La Quinta Hotel
La Quinta, California
March 17, 1948
Florence, darling:
Many, many thanks for your clippings md notes. I really didn't think the article about the new Surgeon General was too bad and don't really understand why Parran was so rude, but he has always been a rather tense, nervous person and I think he probably just was sore that he hadn't been reappointed, and isn't really basically amiable enough to be gracious in the face of it.
I am worried about your being so tired. What did your check-up show? I hope you are taking big shots of liver, and B1, as they do pick you up fast.
I think you are wonderful to have done so much work on the heart hospital and hope it will work out promptly! It really is much harder to do a local job like that than to get a bill through, as there are so many frustrating details, as you have noticed!
I am fascinated that Dan and the Governor actually went to Key West to see Truman and also that you saw Clifford in Miami and introduced him to Wylie. Did you read the piece about Clifford and the whole Presidential entourage in the current Time magazine, the one that has Clifford's picture on the cover? If not, it is a must for you.
I am certainly worrying about the whole Truman situation. It looks very tough and Wallace is certainly lousing everything up. Have you read Pegler's letters that he says are written by Wallace and which probably are,  as far as I can tell, as he has never denied it.
Too bad you couldn't dine with Bissell, but am glad you had a visit with him. We must see him and get him going on the Heart Bill. So far we have not yet got any hearings set in either the House or the Senate.
I hope the painting gets done in the bedrooms of the ranch this week and that Melvin gets the furniture and rugs put in the various rooms so that you will not come into a lot of confusion and work, as I think that is so tiring.  I am going to call him up tomorrow or the next day to see how they are getting along, and to urge him on.  Do you think the curtain material for the living room and dining room has been sent yet?
The Health Editorial that was used in all the papers is really a darned good summary end we must use it. Pepper still seems to be voting along with Taylor, Langer and Wallace. I noticed one committee hearing in connection with the Marshall Plan where he took up the Taylor-Wallace line and was the only one beside Larger and Taylor who voted that way.  What can we do with him? I really don't understand it, and am wondering what is at the bottom of it. It worries me.
We have been over to Palm Springs a couple of times this week to dine with the Goldwyns.  Once I sat next to Jack Benny and he was so busy with an allergy which caused him to have to blow his nose all the time that I did not get as many jokes as I had expected out of him, but he was quite a pleasant, mild guy to meet in private life. 1 expected him to be much more dynamic.
Night before last Mrs. Danny Kaye came to dinner with us. She and Danny are separated but she gave us soma marvelous imitations of his goings-on, which were hilarious.
Last night we dined with the Goldwyns again and some other moving picture producers. It was a big night at the Racquet Club and Errol Flynn with long hair (because he is working on the picture "Don Juan") was there and various other local characters which give the place a special color. People were half in Western cowboy clothes and some in costume and some in evening dress and some in sport clothes which really made a weird effect, but it was fun nevertheless.
We are going to the Bel-Air Hotel on the 24th, so wire or phone me there if you feel like it. I am going to try to call George Smathers tomorrow morning to find out what is doing on the House hearing. We really have to push the hearings along or we will never get the Bill voted on and appropriations set in this session. We are
always stuck for time on these things. You remember how it was on the cancer bill in '46. However, the push we put on the cancer bill in '46 got the big appropriations in '47.
Scheele called me a couple of days ago and told we that the House had passed 22 million for the Cancer Institute, which includes eight million dollars for the construction of research facilities, so I am not without hope that eventually Heart will get some real money too.  But I want to see it happen this year, so we must give it some punch when we get home, and do the best we can from a distance.
Much love to you darling, and all the best to Dan. I am so glad he likes the picture for his room and that you enjoyed the others. I think the collection of reproductions we have for the ranch is really going to be the finest collection of reproductions of French paintings I have ever seen.
Yours,
P.S. I think your column is fine. Are you getting any amusing reactions from it? Study Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. They seem to have what it takes, but they are so bitchy you could never be like them.