How Harry Truman Became President
Harry S. Truman ("S" doesn't stand for anything, a common practice at the time, it was the first initial of both of his grandfathers) was born in Lamar, Missouri, the son of John Truman, a farmer and livestock dealer and Martha Ellen Young. The family moved three times in the next six years, settling in Independence. As a boy, Truman's interests were music, reading, and history. He was very close to his mother and as president, he solicited political and personal advice from her. He practice playing the piano daily from ages five to fifteen. At age 16 Truman was a page at the 1900 Democratic National Convention at Convention Hall in Kansas City. His father was active in the Democratic Party and Truman carried on the family political tradition.
After graduating from Independence High School in 1901, Truman worked as a timekeeper on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. He worked at a series of clerical jobs, including a brief stint in the mailroom of the Kansas City Star. He returned to his grandparents' farm in Grandview in 1906, where he lived until joining the army in 1917. During this time, he met and courted Bess Wallace and proposed to her in 1911. She turned him down. Truman decided that before he proposed again, he wanted to be earning more money than a farmer did.
Truman did not earn a college degree. After he finished high school, Truman enrolled in Spalding's Commercial College, a Kansas City business school, but stayed for only one semester. In 1923–25 he took night courses towards a law degree at the Kansas City Law School (now the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law), but dropped out after losing his government job.
Truman applied for appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but was turned down because of poor eyesight. He enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard in 1905, serving until 1911 in a Kansas City-based artillery battery. His eyesight was very poor, 20/50 in the right eye and 20/400 (past the standard for legal blindness) in the left eye. The second time he took the test, he passed by secretly memorizing the eye chart.
When it looked as if the USA might enter World War I, Truman rejoined the Guard, even though as the sole male in the family he was exempt from conscription. His men elected Truman as an officer, making him first lieutenant of a battery. Truman was sent to Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, near Lawton, Oklahoma, for training. He ran the camp canteen with Edward Jacobson, a clothing store clerk he knew from Kansas City. At Fort Sill, Truman met Lieutenant James M. Pendergast, nephew of Thomas Joseph (Tom) Pendergast, a Kansas City political boss.
Truman was promoted to captain in July 1918 and became battery commander of an artillery regiment in France. His new unit, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division, had a reputation for discipline problems. When the battery came under sudden attack by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains, soldiers began to retreat. Using uncharacteristic profanity, Truman commandeded his men to stay and fight and he was able to obtain their compliance.
On September 26, 1918, Truman's unit was part of a pre-arranged assault barrage at Meuse-Argonne. On September 27, Truman was able to detect an enemy artillery battery setting up across a river in a position allowing them to fire upon the neighboring 28th Division. Truman ignored orders and waited until the Germans walked their horses well away from their guns before he opened fire. Truman was reprimanded for disobeying orders. During the Meuse-Argonne fighting, Truman provided support for George S. Patton's tank brigade. On November 11, 1918, his artillery unit fired some of the last shots of World War I towards German positions in Hermeville before the armistice took effect at 11 am. Under Truman's command, the battery did not lose a single man.
Truman's war record raised his stature in the community when he returned home. At the end of the war he was mustered out as a captain. He returned to Independence, where he married Bess Wallace on June 28, 1919. They had one child, their daughter Mary Margaret Truman.
Shortly before his wedding, Truman and Edwin Jacobson opened a haberdashery at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. The store went bankrupt during the recession of 1921 and it took Truman until 1934 to pay off the debts of the store. With the help of the Kansas City Democratic machine led by Tom Pendergast, Truman was elected in 1922 as a County Court judge of Jackson County's eastern district. It was an administrative position akin to that of county commissioner. Truman lost his bid for re-election in 1924, and he spent the next two years selling automobile club memberships.
In 1926, Truman was elected as the presiding judge for the county court with the support of the Pendergast machine, and re-elected in 1930. In 1933, Truman was named as Missouri's director for the Federal Re-Employment program (part of the Civil Works Administration) at the request of Postmaster General James Farley. The appointment due to Boss Pendergast's control over federal patronage jobs in Missouri.
Truman approached Pendergast about possibly running for Governor or Congress, but Pendergast rejected these ideas. Pendergast reluctantly backed Truman as a Democratic candidate for the 1934 U.S. Senate election for Missouri, after his first four choices declined to run. In the Democratic primary, Truman defeated two congressmen, John J. Cochran and Jacob L. Milligan, and he defeated the incumbent Republican Roscoe C. Patterson by nearly 20 percentage points.
When he entered the senate, Truman was pejoratively known as "the senator from Pendergast." He turned patronage decisions over to Pendergast. In his first term as a Senator, Truman was critical of corporate greed and the dangers of Wall Street speculators and other moneyed special interests attaining too much of the influence in national affairs. He was largely ignored by President Roosevelt and was not considered to be a major player in the senate.
