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A congenital eye defect condemned him to thick lenses and excluded him from the wide fraternity of athleticism. Reserved, almost withdrawn as a boy, he read every book in the local library. Later, because he was essentially lonely, he became a joiner. In 1918, his field-artillery regiment was sent to France, where Captain Truman for the first time on record displayed the cockerel courage that was to characterize his career. Later he recalled his greeting to the battery: "I told them I knew they had been making trouble for the previous commanders. I said, 'I didn't come over here to get along with you. You've got to get along with me. And if there are any of you who can't, speak up right now and I'll bust you right back now!' " Added Truman: "We got along."
Back in civilian life, Truman married his childhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace, and invested his life savings of $15,000 in a haberdashery shop in Kansas City, Mo. He prospered briefly, then went broke during the depression of 1922, but proudly paid back all his creditors, although it took years to do so. His political career began when the brother of Kansas City's Boss Thomas Pendergast walked into the failing store, leaned an elbow on the counter, and asked whether Truman would be interested in running for county judge in Jackson County—which includes Kansas City. The offer was apparently made because Boss Pendergast's nephew Jim had served in Truman's regiment. Having no better prospects at the time, Truman said, "Yes, why not?"
In 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."
The 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 him to the White House.
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.