Welcome to the clifton park halfmoon public library. Were very pleased today have david with us this morning to talk about the book 1948 Harry Trumans improbable victory. He is the author of a number of books. He has been here to talk about his books of the past. 1920, the year of six president s, lbj versus jfk versus nixon. Also ted williams my life in pictures. He also produced a documentary called local heros capital baseball diamond heros. Portraits of candidates and the even handed aprald of truman. It is one of the best at leading. After three straight home runs, i think this is the undisputed champion on chronicling american president ial campaigns. He is the recipient of the excellent of letters and arts award from the university of albany. Information to president ial biographies and elections, he is a member of s. A. B. R. A. , the baseball historian organization. He is a k. C. Winning judge and jury and edgar award finalist. Thank you, it is great to be back here again. People ask me why did you write this book . And americans claim to hate politics. But we love elections. We love sports. My sports background, your sports background. We love the competition, we love the 162game series. And things going down to the 7th game of the world series. We love the home run, we love bill buckner and mookie wilson. In 1948 it is one of those moment elections. This is when the under dog comes back and pulls it out when everyone has written them off. That is the improbable victory. That is the year, that is the election that was, the great ic iconic come back, the great surprise, when the pun donts are proving so spectacularly wrong. That is another thing we love. We love to be smarter than all of the guys you see and writing the newspaper columns. The only president of the 20th century that didnt go on to college. Not the only one since. Not the last one, the only one, you would have to go back to Andrew Johnson to find such a common man. And not just a common man, but a fellow who has been a failure at business. His famed shop in downtown kansas city. He goes bust, and he pays all of the debts off for 20 years. He has a standard of honor. And it marks him in his earlier political career where he is the product, and known for really most of his active political career as being the product of one of americas most spe spectacularly corrupt careers. He gets whooped and harry truman is the product of this machine in kansas city. He is the head of the county government for them. They steel millions and millions of collars. Harry truman never takes a dime. He has to wink at what goes on in some cases. He would sit down and power out his soul in private letters that he never sent to anyone. As he would wrestle with these questions. Am i a Public Servant or a crook. He is didnt with this, and he stays in the machine, and he decides to get out of local government and he wants to be a congressman. He is such a puppet, a nobody, even at that time that its like no, harry, you cant be a congressm congressman. Sorry, this is making noise. There you go. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming. So, the machine cant find anyone to run for the United States senate in 1934. You think they could. It would be a democratic year. And then disaster strikes. 1939. Good friday, they go to the federal pend for construction. And people say well, that is the end of harry truman now. His mentor is finished. He faces a threeway primary and wins. He goes to all of the small towns, courthouses, and every other place he knows in missouri and he wows them. He pulls it off. And that is a havebvaluable les. But he is still back in the senate. Who is he . He is given an assignment. Defense contracting things to win the war against hitler. Are we giving them their bank for their sfwhuk he delivers a report that no, were not. Our boys are fighting and dieing and we have to stop it, and here is how. People say gee, whiz. He did that intelligently, honestly, and in a nonpartisan manner. Maybe there is something to this guy. That takes us to 1944. Frankly roosevelt is looking for a fourth term. The war is still on. And in 1940 heed he dumped his Vice President and he puts in harry a. Wallace who is a very left wing, newage, kind of guide for back then. And he forces wallace on the ticket. The party does not really want him. And in 1944, roosevelt is getting the word back. You keep him on the tick tet and he could cost you a million votes. He says i cant do it twice, he has to go. Not so many words, but he, slits walla wallaces throat. He picks a replacement that is not too liberal, respected by the unions, but not really in the pocket of the unions. That is harry truman. They put him on the ticket in 1944 frankly roosevelt is did. And harry truman goes to the white house and says can i pray for you . And she says no, we need to pray for you, youre the fellow who is in trouble now. He starts off very popular. The war is won, the atomic bombs are dropped on japan. Vj day, america is at peace, finally and harry truman reaches a popularity level of 87 . It goes downhill real fast. And people, some of it is beyond his control, but some of them, there are reasons why his popularity drops. He is not franklin roosevelt. Right now all of the republicans are saying who is the next reagan . Boy, we miss reagan a lot. And back then it was by