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¶ On favorite Son Averell Harriman (see below) as a vote-getter: that depends altogether on the impression you make. The President went out [in 1948] and traveled 31,700 miles, gave 355 speeches, saw 7,000,000 people and talked to 30 million more people over the radio and sold them a bill of goods and became President.
¶ On the Democratic platform for 1952: The President had already read it aloud in his Jefferson-Jackson Day speech.
¶ On his own plans for the future: He did not plan to become a history professor because he has no college degrees except honorary ones, and he does not believe that any college in the country would consider him qualified to teach. He would love to run for Senator from Missouri, but he wouldn't use the power of the presidency to run this fall and did not want to run against Democrat Tom Hennings, who comes up for re-election in 1956.
¶ On ex-Presidents: A lot of people would like to tie a rock to ex-Presidents and throw them in the Potomac. But he thinks Herbert Hoover made a wonderful contribution to his country as chairman of the Commission for the Reorganization of the Government, and Truman expects to do whatever he is asked to do, just as these people have done for him.
Genesis to Revelations. The new Truman was charming the visiting editors right down out of the masthead. Though he had often upbraided the editors as heatedly as Franklin Roosevelt, he smoothly refused the chance to deliver a scolding in person. He had no specific complaints today, said Harry Truman with a disarming grin. Then one of the editors asked the day's sharpest question: "Mr. President, if it is proper to seize the steel mills, can you in your opinion seize the newspapers and radio stations?" Replied the President: Under similar circumstances, the President has to act for whatever is for the best interests of the country. That is your answer.
Presidential Press Secretary Joe, Short, besieged later for a clarification, did his best to patch matters up again: "It was a purely academic and hypothetical question and there is no amplification or comment on it." Truman, himself, did not elaborate. But next day, while telling 100 visiting Protestant editors that his press conference had produced questions ranging from "Genesis to Revelations," he grinned and said: "I don't know whether I gave them the right answers or not."
Deep Roots. Right or wrong, Harry Truman had answers for everybody all week long. He flew out to Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, to lecture seven flood-weary Midwestern governors (six of them Republicans) on the need for flood control (see below). "I want to get this job done," he snapped. "There isn't any sense in our fooling around any longer." For the Daughters of the American Revolution, gathered in annual convention in Washington, he had a polite welcoming note and a couple of not-so-polite digs. During a White House ceremony for Polish Refugee Josef Zylka (last of the European refugees to come to the U.S. under the Displaced Persons Act), Truman observed that "some of the descendants of those early [U.S.] immigrants have come to the conclusion that they shouldn't help other people who are now in the same condition ... I am not one of them, although my roots go back as far as any ... I am not an ancestor hunter."