Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-03-03
Attorney Edward Lamb
Writes On Conference
With President Truman

ident and everyone else knows
that whatever he says may be
distorted by a Chicago Tribune.
A large Dumont television set
is placed next to the Presidents
desk. He Is a real TV fan, and /
suspect that he occasionally gets
In a bit of afternoon watching
or relaxation when appoints
ments ease up. He told me that
in the remodeled White House
they would have a video set Gin
practically every ROOM
After we discussed the coal
situation and other current mat
ters, we chatted about the de-
STABILITY of busy men getting
occasional rests. One Of the re-
markable things about President
Truman is undoubtedly his abil-
ity to cast off the cares of Of
flee, get a long nights sleep and
ample fresh air and exercise.
Here sits a man in the most
important nation in the world.
Across his desk each hour of
each day pass problem which af-
feet the lives of millions upon
millions of people. A single
word from the Commander-in-
Chief and the lives of Ameri-
cans everywhere can be wiped
out. On this mans shoulders
rests the final decisions on do
mestic and international prob
lens.
l, like most Americans, won
der about the wisdom of Presi-
dent Truman's conclusion that
we can't sit down with the Chi
nese, Russians, the British or
anyone else and somehow work
out an arrangement to control
hydrogen and atomic weapons
which would wipe out practical
ly all humanity. In this confer
ence l could only throw in a
statement that a lot of Ameri-
cans were most hopefully pray
ing that the President of the
United States would exhaust ev-
cry possible means of negotiat-
ing peace, but in any event ev-
eryone wanted a method of con-
trolling the super-death-dealing
weapons.
Folks in this country are sec
reilly nervous abou this situa-
tion. Let no one kid anyone else
about that. Our lives, everyone
of us, depend upon the decision
of one man alone, and he is sit
ting In the White House. Here is
the man chosen not because of
his brilliant handling of inter-
national affairs, but primarily
because he is judicious, kind
ly, alert politician from Missou-
ri, who offended not too many
other Americans. He had been
acceptable to Mayors Hague,
Kelly and Lawrence, as well as
to many other powerful political
bosses, and, of course, to the top
leader of them all, Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
Once In the Presidents chair,
Mr.. Truman learned important
facts quickly. Most of all, he be-
Gale aware of the fact shortly
before the November election of
1913 that Americans were over
whelmingly interested in their
own domestic affairs. While the
headlines may have screamed
about the Berlin blockade, the
Chinese crisis, aid to Greece, and
even the Marshall Plan, Mr..
Truman found that his neigh
oors and friends were more and
more interested In farm sup
ports, taxes, labor controls and
social security. Mr.. Dewey con-
.inuped to talk in generalities,
and repeated the shibboleths
about Communism and socialism
which Senators Wherry, Taft,
3ricker and many others had
discussed for 10, these many
1ears.
The observer notes that the
President has developed and
natured a great deal, especially
ince his reelection when he ov- {
'rcame the oposition of not only
he Republican, but of a vast
of the members of his
'wn prty. He has not lost the
ommon touch, and this will '
ontinue as he steadily fights for {
better and better America,
AS he remains so close to the /
rassroots he will receive in +
reasing supports as Guy Cab a
ielson, the COP national chair Q
IAN and others founder in their |
ed of confusion. Mr.. Truman, a
nder the tutelage of the great j
DIR, sits back and smiles and
nows that with such program n
ell probably be elected again, h
gain, and again. a
EDWARD LAMB :