The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1953-01-16
Truman Feels He Has Done
His Best AS Nations Head

man the wheels Of running train
sing a different song. AS he rolls
homeward to Missouri next Tues
day night, lying in the dark Just
before he starts his first nights
sleep as an ex-president. Harry
Truman may think the wheels saw:
"How did you do?" How did you
do?"
Judging from all he's said re-
Gently, he seems to feel he's done
all right and, if it turns out he
didn't, at least, he says, he "done
his damndeSt."
He steps jauntily back into pri-
vate life, human, not at all broken
by seven tremendous years. and
very much the man he always was.
If anyone had the right to believe
in the old saying-in this country
any boy can be president some
day without a university degree OF
wealthy background.
He came out of a farmhouse and
walked steadily until he reached
the White House by way of store
! keeping and precinct politics. II
at times he seemed too cocky. too
belligerent, it may have been in
part due to defensive reaction
against the snobbism implicit in
the crack flung at him SO many
times: THAT little haberdasher. !"
Not long ago he said he has &C.
complished two things: He put the
country in a position Of economic
prosperity and kept it out Of a
third world war that would mean
the destruction of civilization. II
is the greatest prosperity in his.
tory. To the Republicans he leaves
the job of retaining it. If some
day it crashes, they may get the
blame or history may decide he
used defective cement or the wrong
kind.
While he leaves the republicans
with the Korean War which. al.
though less than global has man.
aged to be insoluble, It is true that
by one bold stroke after another.
and often against intense opposi.
ton, he has blocked communism.
If only temporarily. IN a rudder.
less world this country has con-
fronted with the responsibility Of
assuming leadership or retiring
L isolationism while communism
goobled up the rest. Truman rec
ognized the responsibility and took
it.
The moves he made against Rus.
STA may prove to have been pre-
cisely the right ones for turning
the tide. Yet, the future may show
he was kidding himself and the
rest of the world when he thought
Russia could be restrained by the
measures he used or any measures
short of the war he is SO happy
about avoiding. b
His worst enemies, even though
grudgingly, have always considered
him a master politician. But it is
exactly in this field that history
may pronounce him most inept
and on these grounds: that he
could have accomplished far more
if he had only understood. as
Franklin Roosevelt did, how poll
tics are played on the grand and
modern scale.
His relations with Congress were
wretched, particularly in the past
two years and particularly after
the death of Sen. Vandenberg. one
of the Republicans who gave him
0l-partisanship in foreign affairs.
Truman never learned, or IL he
did he never took advantage of it,
what Roosevelt had demonstrated
overwhelmingly: that by charm
and maneuver with Congress itself
and by carrying your case directly
to the people who elect Congress
you can win what might otherwise
be lost. Truman never made full
use, as Roosevelt did, of going
into peoples living rooms by radio
to state his case. And Truman had
TV, too.
Because Of his relations with
the lawmakers, he was pretty in
effective with his domestic propos-
ais. That may be why in his re.
cent talks he subordinated. some
times dismissing in a few para
graphs, the domestic side az his
administration to his accomplish
ments in foreign affairs.
II may have been overlooked hut
he probably bounced more gov.
eminent officials than any presi-
dent in hiStory-at least in a com
parable time-but apparently not