6. The Senator from Pendergast

  “Friends don’t count”: Autobiography, 74.

  Francis M. Wilson: Kansas City Star, February 2, 1982.

  “It was my big day”: Autobiography, 71.

  Excelsior Springs seclusion: Ibid.

  “It will be much better”: HST to Robert Ragland, January 17, 1923, HSTL.

  “long as the Big Boss”: HST to EWT, April 14, 1933, Dear Bess, 348.

  “understood political situations”: Autobiography, 83.

  Big Boss began letting votes go: Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine, 106–07.

  “I had a fine talk”: HST to EWT, April 23, 1933, Dear Bess, 350.

  “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”: Kansas City Star, July 4, 1976.

  McElroy would later claim: Art Brisbane, “Kansas City Needs an Honest Boss Tom,” Kansas City Star, May 3, 1982.

  Pendergast would listen attentively: Kansas City Times, April 21, 1986.

  “Why shouldn’t they be?”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 12, 1937.

  “The machine did small favors”: Dorothy Davis Johnson, author’s interview.

  “the most efficient city government”: Reddig, Tom’s Town, 128.

  “kind of gentleness”: Monsignor Arthur Tighe, author’s interview.

  “See…there just wasn’t any law”: John Doohan, author’s interview.

  “The clubs stayed open all night”: Ibid.

  Kidnapping of McElroy’s daughter: Reddig, 255–56.

  “Now Jim”: Congressional Record, February 20, 1934.

  “Union Station massacre”: Reddig, 257-59.

  new county courthouse: Independence Examiner, September 7, 1933.

  “During the six and one half years”: Ibid.

  “During these years of strenuous service”: Ibid.

  “maneuvered out”: Quoted in Memoirs, Vol. I, 141.

  Truman meeting with Jim Pendergast and Aylward: James Aylward, Oral History, HSTL; correspondence in the collection of Joe and Catherine Pruett.

  Pendergast offer to Joe Shannon: Daniels, The Man of Independence, 167.

  “A very pleasant sort of fellow”: Quoted in Helm, Harry Truman, 32–33.

  “Tomorrow, today, rather”: “Pickwick Papers,” HSTL.

  “It was 104 yesterday”: Letter from Jim Pendergast to Kathleen Pendergast, postmarked July 4, 1934, Pruett Collection.

  opening Truman rally: Kansas City Star, July 7, 1934.

  “a congressman’s congressman”: Quoted in Childs, I Write from Washington, 96–97.

  “wheels-with-wheels”: Ibid.

  “It will be remembered that”: News-Press, July 6, 1934, Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  Johnny Lazia killing: Kansas City Journal-Post, July 10, 1934.

  “tell him I love him”: Ibid.

  “There were at least ten thousand”: Jim Pendergast letter to Kathleen Pendergast, undated, Pruett Collection.

  “It seems my old friend”: Kansas City Star, July 11, 1934.

  a huge picnic in Clay County: News-Press, July 16, 1934, Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  “For this bellhop of Pendergast’s”: Kansas City Star, July 29, 1934.

  “Judge Truman is unobtrusive”: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (undated), Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  “mendacity and imbecility”: El Dorado Springs (Missouri) Gazette, July 23, 1934.

  “Why, Senator Clark is”: United Press, July 30, 1934, Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  Since 1930, more than eighteen thousand: Missouri Historical Review, Vol. 29, July 1935.

  “such as to make any human”: Kansas City Star, July 31, 1934.

  “Fact is, I like roads”: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 37.

  Canfil would check out room: HST to EWT, October 25, 1942, Dear Bess, 491.

  scrapbook of the campaign: Fred Canfil Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  “why, if Harry ever goes”: Kansas City Times, August 1, 1934.

  On the day of the primary: Autobiography, 67.

  “without significance”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 8, 1934.

  a “push-over”: Autobiography, 68.

  “skinny and all one color”: Mary Shaw Branton, author’s interview.

  Fred Canfil descriptions: FOIPA No. 297,745, FBI.

  “green as grass”: Quoted in Helm, 7.

  Hatch and Schwellenbach friendly: Ibid., 70.

  “He took the trouble”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 144.

  “Harry, don’t start out with”: Ibid.

  the Senator from Pendergast: Miller, Plain Speaking, 158.

  “Here was a guy”: Steinberg, The Man from Missouri. 125.

  “doglike devotion”: Quoted in Helm, 13.

  “It was quite an event”: Steinberg, 130.

  “He came to the Senate”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 15, 1945.

