Farmer Boy

Back from Christmas in Missouri, the President reluctantly peeled off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. The trip to Independence had been the kind of holiday he hated to cut short.

From the moment, the Sacred Cow landed on Kansas City's Fairfax Airport, the atmosphere had been warm with easy-going friendliness. Nothing tickled the President more than the greeting of one overalled crony: "You look fine. You're just the old farmer boy like you always was."

As the presidential motorcade whisked east to Independence, 22 miles away, Harry Truman had only one worry. He was afraid the turkey might have got cold. It hadn't. Piping hot, the bird was a plump 25-pounder, the gift of West Point Cadet Jack Capps, of Liberty, Mo., a grateful Truman appointee who had also supplied the President last year.

For once the President could let himself go at mealtime. His mother had driven over from Grandview for dinner at the Truman house, so he would not have to save room for a second meal at her house. A third dinner he had faced last year turned out this time to be just a snack, with his aunt, Mrs. John T. Noland.

The Coffee Club. Next morning the President engineered one of the little scenes that most delight him. Dropping into the five-&-dime store, in search of Mayor Roger T. Sermon, Harry Truman happily joined the "coffee club" at the soda fountain. Perched on a stool, sipping a nickel Coke, enjoying the giggling confusion of the fountain girl, Harry Truman had the time of his life.

But that evening, as the Sacred Cow bounced through dirty weather over West Virginia to a landing at the National Airport, the President braced himself for a sterner audience: the G.O.P.-controlled Soth Congress.

Hard-working Special Counsel Clark Clifford had stuck to his desk over the holidays, hammering together the President's annual message on the state of the Union. But it needed a final polishing before it could be taken up to the Hill on Jan. 6. And the President also had a budget message to deliver on the 8th, his recommendations to accompany the Economic Council's report (TIME, Dec. 30) to be given two days later.

Conscientious as he was, Harry Truman could whip up little enthusiasm over the prospect of his three-ply job. Last year, with a Democratic majority in Congress, his efforts had produced few results. With the G.O.P. in the driver's seat he could expect to be even less effective in guiding the Congress. About the best course he could set lay along the line of middle-of-the-road generalities which would commit the Democratic Executive as lightly as possible.

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