Excerpts from the Press Conference

Q. Good morning, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. (Exhibiting sabre)

Q. Are you going to cut off a few heads this morning?

THE PRESIDENT: At least I am protected. Charlie (Mr. Hurd), you have to be good this morning. You watch your questions carefully.

Q. Mr. President, hadn't you better turn that in to the Treasury?

Q. Is that all gold, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it is.

Q. It would be worth more if gold is de-valued. (Laughter)

MR. DONALDSON: Everybody in?

Q. Mr. President, this is no laughing matter what can you tell us about the liquor situation, the District Attorney, the Public Utilities Commission and District of Columbia . . . ? (Laughter)

THE PRESIDENT: I haven't thought about them since you asked the question. I asked the President of Panama to come in today and told him that this would be a unique experience for him. From my point of view we have had a very satisfactory talk . . .

PRESIDENT ARIAS: And from mine also.

THE PRESIDENT: And the President says, from his also. I think his visit does illustrate the practical way of taking up problems that occur between different countries and I think we are making very satisfactory progress. . . .

The sword you heard about yesterday is here, if you would like to examine it. It is a very wonderful piece of workmanship, engraved with the American eagle and the stars and the letter "W" on both sides of the blade. It had been ordered by the French volunteers who fought in our revolution, to be given to Washington. It is supposed, but not proven, to have been brought over here by General Lafayette himself as a gift to Washington in 1800. Of course, General Washington had died the year before. It was only found in the sword factory this last summer. It was given to our Government and will hang under the portrait of Washington in the White House.

Q. Is there an inscription on the blade?

THE PRESIDENT; No, there is no inscription, only the letter "W" and the Presidential eagle and the stars.

Q. Still sharp?

THE PRESIDENT: For all practical purposes .... (Laughter)

Q. Mr. President, has the time arrived when you can give us anything like a picture of liquor control after repeal and the amount of taxes that ought to be raised and how it should be handled?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I cannot. I will tell you what the situation is: I think there have been three or possibly four different groups that have been studying the thing. The Attorney General has his end of it; then there are the State Department with respect to importations, and the Internal Revenue people and the Treasury Department in relation to the wider fiscal problem. So far as I know, those different groups have not been coordinated; I don't think they have met; but probably in the course of the next week I shall get them together some way, and shall try to work out what might be called an Administration policy, in regard to the two phases of the situation.

First will be the phase from the time of actual repeal up to the time of Congressional legislation. Second will be the phase of what we shall recommend to the Congress in the way of permanent legislation. But there hasn't been any general meeting of all the interested parties yet; and that is something I have to do.

Q. Any serious consideration of a special session to deal with this?

THE PRESIDENT: No, and, incidentally, in spite of George Durno, Paul Mallon or somebody, there never has been any thought of a special session.

Q. Have you issued any orders affecting salaries of those in the motion-picture industry?

THE PRESIDENT: I haven't issued any orders in regard to the movie code, one way or the other.

Q. Have you advanced any ideas along that line?

THE PRESIDENT: The only time I have mentioned the movie code in any shape, manner or form, was to ask that the Deputy Administrator look into and consider the size of earnings of—I hate to be impolite—immature persons who, perhaps, are making more money than is reasonable in good conscience; and the same thing in relation to—what do they call them?producers or directors who are making about four or five or six or eight times the salary of the President of the United States- to consider whether it is conscionable.

Q. How about Mickey Mouse? (Laughter)

THE PRESIDENT: I don't know any of the facts in the case. The only things that came to me were rumors, and I asked that the rumors be looked into. . . .

Q. Can you tell us anything about the British debt negotiation?

THE PRESIDENT: Only what I read in the papers and that was inaccurate. (Laughter) No, they have only just begun to talk on it; and, as I understand from Steve, there won't be any news during the preliminaries unless it is handed out in the form of a joint statement.

Q. Might it involve the question of stabilization of currency?

THE PRESIDENT: Not that I know of.

Q. Wouldn't it be natural to stabilize . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Not necessarily.

Q. How would they pay? (Laughter)

THE PRESIDENT: As a matter of fact, on this debt thing it would be best not to speculate because it would be pure speculation; and the chances are 99 to 1 that the speculation would be wrong. Besides, it frankly doesn't do an awful lot of good in international relations to get the trend of the public mind one way or the other before there has been any meeting of the Government minds.

I know you people won't mind my saying this, but the more I look at it the more true I think it is- and this doesn't affect us people over here so much. If anybody were to ask me what was the greatest single factor that contributed to the failure of the London Economic Conference to accomplish more than it did- and this is off the record and between us—I should say it was the Continental press. They established a public and publicity background that necessarily concentrated the attention of that London Economic Conference on just one subject, although it had twenty subjects before it. The Continental press and, to a large extent, the British press were responsible for that.

Of course, it is also equally true that people themselves concerned in that London Economic Conference got a great deal of their own personal slant from the press. It not only had a public influence but also a serious influence on the delegates themselves and an influence on the publicity which came out of London. Of course, the delegates were, in large part, responsible too, but the publicity that came out of London and concentrated that Conference on just the one question of stabilization did a very serious hurt to good results.

On this debt thing, we are acting a little bit the same way over here. We are merely engaged now on the preliminary conversations, and in those conversations they will take up twenty different formulas and each one will have its ramifications of all kinds. They will explore them for a long, long time; and nothing will come to me until they have explored them all. Then they may come to me and to the Prime Minister in London and say that such and such method is out of the question, and that another method is out of the question, but that they do think it is worth going ahead with discussions on this line or that line or on three, different alternative lines. And then the British Government may consider it and I shall consider it; and then we may get to the second stage or may not.

It is all as vague as that at present; and any newspaper story that says we are engaged on this particular proposition at this time just isn't so, and will tend not only to stir up public opinion in England and the United States on an issue which is not an issue, but to crystallize the point of view of the Government officials and the negotiators themselves.

That is why I hope very much that there won't be any categorical stories one way or the other on the debt negotiations because the thing is frankly and definitely up in the air completely. It is only in the preliminary, exploratory stage.

Q. You expect this will take some time?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. And all we can say is we hope there will be some meeting of the minds on it; but we don't know. I will tell you all just as soon as there is anything tangible to go on, but there isn't yet. . . .