SEATTLE, Thursday—We took the plane last night from Minneapolis Minn., and were relieved to find that at no time along the way were all the seats taken. It was a comfortable trip and when we got out at Billings, Montana, for our first whiff of morning air, the whole sky was a brilliant red.

I have a very soft spot in my heart for the view from the municipal airport there. I always look at the statue of the horse with his scout rider, and think what this country must have been like when the scouts first rode over these wide plains. I do not know that I would have liked to be one of the discoverers of these broad spaces, but I always think that it would be wonderful to gaze over such a panorama and feel that you were perhaps the first human being ever to look upon this particular scene.

I hope that a great many people are reading a summary, at least, of the report of the National Resources Planning Board, which the President has submitted to Congress. It is too long a report for many to read it all, but a summary should be familiar to every citizen of our democracy.

The report is divided in two parts. One develops our social security program, so that there will be a real economic level of security, below which no human being in our nation shall ever be allowed to live. The other part is the really exciting part, because it deals specifically with new economic factors that will have to be considered if the promise made to the boys now in the services that they shall return to real jobs, is to become a reality.

It gives you glimpses of the possibilities of world planning and it seems to accept for us all the very obvious fact that this future planning must be for the good of all people and not just for the good of the United States, or for any group of people in any country.

It is obvious that there will be many opponents to this plan, just as there are in Great Britain to the Beveridge Plan, and they will be both from the Right and from the Left. We may hear one side say that this is Socialism, and the other say that we have only considered the Capitalists.

Nevertheless, this is a plan, concrete and definite, now before Congress, which reflects the thought of some of the best and most respectable people in the country, who have no personal interests involved. It is not of interest alone to Congress. It is of interest to the whole people, and they are the ones who will ultimately have to decide whether they want action along some such lines or not.

We were a little late in arriving at Seattle, but Anna and my eldest grandson met us. He is enjoying his Easter holiday. I learned very quickly how much he has grown, for he took over my baggage checks and attended to all the usual paraphernalia on arrival.