The President's News Conference

THE PRESIDENT. I have no special announcements to make. Most of them have been made. If you have any questions you would like to ask, I will try to answer them.

[1.] Q. Mr. President, I have been asked to ask you whether you plan to go to Warm Springs for a dedication?

THE PRESIDENT. It hasn't come up. I have not--I know nothing about it. I had made no such plan, that's the best way to put it.

[2.] Q. Are you going to Puerto Rico this year, or do you plan •

THE PRESIDENT. I had planned to go to Puerto Rico, as you know, but that plan was upset by the message which had to be sent to the Congress. I hope that it will be

possible for me to go to Puerto Rico.

Q. This year?

THE PRESIDENT. This year.

Q. How about Alaska?

THE PRESIDENT. That has been on the agenda this year, but these things are only in contemplation. I can never know until the announcements are made creating the firm appointment that I will go.

[3.] Q. Mr. President, do you have any comment on Mr. Wallace's proposal that we lend 17 billion to Russia?

THE PRESIDENT. [Very softly] No comment--no comment.

Q. What was that answer, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. [Louder] No comment! [Laughter]

Q. Three no comments, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. No comment. [More laughter]

[4.] Q. Mr. President, Congressman Celler reported to the House, after a call on you, that from talking to you he could put two and two together and that you would veto the labor bill. Did you give him any basis

THE PRESIDENT. We didn't discuss the labor bill. I don't want to cut the ground from under Congressman Celler. We probably discussed past messages, but we didn't discuss the labor bill. I do not discuss legislation until it's here for me to consider.

[5.] Q. Have you heard from Republican Senators who have been talking about asking a conference with you on what you would or would not veto?

THE PRESIDENT. NO, I have not.

[6.] Q. Mr. President, you are reported as having received a letter from Mr. Baruch affecting a new loan to Britain.

THE PRESIDENT. I have received no such letter. It may be in the mail, but I haven't received it as yet.

[7.] Q. Mr. President, have you decided on your nomination for Federal Judgeship of the Western District of Texas?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes. That was announced. Robert Ewing Thomason was the name sent down this afternoon--Congressman from E1 Paso.

[8.] Q. Mr. President, what do you think of Chicago as a site for the Democratic National Convention?

THE PRESIDENT. That is a matter for the National Democratic Committee to decide.

[9.] Q. Mr. President, may I return to the labor bill and ask whether you would be friendly to consultation with the Republican leaders to see if an area of agreement on labor legislation could be worked out?

THE PRESIDENT. The Republican leaders or anyone else has a perfect right to come up and discuss any subject they choose with me. I don't think that there's any comment to be made on the matter in question.

[10.] Q. Mr. President, have you signed the copper tax suspension bill?

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, I signed that this morning, I think.

Q. I haven't seen it.

[11.] Q. Mr. President, there's a nonpartisan bill introduced by Senators Barkley and Taft to control pollution in harbors and streams, and especially to protect the fishing industry, and is now before the Public Works Committee. Have you any comment on that?

THE PRESIDENT. When I was in the Senate, I voted for such a bill.

[12.] Q. Mr. President, would you approve of Senator Lucas's tax substitute bill?

THE PRESIDENT. I can't--I haven't read it-I can't make any comment on it, because I don't know.

[13.] Q. Mr. President, have you any plans on the telephone strike?

THE PRESIDENT. The telephone strike is being handled by the Department of Labor.

[14.] Q. Mr. President, have you solved that mystery about this veto¹ yesterday ?

THE PRESIDENT. I have a memorandum from the Attorney General which I will be glad to read to you, if you like.

¹ Item 77.

Q. We would like to hear it read. It wasn't a Russian that slipped in that veto, was it?

THE PRESIDENT. NO. Here is the memorandum from the Attorney General, and you can get this outside later, if you want it.

[Reading] "With reference to your inquiry concerning your veto of Senate Joint Resolution 97, I beg to advise:

"The inclusion in the veto message, prepared in the Department, of language stating that 'this type of legislation is novel' is incorrect. Further investigation has disclosed that similar language has been included in previous resolutions.

"There is no question that sections 361, 365, and 366 of the revised statutes did not have to be included in the resolution to accomplish the objective of the sponsor of the resolution. These sections deal with the attorneys in the Department of Justice and those who represent the United States in litigation. In view of this fact, it was my thought that these three sections were inadvertently included in the resolution when it was originally drafted. Certainly this inclusion might be interpreted as an effort to grant authority to the committee counsel to initiate civil or criminal proceedings on behalf of the United States. This duty, as you know, has been placed in the Department of Justice by the Congress. I am sure that the Congress had no intention in this resolution to change this long established practice and the inclusion of these three sections certainly is subject to that interpretation.