During the US Senate election in 1940, United States Attorney Maurice Milligan and former governor Lloyd Stark both challenged Truman in the Democratic primary. Truman was politically wounded because of Boss Pendergast's imprisonment for income tax evasion the previous year. He still remained loyal to Pendergast, claiming that Republican judges were responsible for the boss's conviction. Truman was able to obtain support from St. Louis party leader Robert E. Hannegan's and he won his party's nomination by 8,000 votes. In the November election, Truman defeated Republican Manvel H. Davis by 51-49%.
In late-1940, Truman traveled to various military bases to investigate waste and profiteering. He became a subcommittee chairman in the Committee on Military Affairs and commenced formal investigations into abuses in the military as the nation prepared for war. The Roosevelt administration supported this plan and Truman became the Chairman of what came to be known as the Truman Committee. The committee led to savings of up to $15 billion in military spending and its activities put Truman on the cover of Time magazine.
In 1944, with the nation at war, Vice President Henry Wallace was considered to be too far to the left and too friendly to labor for some of Roosevelt's advisers. Knowing that Roosevelt might not live out a fourth term, both the President and several of his confidantes wanted to replace Wallace. Democratic National Committee leaders wanted to keep Wallace off the ticket. Roosevelt told party leaders he would accept either Truman or Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as his choice for Vice-President going into the 1944 election and most party leaders preferred Truman. Truman's nomination was called the "Second Missouri Compromise" in the press and it was well received by the party. The Roosevelt–Truman ticket went on to a 432–99 electoral-vote victory in the election, defeating the Republican ticket of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and running mate Governor John Bricker of Ohio. Truman was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 1945.
Truman's brief vice-presidency was relatively uneventful. Roosevelt rarely contacted him, even to inform him of major decisions. The two men met alone together only twice during their time in office. In one of his first acts as vice president, Truman created some controversy when he attended the disgraced Tom Pendergast's funeral. He ignored the criticism, saying "He was always my friend and I have always been his." Truman rarely discussed world affairs or domestic politics with Roosevelt. He was uninformed about major initiatives relating to the war and the top-secret Manhattan Project, which was about to test the world's first atomic bomb.
Truman had been vice president for 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. That afternoon, Truman had been presiding over the Senate and had just adjourned the session for the day. He was preparing to have a drink in House Speaker Sam Rayburn's office when he received an urgent message to go immediately to the White House. Truman assumed that President Roosevelt wanted to meet with him, but Eleanor Roosevelt informed him that her husband had died after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Truman's first concern was for Mrs. Roosevelt. He asked if there was anything he could do for her, to which she replied, "Is there anything we can do for you? You are the one in trouble now!"
After graduating from Independence High School in 1901, Truman worked as a timekeeper on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. He worked at a series of clerical jobs, including a brief stint in the mailroom of the Kansas City Star. He returned to his grandparents' farm in Grandview in 1906, where he lived until joining the army in 1917. During this time, he met and courted Bess Wallace and proposed to her in 1911. She turned him down. Truman decided that before he proposed again, he wanted to be earning more money than a farmer did.
Truman did not earn a college degree. After he finished high school, Truman enrolled in Spalding's Commercial College, a Kansas City business school, but stayed for only one semester. In 1923–25 he took night courses towards a law degree at the Kansas City Law School (now the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law), but dropped out after losing his government job.
Truman applied for appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but was turned down because of poor eyesight. He enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard in 1905, serving until 1911 in a Kansas City-based artillery battery. His eyesight was very poor, 20/50 in the right eye and 20/400 (past the standard for legal blindness) in the left eye. The second time he took the test, he passed by secretly memorizing the eye chart.
When it looked as if the USA might enter World War I, Truman rejoined the Guard, even though as the sole male in the family he was exempt from conscription. His men elected Truman as an officer, making him first lieutenant of a battery. Truman was sent to Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, near Lawton, Oklahoma, for training. He ran the camp canteen with Edward Jacobson, a clothing store clerk he knew from Kansas City. At Fort Sill, Truman met Lieutenant James M. Pendergast, nephew of Thomas Joseph (Tom) Pendergast, a Kansas City political boss.
Truman was promoted to captain in July 1918 and became battery commander of an artillery regiment in France. His new unit, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division, had a reputation for discipline problems. When the battery came under sudden attack by the Germans in the Vosges Mountains, soldiers began to retreat. Using uncharacteristic profanity, Truman commandeded his men to stay and fight and he was able to obtain their compliance.
