If He's Right, I'm Wrong

President Truman presided at the press conference, but Politician Truman made the news. Like a man itching to peel off his coat and get into a backyard brawl, he announced that he was out to beat a Democrat who had obstructed his policies in Congress. His target: conservative Representative Roger Caldwell Slaughter of Missouri's Fifth District, onetime neighbor of County Judge Harry Truman and now a candidate for renomination in the August 6 primary (TIME, July 1).

With one blunt issue-drawing comment Politician Truman turned a local Missouri scrap into a national political row in the faltering Democratic party (see Political Notes). Said Harry Truman of Congressman Slaughter: If he's right, I'm wrong.

Politician Truman made no bones about how deeply he had intervened in his home territory's primary fight. Yes, he had talked it over with Kansas City's Democratic Boss Jim Pendergast (nephew and heir of Harry Truman's political mentor and sometime convict, the late Tom Pendergast). Yes, he had encouraged Jim Pendergast to throw his organization's support to one of Slaughter's two opponents: a politically unknown, young (37) lawyer named Axtell.

The President's personal endorsement was included; he said he had known Candidate Axtell all his life. But, a few minutes later, Harry Truman had to admit that he could not recall Candidate Axtell's first name (Enos).

Dally Double. The President had another item of note for Democrats: he and Mrs. Truman were going home to Independence to vote in the primary.* Democrat Truman had no other firm political plans. But, if it was necessary to help the Party, he would also take the stump in the campaign this fall.

In Kansas City the President's declaration of war brought no cheering from Pendergast "Goats." They well knew that Roger Slaughter (a "Rabbit" of the Shannon faction) was the strongest candidate. Now they were saddled with Axtell. and they gave him only an outside chance.

The boys in the back room were thinking ahead. The Fifth District, taking in Kansas City's "silk stocking" South Side, has never been a Democratic stronghold. The Boss's slap at Slaughter was irrevocable; with the Democrats split into factions, the Republican candidate might easily win in November.

Gamblers went after bets on a "daily double": Slaughter to win in August, Republican Albert Reeves Jr. in November. Representative Slaughter lost no time in giving a blunt counterthrust to the President's blunt attack. Said he: "The President of the United States is a prisoner of the C.LO.-P.A.C."

Low Pay-Off. What appeared in Missouri to be unsmart local politics looked no brighter from a national viewpoint. It was known that the President had talked over his Slaughter scunner with National Chairman Bob Hannegan and other Party brass. But it seemed clear that the decision to go on the warpath personally was Harry Truman's own.

Practical Democrats knew that personal Presidential purges did not usually pay off. In his 1938 purge campaign even Master Tactician Franklin Roosevelt had been able to unseat only one of the five obstreperous Democratic Congressmen he had set out to get. It is axiomatic that local voters do not like to have outsiders, even Presidents, coming around to tell them how to vote.

Many a loyal Administration Democrat figured that Politician Truman could not afford to risk another blow such as he suffered last week in Senator Burton K. Wheeler's defeat. Gloomed one Democrat with a deep, professional interest in his party's fortunes: "I don't know why the Boss had to get himself mixed up in that one (the Montana primary). But you can bet your salary we're going to try to steer him away from any such foolish moves in the future."

But steering Harry Truman might be difficult, perhaps impossible. If he were repudiated in his own state on as clear an issue as he drew against Roger Slaughter, Truman Democrats could start worrying in earnest.

*But he could not vote against Representative Slaughter. The President's home Congressional District is Missouri's Fourth; Slaughter's is the Fifth.

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