"I Read Your Letter"

Three weeks ago, a prosperous Salisbury, Mo. dentist, Dr. H. H. Brummall, wrote to his fellow Missourian Harry Truman, suggesting that he withdraw from the presidential race. The reply, which was released to the press last week, was not only indicative of the state of the President's mind but also characteristic of the man.

Wrote the President: "I read your letter of the fifteenth with a lot of interest, and for your information I was not brought up to run from a fight.

"A great many of you Democrats in 1940 ran off after a certain Governor [Missouri's former Governor Lloyd C. Stark], who was trying to cut my throat and he didn't do it successfully--they are not going to succeed this time either.

"I am certainly sorry that you feel the way you do. It is not a good way for a Missourian to feel at this time."

The New Yorker magazine reported last week that an attorney who sent the President a similar suggestion got a vastly different answer--a form letter signed by a White House secretary, which said: "The President has asked me to thank you for your letter of April 23. He has read it with interest, and wants you to know that he is always glad to receive suggestions such as yours."

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