Evening star., 1948-04-19

IL Mr. truman would only DISCARD
formal speeches and talk In the
same earnest and matter OF fact
way 10 audiences he would be re-
vealed as almost an entirely dif-
terent personality.
What the President said was not
n itself new, they added, but there
yas . ring Of sincerity and per-
uasiveness in his voice and manner
lat carried conviction. When Mr..
,ruman was In the Senate he was
ble to talk extemporaneously with
ut having every sentence analyzed
dissected and he had a much
lore enjoyable time expressing his
Jpinions.
When Q man becomes President,
however, he Is warned that every
phrase must be weighed 50 that no
possible misunderstanding can re-
suit. But it is doubtful whether the
advantages Of such excessive cau-
ton are enough to outweigh the
disadvantages Of seeming artif1-
ciauty.
Style Is Dfnefent.
For one thing, Presidents often
are convinced that on certain sub
jects they must accept prepared
memoranda in which the style OF ex-
preston happens to be so different
from their own that almost every
body seems to detect the ghost
writing" technique, and feeling of
doubt sometimes arises as to SINGER
ity. Sometimes memoranda pre-
pared by outside organizations reveal
whole paragraphs that later creep
into presidential speeches without
enough paraphrase to disguise their
origin.
All this is part-and-parcel Of pres
idential custom because OF the wide
variety of topics on which Presi-
dent u expected to be omniscient.
Mr.. Truman in a sense represents
an average mans approach to
statecraft. He likes to tackle sub
iects directly and frankly and the
type Of speech he made to the
editors here, and particularly the
natural infections of voice, would
10 much to enhance his stature
With the American people were he
repeat it before other audiences.
It may be, of course, that the
iced for broadcasting speeches on
lie radio has something to do with
he heaviness of the addresses. The
lttempt usually Is to pack a lot
Of arguments and ideas into a
5ingle address,. Long words that
he President would not use nor
rnally or naturally make the ad-
dresses seem stilted and the read
,ng In monotones detracts from the
itality Of the utterance.
MY. Truman's talk was delivered
in the presence OF Chief Justice
rinson and members of Congress
Who were guests at the editors
banquet. Senator Vandenberg Of
Iichigan sat few feet away at
he head table listening intently
the Presidents remarks but, In
,ccordance with his recent custom,
e made no comment afterWard.
Was Editor 25 Years Ago.
The Michigan Senator Is very
,opular with the editors. Twenty
I'VE years ago, when he was editor OF
ne Grand Rapids Herald, he was
one Of the founders of the American
5ociety Of Newspaper Editors. He
vas regarded at the time as a sue
essful newspaper editor and mana
,er of the publishing property.
His popularity today, however,
ems from the fact that he handled
successfully the European Re-
overy Program legislation in the
!enate. AS Republican chairman Of
lie Senate Foreign Relations Com
,ittee, he carried the ball for the
Democratic side all through the de-
ate.
There was much political gossip
ng among the visiting editors, as Is
20 be expected, in a presidential
campaign year Many Of the editors
frankly said they believed Van
denberg- -Stassen ticket would sweep
the country and that it seemed to
be the strongest combination the
Republicans could nominate at
their June convention. There were
Of course exceptions-those who
felt that both Gov. Dewey and that
Senator Taft were still strong con-
tenders-but 1t was easy to see that
the showing Of Mr.. Stassen in the
Wisconsin and Nebraka primaries
had made profound impression.
There were few editors who thought
Mr.. Stassen might yet make the
grade despite opposition from the
regular Republican groups.
It seemed to be taken for granted
by many editors that Mr.. Truman
would get the Democratic nomina-
ton though there were skeptics
even on that as is also to be ex-
pected in q year of great uncer-
taintv in national politicS.