god, by god how we miss fdr among the democrats. And harry truman was no fdr. So there is a longing for the lost leader there. And he is prone to certain gaffes. His points are not always the strongest. There is talk of the small timers. You see the hold new dealers being shoved out. Giving speeches against the truman policy, but you also have, where, with harry troou map, the country turns against the party and the leader which brings us into war. If you dont believe me ask bush. Ask lyndon johnson. Woodrow wilson. What happens to Winston Church hill. He is out the door. So this is a normal tring. Theyre on a roll. By the spring of 1948 he is in the low 40s fr popularity. The Democratic Party is splitting three ways, not just two ways. Not just some sort of carter Teddy Kennedy thing going on. Not a george bush path pugh can than in thing going on. But it is being split in the left, the center, and the right. On the right you have the southern segregationist democrats. He talked a good game, but he had not done anything. Remember the army, the navy, in world war two, are still segregated. There is no move to desegregate anything. There is a big civil right kwees program they are simply aghast. And they feel personally betrayed. They thought of him as one of their own. A confederate sympathizer. If you look at his statements, he is not a bleeding heart liberal on the topic, but he puts it forward and the southerners are aghast. They start. The simple rights and states rights, and they will nut goo the electoral leg and they will broker a deal. A decorated war veteran, judge, and considered to be a progressive new deal but once he gets caught up in the South Carolina legislature, they Start Talking against the vifl rights program, and they start staying what can duo about harry truman. The irony of this, when thurman starts to be karied away by this, talking about how the bay yacht nets will not pork black people into our primming pools, homes, and schools, he has an illegitimate black daughter. The other wing is the Harry Wallace wing. And that is the extreme left win online the new dealers. Which is in many cases communist dominated not just left wing, but actual party members. And wallace has a problem and he has been cast aside not once, but twice. You would not be human unless you were bitter about this, and now we has two reasons to be against harry truman. He is talked into not just a primary chance, but what is their strategy . Since it is being disdated from the people being controlled by moscow, they have to try not to win an election, but to tennessee a possessage to trueman. We will give the election to the republicans. And then we will go back to the way it was with frank lynn roost fe franklin roosevelt. So true man is being squeezes on the left, on the right, he is in trouble. How can he pold together a do police if the south is going to be served against him, and where does he hold his strength. It is in states like new york city and in southern california, in illinois welco, and in the sn which they should win for the republican column. A very crowded and confused field. Typical when you have a president who is full neshl. When you have the opportunity there then that lot of opposition candidates come out and the four front runners that year, governor thomas edewey of new york, 45 electoral boats. Harold, a former governor of minnesota, now a punch line in american political history. He ran and lost so many times and ran and lost so many times with absolutely no chance of success. Robert ataft. A senator from ohio. Mr. Republican, mr. Conservative, but dull at paint. Not charismatic. And the fourth is not even in the country. Running the empire of japan, and apopular guy. But can he pull it off from far away . He doesnt. He entered into the wisconsin primary, he should win that, he doesnt, he stumbled. There is always the New Hampshire primary, there is the wisconsin primary, which mcarthur should win and he doesnt. He loses if to stacin. He is a boy wonder. In 1938 he was elected governor of minnesota, and he quits. He saysly quit in four founds and go into the navy. Imagine being elected in a platform like that. He comes out, you have the debate fill going on. He is on the extreme end of the republican internationalist brigade at that point. He is feisty. He wins in nebraska and he is poised to take it away as they go into oregon. Most of these things are still being done in party conventions. Maybe when you get to the convention. Now, oregon is where we see something happening which is being repeated again this year. Debates, were debating, were debating, were debating. And Newt Gingrich says i want a lincolndouglas style debate on one topic. Me and this one other guy in the room and it doesnt mat who are the guy is, who the gal is. He is calling on that type of debate. What he should be calling on is a stacindewey type debate, it is the first broadcast. Two guys in the room, in the iron cage on the topic of should the communist party of the United States be outlawed. Harold stacin, in the affirmative. Tom dewey. In the negative. Now we have not talked much about thomas dewey. He was the governor of new york. Quite remarkable because this year he is only 46 years old. That is about the age that obama was. That is only three years older than jack kennedy. He is a young man. He is an ex