The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-13

A group. of civilians and serviceme President Roosevelt, paube as they
 the flag lowere which the CLOG Communist Leftwing elements of the late presidents Roosevelt's party would prefer to do business. So far as is known, Sidney Hillman of the CLOS remarkable political action committee has not met MT. Truman since tn. bruising day on which he was nominated for vice president in Chicago.
 That nomination came amid charges that it was being obtained by unfair means.
 Shady city bossisnn," shouted the CLOS Richard T. Frankensteen from the convention floor, has even less place in international affairs than in American life"
 Frankensteen was talking about Hannegan and the candidate - MT. Truman. Perhaps he was alluding to the fact that the new president got his political start under the guidance of old Tom Pendergast, the Missouri Boss who died the other day, paroled felon. MT. Tru- man may or may not have been proud of his association with old Tom The old man sent him to the senate after parcelling out county job or two. Maybe Old Tom con- trolled his vote at one time and an- other.
 In the summer of 1887. when the late Joe T. Robinson of Arkansas died in the middle of the supreme court battle and MT. Roosevelt de- cided that Alben w. Barkley, of Kentucky, should be Senate Demo- cratic leader, the late Pat Harri- son, of Mississippi, said he'd have the job himself. Barkley won by 8 single vote. It makes no difference whose vote turned the trick. It was stated by MT. Truman's colleagues that he would have voted for Pat but for telephone call from Old Tom in Kansas City.
 His Pendergast beginnings have been thrown at MT. Truman from every angle. He never denied them once. Instead, he defended the old man on any and all occasions. Long after PendergaSt was disgraced, the new president was his champion. When Pendergast died, MT. Truman sped to his funeral, and he made no secret of that. When the term of Maurice Milligan, United States attorney in Missouri, was expiring this year, MT. Truman proposed that he be supplanted by another. It was Milligan who sent Old Tom to prison. The President of the United States does not forget his friends.
 Four lines in the Congressional Directory tell all that MT. Truman cared to put there as a permanent record of his life and times. His associates attribute that partly, even largely, to modesty. Partly it is attributed to the fact that MT. Tru- mans career was not distinguished until 1886. He had a good World War record and is proud of it. A little black book contains the names and addresses of most of the men with whom he served in France He had those country jobs from the Jackson County Pendergast mach inc and he once went broke as a naberdasher. He'd tell you that, himself.
 On Nov. 6, 1884, he was elected again. Somewhere along there the man who couldn't sell shirts and collars became better than run of-the-mill good senator. He wasn't tops, but he was good.
 Committee Made Headlines
 As chairman of the senate con- mittee to investigate war production, MT. Truman undertook to prevent in this war some of the stupidities, inemciency and scandals of World War I. Newspaper reporters made 1t the Truman Committee" The Truman Committee made headlines. The Senator became a national figure and political asset to his party. His committee did a good job along with the mistakes it made.
 MT. Truman was never a 100 per cent New Dealer. But he usually went along. As freshman in 1897 he was in the minority that tried to impose penalties on sit-down strikers. He voted to override MT. RooSevelt's Farm Loan bill veto, but voted against killing the Roose- welt Supreme Court Reorganization bill. He supported the administra- tion's wage-hour bill.
 He helped shelve the anti-lynch- ing bill in 1888, but supported MT. Roosevelts Government Reorgan- ization bill He ducked votes here and there in his legislative career, as for instance bill to bar politi- cal job-holders from political con- ventionS. Even a PendergaSt ma chine could not survive that kind of legislation.
 In general, on domestic issues MT. Truman voted considerably more often for MT. Roosevelt than against him and he almost always supported the administration in foreign affairs through the difficult problems of neutrality and on the explosive peace-time question of conscription.
 The vote that most endeared MT. Truman to MT. Roosevelt undoubt- edly was on the final roll call in support of the Roosevelt Supreme Court. Reorganization plan. The count was 70 to 20 against MT.