Evening star., 1945-04-13
President Truman

CeoOClilCilI do L lSSlucIlG VI UllS OIuGSu
States struck the one note which
rings out, clear and sharp, above
everything else on this day of ma
. tional sorrow.
THE world may be sure that we
will prosecute the war on both
fronts, east and west, with all the
vigor we possess, to a successful con-
clusion. In that faith and with that
spirit of courage we must carry on. >
His first important decision as
President, to 60 forward with the
plans for the San Francisco Confer
ence, was made in that same spirit.
And it is that spirit, binding all
our people together, which must
stand behind him in these first trou-
bled days of his trial, give him the
strength and wisdom and, with Gods
help, the courage to face the battling
complexities of the leadership he
has fallen heir to.
He will need it, Of the few men in
our history whom death has plucked
from the relative obscurity of the
vice presidency and placed in the
Presidents chair, none has faced so
many or SO beWildering an array of
responsibilities; none has had placed
in his hands so many unfinished
things begun as the personal under
takings of a single individual whose
ability to see them through depended
SO much on himself alone.
And none has reached the emf
nence of national leadership by a
more inscrutable manifestation of
mysterious destiny.
Eleven years ago this man who is
now the President was an incon-
spicuouS county judge in Missouri,
clean in his personal life, loyal in
his affiliations, unspectacular in the
faithful discharge of his duties. The
expedient choice of dominant politl-
calforceS in his own State, he came
to the Senate in 1884 resolved, as he
put it, ito do lots of listening and
mighty little talking" He followed
that formula in his first six-year
term, rarely lifting his voice in Sen
ate debate, sponsoring no important
legislation, doing nothing which set
him above or apart from his COL
leagues.
Quiet, unaSSuming, with a simple,
doWn-to-earth directness of speech
and manner which warmed men to
him, he made himself a competent
representative of his people. They
sent him back to the Senate in 1910
after a campaign in which he coined
for himself the slogan of a candi-
date running as "the good right arm
of the President"
The war gave him Craftsmanship
OF the Senate's important Commit
tee Investigating War Activities. He
filled it satisfactorily, identifying his
name with the reports which we're,
on the whole, constructive, temperate
In criticism, devoid of the bias which
so easily might have been associated
with defensive partisanship.
A few months ago he left Wash
ington for the Chicago convention
with no serious thought of making
himself candidate for Vice Presi-
dent. He was thinking of nomi-
mating another man, James F.
ByrneS of South Carolina. And
again he became an expedient
choice, resolving the conflict be-
tween the more extreme elements
OF his party who wished Henry A.
Wallace and the conservatives who
would have none of Mr.. Wallace.
Without seeking it, conf1ding to his
friends a naive sort of reluctance
to take it, he won second place on
a ticket which the majority of his
countrymen supported out of conf
dence in Mr.. Roosevelt's war leader
ship.
And now he is President. There
Is little in his background, in the
nature of his public service or in
his experience, which eft him." in
the usual sense of the term, for
what he now must do. Yet he has
qualities of personality and char
acter which will stand him in
good stead. People like him and
respect him. They like his sin
cerity, his simplicity. his cleanliness,
his earnestness, his straight-for-
wardness and his efficient discharge
of the things he is called upon
to do.
He will lean on the people. He
will absorb from them his strength
and will look to them for guidance.
And If he is able to reveal to them
those attributes which have in
spired confidence within the smaller
circle of his intimates, there will
be that mutuality of support that is
the predominant characteristic of
our form of government, a charac-
teristic which in the majestic pro-
portions of its concept rises above
mere men.