Reliving the Good Old Days

Harry Truman called his Cabinet and staff together last week in Washington. Margaret stuck her head in too. There was some thunder, a great many jokes, roars of laughter and peppery irreverences about people and politics.

Harry enjoyed it immensely. Well, not really. Harry was James Whitmore, the actor who plays the part in Give 'em Hell Harry! at Ford's Theater. The National Press Club had him come for a lunch, and just to make it seem like old times they invited a lot of men and women who had worked with Truman.

There was something magic. It had been 25 years since they had assembled like that. But as they lined up at the head table, the old feeling of exhilaration seized them all. Once again they felt, if only for a few moments in their imagination, that they were doing a job for a man of purpose, courage and honor.

Whitmore claimed he knew less about Truman than anyone there, that he got the part in the play because of "bone structure." But in that confession there was a bit of Harry. "I have no story about Mr. Truman," said the actor. "I never met him. I voted for someone else."

The most eloquent moment in his Truman portrayal, said Whitmore, is the little bit where the President writes a letter to his daughter, then takes a 3-c- stamp out of his wallet and puts it on the envelope. "Very often the audience applauds," said Whitmore. "When you think about that, and I have, we have a hunger and thirst for simplicity and for people of integrity."

Clark Clifford, the White House counsel in Truman's time, told a story of how the President dragged General Harry H. Vaughan, the controversial military aide who hated the water and boats, along on a fishing trip. When Truman caught a fish called a Schoolmaster, he showed it with pride to Vaughan. "Look, Harry," said Truman, "I caught a Schoolmaster." Vaughan, slumped miserably on the deck, said, "I don't give a damn if you caught a superintendent of education."

When Vaughan's turn came, he remembered how he had tried to stop "all this foolishness" of Vice President Truman's playing the piano with Lauren Bacall draped languorously over the top of the instrument at the National Press Club. Of course the picture became famous.

Beth Short, Truman's correspondence secretary, contributed an anecdote about the Truman reputation for salty language, much of which is faithfully reproduced in the new play. She told about the time she was on an elevator with Truman and a bunch of men. He used a swear word. "When we got to the lobby," recalled Mrs. Short, "he saw that I was on the elevator. He came over not only to speak to me but to say, 'I beg your pardon, Beth. I didn't realize you were on the elevator or I never would have said that word.' " The word was damn.

Jim Webb, who was Truman's budget man, recalled how Truman used to jump up and shake his hand every time he entered the Oval Office. Finally Webb said, "Mr. President, you don't need to do this. I've been here before." Truman said, "Oh, no. You don't know how the presidency operates. If I didn't shake hands, somebody would say, 'The President's mad at the budget director.' "

Averell Harriman, Secretary of Commerce under Truman, relived the time he had accused Ohio's Senator Robert Taft of being "the greatest friend Stalin has in the U.S." Taft had voted against the Marshall Plan and other Truman proposals to rehabilitate Europe. The press erupted with condemnation of Harriman. A particularly vehement editorial was printed in the Washington Star. That evening Harriman's telephone rang during dinner.

"Have you seen this editorial?" asked Truman. "No," said Harriman, "I haven't seen it." Well, came back Truman, "don't pay any attention to it because they are attacking me and not you."

"That was among the reasons why the President got this extraordinary loyalty from his staff," declared Harriman. "You get loyalty if you give it." And then, in a style that surely would have gladdened the heart of his old boss, Harriman muttered, "I still maintain that Robert Taft was Stalin's best friend in the United States."

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