Word: truman
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...Jackson County, the county judges are the chief elected executives, and are concerned with roads, hospitals and political patronage. Truman held the job of judge and later presiding judge for ten of the next twelve years. In 1934, at the age of 50, with the help of Pendergast's machine, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. They called him "the Senator from Pendergast...
...snide remark was unfair. Truman frequently got advice from Pendergast, all right, but just as frequently he disregarded it. Even F.D.R. thought Truman was in Pendergast's pocket; he asked the Missouri boss to get Truman's vote for Alben Barkley as Senate Majority Leader. Truman voted for Pat Harrison, observing: "They better learn downtown right now that no Tom Pendergast or anybody else tells Senator Truman how to vote." Re-elected to the Senate in 1940, he soon launched the Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program-the Truman Committee-which was to help carry...
Load of Hay. Truman's investigation saved the nation billions of dollars during the huge hurry and grab of wartime procurement. By 1944, his personal stature had grown so impressive that some Democrats saw him as a way out for F.D.R., who was looking for a new running mate to replace the controversial Henry Wallace. James Byrnes was proposed and Truman even agreed to nominate him. But the final choice was an astonished Harry Truman...
...Truman's tenure as Vice President was brief. In less than three months, Eleanor Roosevelt was to tell him: "Harry, the President is dead." The new President spoke to reporters next day: "I don't know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay or a bull fall on you. But last night the moon, the stars and all the planets fell on me. If you fellows ever pray, pray...
...prepared because Roosevelt had not taken him into his inner councils, had not even let him in on the secret of the atom bomb. For a while, Truman floundered, and he never did acquire any sense of personal grandeur. But he did come to understand his office. On his desk, he placed a sign: THE BUCK STOPS HERE. So did pretension...