THE PRESIDENCY: Country Boy’s Faith

When he got back home to Independence after 31,500 miles of campaigning, 64-year-old Harry Truman admitted that he was worn to a frazzle. But his manner was cockily confident. He called himself “a country boy come home,” and he publicly proclaimed his faith in his lucky political star.

The President seemed genuinely glad to be back. He acted like a man without a worry. He had one day of seclusion with his family in the big, ornately corniced house of Mrs. David Wallace, his mother-in-law. He ate a big turkey dinner, entertained his family with a couple of Chopin Nocturnes on the baby grand. Almost the entire day before election he spent with his fellow Shriners in Kansas City.

Come what might on Election Day, the President was relaxed. He told the Shriners: “People ask me how I could find the strength to campaign so hard and for so long. That’s easy—I’m out of jail when I’m out campaigning.”

Ballots & Bounces. At his polling place next day, the President of the U.S. had none of the privacy plain citizens are granted. He, Mrs. Truman and daughter Margaret marked their ballots in open cubicles. Cameramen were almost peeping over his shoulder as he put a pencil to his lips and made one mark. As he dropped his vote into a box, a newsman asked him if he had voted the straight Democratic ticket. Said Democrat Truman: “I always follow my own advice . . . I’m the sort that says do as I do and say as I say.”

In midafternoon, with five Secret Servicemen as companions, he slipped away to a hideaway in a hotel at Excelsior Springs, 22 miles north of Kansas City. There he had a mineral bath, a rubdown, a sandwich and a glass of buttermilk. By 7 o’clock he was in bed. His aides, who were established in the eleventh-floor penthouse suite of Kansas City’s Muehlebach Hotel, were gloomy; they had felt all along that election night would be like a wake. Harry Truman woke up several times during the night and telephoned to the Muehlebach. At about 4:30 a.m. he woke up again and beard better news.

Less than an hour later, the President slipped into the penthouse. By then old Charley Ross, his press secretary, had heard enough good news to knock off for a nap. Ross got a rude awakening. Harry Truman was bouncing up & down on his bed, beaming happily. He told Ross—who had never really believed that his boss had a chance of election—that it was coming out just as he had always said it would. Harry Truman threw back his head and laughed and laughed.

Shave & a Haircut. Harry Truman’s moment of victory found him prepared. He had called in a barber, had a shave and a hair trim. He put on a fresh white shirt and a double-breasted blue suit. The news came to him in a shout which he heard through the closed door of his sitting room. Newsmen had just got the flash of Tom Dewey’s concession. A few minutes later the President invited the newsmen into his parlor. As each came by he shook hands and said, “Thank you, thank you.” Harry Truman’s palm was moist, and behind the thick glasses, tears rimmed his eyes.