focused attention upon Off
cial vacations-especially preSi-
dental ones.
Frequent respites from the
grind of being President of the
United States long have been
recognized as absolutely neceS-
sary. That grind is 50 grueling
and wearing that today only one
eX-President is alive, though six
presidential wives survive.
woodrow and Calvin Coolidge
both believed in vacations, both
enjoyed frequent cruises down the
Potomac. Coolidge also invariably
decamped from Washington for
the summer. Warren Harding was
on a summer trip to Alaska when
fatally stricken. Hoover was a
hard working President. He never
went away in the summer, junked
the presidential yacht Mayflower
but built his own fishing camp at
Rapidan, Virginia.
Roosevelt is one of the hardest
working Presidents ever to sit in
the White House, and on his
numerous trips he never really is
free of public business. BY air.
plane, cable, radio and telephone
he is in constant touch with his
office. On his weekend cruises he
is virtually always accompanied
by a Stenographer, spend most Of
his time debating and going over
reports.
Nevertheless, the record shows
him to be the most junketing
President in history. And prob
ably his vacations have been
more expensive than those of any
other although the
cost of the construction. upkeep
and guarding of Hoover'S camp
ran into big money. A detail of
marines was kept on duty there
winter and summer.
The Ambetjack
Roosevelt'S junketS began
| shortly after the banking crisis in
the spring of 1888, during which
he worked night and day. 1t was
not until April "a when he took
Premier Ramsey Macdonald on a
cruise down the Potomac, that he
was able to get any relief from
this grind. After that he took
weekend cruises on May l, 81
%, June 5, and on June II he be-
gan his first fishing trip on thc
famous Amberjack, featured by
the spectacular airplane visit of
Professor Moley.
For the balance of the summer
Roosevelt was only intermittent
ly in Washington. On July he
returned from the cruise and held
a Cabinet meeting aboard the
Indianapolis at Annapolis. On
July Is he went for a weekend
cruise from the Marine Base at
Quant;co. The next month. July
20 to August 3, he spent at Hyde
Park, leaving on September l for
a siX-day fishing cruise aboard
Vincent Astor's yacht, the Nour-
mahal.
The schedule of presidential
jaunts in 1888 from that time on
follows:
Sept. 6. Returned from Nour-
mahal trip.
Sept. 10. Overnight fishing
from Quantico, Va.
Sept. %. Weekend fishing trip
on Rappahannock and Potomac.
Oct. 9. One-day cruise down
Potomac.
Nov. 10 to Dec. 4. Thanksgiv-
ing Dinner and three weeks at
Warm Springs.
Sea Voyages Of 1884
The President began his 1884
| u,MnnMr,c MCnJThTI0Nc