district attorney. He was a crime buster. The guy that went after the mob, put them in jail, went after the wall street guys, put them in jail, he did it all, he was speck t spectacular. He is looking at the polls, as a candidate it is the same way. He is the purported front runner, and the front runner in terms of delegates at this point, he is snot particularly loved in the party or among the population. But in this debate, he is the former district attorney. He is a great prosecutor, great with a jury. And dewey cleans his clock. Stacin is left a pleading on the floor. Dewey wins it, but he could still be stopped at the convention because he doesnt have the votes or the love, and he knows how to make a deal. He makes the deal to push him over the top and he wins the nomination. Then he is faced with a choice. Who do i make my Vice President ial candidate. A guy he wanted to put on the ticket four years before. Earl warren. A governor of california. This is another case where we look at a big liberal win of the Republican Party there. Warren may be the most liberal of all of them. He doesnt want to do it. He didnt want to do it in 1944 or in 48. If i want anything ever again, this could be it. I better take so, with great reluctance, it becomes the dewey warren ticket, which people think is just great its great its a fairly young ticket. Its progressive, its forward thinking, its got geographic balance, its got new york, its got california. Wow what a great ticket. And the democrats have got harry truman. Maybe not. Earlier in the year, the republicans were looking at a guy named dwight david eisenhower, the grassroots wanted ike. They liked ike. Everybody likes ike. They dont know what he is. Is he a republican . Is he a democrat . Hes a general. Thats good enough. Sort of like some big political version of white christmas, okay . Everyone loves a general. And they love him. He turns the republicans down. Democrats, things aint Getting Better for harry truman. The convention is going into philadelphia. Just about everyone has their convention in philadelphia that year, the republicans, the democrats, the progressives. Lets go with ike. Lets go with ike. And this amazing, incoherent coalition of democrats forms, united by one thing, staying in power. Southern segregationists like Richard Russell and strom thurmond, northern liberals like Hubert Humphrey, big city bosses of chicago, jersey city, members of franklin d. Roosevelts family, all of them come together and they want ike. They want to stampede the convention for ike. Ike finally draws back and says no at the last minute. Otherwise, it could have been eisenhower as the nominee and even as the president beating dewey, but he says no. Its not his year yet. He does become president that year, of columbia university. Four years more for the presidency. So, truman, truman its so bad. Its so bad at that convention. He gets on the phone and hes calling william o. Douglas, the Supreme Court justice will you be my Vice President . Why him . Because william o. Douglas is a guy whos respected by the old new dealers. He has to get back in good graces with that wing of the party. Hes got to cement that tie to the new deal. And william o. Douglas supposedly says, i will not be a number two man to a number two man and turns him down. So he takes Alben Barkley, this democratic leader of the senate, and youve got a ticket which is bartleys a pretty good speaker and hes kind of well liked. Hes older than harry truman and harry truman is not a young man. They both come from border states. It doesnt look like much of a ticket, doesnt look like much of a ticket. But harry truman goes to the convention, he waits for hours to give his speech. He doesnt give it until like 1 00 in the morning. And the convention has just been all roiled up with everything. Hubert humphrey had gone to the floor and forced a floor fight on the civil rights plank. The southern democrats were mad enough going into this convention. Then Hubert Humphrey says, our plank on civil rights is not as strong as the republicans its the same mush that we were pedalling in 1944. No, we need to move out of the shadow of states rights into the Bright Sunlight of civil rights. And he forces a floor fight onto the floor of the convention, first one since prohibition, and he wins. He wins and the southern democrats, some of them, anyway, walk out. They walk out. The convention is just dragging into chaos. Then when they announce harry truman is coming to the hall at 1 00 a. M. , past any media notice that you could get, they unleash this, they open up this big floral display of the liberty bell because theyre in philadelphia, and they fly out the doves of peace, which are all pigeons, actually, and theyve been couped up for hours now and they see all the lights and the noise and the bands, and they just go crazy and theyre attacking things and flying into electric fans and landing on sam rayburns head, and theyre doing things pigeons do. And harry truman has worn a white suit. Well, thats probably the low point. Harry truman starts off kind of slow, and he kind of has to point to Alben Barkley to get some applause lines and then he gets into what hes going to do. And im going to challenge the Republican Party and the donothing congress to come back in a special session and turn a day and pass a program for the