Excerpts of the President's News Conference

I have got two or three questions here about my son John. I have already suggested to the press that I didn't regard his actions as necessarily to be reported in the press, but of course if the press wants to report them there is nothing I can do about it. I don't object to it especially, but I don't think it is particularly a good thing for the boy. I don't think it is a particularly good thing for the other boys in the country. There isn't the slightest foundation for the report that appeared the other day that he is going to West Point.

PRESS: Annapolis, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT: NO, NO. There was a report that made a categorical statement that he was going to West Point. That was followed in the course of two or three days by another that he was going to the Naval Academy. Either one of those could have been verified by simple inquiry at the office, if there was a desire to find out the truth. There was no foundation that I know of for either suggestion. He is going to Amherst College. I don't think that that is a matter of enough public importance to justify any newspaper notice. He is doing the same as some hundreds of thousands of other young men that are going to take up their studies again when their school opens.

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I don't know enough about the suggestion that the Premier of France [Paul Painlevd] has made that the League of Nations call a Disarmament Conference. I can't make any comment about it. I should have to be careful about making comment on a matter of that kind, because of course our country doesn't want to put anything in the way of any action that the Europeans might take which they thought would minister to their general security.

I have forgotten whether I said anything the other day about the proposal that I have made to have the conference in Washington. I had that in mind for some time, hoping that events would shape themselves by the settlement of the reparations question over there, and perhaps by a security pact in Europe, so that we could have another conference with a practical hope of success in Washington. Of course the main thing is not where the conference is held, but the main thing is to have a conference that holds promise of securing practical results. I think there is now a proposal before the League, or some of the nations of Europe, for holding some Disarmament or Arbitration Conference in Geneva, and while that was pending was another reason why I thought it might not be quite proper for me to undertake to hold a conference here.

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I don't know as there is anything more to say about the World Court. I judge that the suggestion that the United States should adhere to it has been gaining strength. I expect that after due consideration the Senate will pass a resolution of adherence.