  “He was a better man”: Ibid.

  his own passkey: Kansas City Journal-Post (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, 1933–41, HSTL.

  “By the time his colleagues”: Ibid.

  “If you will send us”: HST to L.T. Slayton, February 5, 1935, HSTL.

  “political monster”: Congressional Record, February 30, 1935, 2352–59.

  Thereafter Long refused to speak: Memoirs, Vol. I, 146.

  “He sits in the back row”: Kansas City Journal-Post (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, 1933–41, HSTL.

  “He speaks rarely”: Ibid.

  “I’m going to be better informed”: HST to EWT, December 11, 1935, Dear Bess, 382.

  “I’ll take all the dinners”: HST to EW, December 6, 1937, ibid., 408.

  He burned them all: Memoirs, Vol. I, 157.

  “I was a New Dealer from the start”: Ibid., 149.

  “As the old political saying goes”: Quoted in Barkley, That Reminds Me, 155.

  “I liked Harry”: Claude Pepper, author’s interview.

  “a hot wave”: HST to EWT, August 15, 1935, Dear Bess, 377.

  read Southall Freeman: HST to EWT, July 9, 1955, ibid., 369.

  “No one has done more”: HST to EWT, August 19, 1935, ibid., 378.

  “a grand big house”: HST to EWT, June 29, 1935, ibid., 366.

  “Found a rather nice place”: HST to EWT, July 17, 1935, ibid., 372.

  bus fare and bathing suit: HST to EWT, July 3, 1935, ibid., 367.

  “big enough for two”: HST to EWT, December 5, 1937, ibid., 407.

  “I am hoping to make”: HST to EWT, June 28, 1935, ibid., 365.

  “Pendergast was as pleased”: HST to EWT, July 29, 1935, ibid., 374.

  “as pleased to see me”: HST to EWT, August 11, 1935, ibid., 376.

  “Pendergast and the very blond”: Childs, 111.

  “Confidentially, I had a fine visit”: Lloyd C. Stark to HST, March 22, 1935, HSTL.

  Pendergast at Wilson’s funeral: Kansas City Star archives.

  “He won’t do”: Jonathan Daniels interview notes, November 12, 1949, HSTL; Daniels, The Man of Independence, 181.

  “The old man had better judgment”: Quoted in Daniels, 181.

  “the most grateful man”: Autobiography, 73.

  “Kind of hard on Bennett”: HST to EWT, June 22, 1935, Dear Bess, 365.

  “And while I heard”: Quoted in Helm, 10.

  “The vast expenditures”: Childs, 110.

  Pendergast ill: Kansas City Times, January 27, 1945.

  “We all found Truman”: Quoted in Louchheim, ed., The Making of the New Deal, 243.

  “But he showed no signs”: Ibid.

  “When the Senator from Missouri”: Quoted in Steinberg, 127.

  “He was always going out of his way”: Ibid., 126.

  “Never in all the years”: Mildred Dryden, Oral History, HSTL.

  liked Harry Truman “instinctively”: Barkley, 155.

  “H. is worn out”: EWT to EN, undated, HSTL.

  “tell” Harry how to vote: Helm, 51.

  “Jim Aylward phoned me”: Ibid.

  By going to Pendergast: Daniels, 180.

  tired of being “pushed around”: Helm, 53.

  “The pressure on me”: HST quoted in Barkley, 155–56.

  “I always admired him”: Ibid.

  “I just can’t stand it”: HST to EWT, January 5, 1935, Dear Bess, 391.

  he “played hooky”: HST to EWT, February 11, 1937, ibid., 397.

  “This so-called committee work”: HST to EWT, November 7, 1937, ibid., 403.

  “Not once did I ever see him”: Quoted in Helm, 11.

  “a sense of continually being tired”: U.S. Army Medical Records, September 13, 1937, HSTL.

  “They are charming people”: HST to Marvin Mclntyre, October 11, 1936, FDRL.

  “That son-of-a-bitch”: Steinberg, 167.

  “A couple of kids”: HST to EWT, October 29, 1937, Dear Bess, 402.

  “Today is my father’s birthday”: HST to EWT, December 5, 1937, ibid., 407.

  Brandeis teas: Daniels, 185–86.

  “slightly awesome institution”: Childs, 43.

  not accustomed to meeting such people: Daniels, 186.

  Brandeis had spent more time: HST to EWT, December 13, 1937, Dear Bess, 409.

  “It was a rather exclusive”: HST to EWT, December 13, 1937, ibid., 100.

