At 86, Truman feels 'as good as ever'
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (UPI)—Harry S. Truman, on the eve of his 86th birthday, said with a tip of his dark gray fedora Thursday, "I'm feeling as good as ever."
And the 33rd U.S. President meant it.
"I'm feeling very fine," he said, leaning jauntily on his shiny oak cane.
Hampered by arthritis but still able to take an occasional stroll. Truman is seldom seen these days. But Thursday was one of those days.
It was a sunny, warm spring day in Independence and the former President and his wife, Bess, went shopping. When they returned to their big, white frame house at 219 South Delaware, Truman paused for a chat with
UPI photographer Dale Monaghan.
"You've got to make a living just like I do," Truman said, and posed for a rare photograph. He was accompanied by his bodyguard.
Truman looked thin. He walked slowly but surely with the aid of his cane. It apparently was one of his better days.
After his stroll, Truman returned to his house, where his life now is shared almost exclusively by Mrs. Truman, who was 85 last February.
There will be a birthday party Friday for the former President in nearby Kansas City, an event Truman last attended in 1966. He is expected to celebrate quietly at home with his wife.
House committee's viability in question
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The chairman of the House Internal Security Committee said today there was a question of whether the subversive activities control board should be abolished.
Rep. Richard H. Ichord, D-Mo., said Supreme Court decisions had "virtually brought a halt to operations of the board.
"The question has properly arisen as to the advisability of further funding of the board." Ichord said in a news release that the group-formerly called the Committee on Un-American Activities—would hold hearings on the future of the agency and on whether a new federal employee loyalty oath should be enacted.
The board was established under the 1950 Subversive Activities Control Act to identify Communists, but the Supreme Court last month upheld a lower court ruling that the provisions of the act and methods used by the board under the act were unconstitutional.
The high court also refused to review lower court rulings that the federal employee loyalty oath was unconstitutional.
No date has been set for the hearings.
Most of Truman's days focus on reading newspapers and accounts of history, according to his friends. There are few visitors to the Truman home, which is surrounded by a 6-foot-high, black wrought iron fence. But there will be visitors today, some "from out of town," said a friend.
Ichord said the government has the right to protect itself from subversion but "the Subversion Activities Control Act and the loyalty oath statute no longer seem effective to serve these purposes."
Philosophy society condemns
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (UPI) — The Society for Philosophy and Public Affairs has passed a resolution condemning the movement of American troops into Cambodia, it was announced Thursday.
The society, a national organization of teachers of philosophy, concluded it's two-day annual meeting here Thursday.
The statement continued, "We call upon Congress to reassert its constitutional prerogatives. In particular, we call for immediate restrictions on military expenditures and for the prompt repeal of the Tonkin Gulf resolution."
"We condemn the American invasion of Cambodia and the resumption of the bombing of North Vietnam," the resolution said. "We urge Americans to protest these policies."
The group also approved a resolution which referred to "the shooting of unarmed students at Kent State University by the National Guard" as "another of those acts of mindless barbarism which are becoming all too typical of contemporary America."
Less than a mile away is the Truman Library, which contains more than 3.5 million of the former President's letters, documents and records of his administration.
Builders, striking laborers schedule more negotiations
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI)—Striking laborers' unions and the Builders Association will meet again next Wednesday in an attempt to end Kansas City's construction strike, now in its fifth week.
No progress was reported Wednesday after a three-hour meeting.
The striking locals, Laborers Union Locals No. 555, began their walkout April 1 after their old contract expired.
down on the teminal building at the new Kansas City International Airport, the Crown Center, the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex and numerous smaller residential developments and commercial projects.
Construction has been shut
The striking unions have picketed at job sites where members of other unions were performing the strikers' work.
The strike his idled an estimated 15,000 men.
Occasionally, when weather permits, Truman strolls Delaware and the streets nearby. A dark suit and dark hat hang loosely on his now thin frame. The brisk pace has been slowed by age, and the walking stick he once swung jauntily at his side is now a cane.
Police Lt. Paul Mike West-
wood, a long-time friend, is always at his side. A conspicuous,
sleeek black car—driven by a Secret Service agent—is no more than a few feet away.
The Allies recall that day in May
LONDON (UPI)—The Soviets brought a historic flag back to Berlin, French veterans paraded on Paris' Champs Elysees, and the Germans on both sides of the Iron Curtain quietly observed the 25th anniversary of Allied victory in Europe today.
