Evening star., 1946-07-05

the President. Nor, it is asserted,
would defeat for reelection be more
than he could bear with a smile.
Also, they say, he can stand criti-
cism and denunciation without
great anger or violent resentment.
That sort Of thing from his oppon-
ents is part of the game and to be
expected. What does upset him,
however, is the fact that he can
never safely be indiscreet in his
conversation, even among his init
mates. Nor can he privately in
dulge safely in the luxury of saying
or writing exactly what he thinks or
feels. II he relaxes his self-restraint
even little the results are unpleas-
ant.
Tobey Letter An Example.
The latest example of this was
the letter he wrote to Senator
Tobey of New Hampshire, which
was seized upon as an amazing
and unprecedented" presidential
rebuke to a member of the Senate.
The effort was made to show that
Mr.. Truman could not tolerate be-
ing differed with; that he insisted
on every senatorial friend being a
rubber stamp" etc, etc.
OF course, the letter showed none
of those things Certainly, Mr.. Tru-
man would have been smarter not
to have written at ALL but it was a
natural enough letter from a Presi-
dent to senatorial friend who had
frustrated him in what he consid-
cred a good plan-one he had very
much at heart. Also, it was a very
personal letter, and not at all an
unfriendly letter, signed not Harry
S. Truman" but Harry" and the
absence of bitterness was certainly
evinced by the rather engaging
words in his own handwriting at
the bottom-"come to see me-"
Clearly Personal.
There was nothing in the letter to
cause real offense unless it was pur-
posely interpreted that way, and II
was SO clearly personal that Sen
ator Tobey's action in making ii
public Is hard to defend. 1t was Sc
clearly personal that the reading Of
it to the Senate was, to say the
least, in exceedingly bad taste.
The excuse that Senator Tobey
did so because some of the contents
had leaked into the press in garbled
form is not good excuse. For 1t
was quite clear that he had let it
leak out himself. To be sure, the
whole incident is a trivial one; but
1t Is the kind of thing we'll calcu-
lated to rasp the nerves Of man
bearing a heavy load and trying to
do the best he can.
Perhaps it will be a lesson to Mr..
Truman. This personal letter which
Leaked" into the press along with
some private White House conversa-
t1ons with members of his cabinet
and chief administrative aides which
leak" into the hostile gossip COL
umns, ought to convince Mr.. Tru-
man that he has job where every
written and spoken word has to be
carefully weighed and considered
where his impulses to be frank and
outspoken have to be curbed; where
there are very few in whom he car
implicitly trust; where the luxury Of
expressing his feelings is denied him
Price of Presidency.
That makes the tough job of the
presidency very tough indeed-bu
that Is the sort OF job it is. MIR
Truman, like all Presidents, is sur.
rounded and in contact all the tim,
with some men eager to make hin
trouble by leaking; and other.
who with no deliberate intent tt
make trouble do so by indulgine
their own desire to seem important
or curry journalistic favor by re.
beating what "the President sale
to me-"
But man has to trust some one
and Mr.. Truman has close to hin
some men incapable of breakins
1alth with him, thoroughly trust.