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Show CHANGES IN PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. Recent months of war in Europe have made some significant changes in the habits and the outlook of the President He is more serious, more worried. Also he is more circumscribed. The latter lat-ter is important, because it means that he sees fewer people, loses some of his old contacts. During his first eight years in office, probably no President in history his-tory was in closer touch with the country as a whole than Franklin Roosevelt. Not only did he see a great number of congressmen, labor la-bor leaders, business men and politicians poli-ticians during his daily routine, but he traveled more than any other President. Several times a year he took turns round the country, kept his ear to the ground, met all sorts of people. Ever since the international emergency, emer-gency, he has stuck close to Wash- J ington. Not once has he got out into the Middle West, even during the 1940 campaign. Seldom has he gone farther away than New York or down the Potomac. Thus he has missed the relaxation, the rest, and the obvious joy he used to get from his roving junkets. Also he has missed his old personal contacts. Note The President boasts that he rests on a railroad trip, and this is really true. He seems to sleep better on a Pullman, and on occasion orders have been given to the train engineer to stretch out a run between towns in order to give the President extra sleep. More Gold Braid. Roosevelt's contacts thus are limited lim-ited by remaining in Washington, and in Washington also, he -is more circumscribed than ever. He does not see nearly as many members of " congress and men from many walks of life as formerly. This is because he is concentrating so much time on national defense and foreign affairs. All important decisions in the state department come across his desk. The freezing of Axis funds, the closing of German-Italian consulates, consu-lates, the speeches of Secretary Knox, have to get the President's O. K. Important decisions regarding regard-ing the army and navy come to him, and a constant stream of questions ques-tions regarding OPM and aid to Britain confronts him daily. So the President sees far less oi the men who helped to build up the ' New Deal, far more of army-navy officials. One Dollar Men and diplomats. dip-lomats. Much of this is unavoidable, unavoid-able, though part of it could be eliminated by more diversification of control. However, this change in the President's Pres-ident's mode of operation is not as important as the change which gradually grad-ually has crept over his general outlook. out-look. On the surface, and in press conference, he is the same old wise-cracking, fun-loving Roosevelt. But underneath he is not. No longer does he have the same zest for what he is doing. In the old days when he was building PWA bridges and WPA schoolhouses, writing labor laws, crusading for social so-cial security, fighting the big utilities, utili-ties, he loved every minute of it He was building up, crusading for human needs and human rights. And his enthusiasm was boundless. No War Enthusiasm. Now, however, he knows that every ev-ery step he takes in foreign policy, every dollar he spends for the navy, every man he inducts into the army, may be a step toward tearing down rather than building up. He believes the steps he is taking are absolutely necessary. But he has no enthusiasm enthusi-asm for them. In other words, he has no enthusiasm for war. Most of the men around Roosevelt Roose-velt believe that war is inevitable, and it may be that he does, too though he has not admitted that publicly. But judging by his hanging hang-ing back in opposition to his more vigorous military-foreign policy advisers, ad-visers, the President hates and dreads the idea of this nation going into war. He hates the reactions and aftermaths after-maths of war, and he hates the idea of having history record him as a War President. At the same time he believes that this country will have to move fast, and if it does not move now it may be too late. For the best definition of an isolationist, Roosevelt firmly believes, is one who by procrastination procrastina-tion wants to see his women and children in the thick of the fighting here at home. MKKUY-GO-KOUND Ecn Welles, son of Undersecretary Undersecre-tary of State Sumner Welles, is working as a newsman in Panama. Nelson Rockefeller, government worker, gets up at five in the morning, morn-ing, shuns parties, goes to bed at ten. The Rockefeller office has been flooded with requests from movie stars who want to tour Latin America. Amer-ica. When senators fail to pay their bills at the senate stationery room, the disbursing office, instead of dunning dun-ning them, merely docks the amount from their pay cheeks. "America," latest popular booklet book-let by iJavir! Cushrrjan Coyle, has been officially endorsed by the American Legion. General Federation Federa-tion of Women's Clubs, the Council for Democracy, and the selective ervlcc board. |