  “certainly in agreement on the dangers”: HST quoted in Miller, 151.

  December 20, 1937, speech: Congressional Record, December 20, 1937, 2482–95.

  “It probably will catalogue me”: HST to EWT, December 12, 1937, Dear Bess, 409.

  The speech was front-page news: The New York Times, December 21, 1937.

  Max Lowenthal comments about pressure: Daniels, 185.

  “an innate part of his personality”: Gosnell, Truman’s Crises, 129.

  “We must not close our eyes”: Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  Pendergast betting: Reddig, 278; Kansas City Star, December 27, 1974.

  “Don’t ever take any money”: Quoted in Kansas City Star, March 1, 1984.

  Truman speech on February 15, 1938: Congressional Record, February 15, 1938, 1962–64.

  “The manner in which the juries”: John Oliver, author’s interview.

  “in view of my speech”: Kansas City Star, September 15, 1978.

  “They figure they’ll need”: HST to EWT, November 17, 1938, Dear Bess, 412.

  “If it is true”: Reddig, 303–04.

  “Please help Sam Finklestein”: T.J. Pendergast to HST, undated, HSTL.

  “I am sure he had”: Helm, 47.

  “I am very sorry”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, undated, Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  “The terrible things”: HST to EWT, October 1, 1939, HSTL.

  “He was broke”: Edgar Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.

  “Looks like everybody got rich”: HST to EWT, October 27, 1939, Dear Bess, 426.

  “I believe if I did know him”: Kansas City Star, May 22, 1939.

  “At no time”: Quoted in Daniels, 196.

  “He has earned the high estimate”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1939.

  “If Governor Stark runs”: Associated Press (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  “I do not think”: HST to EWT, August 8, 1939, Dear Bess, 418.

  “Tell them to go to hell”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 130.

  “the wise boys”: Quoted in Drew Pearson column (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  Washington premiere: HST to EWT, October 18, 1939, Dear Bess, 426.

  mortgage on the farm: Daniels, 192.

  “mighty blue”: HST to EWT, September 22, 1939, Dear Bess, 419.

  “I am of the opinion”: Miscamble, “The Evolution of an Internationalist,” Australian Journal of Politics and History, August 1977.

  “You know it makes some of us”: HST to EW, November 11, 1939, Dear Bess, 428.

  “a pleasure trip”: HST to EWT, November 16, 1939, ibid., 430.

  “a regular fellow”: HST to EWT, November 22, 1939, ibid., 431.

  “This, you know”: HST to EWT, December 1, 1939, ibid., 432.

  “I guess I’m not built”: HST to EWT, December 1, 1939, ibid.

  “Harry, I don’t think”: Quoted in Daniels, 198.

  “if he gets only two votes”: Quoted in Helm, 126.

  reelection announcement: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 5, 1940.

  opposed to FDR third term: Ibid.

  “There is no indispensable man”: Hassett, “The President Was My Boss,” Saturday Evening Post, November 28, 1953.

  “We borrowed clerks”: John Snyder, Oral History, HSTL.

  “A United States Senator…sleeping”: Quoted in Miller, 166.

  “At sixteen”: Quoted in Truman, Harry S. Truman, 139.

  “While the President is unreliable”: HST to EWT, September 24, 1939, Dear Bess, 420.

  Bernard Baruch contribution: Byrnes, All in One Lifetime, 101.

  America “ought to sell”: Miscamble, “Evolution of an Internationalist.”

  Tom Evans, who was twelve years: Evans, Oral History, HSTL.

  “Cut your speech”: Quoted in Daniels, 202.

  “I just wanted to come down”: Ibid.

  “I believe in”: HST quoted in Helm, 137.

  “When we are honest enough”: Speech before National Colored Democratic Association Convention, July 14, 1940, HSTL.

  St. Louis Post-Dispatch cartoon: March 29, 1940.

  “enough errors to give me”: Quoted in Daniels, 205

  “The decent, honest”: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  Truman urged to release letter: Daniels, 205.

  Stark’s chauffeur: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 141.

  “Lloyd’s ambitions”: Ibid., 132–33.

  foreclosure on farm: Kansas City Star, July 17, 1940, Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  thought he was having a heart attack: HST to EWT, November 15, 1941, Dear Bess, 468.

  the shame she would feel: HST to EWT, August 13, 1940, ibid., 442.

  “I’m thinking August 6”: HST to EWT, June 23, 1940, ibid., 440.

  “Will call you from Sedalia”: Ibid.

