Harry's Farewell

Misty-eyed Democrats, pouring in to say goodbye, found Harry Truman's White House office oddly naked last week. Down from the walls had come the portraits of Simon Bolivar and Ben Franklin, the etchings of early aircraft, the framed photographs of Sam Rayburn and Alben Barkley. Gone from the presidential desk were the familiar knickknacks--a piece of rock from the highest mountain in North America (Mt. McKinley: 20,270 ft.), the donkeys, and the desk photos. Said Harry Truman with rueful jocularity: "If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again."

Most of the week Truman's attractive, homespun side was on public view. Longtime foes were temporarily softened by his warmth and perkiness. Democrats were stirred to nostalgia by his last annual economic report. Said Harry, conjuring up visions of Franklin Roosevelt: "In the mid-1930s, it was no exaggeration to speak of one-third of a nation ill-fed, ill-clad and ill-housed. Since then, the one-third has been reduced to one-fifth or maybe less . . ."

Sweetness & Light. At his final presidential press conference--the 324th since he took office--Truman was full of bounce and impishness. That evening, in a farewell radio-TV speech to the nation, Harry Truman reverted briefly to the humility of his early days in office. Said he: "When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I to take up the presidential task. But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. I have tried to give it everything that was in me." Characteristically, he also soared to new heights of self-assertion in an implied comparison of his own foreign policy and that of F.D.R. Sketching in the background of the U.S. decision to intervene in Korea--"the decision I believe was the most important in my time as President"--Truman recalled the easy conquests of aggressor nations in the 1930s--Manchuria, Ethiopia, the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia. He went on: "Think about those years of weakness and indecision and World War II. which was their evil result. Then think about the speed and courage and decisiveness with which we have moved against the Communist threat since World War II."

Last Blow. As Harry came to the end of his speech, Bess and Margaret came to his side. Solemnly they faced the TV cameras while he said: "And now the time has come for me to say goodnight and--God bless you."

Next day, sweetness & light went by the board when Harry Truman issued an executive order setting aside all U.S. offshore oil deposits as a petroleum reserve for the Navy. The order was Harry Truman's last blow in a long-standing fight. He had twice vetoed bills in which Congress proposed to give offshore oil deposits to the states off whose coasts they lie. Last week's order meant that, to carry out their intention of giving ownership of offshore reserves to the states, Ike and the Republican-dominated 83rd Congress would have to accept the political odium of taking oil away from the Navy.

Five days later, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower rode together in state to the Capitol Building. There Harry Truman watched the inauguration ceremony which made him an ex-President. A few hours afterward, the man from Missouri boarded the railroad car Ferdinand Magellan, and headed for Independence.

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