Evening star., 1949-01-25
Wrher Raps Phrase
OF Truman S Election
In His Own Right
Says Words 'Emphosize
A Historical but Not
Very Importont Foet'
Ry David Laurence

over and over again the news dis
patches and the radio commentators
spoke last week about Harry Truman
now being President "in his own
right" The phrase probably was
construed by almost everybody to
mean that he was not the elected
President during his first term and
that this Inauguration gives him a
different position or right" than he
had when he succeeded Mr.. Roose-
welt.
Actually Mr.. Truman will have
been President of the United States
for four full years on April 12-less
than 90 days from now. If he
wasn't President "in his own right"
during the nearly four years he has
Just served, then what becomes OF
the idea that the choice Of a partic-
ular person for the vice presidency
strengthens the ticket" as the say
ing goes, when all the ballotting
takes place at the national conven-
ton?
x1KH D@tt1C AsC~~AhSNs
Certainly the battle between Harry
Truman and Henry Wallace at the
1914 Democratic National Conven-
ton was one Of the most spectacular
contests in all convention history
Certainly also Mr.. Truman did a lot
of campaigning in 1914 and went
before the people with more speeches
than Mr.. Roosevelt delivered.
If it be assumed that Mr.. Truman
was, since April II, 1s45, merely fill
ing out Mr.. Roosevelt'S term, 1t
would appear that the Roosevelt
wing of the party didn't agree at all
with that view. For the chief obJec-
ton to the giving of the nomination
to Mr.. Truman last July and the
chief inspiration behind the boom
for Gen. Eisenhower, designed to
sidetrack Mr.. Truman, was that the
latter had failed to carry out the
Roosevelt or New-Deal concept OF
political philosophy. If Mr.. Truman
wasn't President lin his own right"
after April IL, 1s45, then what be-
comes of his actions in vetoing the
Taft-Hartley Act and the tax bill
and a few other things which he
took before the people with pride in
the campaign as the basis for his bid
for q continuance in office?
Mr.. Truman was gratified over the
results of the November election
primarily because he regarded 1t as
q vindication of his record-which
surely was made Gin his own right"
He is going ahead to insist on the
major points Of the program which
he asked the 80th Congress to adopt.
Plainly, Mr.. Truman is going to de-
vote his new administration to the
fulfllment of the very policies which
for the last two years OF his first
term he has been battling with Con-
gress to pass.
Unimportant Fact.
Being President "in his own right.
therefore, cannot have any real
meaning except to emphasize his
torical but not very important fact
that Mr.. Truman was
Vice President who succeeded
President. This has happened be-
fore in history, and it was Theodore
Roosevelt who, on the night after
his election "in his own right" In
1904, announced that he
would not be a candidate for a |
third term in 1908. Mr.. Roosevelt
had served all but six months of
President McKinley,s term and
thought that the tradition against
q third term was not to be brushed
aside just because technically he
had not served the full four years
OF a first term. !
There are people in the Demo-
cratic Party who are already talking
a bout President Truman running in
1852 for his first full second term"
II this happened, Mr.. Truman, on
election, would be the first President
In peacetime to hold office for longer
than eight years. Franklin Roose-
welt gave as his reason for breaking
the third-term tradition the fact
that a national emergency existed.
An emergency in the Democratic
Party, when 1t needs strong candi-
date to head the ticket, appears to
be as good a reason as any to break
the third-term tradition in peace
time. Meanwhile, an amendment to
the Constitution to limit the presi-
dency to two terms Of four years
has not yet received enough ratifica-
tions from the States to become
effective.