  “Anyway we found out”: HST to EWT, August 9, 1940, ibid., 441.

  “He finally ended up”: Daniels, 209.

  Bob Hannegan: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 24, 1944.

  “Well…I guess”: Hinde, Oral History, HSTL.

  it was Bess who answered: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 145.

  “the machine vote”: Lloyd C. Stark to FDR, August 9, 1940, FDRL.

  “I thought Wheeler and Jim Byrnes”: HST to EWT, August 10, 1940, Dear Bess, 441.

  “Has my certification of election”: Edwin A. Halsey, telegram to HST, December 13, 1940, HSTL.

  7. Patriot

  “War has many faces”: Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream, 164.

  “Locksley Hall” poem in wallet: Hillman, ed., Mr. President, 206.

  “As I watched those white fires”: Quoted in Flower and Reeves, eds., The Taste of Courage, 135.

  “We have everything to lose”: Kansas City Times, May 2, 1941.

  Clark was destroying himself: HST to EWT, October 3, 1941, Dear Bess, 466.

  “My relief of mind”: Pogue, George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, 59.

  Marshall told him he was too old: HST “Autobiographical Sketch,” HSTL.

  Washington a different city: Green, Washington, 466–73; Brinkley, Washington Goes to War.

  “a little investigation”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 165.

  automobile odysseys: Ibid.

  “getting ruined…And there were men”: Quoted in Miller, Plain Speaking, 175.

  “There’s too much that is wrong”: Helm, Harry Truman, 151.

  “It is a considerable sin”: Schlesinger and Bruns, Congress Investigates. A Documented History, 1792–1974, 3121.

  it “must be assumed that”: Pogue, 108.

  Nye Committee: Baruch, Public Years, 269.

  “The thing to do”: Time, March 8, 1943.

  Byrnes $10,000 committee funding: Memoirs, Vol. I, 166.

  “Looks like I’ll get something”: HST to EWT, March 19, 1941, Dear Bess, 456.

  “The political situation”: HST to EWT, August 1, 1939, ibid., 416.

  Hugh Fulton: Memoirs, Vol. I, 167.

  departure of Messall: Tom Evans, Oral History, HSTL.

  “What are you fishing for?” Executive Session, June 8, 1942, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA.

  “You give a good leader”: Papers of George C. Marshall, Vol. 2, 483.

  “There was no attempt”: Memoirs, Vol. I, 171.

  saved the government $250 million: Riddle, The Truman Committee, 147.

  gallbladder attack: U.S. Army Medical Records, 1941, HSTL; Truman, Bess W. Truman, 200–01.

  “My standing in the Senate”: HST to EWT, June 19, 1941, Dear Bess, 457.

  “If we see that Germany”: The New York Times, June 24, 1941.

  “Last year he ran”: U.S. Army Medical Records, 1941, HSTL.

  pressed by Vandenberg: Schlesinger and Bruns, 3127.

  “Well I spent yesterday”: HST to EWT, August 21, 1941, Dear Bess, 461–62.

  “studious avoidance of dramatics”: Salter, ed., Public Men In and Out of Office, 12.

  “’Slightly built, bespectacled”: Tri-County News, Long City, Missouri (undated), Messall Scrapbooks, HSTL.

  “Mr. Lewis, you are not seriously”: John L. Lewis testimony, March 26, 1943, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, NA, 55.

  “Standard Oil” and I. G. Farben: HST Broadcast, “Rubber in America,” Blue Network, June 15, 1942, printed copy, HSTL.

  “First of all”: Truman before Senate, October 29. Congressional Record, 77th Congress, 1st Sess., 1941, Vol. XXCVII, 8303.

  The record of the OPM: January 15, 1942, Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, United States Senate, 77th Congress, 2nd Sess., 6.

  Lilienthal on war with Japan: Lilienthal, Journals, Vol. I, 408.

  “No matter what happens”: Boardman, From Harding to Hiroshima, 250.

  “We have fought to get you”: Schlesinger and Bruns, 3131.

  “Well at last I am sitting”: HST to EN, December 14, 1941, HSTL.

  “Harry Truman was one of the”: Riedel, Halls of the Mighty, 173–75.

  it would “impair our activity”: Gosnell, Truman’s Crises, 161.

  unanimous reports: McCune and Beal, “The Job That Made Truman President,” Harper’s, June 1945.

  “so close that a chorus girl”: Sevareid, 213.

  “the return of Ceres”: HST to EWT, April 26, 1942, Dear Bess, 473.