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distance. An equilateral triangle would describe the location of the homes of the
Allens, the Trumans, and the Wallaces. Harry Truman was not an athlete, and many
of the boys thought of him as a sissy because he could not compete in athletics due
to the fact that he wore thick magnifying giasses. Harry Truman had no enemies,
but many friends among the boys of his home town, He always attended tc his busi- .
ness, was efficient to a high degree, and wes extremely covrteous to all with whom
he came in contact. Bess Wallace was at that time characterized as a tomboy. She
could play baseball, and that wasn't the soft ball kind. She swung a bat effec-—
tively and could throw with the best skill of the boys. She could ride a bike as
well as any cf the boys in the neighborhood. Mrs. Allen, nee Bess Milton, went
with Harry Truman's brother, Vivian. Charlie Ross, the Presidential Secretazy, was
also an Independence hometown boy. He did not lean to the athletic tyne, but was
a brilliant student, as was all of the Ross family. He was fond of sports and al-
ways a great fellow. Charlie graduated at the University of Missouri and majored
in Journalism. Harry Truman did not go away to college but he was always a pur-
poseful and energetic young man who commanded the respect of everyone in the com-
munity. He studied for the bar at the Kansas City School of Law.

When the Mexican imbroglio broke out, and Villa, the Mexican bandit was
on the rampage at the border, my brother, now Colonel Harry B. Allen, (seven years
Commandant at Stanford University), Harry Truman, Present Mayor Roger Sermon, of
Independence, Missouri, who was a candidate for Governor of Missouri last fall,
and Ex-Senator Bennett Clark; each organized a Battery of artillery and were
shipped down the border to quell the insurrectionists. From the Mexican border
these officers were shipped to Germany, and President Truman, "Pete" Allen, Roger
Sermon, and Bennett Clark, after commanding Battalions E, F, G, and H, were re-
turned to the States with the rank of Captain. Your President has proved himself
an able officer, administrator, statesman, and an exceptional person in the emer-
gency. He has been equal to this unusual situation and you will always be able to
cbserve in him a cool head, a determined purpose, and a real man's man. The presi-
dent is the most lonesome man in the world, and I am sure that each of us realizes
the great debt that we owe to him in this hour’.

This Is the a « August 1h, 1945

When President Harry S. Truman ‘made the announcement at 6:00 P.M. of the
Nips' capitulation, a sensation of mixed feelings ran the gamut of our emotions.
Of course, we thought of your hémecoming.. But uppermost in our mind at that time
was the tender sympathies that we felt for those brave parents, wives, sweethearts
and relatives of our boys; our boys who will not return when the troops come march-
ing home again. ° - u . oe:

TT could not utter a word. Something deeper than the mad cheering and
the honking of horns gripped me. It: seemed as if a vast. symphony of silence om-
nipotently was rendering a benediction to those hero dead, those loved ofles who
actually were more the direct cause of this great moment that we were experiencing.
Those stricken parents, wives and sweethearts were glaa for us and for others who

had not traveled the Golgotha road..:Only a fierce. pride in the possession of their
loved ones wno had made the supreme: sacrifice could compensate these parents in
shis sad and glad hour.