Excerpts of the President's News Conference

We have been making studies from time to time both in the War Department and the Navy Department to see if something could not be done relative to the promotion problem. No very good plan has ever been presented to me. There was a plan presented that provided for buying people off, virtually hiring them to resign I think, under which some men would get as much as $16,000 or $18,000. That didn't seem to be practical to me. If some method can be worked out, I should be glad to see it done. But I haven't seen any plan up to the present time that seemed to be feasible.