The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1952-12-18
Not An Easy job

Not An Easy Job
As the time for Mr.. Humans
departure from the White House
approaches, his journalistic anc
political friends seem concentrate
ing upon building him up as a
more or less heroic figure who vii!
go down in history as one Of our
greater presidents. 1t does not
seem possible that this can be done
The record is too damning and the
popular understanding too clear.
Nevertheless, the effort is being
made, and the immense publicity
forces of the Administration are
cooperating to the limit. The tech
nique largely consists of stressing
his generally assumed virtues and
dealing with the undeniably ugly
and unpleasant facts by the simple
expedent of ignoring them. 1t will
be interesting to see how far they
can get this time; how much more
disillusioned and knowledgeable the
American people have become in
the past seven years. Certainly, his
recent coarse abuse of General
Eisenhower and General Mac
Arthur on the subject of Korea
will not enhance his stature.
Chief among the current Truman
eulogists, of course, are the big
labor bosses of the Clio and AFL.
This is logical and as it should be.
For, no President possibly could
have gone to greater lengths than
Mr.. Truman in supporting union
labor demands regardless of their
merit or of their damaging effect
upon the country as whole. I'm
subservience and scrvility he has
exceeded any of his predecessors
and it has been a shocking spec
taclc to see how far politics can
take the head of great nation i'm
a recognized national emergency.
Two outstanding instances ought
to be indelibly impressed upon the
public mind. One was the great
steel strike some months ago i'm
which Mr.. Truman so openly cS-
poused the striking union, even be-
fore his Federal board had a
chance to make recommendations,
that he insured the union victory.
The infationary effect of this
course was so clear that Mr..
Charles f. Wilson, then chief war
mobilizer resigned and various de-
Tense officials denounced the
strike as sure seriously to slow
down our armament program both
for Korea and Europe. The other
instance of ugly presidential parti-
sanship was in the overruling by
Mr.. Truman of his War Stabili-
cation Board in the threatened
coal strike. This gave to Mr.,
Lewis's miners the $40 a day he
had asked and disregarded the
boards protest that such action
Scuttled the whole wage stabili-
cation program. There was no al
formative for the industrial mem
bcrs of the board save to resign.
Mr. Lewis, who had conferred
with the President before the
election, left on his trip to South
America, obviously knowing that,
despite the board, he would get the
81 80 demanded. The brazenness Of
this deal" as it has been widely
called, was disturbing to many in
and out Of Government and again
the effect is infationary. The Tru-
man record in these two cases is
not defended by his present eulo-
gists. 1t is merely ignored though
the facts seem to convict him of
deliberately promoting the very in
fation of which he has repeatedly
warned. For Mr.. Truman to con
tend that he OVERRIDE his board in
order not to leave IA strike on the
White House doorstep when Gcncr-
al Eisenhower comes iE is piece
of cffronterV as false as q china