Now Is the Time

At Missouri's Henry County Fair a month ago, Harry Truman gave his explanation of the unwonted mildness which had characterized most of his post-presidential statements. Said he: "A lot of people here today hoped I would have something to say on political issues, but this doesn't happen to be the time ... If we , point out the Republicans' errors, they might mend their ways, and we would not have the chance to take them to task." This week, at a joint A.F.L.-C.I.O. Labor Day rally in Detroit, Harry made it clear that "give 'em hell" time was here again.

With obvious relish, Truman denounced the Eisenhower Administration and all its works. "There are plenty of signs," said he, "of a return of that old philosophy that the object of government is to help big business . . . This Administration has raised interest rates all across the board. That may be to the benefit of the moneylenders, but it surely does hurt the rest of the people . . . Our great public-housing program, which was helping to clear America's slums, has been condemned to death. Funds for enforcement of the minimum-wage law, which protects the lowest-paid of our workers, have been drastically cut. And the farmer, who lives with greater economic hazards than perhaps any of us, is being told that he ought to 'go it alone' again . . . You should hear the farmer weep and wail and ask forgiveness for voting as he did last fall . . .

"Look at what's happening to the policy of developing low-cost electric power. The betrayal of the Hell's Canyon project in the Columbia River Basin tells the story. If they can give Hell's Canyon away, others will follow. The power lobby is doing its best to take over Niagara Falls. And the bell will be tolling for the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration and all the rest . . .

"Then there is another thing . . . That is the dangerous philosophy that balancing the federal budget is the most sacred objective of the Government . . . Now I am a great believer in a balanced budget. And I kept the Government budget balanced, too, until an emergency came along that was a lot more important than all the balanced budgets in the world ... I should think a first-class Air Force and air-raid defense system . . . would be worth quite a lot to us just now--even if it unbalanced the budget for a while and deferred a tax cut for some years to come. It might even be better for the top-bracket income groups than the money they will make on a tax cut, because those extra dollars aren't going to do them much good if the whole country is devastated." Harry's peroration began on a note of sweet reason: "In our hope for world peace and freedom, we are not Republicans or Democrats; we are all Americans . . . But there are different ways of reaching that goal . . ." The way Harry thought the Eisenhower Administration was heading was clear. Said he: "I don't want to see anyone take us back to the old ways of greed and arrogance and indifference to the public weal which we rejected 20 years ago. Because I know, if those days return, we shall lose our strength at home and our moral leadership abroad, and the path will lead to depression and destruction."

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