The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-17

| confirm his appointment or JuuBt Roberts. More trouble Is on prospec, ln the immediate future, Some ob- servers are predicting the stormiest session of the whole Roosevelt ad- ministration.
 So right at the height of every thing, MT. Roosevelt decides to take himself little southern trip And If that looks like an odd thing for him to do, 1t can only be said that he has done, the same thing before when the political gunfire got hot.
 sHAKEDoWN
 CRUISE
 Last April, for instance, the heat was on. The reorganiza- ton bill had just been beaten in- the House. A bitter fight was be- Ing waged over the wage hour bill. Carter Glass had just opened fire on the spending program,
 And just when things were stormiest, Mir. Roosevelt boarded the new cruiser Philadelphia and took a weeks "shakedown cruise, with a bit of fishing on the side
 The prcvolus fall had seen . similar program. There was . special session of Congress on; the business recession had set In, q new farm bill was up for ac- ton, Congress was wrangllng over tax revision and the A. F. of L. had just denounced the pending wage-hour bill. So late one No- vember afternoon, MT. Roosevelt took train for Miami, where he boarded the presidential yacht Potomac for weeks fishing cruise.
 In April of 1887 the story was similar. The court fight was at It's hottest, and the congressional revolt which was to sink the court program was picking up steam; and off went MT. Roosevelt on the Potomac for two-week cruise in the Gulf of Mexico.
 He took two deep-water cruises
 in 1886, despite the fact that it
 was c presidential campaign year.
 Late in March he spent . couple
 of weeks In the waters around Florida and the Bahamas on the yacht Potomac, after thrice post poning the trip because of dis- astrous floods in New England and Ohio.
 And in mid July he chartered the yacht Savanna and went cruising along the coast of Maine with sons James, Franklin, Jr and John. Tn a bay in Nova Scotia he went aboard the yacht Potomac and turned on the radio to hear Gov. Alfred M. Landon make his acceptance speech. TEN.DAY
 LEAVE
 In the spring of 1885 - to go back still further newspaper headlines were explaining that Congress was "in revolt" FDRs relief bill was under heavy fire. He had just demanded the elimi- nation of utility holding com- panies. Huey Long was conduct ing brisk anti Roosevelt fire. And away went MT. Roosevelt, in the middle of 1t all, for a To-day cruise off Florida and the Ba- hamas in Vincent Astor's yacht Nourmahal.
 Almost exactly one year earlier, he had taken a similar trip on the same yacht. At that time there was danger of big auto strike. The railway unions were also talking strike. and had re- jected the proposals of the Presi- dents conciliator. The famous army airmail tangle was awaiting settle- ment
 Congress was in flutter over the charges of Dr. Wirt. The Wagner Act had just been in- troduced in the Senate, and Pres- ident Roosevelt had just demand ed stock exchange bill with teeth in It." But away he went for a fishing trip, in spite of everything.
 Apparently 1t is an annual cus- tom. Maybe it's one of the req sons why the strain of the presi- dential job doesn't get him down and maybe it's ultra smart poli- tics - to pull out and go fishing for a while when the political heat is on. Whatever the answer it seems to be part of the Roosevelt routine.
 Copyright. 1889, NEA Service, Incl