THE PRESIDENCY: Four to Go

An old nursery rhyme summed up the order of Harry Truman's working schedule for the week.

One for the Money . . . The first thing Mr. Truman did on the morning of Douglas MacArthur's urgent message was to put in a call for his National Security Council. It decided on little more than a blitz review of the defense budget and a proposed increase of some $4 billion to make a total of $17.9 billion (see below).

Two for the Show . . . Then the President turned his attention to making a show of unconcerned business & pleasure as usual. At lunch time, he hustled six blocks downtown to the massive Department of Justice building to attend a celebration of Attorney General Howard McGrath's 47th birthday and 21st wedding anniversary. That night he kept a date with his old Secretary of Agriculture, New Mexico's Senator Clint Anderson, to play the piano at a private little party at the elegantly inconspicuous 1925 F Street Club.

But the show of shows was the pilgrimage of the 193-man presidential party—Cabinet members, old congressional friends and reporters—to the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. (Defense Secretary George Marshall and Joint Staff Chiefs Bradley, Sherman and Vandenberg went up on their own. "Missing it," explained Sherman, "might have caused more of a flurry than going.") A special pilot engine, tugging three cars full of Secret Service agents and railroad detectives, pulled out five minutes ahead of the presidential special to scout out possible sabotage along the 133-mile run.

The special had just pulled safely on to a siding beside Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium when the cops clapped two bystanders in jail because one said to the other: "If I had a gun, I could have bumped him off." (Later, they were released when they explained they were just saying how easy it would be to outsmart the Secret Service.) While the President relaxed in his steam-heated box during the game (see SPORT), a special patrol of Air Force F-51s kept watch overhead, once zipped past a hovering light plane to warn it away from the big bowl.

Three to Make Ready. The first hint of tough action against the Chinese came during Harry Truman's jampacked press conference at midweek. The President began by reading a prepared statement. It condemned the Communists and warned that the U.N. forces might suffer reverses, but "have no intention of abandoning their mission in Korea."

A reporter picked up a presidential remark that every weapon the U.S. had would be made available to General MacArthur: "Mr. President," he declared, "you said that means every weapon that we have. Does that mean that there is active consideration of the use of the atomic bomb?"

There has always been, the President replied. He didn't want to see it used, he said as he sadly shook his head. It is a terrible weapon; it should not be used on innocent men, women & children who have nothing to do with this military aggression. That, he said, was what happened when the bomb was used.

Another reporter wanted to be certain he had heard right. "Did I understand you to say that the use of the atomic bomb is under active consideration?" It has always been, Mr. Truman said: it is one of our weapons.