On September 26, 1918, Truman's unit was part of a pre-arranged assault barrage at Meuse-Argonne. On September 27, Truman was able to detect an enemy artillery battery setting up across a river in a position allowing them to fire upon the neighboring 28th Division. Truman ignored orders and waited until the Germans walked their horses well away from their guns before he opened fire. Truman was reprimanded for disobeying orders. During the Meuse-Argonne fighting, Truman provided support for George S. Patton's tank brigade. On November 11, 1918, his artillery unit fired some of the last shots of World War I towards German positions in Hermeville before the armistice took effect at 11 am. Under Truman's command, the battery did not lose a single man.
Truman's war record raised his stature in the community when he returned home. At the end of the war he was mustered out as a captain. He returned to Independence, where he married Bess Wallace on June 28, 1919. They had one child, their daughter Mary Margaret Truman.
Shortly before his wedding, Truman and Edwin Jacobson opened a haberdashery at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. The store went bankrupt during the recession of 1921 and it took Truman until 1934 to pay off the debts of the store. With the help of the Kansas City Democratic machine led by Tom Pendergast, Truman was elected in 1922 as a County Court judge of Jackson County's eastern district. It was an administrative position akin to that of county commissioner. Truman lost his bid for re-election in 1924, and he spent the next two years selling automobile club memberships.
In 1926, Truman was elected as the presiding judge for the county court with the support of the Pendergast machine, and re-elected in 1930. In 1933, Truman was named as Missouri's director for the Federal Re-Employment program (part of the Civil Works Administration) at the request of Postmaster General James Farley. The appointment due to Boss Pendergast's control over federal patronage jobs in Missouri.
Truman approached Pendergast about possibly running for Governor or Congress, but Pendergast rejected these ideas. Pendergast reluctantly backed Truman as a Democratic candidate for the 1934 U.S. Senate election for Missouri, after his first four choices declined to run. In the Democratic primary, Truman defeated two congressmen, John J. Cochran and Jacob L. Milligan, and he defeated the incumbent Republican Roscoe C. Patterson by nearly 20 percentage points.
When he entered the senate, Truman was pejoratively known as "the senator from Pendergast." He turned patronage decisions over to Pendergast. In his first term as a Senator, Truman was critical of corporate greed and the dangers of Wall Street speculators and other moneyed special interests attaining too much of the influence in national affairs. He was largely ignored by President Roosevelt and was not considered to be a major player in the senate.
During the US Senate election in 1940, United States Attorney Maurice Milligan and former governor Lloyd Stark both challenged Truman in the Democratic primary. Truman was politically wounded because of Boss Pendergast's imprisonment for income tax evasion the previous year. He still remained loyal to Pendergast, claiming that Republican judges were responsible for the boss's conviction. Truman was able to obtain support from St. Louis party leader Robert E. Hannegan's and he won his party's nomination by 8,000 votes. In the November election, Truman defeated Republican Manvel H. Davis by 51-49%.
In late-1940, Truman traveled to various military bases to investigate waste and profiteering. He became a subcommittee chairman in the Committee on Military Affairs and commenced formal investigations into abuses in the military as the nation prepared for war. The Roosevelt administration supported this plan and Truman became the Chairman of what came to be known as the Truman Committee. The committee led to savings of up to $15 billion in military spending and its activities put Truman on the cover of Time magazine.
In 1944, with the nation at war, Vice President Henry Wallace was considered to be too far to the left and too friendly to labor for some of Roosevelt's advisers. Knowing that Roosevelt might not live out a fourth term, both the President and several of his confidantes wanted to replace Wallace. Democratic National Committee leaders wanted to keep Wallace off the ticket. Roosevelt told party leaders he would accept either Truman or Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as his choice for Vice-President going into the 1944 election and most party leaders preferred Truman. Truman's nomination was called the "Second Missouri Compromise" in the press and it was well received by the party. The Roosevelt–Truman ticket went on to a 432–99 electoral-vote victory in the election, defeating the Republican ticket of Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and running mate Governor John Bricker of Ohio. Truman was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 1945.
Truman's brief vice-presidency was relatively uneventful. Roosevelt rarely contacted him, even to inform him of major decisions. The two men met alone together only twice during their time in office. In one of his first acts as vice president, Truman created some controversy when he attended the disgraced Tom Pendergast's funeral. He ignored the criticism, saying "He was always my friend and I have always been his." Truman rarely discussed world affairs or domestic politics with Roosevelt. He was uninformed about major initiatives relating to the war and the top-secret Manhattan Project, which was about to test the world's first atomic bomb.
Truman had been vice president for 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. That afternoon, Truman had been presiding over the Senate and had just adjourned the session for the day. He was preparing to have a drink in House Speaker Sam Rayburn's office when he received an urgent message to go immediately to the White House. Truman assumed that President Roosevelt wanted to meet with him, but Eleanor Roosevelt informed him that her husband had died after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Truman's first concern was for Mrs. Roosevelt. He asked if there was anything he could do for her, to which she replied, "Is there anything we can do for you? You are the one in trouble now!"