"If I'm Wrong . . ."

"If I'm Wrong. . . "

Harry Truman was weary, his sunburned nose was peeling and his lips were cracked. But when he got back to Washington last week he was full of bounce; he was delighted with his 15-day, 9,505-mile, 73-speech campaign trip. His whirl through 18 states had been his rehearsal for the big campaign, and he was convinced that the people liked it. He planned to give them a lot more of the same before November.

Truman--and his White House staff--had left their despair out West. The President was sure that his campaign strategy was now well set. Its theme: the Plain People's President Against the Privileged People's Congress. He had practiced the punch lines all the way back from California and, on audience reaction, he thought they were surefire. He denounced the "rich man's tax bill"; he bedeviled "the special-interests boys"; he warned of "special privilege against the interests of the people as a whole."

"Pourin' It On." It was plain that he intended to give Congress the business from now on. He returned to the White House with an avowal to "veto some more bills."* It was also plain that he meant to make campaign hay out of the 80th Congress' neglect of housing, reclamation, and health-insurance legislation. "Oh, I'm pourin' it on," he cried, "and I'm gonna keep pourin' it on."

Apparently, he would also continue to be folksy. At San Bernardino, someone had handed him a basket of eggs. "At least they didn't throw them at me," he cracked. A man in the crowd yelled: "What about throwing them at Taft?" The President replied: "Oh, I wouldn't throw fresh eggs at Taft." At Barstow, past midnight, he popped out on the platform in pajamas and blue bathrobe. When a woman shouted that he sounded as if he had a cold, Harry Truman answered, "That's because I ride around in the wind with my mouth open." At almost every stop, he introduced Mrs. Truman as "my boss."

"What You Deserve." In all his speeches, Harry Truman cast himself in a political role which he hoped would win him sympathy. He pictured himself as the underdog fighting alone. As his crowds increased in numbers and outward enthusiasm, his attacks on Congress grew bolder. "If I'm wrong," he shouted, "you will have a chance to attend to me later on. But if I'm not wrong, you ought to attend to somebody else. . . You get just what you deserve . . ."

At trip's end there was no doubt in the President's mind that he had done himself some good. Most of the people who heard him liked his fight and his folksiness. But his restored confidence did not lift the deep gloom overhanging most of the country's Democrats. Said a California Democrat: "He's a good egg. He'll be the most popular ex-President we've ever had. But you just can't put him back there and let him yack-yack with Congress for another four years."

*His total to date: 137. At Lake Success, the President's remark moved Russia's Andrei Gromyko to a glint of dangerously Western humor. Said he: "It seems [Truman] is well ahead of me."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.