Evening star., 1946-01-23


much worse.
For the fact Is that the unfortu-
nate man is being assailed from all
sides. For a good many months Mr..
Truman was showered with praise
not only from both factions of his
own party but even from the Re-
pubhcans. Now, though polls still
show him strong with the common
people, he hardly ever gets kind
word from politician, Democratic
or Republican, or from the leaders
OF the special groups. He seems to
be under continuous fire from all
directions. sS
Conservative Southern Senators of
his own party bitterly resent his
efforts to force through the fair en-
ployment practices bill, which is a
feature of the CIO and the Com
munist party creed. The Democratic
liberals" are enraged at, among
other things, the presence in the
Presidents inner circle" of such
men as George Allen, recently named
RFC administrator; Edwin Pauley,
named as Undersecretary of the
Navy; John Snyder and others.
Displeases Business, Labor.
The business interests feel deeply
aggrieved at the degree to which he
has espoused the cause of the strik-
ers. On the other hand, the CIO
bosses, like Philip Murray, though
eagerly taking advantage of the fact
finding board recommendations vio-
lently denounced the Presidents
proposals as vicious betrayal of
labor" John L. Lewis went even
further than that From these
Sidney Hillman, of the CIO-PAC,
seems to dissent. In recent state
ment he praised the Truman efforts
to settle the steel strike. But he is
the only exception.
So Mr.. Truman seems to be "in
bad' equally with big business and
the union bosses; with conservatives
as well as liberal Democrats, and
with both elements of Republicans,
whose temporary nonpartisanship
completely disappears as the elec-
tions approach.
Strangely enough, the most viru-
lent Of the Truman opponents ap-
pear to be the intimate friends of the
late MIR. Roosevelt and the journal
lists who usually reflect their views.
These assail Mr.. Truman on the
general charges Of incompetency
and inadequacy and bawl especially
loud about the Pauley-Allen ap-
pointments, conveniently forgetting
the unsavory Edward Flynn (paving
blocks, Thomas Corcoran and many
others of the Roosevelt favorites
who aroused considerable public
Indignation and could be classed
neither as adequate nor competent
Some Problems Inherited.
Altogether the Truman lot at the
moment is far from a happy one.
He has almost as bad press as
Herbert Hoover had, and is con-
fronted with domestic problems of
really appalling magnitude, most of
them inherited from his predecessor,
a notoriously poor administrator
whose friends now inconsistently
shout for competency.
Some of Mr.. Truman's difficulties
are his own fault, but by no means
all Of them. He has not been able
to rise above considerations of polit-
ical expediency, but then neither did
Mr.. Roosevelt. And he is obviously
afraid to depart from the Roosevelt
pro-CIO alliance despite the CIO
attack on him.
He would have done better if, In
these respects, he had not followed
the Roosevelt policies. Nor has he
greatly improved matters by his
message, sound enough In many
respects but not document to
arouse great enthusiasm in any
group-nor one to placate his critics.
One Place for Liberals.
However,, from the political angle
there are some highly consoling
facts for Mr.. Truman's friends. One
is that while the assaults of the
Southern conservative Democrats
and the Northern liberal Democrats
combined with united Reup1hlican