The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-11-15

members that drug store job and the munificent sum of 8 Q week 1t paid him.
 Truman never went to college, He took 0 secretarial course in Independence, Mo, his home town. Armed with this schooling he was graduated from drug store errand boy to bank clerk. But banking held no lure for him, SO he worked his way through the Kansas City School of Law and hung out his shingle.
 Also, he became active in the Pendergast organization, where his quiet efficiency soon attract cd the attention of the s"-.st political boss. The v. s.Id war
 interrupted Truman's budding legal-polltlcal career. He enc listed In the Army, was sent to
 the famed artillery school at Ft. Sill, Okfa., and won . com-
 mission as second lieutenant. By the time his outfit, the I2Oth
 Field Artillery, went to France, Truman was Q captain in conn mand of . battery.
 He saw action on the Meuse- Argonne front, his battery firing its last gun at l0:45 on the morn ing of November ii, 1918, just 15 minutes before the Armistice.
 Returning to Missouri, young Truman renewed his Pendergast contacts and soon was awarded an appointment as a county judge. Tn this office he quickly made 6 reputation as a conscientious and trustworthy jurist and sev- eral years later was eected pre- siding judge of the court. It is one of Truman's greatest brides that as presiding judge he directed the construction of s25,0o0,0o0 worth of public highways and buildings without a penny of poodle.
 FROM COUNTY BENCH
 TO THE SENATE
 Truman was a Httle-known county judge when. in 1884, Boss Pendergast picked him to run for the Senate seat voluntarily re- linquished by the famous Jim Reed, whose acid tongue and devastating wit is a Senate legend. It was a three-cornered race, with Truman pitted against two prom tnent Democratic leaders. But with Pendergast's potent backing. Truman handily won the nomin- tion, and later the e.ection.
 Throughout his feven years in the Senate, Truman has been overshadowed by his colleague, Bennett Clark.
 The son of 8 national political leader, ready orator and tw0- listed fighter, Clark quickly made himself a frOnt-page fig ure fin the congressional arena. Truman was content to let him have the liimelight.
 While Clark became a belIicose New Deal. foe. Truman quietly supported the Roosevelt Adminis- tratLon. This paid him big poli- tical dividende last year waen he was reelected despite the handi. cap of being a "Pendergast man."
 When the defense and foreign policy issues developed, Truman continued to back the President. Clark graduated from antI-New Dealism to violent 1 olatlcnism, but Truman did not swerve. He is exposing every dollar of waste and other fai ings of the defense pro- gram he can uncover, but he has voted for every defense and foreign policy bill sponsored by the Presi- dent.
 DEAD HORSE
 While poles apart politically, Truman and Clark are good friends personally. Their friendship dates back to the A. E. F., when on one occasion Clark played g practical joke on Truman that both now recall with smiIes.
 Truman was bringing his bat. tery by train into the Vosges Mountains. Arriving ct his des- tinatiOn, he was met by Clark, 6 Metitenant-colonel. The superior officer pointed dramatically at a dead horse lying near she station platform, and said:
 Captain, you better zee yeur aaen and guns cat of here ln a hurry. The Germans are shell- smR Ahls mlmea amA wnm aaNk4 aa