Evening star., 1948-11-21
No Politics
TourHelped
TrunlanW1n
Reaction to Attacks
on Congress Gave
Him the Cue
By Joseph A. Fox
Stor Stoff Correspondent


"nonpolitical" swing to the Pacific
Coast In June actually served as
sort of testing block for the Demo
cratic campaign machine which was
built up from a scrap pile into a
surprising juggernaut.
Whether Mr.. Truman got the in
spiration for his first pitch to stay
in the White House from the in
spection trip routine which Franklin
D. Roosevelt used, is an open ques-
ton. At any rate, that initial $500
mile drive, in which the President
still facing a bitter fight for the
nomination-started hitting the
whistle stops" with a 76-speech
barrage, served as an effective pat
tern for the more than 20,000-mile
trail he later followed with the sue
cessful daWn-to-dark appeal tc
nearly 300 additional audiences.
Got @ T to a Sour Start
At ta.e very outset, President Tru-
man-who never had any doubts
but that he would be the Democratic
nominee-decided that the Eightieth
Congress was the Achilles heel o1
the COP, and determined to play
out this string for all that it was
worth. In his own mind, the record
of the Republican majority which
the voters handed him in 1916 was
definitely bad on virtually every
domestic count with the exception
maybe. Of kindness to animals, and
he believed the country could be
made to realize that fact II it was
driven home often enough. The
next step then would be to hammer
In the thought that conditions
would be worsened If the 1948 elec-
ton brought in not only a Repub-
lican Congress, but a President OF
the same party. On that basis, the
Missourian went to work
1t required a little while to get
the anti-Congress gears meshing
The one-man campaign was away
to a pretty sour start. The picture
emerged in this manner:
Coming into Chicago to address
Swedish American centennial
celebration on what was a purely
nonpolitical occasion, Mr.. Truman
found the Cook County orgsnizat ton
busily engaged in trying to cut his
throat. He let leaders know that
would be tough.
Moving to Omaha, he ran into
ouarreling Nebraska Democrats who
let him in for an audience of 1000
In a hall seating 10000, for an i'm
portant agriculture speech, which,
however, afforded the opportunity
for q few stray shots at Congress.
First Sign of Pay Dirt
The following day in Nebraska
and Wyoming-a Sunday-back-
platform visitors presented him
with spurs and chaps, and when
he commented that they would be
used when he rode" Congress, the
audience reaction convinced the
President that he might be strik-
ing pay dirt.
The tempo was speeded up as he
moved into Idaho. and began to
fail away at the record of Congress
on reclamation food control and
water-power development.
More snarling Democrats were
encountered in Montana but a
copper mining crowd at Butte gave
the President an ovation when he
launched into full-dress review Of
the sins of Congress-and his course
was fixed.
Now it was beginning to be the
"do-nothing Eightieth Congress
and the crowds were getting bigger.
The President had discarded pre-
pared speeches and was depending
on the off-the-cuff technique he
followed almost entirely throughout
the campaign
Charging into California where
the Roosevelt faction of the party
was trying to throw body blocks in
his way, Mr.. Truman summed up
his indictment of the COP after a
tremendous reception.
Then he turned for home, insist
ing he was only showing up the
derelictions of the Eightieth Con-
gress to give the majority a chance
to recant before adjournment.
The President returned from that
first swing convinced that he had
the Republicans - whoever their
candidate-on the run. Actually, he
probably hoped that the nominee
would be Senator Taft of Ohio, CO.
author of the Taft Hartley Act. Mr.
Truman felt that this labor law was
another soft spot In the COP shield
Iowa the Turning Point?
Mr.. Truman's associates still have
no idea where the turning point OF
the whole campaign came-in other
words, where lay the particular spot
granting that political oratory is
3 determining factor-when the
American people began to think that
they'd rather have Harry S. Tru-
man than Thomas E. Dewey in the
White House.
One with an opinion thinks that
the hot September day when the
President addressed more than 1OO,-
900 farmers at the national plow-
ing contest in Dexter, Iowa, was 1t.
That was one Of the most un-
enthusiastic audiences the Presi-
dent encountered over the entire
campaign. But he himself has an
answer for that.
The President says he wasn't
worried about the farmers tacitur-
nifty. Farmers, he explains, are un-
demonstrative by nature, and he
figured that day that he had them