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University Daily Kansan Thursday, May 14, 1964
Truman Legend
In April 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took a vacation to Warm Springs, Ga., to renew his strength after the strain of the Yalta Conference and of a hard presidential campaign.
The renewal of this strength that characterized his public life never came. On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died within a few hours.
The nation was shocked by the death of its leader. The shock of many people was compounded, however, when they remembered Roosevelt's vice-president, the next President of the United States.
The man was a former small-time Missouri politician and senator who became Roosevelt's running mate in 1944 because the other three contenders had made too many enemies in the Democratic party.
FROM THE TIME that Harry S. Truman assumed the Presidency, he was never again an unknown.
Unlike many well-educated Presidents, Harry S. Truman can claim only William Christman High School in Independence, Mo., for an alma mater.
Some people like Truman. Some people dislike him. One thing is certain, however, they all know he is around.
Truman was not born to wealth as was Roosevelt. His father, John Truman, was a livestock dealer who brought his family to Missouri from Kentucky. The Truman family was living in Lamar, Mo., in 1884, when the first of their three children was born.
WITH A MILITARY CAREER forgotten, Truman started to work as a timekeeper for a railway construction gang. Later he became a bookkeeper for the Union National Bank in Kansas City.
After a rather uneventful high school career at William Chrisman, Truman received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but poor eyesight caused his rejection.
When he was 22, Truman returned to his father's farm and for more than 10 years lived the rural life.
He joined the Missouri National Guard in 1905. When the United States declared war on the Central powers in 1917, the 33-year-old farmer was sworn in as a first lieutenant. He was later promoted to the rank of captain.
A quiet, bespectacled officer, "Farmer Truman" proved a born leader, able to maintain discipline in a battery which had a rather fearsome reputation as "a hard-boiled bunch of Kansas City Irish." He won the esteem of his men.
AFTER THE WAR, he married Bess Wallace, a hometown girl he had admired since his days in the Presbyterian Sunday School.
He started a haberdashery in Kansas City after his discharge from the Army, but this proved a failure within two years. He could have filed a petition for bankruptcy, but that course was not consistent with Truman's personality.
A failure as a businessman, Truman became a politician in 1922.
He was elected to one of the three judgeships of the Jackson County Court, actually the county commission. During this term and an ensuing term as presiding judge, he was backed by James Pendergast, the leader of the corrupt Jackson county machine.
Truman was able to overcome the stigma of Pendergast's support with his personal integrity, however.
RE-ELECTED IN 1940, he became concerned with evidence that defense contracts were being given almost exclusively to corporations represented in the War Department's Construction Advisory Board. He became chairman of a Senate subcommittee to investigate contracts under the National Defense program. This "Truman Committee" revealed shocking conditions in expenditures for army camps and the waste of $100 million.
Conducting his committee without fear or favor inevitably made him powerful enemies, but his efficiency and inflexible honesty enhanced his
In 1934, he was elected to the United States Senate. He supported the Roosevelt administration generally, especially its social program and its efforts to build up the armed forces. He became chairman of the Interstate Commerce subcommittee which drafted the Civil Aeronautics Act.
reputation as a public servant. This reputation continued with him through his seven years as President.
After serving as vice-president for 83 days, Harry S. Truman became the 32nd President of the United States.
He took the reins of the country at a vital time in its history. Less than a month after he took office, Germany surrendered and ended the European phase of World War II.
In August, he gave orders for dropping the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
THESE BOMBS killed more than 100,000 people. Truman made this decision rather than face the loss of at least 500,000 U.S. and Japanese soldiers with a ground attack on the Island. This was the forerunner of many distasteful but necessary decisions which Truman was forced to make in his tenure of office. He has said that he never had any regrets about his decision.
Although Truman possessed few of the qualifications that are considered necessary for the Presidency, he did possess one characteristic which was essential for this crucial time in world history. This quality was intestinal fortitude—in Truman's case, guts.
In 1947, at a joint session of Congress, he outlined an aid program aimed at preventing the spread of Communism in Europe and Asia. To initiate his program, subsequently known as the Truman doctrine, he requested an appropriation of $40 million to help Greece and Turkey, which were threatened by Communist neighbors.
THIS MOVE set the tone for Truman's strong foreign policy: an attempt to check the spread of communism after World War II.
