Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1946-02-22

WNU Service, 1916 Eye Street, NV,
Washington, D. G.
It was a cool, crisp winter day.
A week before the erratic WASH
ington weather had seduced whole
circle Of credulous pansies which
pushed their startled faces up from
the garden on the White House lawn.
Poor bemused floral They were
soon frozen as solid In their beds
as the Presidents labor legislation
in congress.
We hurried along Pennsylvania
avenue, our coat collars turned up,
arguing heatedly as newsmen do
when they are released from the in
hibitions which seize them the mo-
ment they sit down and meet the
solemn stare Of their typewriter
keyboards with that threatening
moose, the deadline, Tightening about
the medulla oblangata.
''The most astounding thing" said
one of US, lis the way Truman, with
all his experience in congress, can't
get along with it. If he would only
buttonhole some of the thinkers in
the opposition, say Vandenberg in
the senate and men like Wollcott
in the house, and appeal to their
sense of patriotism, he wouldn't
have all this trouble"
1T isn't as simple as that" in
terrupted another, as we paused to
show our Photographic passes to the
guard at the gate (who has known
us all by our first names for a dec
ade but who always solemnly stud
les our cards as if they were ali
ases). 1T isn't as simple as that.
After all, congress has to be realis-
tic in an election year. They are
facing real issues. And the Presi-
dents program isn't realistic"
whether or not it is realistic"
the third member of the group put
in, latter all it isn't his program.
He inherited it. It's New Deal and
the New Deal is Old Hat now. 1t
doesn't represent Harry Humans
ideas at all but he has to 60 through
with it,"
All felt could add to those sage
observations, without agreeing that
the New Deal was Old Hat or the
latest Downing Street model, wheth-
er it was realistic or modernistic
or neo-marxian, was that it GER
tainly is probable that if the Presi-
dent were able to shatter his in
heritance to bits and then remould
it to something nearer his hearts
desire, he could probably put lot
more pep into his selling talk to con-
gress.
By this time we were adding our
coats to the huge pile of garments
on the great Aguinaldo mahogany
table in the lobby of the executive
offices and taking our place in the
line outside the conference room.
Resentment Shades
Chiefs Feelings
On this particular day the Presi-
dent started off with the note on
which the whole conference was
carried. I don't quite know how to
describe it. He kept smiling. He
didn't lose his temper. But there
was just shade of resentment in
his voice and his words. 1t all
sounded more like the later, some-
what disillusioned days of his prede-
cessor, than the merry moments
when Roosevelt interview was al
ways good show as well as news
full event. mean the early days be-
fore the weight of war descended
upon FDR's wearying brow There
is weight on Truman today quite
as heavy, for peace has its mis-
cries as well as war Just as it
was freely predicted that 1.-The Unit
ed States will never stand for an &C.
cupying army for any length of
time" (Which proved to be so pain
fully correct, SO everyone took for
granted that any President in Of
fee when the war ended would
have an impossible job.
But let's get back to the crowded
office of the President on the win
ter day l am describing. He sat
there smiling, exchanging wise
cracks with the men in the first
row. On the table behind him were
the photographs of his family,
crowned with q great bunch of jon
quils from the White House green
house. He looked cheerful enough.
The usual signal "all in" was sound.
ed. He stood up and began to talk
about what he called tempest in
a teacup"-the controversy over
building an addition to the White
House. Personally think it is the
height of folly to continue the ef-