The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-19

be very brief. Republican Sena- tor Vandenberg, however, urged a longer message, and other sen- ators agreed. Truman accepted their suggestion {. Donald Nel- son, whom Truman championed against Charles E. Wilson and Army brass hats during WIPE bat ties, is now sitting close to the White House. Just before Tru- man went up to deliver his first message, Nelson sat with Jimmy Byrnes to put the finishing touches on the speech.
 Most people don't know it, but the Murray Kilgore Bill" for re- conversion was almost called the Murray KilgOre-T Truman Bill"
 The bill provided for generous temporary payments to labor dur ing reconversion period when the"e might be wholesale unemploy- ment, and Truman strongly fav- ored this pro-labor legislation. But in deference to Roosevelt, who then opposed it, the Vice-Presi- dential candidate did not put his name on the bill as co-author. However, he gave Senators Mur- ray and Ki!gore plenty of quie: help behind the scenes Truman is being urged to appoint Vice Democratic Chairman OS- car Ewing, the Solicitor General. Just before he died, Roosevelt fin- ally agreed With Riddle that Ewing, an Aluminium Corpora lion lawyer, wasn't the man. Now however, Democratic bigWigs are trying to get reversal from Tru- man When the new Presi- dent delivered his first message to Congress, the White House ran out of tickets. So Truman's sec retary, Mat Connolly, wrote six letters of admission on White House stationery and gave them to six old Truman friends. How ever, Congressional doorkeepers ignored the letters, tossed the six friends out.
 RIGHT OR LEFT TRUMAN?
 Biggest political problem faced by Harry Truman is to keep the support of the huge segment oi liberals which, rain or shine, for better or for worse, alWay- followed Franklin Roosevelt.
 FDR knew they could never leave him. During the first eight years of his administration, ne was their idol. And during thu last four years, when he swung to the right, the liberals had no place else to go. Roosevelt knew it and sometimes treated them like step-children. But they had to take it.
 Since RO0sevelt's death last
 week, however, some of his old
 liberal friends, among them la
 bOr leaders controlling huge blOcs
 of votes, have been putting their heads together. Some have de-
 cided that if Truman swings to the right, they will bolt. They figure that they have much greater political bargaining power if they are independent In the old days the Republican party was often more progressive than the Democrats. Today Stas- sen of Minnesota, Warren of Cali fornia and Dewey of New York are putting through some dls- tinctly liberal measures. There fore, if the Truman Administra tion swings over to the conserva- tive Southern wing of the Demo- cratic Party, the liberals figure they can do bushes sw.th the Republicans.
 Already they have held one carefully hushed-up meeting ans have been gone so far as to start a skelonized organization. So hold:ag both wings of the Democratic party together may be Harry Truman's toughest job. TRUMAN'S FIRST PHONE CALL
 President Harry Truman's first telephone call from the Whi,e House was made to one of his best friends.
 Arriving for his first day of ot- ficial duties, Truman picked ID the phone, put in a call to Leslie Biffle. Secretary of the Senate.
 "Biff," said the new President.
 II am making my first phone call from the White House. Can 1 come up and see you at lunch tOday?"