When Truman was nominated by the Democratic party in 1948, many people conceded that he hadn't done a bad job in his three years in the White House. It was just a shame he didn't have a chance to beat Thomas Dewey, the Republican nominee.
The public opinion polls all showed Dewey by a landslide. Everybody thought Dewey was going to win—everybody, that is, except Harry S. Truman. He made a cross-country tour, campaigned hard. But it was still a foregone conclusion that Thomas Dewey would be the next President of the United States.
When the votes were counted, however, Truman was still President, in what has been ranked as perhaps the greatest political upset in history.
Truman was now President on his own and wasted no time in putting in his own policies. He announced his "Fair Deal" policy in his State of the Union speech in January 1949. This was based on the principle that promoting the general welfare is a major function of the government.
He called for a wide range of social services, including medical insurance, low-rent public housing, and federal aid to schools. In 1952, he ordered the secretary of commerce to seize the steel industry, but this action was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. This marked the end of his "Fair Deal" measures for which he had worked so hard for three and a half years.
Most people do not think of Harry S. Truman for his wisdom and courage in his foreign and domestic policies, however. He is remembered for his personality. He kept running feuds with a variety of people. At one time, he made a scathing reference to columnist Drew Pearson's ancestry when Pearson said his daughter Margaret couldn't sing.
WHEN THE FREE WORLD was threatened with the North Korean assault on June 25,1950, he met the situation with wisdom and courage. He urged the continuance of his foreign policy as morally right and the best insurance against communist enslavement.
But that is the kind of man Truman is. When he believes something he's going to say it, image or no image.
The death of Roosevelt came at a very inopportune time, but it did enable Harry S. Truman to hold a position he would never have been able to attain otherwise.
Truman is a man who lacks formal education, experience and some of the more polite social graces. He does not lack courage, however. The United States and the free world are the better for it.
-Mike Miller
@1948 ACKLOSS
THE WASHINGTON POST
"I'll Get You In There If It Kills You"
The People Say...
Peace Approach
I should like to find out what Midshipman Captain Douglas Pickersgill means when he questions the means employed by the Student Peace Union. Perhaps he is questioning the means which we employ in the local situation. If this is so, these means seem to be similar to those employed by the military; consisting of sponsoring a recruiting table in the union, distributing pamphlets, sponsoring movies and lectures, and organizing public demonstrations.
Since these means seem to be so similar, I must conclude that Mr. Pickersgill is questioning the means suggested by the SPU to establish world peace. The SPU seeks to insure world peace through justice and international law. On the other hand, the military claims to seek the same ends and plans to achieve them through the threat of war and weapons of mass destruction. It would seem that, in the quest for international peace and justice, it is the means employed by the military machine which need to be questioned.
Sincerelv.
Sincerely,
Carl Bangs III
President of KU-SPU
Prairie Village soph.
- * *
SPU Drivel
Once again the SPU, waving the banner of World Peace, sallies forth to do battle with their archfoes—the men of the University ROTC Units. If this scruffy looking group of attention-grabbers realized how much they suffer by comparison with the men they attempt to disparage, I'm sure that they
would think twice before picketing the Chancellor's Review.
R
Do these people really believe what they print on signs that read, "Military men are paid killers" and other equally inane drive? Do they honestly believe that servicemen enjoy killing, if kill they must in defense of their country's policies? How ridiculous! Like the policemen who guard our citizens from the lawless element within our nation, yet who hope and pray that they will never have to shoot another man, so it is with the servicemen who guard our nation from its enemies.
E Mei are
For the most part, the pickets I saw at the Union were a disreputable looking lot. A tour of duty in the service might do wonders for them, though I have grave doubts that they could meet the physical—or mental—minimum standards of any of the military services. Perhaps that is what really has them so upset.
MY FIRST REACTION to the news that the SPU was picketing at the Student Union last tail was the thought that freedom of speech is a wonderful blessing enjoyed only by citizens in a democratic land. A half hour later, my 9 year old daughter, who happened to pass by the Union, came to me a bit upset and asked, "Daddy, men in the service aren't really paid killers, are they?" At that point, my opinion of those so-called idealists who confuse impudent slander with idealistic slogan was rather low, indeed. Freedom of expression by an individual or group is an undeniable right of democratic citizenship. But, does that right extend to the voicing of irresponsible and utterly false accusations? I think not!
J. E. McEnearney Graduate Student
Dailij Mänsan
111 Flint Hall
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