Evening star., 1945-04-20

of his predeces- Frank r. Kent.
sors.
Actually. the speed and firmness
with which he has acted since he
took the oath of Office last Thursday
comes pretty close to setting a rec
ord.
For example, though some stri-
dent Journalistic voices were calling
for its postponement, within a few
hours after he had taken the oath
of office, he announced that the San
Francisco Conference would be held
on schedule and that he would not
personally attend.
The following morning he ap-
pointed Mr.. Snyder as Federal Loan
Administrator, thus filling a three
weeks vacancy in two days. At
o'clock he delivered his message to
Congress and the next day held his
first press conference when, answer
Ing barrage of questions, he
evinced a complete absence of hesi-
tation or equivocation. He was can
did and good tempered without be-
ing patronizing or frivolous.
Abhors Confusion.
On Tuesday, he sent to the Sem
ate the nomination of 1t. Gems. Pat
ton and Hodges to four-star rank
they having been left off the Army
list sent up before he became Presi-
dent. In addition, he took a strong
stand in favor of the Breton Woods
agreement, seized a striking plant
In Louisiana and made a ten-min-
ute radio address to men in the
armed services.
Take all these things together and
add in the scores of persons with
whom the new President conferred,
either personally or over the tele-
phone, and the total constitutes a
really remarkable two-day perform
ance.
Obviously, here Is President who
Is going to get great deal of work
done, who is not going to let things
pile up on him, who clears his desk,
who does not like loose ends and
ahhors confusion.
OF course, there is much more
to learn about Mr. Truman. The
months to come will reveal his own
political philosophy and trends of
thought. Right now he has no
choice save to continue along the
Roosevelt war and peace lines. In
internal matters, too, there is no
chance of sensational departure
from Roosevelt policies-certainly,
not for quite a while.
Soon or late, however, he will be
on his own, required to meet situa-
tions not previously dealt with, to
supply initiative and leadership.
Then, the real Truman will be far
better, known than now. Neverthe-
less, it must be conceded that these
two days of activity and decision
have thrown a considerable light on
the man-light enough, at any rate,
to make it clear that here is no weak
or indecisive President, not one who
shrinks from work or Is afraid of
responsibility.
To repeat, this is not all there Is
to know about Mr.. Truman by a
long shot-but it is a good deal to
find out in two days. Perhaps it
should be added that he also dis
closed another rather admirable
quaHty-he certainly is not a Presi-
dent who can be pushed around.
This Is shown by the steadiness with
which he is standing pressure from
various quarters to do certain things.
One of these drives comes from
those who insist he cannot get along
without Harry Hopkins. He is
told, in print, that Mr.. Hopkins
knows so many secrets connected
with the various international con-
ferences which he has attended and
was so deep in Mr.. Roosevelt's con-
fidence that it would be great
mistake not to keep him close to
his side.
Hour and Half With Hopkins.
Those who are in best position to
Judge agree that President Truman
does not feel that way. He had
full hour and a half alone with Mr..
Hopkins on Saturday. In an hour
and half the President had full
opportunity to question Mr.. Hop
kins and Mr.. Hopkins full opportu-
nifty to unbosom himself of his Sc
crets.
A man can tell a great many Sc
crets in even half an hour. It is
hard to imagine Mr.. Hopkins so
heavily burdened with secret infor-
nation that he could not get it all
off his chest in an hour and a half.
In any event, Mr.. Truman can al
ways see him again and there seems
no reason for keeping him on in
the capacity of closest friend"
which he was to Mr.. Roosevelt.
The other pressure on Mr.. Tru-
man comes from those who want
to get rid of Secretary of State
Stettinius. These urge that he be
removed before the San Francisco
Conference and ask Mr.. Truman to
appoint either Mr.. James F. Byrnes
or Mr.. Sumner Welles or some one
else.
There is reason to believe he will
do no such thing. In the first place,
such a course would be publicly