President Truman presided at the press conference, but Politician Truman made the news. Like a man itching to peel off his coat and get into a backyard brawl, he announced that he was out to beat a Democrat who had obstructed his policies in Congress. His target: conservative Representative Roger Caldwell Slaughter of Missouri's Fifth District, onetime neighbor of County Judge Harry Truman and now a candidate for renomination in the August 6 primary (TIME, July 1).
With one blunt issue-drawing comment Politician Truman turned a local Missouri scrap into a national political row in the faltering Democratic party (see Political...