(6 of 6)
At the Sheraton-Blackstone Hotel, Truman will find No. 508, the presidential suite (former occupants: Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt and Eisenhower), considerably changed. The old French decor is gone. Now, raves a hotel publicist, there "are vibrant colors. Wood Brown. Bittersweet. Tiger Lily Flame. Cocoa. Now it's really a man's room." In the men's room of the man's room, close to the bathtub, hangs a private beige telephone. In case of political necessity, Truman can make direct calls to Adlai Stevenson in the privacy of the bathroom of suite 308, or to Averell Harriman in the bathroom of suite 408.
Will Truman ever pick up his phone to try to swing the convention to Old Friend Harriman? The question may have been answered four years ago, when Truman was President and had the power to make or break. In 1952 Candidate Harriman sat disconsolately in his Blackstone suite, eyes glued to his telephone for three days. He was awaiting The Call from Harry—but it never came. "We knew there would be no call," says a former Harriman aide. "We all knew it—except Harriman. We didn't say so, of course, and he just kept looking at the phone."
The Catalyst. Harry Truman is fond of Averell Harriman, who took on many a tough chore under the New and Fair Deals. All other things being equal, he would like to see Harriman nominated. But for Harriman, all other things are far from equal (see box), and Truman is too old a pro to get out on that shaky limb. More important, Truman takes a realistic Missouri view of his role in this year's convention: he sees himself not as the Democratic Party's kingmaker but, as he says, its "catalyst."
This summer, in a jocular discussion of the hereafter, Harry Truman in a sense placed his life in its true Democratic context. He was standing on the screened porch of a friend's home in Kansas City, sipping on a Scotch and branch water. He would, he said, like to be buried in a mulberry coffin. "Did you ever see mulberry wood burning in a fireplace?" he asked. "Well, it cracks and pops—and I want to go through hell crackin' and poppin'."
Chances are good that this is precisely the way he will go through next week's convention: crackin' and poppin'—and giving 'em hell on earth.
* Last week's report: 61% for Eisenhower, 37% for Stevenson. In 1952 Eisenhower won with 54-9% of the popular vote.