Old Home Week
In his third week in office, President Truman no longer worked under the concentrated light which had shone on him for a fortnight. Some of the nation's floodlights had shifted to San Francisco. Besides, the novelty of having a new President had begun to wane. The shakedown cruise was over, and Harry Truman, no longer able to rely on the doctrine of "carrying on," now had to do a little steering on his own account.
He worked as hard as ever. In the week he had 72 appointments. He also: P: Visited the Pentagon Building for a mysterious meeting which caused endless rumors (see above).
" Had an hour-long chat with ailing Cordell Hull at Bethesda Hospital. "Opened the San Francisco conference, by radio (see INTERNATIONAL). " Ordered Commerce Secretary Henry Wallace to begin an inquiry into the alleged misuse of patents to foster monopolies and cartels.
" Seized his second strike-bound plant (United Engineering Co., Ltd. at San Francisco).
" Urged the planting of more Victory Gardens.
" Heard himself endorsed for a second term by Pennsylvania's egregious, New Dealing Senator Joe Guffey (who was also one of the first on Franklin Roosevelt's Term III & IV band wagons). " Posed for a White House picture with 38 of the 55 Democratic Senators, all who were in town that day (see cut).
But mostly his week was spent in listen ing to the endless stream of White House visitors. They were of all stripes and beliefs, and they came on all sorts of missions: North Carolina's Representative "Muley" Doughton (taxes); FEA's Leo Crowley (Lend-Lease); Bob Hannegan (patronage); Washington's ex-Senator Lewis Schwellenbach, now a federal judge (job); Wisconsin's Bob La Follette (social call).
"All Missouri's Here." So many of the visitors were from Harry Truman's home state of Missouri that the Washington Daily News headlined a story: "ALL MISSOURI'S HERE TO SEE HARRY." Said the News: "Apparently the only password to the White House these days is 'He's an old buddy of mine.'"
Charles W. Latimer, a boyhood friend of the President's in Independence, Mo., came all the way from his present home in Tampa, Fla., just to shake hands. And there was Bryce B. Smith, longtime (1930-40) mayor of Kansas City under the Boss Pendergast regime.
All of the men who "had known him when" were pleased but not surprised to see that Harry Truman had not gone high-hat. No one had ever doubted Harry Truman's loyalty to his old friends. It is one of his outstanding characteristics. But some Washington observers were beginning to wonder if some of these loyalties might not prove too big a burden. Some thought they could see a "government by cronies" ahead.
Harry Truman's two appointments last week were both handed to old friends: 1) California Democrat Ed Pauley as the U.S. member of the Allied Reparations Commission; and 2) Omaha insurance man Ed McKim as chief administrative assistant (see THE ADMINISTRATION). President Truman's chief adviser on all matters, big & small, continued to be National Chairman Hannegan, the man who put him over for Vice President.
Too Big & Too Busy. As one of his first acts, President Truman had invited his old crony, Tennessee's Senator Kenneth McKellar, to sit with the Cabinet, because of McKellar's position as Senate president pro tern. It was commended in some quarters as a further presidential gesture of friendliness to Congress. But others saw it differently. Cried the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "A hack sits in the Cabinet . . . Senator McKellar is a vindictive peanut politician ... a grudge-bearing politician with an incurable itch for spoils. . . . President Truman is too big and busy a man to have to waste his time listening to this shoddy impresario of the patronage grab."
President Truman's true friends deeply realized that he was indeed too busy at too big a job to go on much longer with the old-home-week performance that had taken up much of his time and many of his appointments in his first three weeks in office.
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