american people, and the crowd goes wild and people say, wow, this could be a horse race. Maybe theres something going on here. But when harry truman goes to detroit to start his campaign on labor day, as democrats traditionally do, he hasnt got enough money to get the train out of the station, and they have to make some frantic calls to do that. Its still very dicey for him. The progressives under Henry Wallace come into philadelphia next. They have their convention. Its very interesting. You see the people who show up and we hear these names later on. Pete seeger is providing the music. Paul robeson is providing the music. Youve got a couple of delegates there who become United States senators, one of which is george mcgovern. And they kind of go off on to their own, but their campaign is downward, downward, downward with the progressives. The dixiecrats meet again. They dominate strom thurmond. All the while, things are going on in the world and in the country. As the conventions are meeting, country joe stalin decides to block berlin. So, what do you do . Start a world war . Do you send the convoys in or do you do an airlift . Do you figure out how to do an airlift to supply the people of west berlin before they riot and demand communism . And america figures out how to do that. And thats one of the things going on. Youve got the return of the peacetime draft. Now, world war ii, there was a segregated army. The blacks are saying, okay, we put up with that during the war. Were not putting up with that again. And a. Philip randolph says to harry truman, you do this again, im going to have a march on washington before Martin Luther king, march on washington. And you know something, weve taken polls, 30 of our black youth will not register for the draft if you have a segregated army and navy. This is when truman with his back to the wall in the middle of the election, knowing that the dixiecrats have already gone about as far as they can and not sure where the black vote in the north will go, this is when he makes his decision to desegregate the armed services. This happens right in the middle of this. In the spring actually, in february, in february theres a special election in new york. Theres always a special election in new york for congress. I mean, it just every week we have a special election. And this one was in the bronx. Pretty safe democratic seat. And what happens is the republicans dont win, but a Henry Wallace supporter wins and sends shock waves through Democratic Party. Its like, whoa, this movement may have legs. And this is in a fairly heavily jewish area, okay . Wallace had been taunting truman as being insufficiently pro israel. All the candidates are pretty much pro israel. Dewey, taft, all of these guys, truman. But truman has been having problems with the jewish community. They dont think he is sufficiently pro israel. And what he does is 13 minutes after the state of israels independence or statehood is proclaimed, he is the first chief of state, we are the first country to recognize israel. And this helps solve some of his problems on the left with the wallace vote, but its very chilling to see, chilling to read, i think in the New York Times that day or the next day, that out of egypt, out of cairo, Muslim Leaders are talking about a jihad against the United States of america. Many things are part of that year which continue for a long time afterwards and into today. As the election goes on, we also see, now, harry truman has this turnofday special session of the legislature, and the law of unintended consequences. He brings congress back in. Congress doesnt want to come back in the middle of an election, but they come in and they hold some hearings on communists, communists in government. They take some testimony. And what this leads to is a guy named whitaker chambers going before the House American Activities Committee and saying that alger hiss is a member of the communist party, former secretary of state, undersecretary of state. And this is the beginning of the mccarthy era, communist in government issue. Its also the beginning of Richard Nixons political career, because hes one of the few people who when this starts to happen says i smell a rat. I smell a rat. I do not believe hiss. They go after hiss and finally get him. But this is, again, one of the things which differentiates 1948 as starting so many Different Things. The campaigns start. In the spring, harry truman had made an interesting discovery. Well, he kind of knew. Part of it was something he knew. He knew he was really bad giving a speech off a script. I mean, really bad. He wasnt just franklin roosevelt. He was bad. When he was in the senate, he probably only gave like three speeches or something his whole career. Could not he had very bad eyesight. And he had trouble reading from a piece of paper and just giving a speech like this. But he talks to a bunch of newspaper editors in the white house and he just speaks off first he gives his speech and people go, is the bar still open . You know. And then he speaks off the cuff, and even people who dont like him go, hey, that was pretty good. I kind of like that guy. Hes got something. And everybody notices this. This is one of these great moments where the light bulb goes on, and then he does it again. He does it again, actually, when he speaks right after recognizing