THE PRESIDENCY: Push and Pull

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The President also:

¶ Welcomed, at the White House front door, Chile's tall, business-suited President Juan Antonio Rios (see PEOPLE), presented him to the Cabinet, that night gave him a state dinner.

¶ Swapped smiles and small talk with Bandmaster Kay Kyser and wife.

¶ Telephoned to Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone to say Happy Birthday (his 73rd).

¶ Gave 76-year-old Maurice C. Latta, White House executive clerk, an autographed picture as a birthday gift, and called him "an indispensable man."

¶ Prodded Congress to appropriate $550 million already authorized to pay the nation's delinquent bill to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

¶ Talked with Major General Patrick J. Hurley, and decided to send him back to China as Ambassador.

¶ Gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to 15 Army men.*

¶ Received the top decoration (Honorary Past Commander in Chief) of the veterans' Military Order of World Wars, an organization for officers only.

¶ Had his picture taken at his desk with husky William O'Dwyer—in effect blessing the Democratic-American Labor Party candidate for mayor of New York City.

¶ Attended (with Mrs. Truman and daughter) and applauded a special performance by Spencer Tracy and company of Robert E. Sherwood's The Rugged Path, a new play about the U.S. press. (One White House reporter cracked that it was big news: for the first time since taking office President Truman had actually sat still for two hours.)