At Rheims, France, city officials placed a bouquet of red carnations outside the Little Red Schoolhouse where Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, accepted the German surrender.
More than 4,000 persons gathered at the Camp de Voyal-Lieu, north of Paris, at a "Flame of Remembrance" for Jews, resistance fighters and thousands of other persons who were imprisoned at the camps prior to shipment to death camps.
Shortly before the ceremony, police discovered black swastikas had been painted on nearby monuments to the war dead.
French government officials were among those reviewing the Camps Elysees parade. Neither Britain nor Italy had anything so gala.
East German officials in East Berlin put on display the Soviet flag that the victorious Red army of Marshal Georgi Khukov hoisted above the Reichstag parliament on April 30, 1945, the day the city fell. The banner was carried more than 1,000 miles from Moscow by relays of Soviet motorcycle riders.
The observance was subdued in West Germany. President Gustav Heinemann told a gathering of 100 ambassadors to West Germany that his country was "immune to hate and revengefulness despite the sacrifices demanded of it and the destruction of nationality."
For thousands of residents of Western Europe, the day was a time for picnics or just staying at home. In some countries, it coincided with Ascension Day, a legal holiday. Many Germans chose to ignore VE day.
"Why all this fuss?" asked Egon Kemmler, 17, in Frankfurt.
State to aid children of migrant workers
TOPEKA (UPI)—Summer education programs for the children of migrant farm workers will be expanded this year under a $425,-000 federal grant, Henry Parker, director of state compensatory education, indicated today.
He said 10 schools would participate.
The two-month program beginning the first week in June is designed to provide health care as well as educational enrichment.
FIDEL
May 8
1970 KANSAN 21
"As a visual experience, it has something that Hollywood tries desperately to contrive."
Ralph J. Gleason—Rolling Stones
First run Campus Premier of a startling new film on Cuba today.
Dyche Auditorium Sunday, May 10
Matinee 4:30 $1.00
7:00-9:00 $1.50
Except for those rare walks, Truman's only other known trips away from the family home are to the barbershop a block away, to the doctor or dentist and for an occasional ride with Mrs. Truman in the family car, chaffeed by Westwood.
And always, the black sleek car follows.
It was 25 years ago April 12—the day Franklin D. Roosevelt died—that Harry S. Truman, a farm boy born in the tiny town of Lamar, Mo., found himself holding the reins of the mightiest nation on earth. His unprecedented decisions included the atomic bombing of Japan, the Marshall plan, the Berlin airlift and the dispatch of U.S. troops to Korea.
The Kansas City birthday parties in honor of Truman have been sponsored each year since he left the White House in 1953 by industrialist Henry Talge.
The premiere presentation of "Give 'em Hell, Harry" opened Thursday night, highlighting "Salute to Harry S. Truman Week" in Kansas City. The two-act documentary play dramatizes Truman's White House years.
Even a group of Pennsylvania Republicans are honoring Truman.
Frizzell announces successful law suit
The defendants were Johnson County House Movers Inc.; Johnson County Home Movers and Builders Inc., and James W. Berry. The business offices were in Overland Park.
TOPEKA (UPI) — Attorney General Kent Frizzell announced today his consumer protection division has successfully concluded a lawsuit against a home mover on fraud charges.
Frizzell said after a lengthy trial the Johnson County District Court found the home mover had engaged in a half-dozen unlawful business practices and while so doing violated city ordinances, regulations of the Kansas Corporation Commission and provisions of the State Consumer Protection Act.
The court ordered the defendant corporations dissolved and permanently enjoined the firms and their officers and agents from engaging in the business or occupation of house moving. Restitution of monies lost by defrauded customers was also ordered.
Frizzell said that the decision was significant because it was the first full test of the attorney general's powers under the Consumer Protection Act.
This weekend include Griff's Burger Bar in your weekend activities. It's not far from campus. You've probably seen it. It's the triangular building on 23rd street with the rainbow-colored roof.
When you're feeling hungry, stop in Griff's. We'll be happy to show you how fast and friendly our service can be as we proudly serve our GIANT Hamburgers, DOUBLE GIANT Hamburgers, Fish Sandwiches, Shakes, and Fries.
This Saturday and Sunday, come to Griff's for a tasty meal, a cool drink, and a friendly smile.
100% Pure Beef Burgers
Griff's Burgor Bar
1618 W. 23rd