Acres of Folks

As the "Presidential Special" rolled back to Washington, its cargo of frazzled newsmen were frankly horrified at Harry Truman's endless cheerfulness and energy. Despite a sore throat and his 64 years he leaped out of bed at 5 every morning, apparently unable to wait for another exhausting day.

One morning an aide caught him in the act of taking a brisk, two-mile walk. Between breakfast and midnight that day, Harry Truman traveled 500 miles by train, 141 by automobile and bus, made 15 speeches in 15 different towns, changed his clothes eight times and met 250 politicians, labor leaders and civic dignitaries.

Triumphant Discussion. At Neosho, Mo., he couldn't resist giving the home folks a triumphant discussion of his travels. "I started out at Des Moines, at a plowing contest," said ex-Plowboy Harry Truman, "and there were just about ten acres of people in front of the stand where I spoke ... I went to Denver and there were 100,000 people . . . went on down the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and over to Salt Lake City . .

"We had that meeting in the Mormon Tabernacle. It holds 11,000 people and there were about 12,500 at the place, and when I got through with them I don't think there was a Republican in Utah but what didn't feel like he wanted to vote the Democratic ticket."

At Reno, the President had spoken "to an acre and a half of people." In Los Angeles he had addressed "30,000 people in Gilmore Stadium and they seemed highly interested." He said, further: "The governor of Texas met me [in El Paso] and we went across Texas, and I must have seen a million people in Texas."

As he headed home, President seemed to get folksier & folksier at every stop. In Ardmore, Okla., he yanked open a horse's mouth and stared at the animal's teeth. "Six years old," he cried. "Correct," said the horse's owner. At Lexington, in Kentucky's bluegrass country, he compared himself to the wonder horse, Citation, in predicting a homestretch victory. At Shelbyville, Ky., he talked about his ancestry: "My grandfather Truman ran off with Mary Jane Holmes and was married here in Shelbyville and lived . . . out here west of town . . ."

The Homely Approach. Though he also continued his vehement attacks on the 80th Congress, and damned the National Association of Manufacturers, the homely approach set the tone for almost everything the President did last week. The crowds in the border states loved it.

He had his critics. Said Socialist Candidate Norman Thomas, who has taken part in six campaigns: "You can carry this business of being just one of the folks too far." But the President seemed to believe that victory lay in carrying it farther. When he got back to Washington at week's end, he had traveled 8,300 miles, made 140 speeches and estimated that he had seen 3,000,000 people.

He planned to stay in the capital only four days. This week, despite competition from the World Series, he would set out on a new tour of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and upstate New York. Said he: "People are beginning to wake up to the fact that this is a crusade . . . I've only just begun to fight."

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