"For these reasons, in my opinion, the resolution was properly vetoed." That is signed by the Attorney General. I want to make it perfectly dear that Senator Wheeler did not enter into this thing at all. I have no objection to Senator Wheeler representing that committee or any other committee that he sees fit. I have always been very fond of Senator Wheeler. He and I were the best of friends while I was in the Senate.

[15.] Q. Mr. President, have you received the resignation of Judge Kimbrough Stone of the 12th--

THE PRESIDENT. I am not ready to make an announcement on that. I may be able to make an announcement on it in another week.

[16.] Q. Mr. President, have you any comment to make on Mr. Bowles' suggestion that a special price commission.--

THE PRESIDENT. No comment. No, I have no comment.

[17.] Q. Mr. President, has the price situation changed any, one way or another, since your speech Monday ? ¹

THE PRESIDENT. All I know is what I see in the papers. Seems to be some action being taken in various parts of the country on the subject. I am very much pleased with the action of the merchants in Newburyport, Mass., and I notice there are several other instances of similar action which has been taken.

¹ See Item 76.

[18.] Mr. Ross [to the President]: Judge Latta says that the copper bill is not signed yet.

THE PRESIDENT. I see. On that question about that copper bill, Judge Latta says it has come to the White House, but has not been signed as yet.

I had a memorandum on it, I know, and I couldn't remember whether I had signed it or not. The Judge says I have not signed it.

Q. Mr. President, will you sign it, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. I will answer that when it comes to the final decision.

[19.] Q. Mr. President, does that veto affect Senator Wheeler's standing?

THE PRESIDENT. All I know is what I saw in the paper. I didn't know it was speculative.

Q. Mr. President, are you going to do anything to either recall--I understand you can't recall a veto--

THE PRESIDENT. Can't recall a veto. The proper thing, I imagine, is to pass the resolution without the objectionable sections in it.

[20.] Q. Have you given that Senate committee permission to get those Roosevelt letters on the oil?

THE PRESIDENT. I have informed the Senate committee that specific documents that they want from my files I shall always give to them.

Q. Have they named a specific document yet?

THE PRESIDENT. They have named the specific document that they want.

Q. One or several?

THE PRESIDENT. Being gotten for them. One.

[21.] Q. Mr. President, do you plan to do anything about Chester Bowles's price plan--

THE PRESIDENT. NO comment on it.

[22.] Q. Would you favor a price board composed of businessmen to discuss prices ?

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know of any necessity for that. I have made all the discussion on prices that it was necessary to have made, in the speech that I made to the AP in New York. That covered the ground so far as I am concerned.

[23.] Q. Mr. President, do you have any comment on General Marshall's role in the foreign ministers conference in Moscow?

THE PRESIDENT. General Marshall will make the comment on that when he gets home.

Q. When do you expect that? When will that be?

Q. Mr. President, is he going to make a speech ?

THE PRESIDENT. General Marshall will make a report, of course, when he returns home.

Q. When will that be, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. I can't answer that.

Q. Monday or Tuesday night?

THE PRESIDENT. I can't answer that. I don't know.

[24.] Q. Mr. President, may I get clear-my thinking clear on this? The veto stands until they change the legislation?

THE PRESIDENT. That's right.

Q. You still object to the inclusion of the last sections?

THE PRESIDENT. The last three sections, yes sir. And the first--if you will study the history of the thing, you will find that the first bill of that sort, in which those three sections are included, was necessary. The other bills which have been subsequently brought up, with inclusion of the three sections, was not necessary, but they were included just as a matter of form.

Q. Well, Mr. President, I got the erroneous idea at the Capitol last night then. The way they understood it was a suggestion to repass the identical resolution again.

THE PRESIDENT. I have made no such suggestion at all. I have talked to nobody about it except right here now.

Q. Mr. President, another set of words allowing the Senator to act, you would sign it, we take it, is that right?

THE PRESIDENT. If it complies with the suggestion of the Attorney General.

Q. It would have to be different from the one already passed?

THE PRESIDENT. If it complies with this memorandum of the Attorney General, I will sign it.

Q. Did the Attorney General prepare the original veto, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. It was sent to the Attorney General's office for consideration and approval. It came from that office approved.

[25.] Q. Mr. President, are you in favor of Government support for any farm products above the 90 percent parity formula?

THE PRESIDENT. No I am not, and there has been no such support.

Q. Mr. President, I don't think that is true as to wool, I think.

THE PRESIDENT. Well, if you--there has been special legislation on wool.

Q. Yes. I understand that. But--

THE PRESIDENT. Special legislation. I don't think it's good sense even for wool.

[26.] Q. Mr. President, one other thing, everybody has gotten out you are going to veto this tax cutting bill when it reaches you. You don't discuss legislation--

THE PRESIDENT. The best way to find that out is to wait and see.

Q. You think it would be a wrong interpretation from your speeches.

THE PRESIDENT. You can make any an interpretation from my speeches you want, but so far as legislation is concerned I don't comment on it until it's here!

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. president.