israel. He goes to a jewish group in washington and he does the same thing and he wows them. He says, boy, ive got to keep doing this. Ive got to keep doing this because i stink doing it otherwise. And he does. And he goes across the country in the spring on his first whistlestop campaign. At first theres a lot of gaffes. Theres a lot of mistakes, theres a lot of errors. And then he kind of gets his stride by the time he gets to california, and then he does it again after labor day. Now, dewey does the same thing. He has one of these whistlestop tours as well, but dewey is not as lively, not as spontaneous. Tom dewey had originally not wanted to be president or governor or an attorney. He wanted to be a singer he wanted to be a performer. Harry truman we remember as the piano player. Tom dewey was trained to be a concert vocalist. His wife had appeared on broadway, okay . These were showbiz people, so he knew how to present himself. He was really good, but he was too slick and it didnt come across well and his content was too much of mush. Harry truman is rocking and socking, and as he leaves washington on his fall whistlestop tour, somebody says, give em hell, harry and he says, yeah, i will. And he does. And he used to say, well, i just tell them the truth and they think its hell. But he, in many cases, hes very rough. Hes very rough. And his speech in chicago, for example, he pretty much accuses tom dewey and the people behind him of being fascists, okay . Its really over the top. And even his advisers are, like, cringing from it, but its like, attack, attack, attack. Dewey is not attacking. And people should notice things. People often see what they want to see. Theyve made up their mind. They dont need any more data or the data is irrelevant, so they know that Harry Trumans a loser. They know tom deweys the next president of the United States. So when they see these crowds getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more boisterous for harry truman, its like, eh, theyre just curious. They just want to see the president. They dont care. And when they see the crowds not so big and not so enthusiastic for tom dewey, they should say, shouldnt people want to see the next president of the United States . And they dont. They dont make the connection. The roper polling organization stops polling in midoctober. They think its in the bag. Why waste money on this . Also people see that, like, well, looks like humphreys going to win in minnesota, and it looks like they might win in West Virginia against webber, and its like, we might be in trouble with we should we might, were going to lose seats in the and they dont connect the fact that the wheels are falling off the Republican Campaign all over the place because theyve made up their mind that this is safe. A week before the election, i think its gallop has it down to five points. Thats nearly within the margin of error. And then when you add in the fact that thirdparty candidates tend to just collapse as election day comes in, Henry Wallace, Henry Wallace collapses. And those votes go to harry truman. So election day 1948, its all festivities in new york at the hotel roosevelt. There republicans have their headquarters there, theyre ready to win. The democrats dont even put up a tote board in their headquarters in new york and washington. Its like, we dont want to know what these numbers are. Just let us die in peace. But the returns start to come in, and theyre not too bad for dewey at first. In fact, what happens is, he wins the northeast. He wins the northeast, in part thanks to Henry Wallace. He carries new york, and he carries maryland over harry truman, thanks to Henry Wallace. And he does well through the northeast. Pennsylvanias a very republican state. Dewey had carried the midwest in 1944 against franklin roosevelt. He had not carried the northeast. He concentrates on the northeast. And in doing that, he starts to ignore the midwest. Early on in the truman reelection effort, there was a Campaign Document developed, and it said, you can safely ignore the south, which was not exactly right. Although, here is a fun fact. Franklin roosevelt had won the presidency four times without needing one electoral vote from the south, without needing one of those votes. Harry trumans advisers say, you know, the farmers, the midwest, the far west, the far west is looking for irrigation projects, infrastructure. The farmer in the midwest is looking for government help. And harry truman was a missouri dirt farmer. He understood these people, okay . He goes and hes walloping the republicans on these issues and also inflation. Inflation. Hes got 7 inflation in the country, and he is walloping the congress about doing nothing about it. Now, he also has prosperity. Hes got prosperity, and theres a cold war, but its not a hot war. Nobodys dying, so hes got peace and prosperity. And what do i mean by prosperity . No 8 , 9 , 10 unemployment, no Great Depression. 3. 