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.
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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.
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