Detroit evening times., 1945-06-18
WESTBROOK
PECLER
-FairlsAD.
Enough

I HAVE been coming TO Wash
L ington 10 do pieces for the
paper even since President
Hardings peace conference
when Doc Sawyer, the Presi-
dents personal physician, q
brigadier general by appoint
ment, but a small town pill
doctor by nature. tormented the
sentries who saluted him with
the elaborate flourish then ac-
corded generals by giving them
back a neighborly wave Of the
hand and chippering "How-de-
do"
In those days people said that
il was sheer initiation TO make
Doc Sawyer brigadier and SO
! guess II was, for those days.
But now a buck general Is
hardly corporal, as you might
say and a major general the
equivalent of a top-kick and
we see brigadiers inching along
in the chow line at breakfast
time in the coffee room and
taking their turns among the
standees waiting for the bus at
rush hour.
IN THOSE days, 81 would buy
i you a fore-and-aft meal.
meaning one of those program
dinners that began with crab
fake or shrimp and went on
through the steak and potatoes
and plenty of butter and rolls.
salad. ice cream and coffee but
now you are lucky and must
be on hand reasonably early 10
get sheet of dilapidated fish
doused with paper hangers
paste and the bread is made of
chalk and water and the but
ter you get wouldn't grease the
gears ri yt,ttf ttsfttAfr.
| used TO come here when my
friend the manager Of one OF
the biggest hotels would send
pot of flowers up TO the suite
with his card on II and basket
of grapes as big as golf balls
and oranges, bananas and great
red apples suitable for gift
from teachers pet, and the tab
for the two rooms was only 81
a day and quarter was a tip
and not an imposition.
Now you have TO be elected 70
get a room over the kitchen and
your term is limited 10 five
days. once a month.
I HAVE been here In all cir
L cumstances. including three
OF Mr.. RooSevelt's Inauguration
shows and two or three World
Series displays at Clark GrifS
fth's ball park
| think the demonstration
which preceded the first World
Series was the most enthusias-
tic, in a distinctly artificial way,
of all such public commotions.
II was the first time Wash
ington had ever won pennant
in the American League and
the crowds went whooping and
yelling through the streets until
all hours Of the morning,
THEY were really nuts that
L night, although probably
not one in a thousand had ever
met one OF the ball players OF
Bucky Harris Washington club
or expected 10 attend one of the
World Series games.
The first Roosevelt inaugurs-
tion was the most ominous or
solemn or anyway foreboding
hour that I recall living through
in Washington or anywhere else.
/ tell you that the night be-
fore, this town was doing Jumps. 4
and Roosevelt certainly did pitch
10 our psychology the next day
when he got up on that scafold
al the Capitol and, IN that awful
weather, treasured us that all
we had TO fear was fear itself.
IT WAS wonderful speech.
4 Just as a speech. and there
were faith and hope. as well as
confidence and strange won
der. in the hearts Of us as the
parade went along Pennsylvania
avenue 10 the White House in
the rain
People were scared the night
before. Scared of what l can't
say but nobody who was here
can tell me he wasn't frightened
for the fear that Roosevelt
spoke of next day pervadod the
crowds at the hotels Ahd by
train-tIme when the getaway be-
gan, people were borrowing
fives-and-tens who ordinarily
could drop check on the cash.
ier's ledge al any good hotel in
town and walk away with any
amount.
! HAPPENED 10 have a few
l. sheets Of expense account
money and loaned some of it. for
their fares and meals TO two
fellows who couldn't have hefted
their actual wealth in gold.
The hotels wouldn't cash q
check. They would hang up your
bill. of course. but they had
locked up their cash money
against the bank holiday. not
knowing when it would end. II
ever.
NOW, in Washington there Ia
~ another mood. II is the
initiation, the probation, you
could say, of new President
who speakes not the affected 4
md formulated ynItficai ond