8 unemployment in 1948. James carville said it, its the economy, stupid. And the people who had gone through a Great Depression and a world war, this is the song really is not im just wild about harry, its happy days are here again. This is really the beginning of the 50s. Owe this is the peace and prosperity of the 50s beginning already then. I mean, you get that bump of korea, but otherwise, very similar. So, the returns start coming in, and its starting to look like a horse race. Wheres harry . Harry goes to a luncheon in independence, missouri, his hometown. Sneaks out the back door into a waiting limousine and drives off to a pretty much vacant resort favored by politicians and gangsters outside of town, checks into a room. Nobody knows hes there. Hes hidden from the press. Hes hidden from the nation, really. Checks into a room and is determined that hes not going to follow this on a minutebyminute basis. Theres a bottle of whiskey on the night stand and a ham and cheese sandwich. And thats his Election Night celebration. He turns out the lights probably about 9 00. Every so often, his secret Service People wake him up to tell him hes won this state or hes doing well in that state. Each time they wake him up, they just annoy him. They just annoy him more and more. But finally, they give him the news which causes him to say, i think ive won. You i think ive won. Lets go down to kansas city. Lets go down to headquarters. And harry truman has amazingly pulled it off. The ballroom in new york for tom dewey is an empty forlorn place. For Henry Wallace, for strom thurmond, all these things have fallen apart. But harry truman has proven one thing. As the great political philosopher Lawrence Peter barra, a fellow missourian stated, it aint over until its over. And harry truman proved that so right in 1948. And as for this talk, its now officially over. Thank you. Weve got time for some questions, and the deal is you go to that microphone so that the people in our cspan audience can hear you, and i will attempt to evade your questions. Any takers . Its most unusual. Oh, we have one. Go right up there. Yes. Your book contains a lot of quotes from harry truman that are blatantly antisemitic and antiblack. Absolutely. So how do you square that harry truman im sorry. Talk into the mike . Okay. Yeah, thats actually just going to cspan, so speak up. Okay. Pretend youre me. Start all over . Go ahead, yeah. Your book has a lot of antisemitic quotes from harry, antiblack quotes. How do you square that harry truman with the harry truman that recognizes israel, that pushes for a progressive civil rights plank . Yeah, people are complex. People are complex and they have really different parts of them and they see Different Things differently at different times. He you Harry Trumans partner in the haberdashery was a guy named jacobson. So he has a very Good Relationship with jacobson. His motherinlaw, trumans motherinlaw, who he did not have a great relationship with, was so antisemitic, she wouldnt allow jacobson into the house. Okay . Truman is has sympathy for the jewish people. He has sympathy for black people when they are being lynched, when they are being treated patently unfairly. But i mean he did not even after the presidency, hes writing in his memoirs in like 1955 this is not some private letter that he doesnt want social equity with black people. And you get into the 1960s and hes the Kennedy Campaign kind of has to hide him because hes declaring the sitin demonstrators as communists, okay . But people compartmentalize things. And i think he does that. And people are contradictory. And truman is just a spectacular example of that. And i think we cannot exclude a certain amount of political calculation in this, that truman and that document i was talking about, his blueprint for reelection, says youve got to hold on to the black vote up north, and particularly if dewey is the nominee, youve got trouble. You will lose new york, you will lose ohio, you will lose period. So there is that political calculation. Just as i alluded to, hes given a lot of credit for integrating the armed services, but its usually not mentioned that a. Phillip randolph has the gun to his head in the middle of this election, the southerners have gone off when i say they have done all the damage they can, the southern strategy, the dixiecrat strategy, is to dump the democrats off the ballots. Once truman knows that hes still on the ballot in these states he knows he can pull it off in large parts of the south. Like texas and georgia, but up to that point its dicey for him. But people have different parts churchill, for example, churchill has some remarkably antisemitic statements and franklin d. Roosevelt who, of course, very friendly to jewish people not as its very interesting to see what he would have done with the state of israel because he was talking with the arabs just before he dies, with the saudis about well, well consult you on everything. Ive read that he was part of the board of directors which instituted the numerous classes at harvard which put in a quota system against jews. And whos really his best friend among cabinet members is morgan morgenthau. People are contradictory and harry truman is just an amazing example of it. Anyone else . Is it true that truman well, truman didnt run in 52, stevenson ran against ike that he simply he and bess simply jumped in their car without benefit of any secret Service Protection or anything and drove back to independence, missouri . Well, theres a new book on that not as new as my book but it came out about a year ago which, yes, indicates that. Years before i was going to do a book on this election, i visited independence, missouri, and visited the truman home and its like, gee whiz, this kind of thats real linoleum on the floor, isnt it . I mean, this was not i mean, you go to you go to hyde park or you go to some of these other president ial homes and they are pretty modest. Even like calvin coolidges. You go to his house before hes president , and its really modest. Its like you know, some place youd see in amsterdam or something. And afterwards, he does have to move into a big place. Harry truman never moves into the big place. And his circumstances are sufficiently modest that he is the guy that hes why we have president ial pensions. Up to that point we really dont have that, and they may be independently wealthy like a Herbert Hoover or theyre able to have accomplished something more than truman did, very modest on the payroll his whole life, federal or local, county government. So truman really is a very modest guy. He might have been taking all these walks to save on gasoline, i dont know. Next . The photograph, the photograph that you have on your sign, what can you tell us about this picture of Truman Holding up this newspaper from the Chicago Daily . I like that cover. Thats a great cover, i like that. The picture is about two days out from the election day. Its in st. Louis, theyve one of his campaigns, Campaign Aides has brought him the photograph, and harry is just in love with it as you can see, even just seeing half his face. What happens is, again, people not seeing what they should be seeing. But also, you know, we had some labor these are also times of labor difficulties. Truman threatens to put the Steel Workers and coal miners in jail in 46, and we have the taft hartley act by the republicans, and theres labor troubles in the Chicago Tribune that night, and there will be a delay in setting the headlines by three hours so they get on their phone to their correspondent arthur hennings sears, the tribune does in washington and its like is this safe . Can we go with this . Nothing can go wrong. Its in the bag. Its not in the bag. Oddly enough, the correspondent was pensioned off right after this. [ laughter ] that was the end of his career. You dont see him with george will on sundays or anything after that. So thats a story, that story. Of course, once he gets back to washington, hes greeted by this immense crowd at union station. Theres maybe the biggest or second biggest crowd in washington. Theyre lining the streets, theyre going crazy and i think its bess truman who says to her daughter, you know, there werent as many people out here when we left washington. Everyone loves a frontrunner. Ive got another one, again about a photograph. This picture has the president playing the piano with a young woman sitting on the top, what information do you have about that . Thats at the National Press club. The piano is still there. Thats in the harry truman lounge. Harry truman at that time was not president , he was Vice President. Hes at the press club playing piano and Lauren Bacall is there, then only about 19 years old. She sits on the piano, actually kind of reclines on it. So when i introduce her in my cast of characters at the beginning of the book i say the legs on Harry Trumans piano. [ laughter ] and this picture did two things. It really infuriated mrs. Truman. [ laughter ] and it and it caused the people to wonder who this guy was and did he have the gravitas to be president or was he this hack from the pendergast machine again . So while its become iconic, at the time it was, shall we say, problematical because there were different standards of president ial dignity at that point. Even this whistlestop tour is somewhat unusual for president s. Remember, president s dont even go to the convention, the national convention, until 1932 with franklin roosevelt. So ive been given the signal that time is just about up, so were going to wrap it up so we dont get caught in the middle of an answer. I wish to thank you all for coming today. Youve been a great audience. Thank you very much. [ applause ] weeknights this month on American History tv, its the contenders, our series that looks at 14 president ial candidates who lost the election but had a lasting effect on u. S. Politics. Tonight we feature the life and career of 1952 and 1956 democratic president ial nominee add lay stephenson. While governor of illinois he was drafted against eisenhower. Twice defeated in the general election, he lost the 1960 nomination to senator john kennedy, who later appointed him as ambassador to the united nations. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern and enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday at 5 00 p. M. Eastern, author neal basscom, and civil war, a look at black prisoners of war in the confederacy with postdoc torl fellow at the center for studies. On sunday 9 00 a. M. Eastern, the final debate between Ronald Reagan and walter mondale. Then at 10 30 a. M. Eastern, the second debate between george bush and michael dukakis. 4 00 p. M. , real america, john f. Kennedys speech on church and state followed by Ronald Reagans 1966, the myth of the Great Society speech. Explore americas story on American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Up next on American History tv, Harry Trumans speech at the 1948 Democratic National convention in philadelphia. Our leader and the next president of the United States. [ applause ] [ applause ]