Appointment in Williamsburg

With the air of a man on his way to the dentist, Harry S. (for nothing*) Truman boarded the presidential yacht Williamsburg. He was headed for a meeting with Governor William Munford Tuck, a leader of the Southern revolt against his civil-rights program. Both the President and Tuck, along with Canada's Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and her Governor General, starchy Viscount Alexander of Tunis, were to receive honorary doctorates of laws (Truman's eleventh honorary degree) from the College of William and Mary.

"Glad to See You." The trip started badly. The presidential party was met at Williamsburg by Mr. & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III (whose family had put up $25,000,000 to restore the town to its original trim, Colonial stateliness) and other notables. Tuck was not among them.

But on the burgeoning campus, on a walk behind the brick expanse of the Christopher Wren Building, Tuck was waiting, his great bulk already swathed in an academic robe. He came forward, a noncommittal smile creasing his jowls. "Mr. President, how are you, sir? I'm mighty glad to see you," he said. "I'm glad to see you too," the President replied. They shook hands in silent truce.

Tuck got his degree first. He concluded a brief, prepared address with a trace of nervous emphasis: "We understand the fundamental rights and privileges of democracy. . . . Virginians are as determined today to strive for the preservation of those imperishable values as were our gallant forebears in the long ago. . . ." The President joined in the applause.

Raindrops & Sunshine. The sky grew darker as the Canadians spoke (see CANADA). A few raindrops fell as Harry Truman rose. He spoke without notes. "We ran into two world wars in the defense of liberty," he said. "We still stand for liberty and for freedom of worship, freedom of conscience and freedom of the individual, things which were fundamental on this campus from the beginning. . . ."

When the applause had subsided and the dignitaries left the stand, Tuck told a reporter: "He made a good speech."

Inside the Wren Building, before they shed their caps & gowns, