Mcallen Daily Press

Back in the days when a man ran for President of the United States because he was a Republican or Democrat and was elected for the same reasons, his wife was just his wife. She would be First Lady and, presumably, would attend to the womanly duties of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. Not so, today. So, therefore, the country is eager to know all about Mrs. Wendell L. Willkie who may take over the job of First Lady from Mrs. Roosevelt, with whom the whole country is pretty well acquainted.

Mrs. Willkie has tried, but not entirely successfully, attempted to remain in the background during her husband's whirlwind campaign. Running for President is his business, says she. But, says Inez Calaway Robb in the October issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine:

"At her first press conference the party politicians and the press made the simultaneous discovery that Edith Willkie, who had never been in the spotlight before in her life, instinctively knew what to do about it. She not only knew all the answers, but she knew the right ones."

Mrs. Willkie adheres stubbornly to her own personal plank of staying out of politics. She also refuses to go along with the pretty picture of herself giving her dynamic husband pointers and suggestions on his campaign speeches. Her stand is the "Wendell doesn't need any help." Miss Robb has this to say of Mrs. Willkie as a potential White House hostess:

"The most famous brands of hospitality in this country have been copyrighted by the South and the West. In the Midwest, the two fuse. It (the Willkie brand) would make a dandy all-American combination in the White House."