Belly Politics

Scrounging for cars, liquor, housing and hamburgers took a lot of the people's time and kept their minds off their work (see above). But when they paused to think about it--well, they had had about enough.

Housing programs, wage control, price control, meat control--all of them just seemed to make living more difficult. People were beginning to feel that somebody was to blame--and beginning to feel that they knew who it was: the Democrats. The Democrats had been running things for 14 years. Wasn't it about time for a change?

The loudest cries came over meat.

The Government was not wholly to blame, but the Government was responsible. There were plenty of cattle around --over 40 million beef cattle on ranges and farms, by conservative estimate. In 1939 there were only 30 million, and everyone who could afford it then had all the meat he could eat. Now producers were hanging on to their cattle in hopes of getting a better price. But the people did not really blame the producers. It was the Government, which had tried to replace the good old profit system with something else.

He Heard It. Harry Truman heard these rumblings last week. It came to him at last that unless some cattle were slaughtered, soon, the Democratic Party would be. In some anxiety he called a conference of the faithful to see what could be done.

In the cabinet room of the White House he faced them, nine whom he could trust: his special counsel Clark Clifford, Postmaster General Bob Hannegan, Attorney General Tom Clark, OPA Boss Paul Porter, Under Secretary of State Will Clayton, Under Secretary of the Treasury O. Max Gardner, OWMR Boss John Steelman, Agriculture's Robert H. Shields, OPA's Richard Field.

"Now I want to hear everything," Harry Truman said.

He heard it. "The elections might be lost already," someone said.

"There's a lot of hysteria," said Harry Truman.

There was a lot of reality, too, they said. Frantic Democratic candidates were phoning in: "What's the use of even having an election?"

The only thing to do, said the faithful, was to decontrol meat. If that was done immediately, the day might yet be saved. Will Clayton explained: a lot of cattle were in feeding pens. If the Administration immediately took off ceilings, those cattle would be sent on to market. But Mr. Truman had to act fast. Otherwise the cattle would be sent back to the ranges, to grow fat and ultimately fetch an even higher price.

Party Chairman Hannegan asked in agony: What would be the political effect of higher prices? And what about public reaction to the President reversing himself right after proclaiming that he was against decontrol of meat (TIME,

Oct. 7)?

To hell with higher prices, said the faithful. Much worse than high-priced meat was no meat at all. As for the President reversing himself, said one adviser, "It's not worth it to let the President's candidates get licked from coast to coast."

Mr. Truman had to act. Four nights later, he was on the radio.

"Only One Remedy." He had taken the advice of the faithful and the help of Franklin Roosevelt's old ghost writer Sam Rosenman. He followed the time-honored political practice of blaming everything on somebody else.

He declared that Congress was to blame for not passing the kind of OPA bill he had asked; producers for withholding cattle "to fatten their profits." But "the real blame," he cried, "lies at the door of the reckless group of selfish men who, in the hope of gaining political advantage, have encouraged sellers to gamble on the destruction of price control. . . . This same group has opposed every effort of this Administration to raise the standard of living and increase the opportunity for the common man."

There were several courses of action, the President said. But: "There is only one remedy left--that is to lift controls on meat . . . food and feed products."

So now they were off for good. Wage controls--what few there are--would also be relaxed. But the President admitted uneasily that the removal of meat ceilings would accelerate the cry to have the few remaining price ceilings taken off. Rent ceilings, he was sure, would have to stay for "a long time."

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