The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-12-20
|Merry-GO-R Round

wAerHN0ToN, Dec ae-Repahllcan candidates who attended the orldlron Club dlnner--and most og them were there-were unhappy about only one thing They wished that senAsor-elect John priokers epeech could have been broadcast to the nation in- stead Of being delivered, off-the-Eeeord, to select dinner guests who weren't supposed to mention tt above a whisper
 For the general public had heard the new senator from Onto, his chances for the COP nom- lnAtion would have pretty much gone up in smoke.
 Bricker talked for % explosive minutes-aong% than any other guest If he he'd sat down after six minutes, he would have been success, But he went on to deliver stump speech before one or the most cabinet members, Senators, newsmen, and rival COP candidates He harangued them as he were address ing jury rather than speaking to the judge
 Furthermore, he made the mistake of insulting the President of the United states to his face That is something never done at a ordiron dinner. The President Is twtted and ilbed but no one ever hits him below the belt
 When Truman finally got chance Co hit back, there were smiles on Democratic faces for the first time since Nov. g. He did beautiful job. Either the President Is better at extemporAneous speaking than at formal speaking, or else he had had an advance peek at Brickers manuscript At any rate without any sign of irritation he gently threw Brickers barbs back Referring to the Ohio exQovernors sar- castle promise to investigate everything connected with the Truman Administration, the President said:
 T want to advise my friend from Ohio that I know something about investigating myself" Then he went on, tongue-in-cheek, to suggest that the Republicans should investigate every Demo- cratic Senator elected in November since according to the COP view they could not possibly have been elected without some irregularity.
 Truman also said he had tried to seek the ad- vice of Republican leaders
 "But," he added, with a helpless look around the room at the variegated array of rivals, including Senators Taft, White and vandenberg, Joe Martin Governor Dewey, Senator-elect Bricker and Mime sotas exGovernor Stassen, "there are many lead ers"
 Tn serious vein Truman outlined six-point pro- gram for the Republican CongreSs-including cut ting the budget reduction of taxes, curtailing the national debt, amalgamation of the Army and Navy and challenged the Republicans to help him put them across.
 Perhaps his neateSt barb was aimed at Rhodes scholar Senator Fulbright of Arkansas who pro. posed that the President resign and let the Republi cans take over full reign for the next two years Without mentioning Fulbright's name he turned to the British Ambassador and sad
 I've come to the conclusion, Mir. Ambassador, that it's mistake to send our young men to Oxford to study land college in Ohio is much better" Truman laughed goOd-naturedly at the skits aimed against his administration. The scene in which the Democratic high command was at sea in a storm | listening to the President play the piano off-key seemed to tickle him immensely. Whenever the piano. player struck sour note, he roared. Another who enjoyed the dinner was Tom Dewey. Last year Dewey made an excellent speech. This year he sat back and heard his old vice-presidential running