The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1949-01-06
Message And Mandate

Message And Mandate
As the Eighty-frst Congress pre-
pares to convene interest is conferred
upon the Presidents traditional state
of-the-U Union message to be delivered
on Wednesday when Mr.. Truman will
appear al the Capitol personally. Be
you'd doubt, it will be the most i'm
poltmt White House utteranoe since
he assumed his present office in
April, 1915. The reasons are clear.
The chief one, of course, is that it
will reveal what may be expected
from Nr. Truman in the next four
wears. Until the recent election he
was President only because of the
death Of his predecessor and circum-
stances compelled him to pledge al
lcgiance to the Roosevelt policies.
Now, to the surprise of practically
everybody, including himself, he is
President in his own right. 1t is inter
csting that prior to the change when
he was lauding the policies of Frahk-
lin Roosevelt" the close friends and
family of the late Mr.. Roosevelt, all
of whom opposed his nomination, did
not regard him sincerely for them at
all, insisted that he was not New
Dealer "at heart" Such also was the
feeling of great many anti-New
Deal Democrats.
Strangely enough, now that his
single-handcd victory has released
him from his Roosevelt obligations,
he appears more disposed to travel
toward the left with the advanced
thinkers" of the old Roosevelt regime
than before This is largely due to
two things First, the character of
his campaign was such that he was
forced to make numerous promis IS
to the special groups whose support
he sought and which cannot possibly
be redeemed without national bank
uptcy; second he has drawn into the
White House elmer circle" several
new left-wing advisers and speech
writers Of more violent and ardent
type than any he had before.
In brief, the conservative group
around him which believes in budget
balancing and debt reduction has been
weakened; the spending group, the
left wingers and labor liberals" who
think it silly to count the cost OF
social legislation" or anything else
have been strengthened. As things
are today they are in an ascendancy
at the White House. This, it is be-
leved, will be reflected in the mes
sage. 1t is, in fact, difficult to see how
that can be helped because in it, in
order to avoid the charge that mis-
promises were for campaign purposes
only, Mr.. Truman has got to urge
upon Congress a domestic program
for carrying them out.
Any such program is going to take
him pretty far to the left in a social
istic direction. Repeal of the Taft
Hartley Act is but one of the things
he has promised. In addition, there
are promises on farm prices, on
health insurance (Which means social
lied medicinc) on education (Which
means greater liberalization of
schools and colleges), extension of
the social-security machinery, civil
rights" for the Negroes, etc, etc. OF
course all of this program will not
get through. Indeed, it will be sur
prising if more than half of it gets
through. But that will not prevent
Mr.. Truman from proposing it AL
and fighting for it too. If the violent
new advisers do not overestimate
their influence it will be the NEST
New Dealish message in ten years.
Moreover, it will be accompanied by a
lot Of drum beating by the labor
propagandists and much big talk
about the mandate" received from
the people in the election. However,
though Administration spokesman
and their so-called liberal" Journal
istic aides will continue to below
about it, this "mandate" business has
already become more than a little
absurd
On December 10, official figures of
the election were made public. These
showed that the president got 4,1O4,-
548 votes His combined opposition had
24,575 ,46l. Thus, Mr.. Truman lacked
470,9l3 votes of majority of the 49,,
1909 total Thus, despite his cleo
toral majority, he is distinctly a
minority President. Under these