THE PRESIDENCY: No Fool, the Mule

Among the 137 bills that cluttered the President’s desk at the height of the congressional adjournment crush last week was H.R. 9087 for the relief of one H. Dale Madison. It was one of the innumerable private relief bills which Congressmen grind out for their constituents like links from a sausage machine.

Attached for President Truman’s perusal was the required Budget Bureau summary of the bill and the fact behind it. Madison was a California farmer who had rented to the Forest Service a stallion known as Man of War Jr. One night on the trail, Man of War Jr. felt an urge. He chewed through his tether and ran off to find a mate. It was his last run, for he got tangled in the rope trailing from his neck and died of strangulation. Farmer Madison billed the Forest Service for $100.

The Budget Bureau remarked in its summary that it saw nothing to indicate that the animal was a suicide, and it suggested respectfully that the President should not object to signing the bill to pay Farmer Madison his due, even though the creature was just a horse and not a good Missouri mule. Harry Truman, a reasonable man in such matters, signed his name to the bill and awarded Farmer Madison $75 after six years of waiting. Then, to set his Budget Bureau right, the President appended a footnote:

“A Missouri mule would not have been fool enough to get himself choked to death.”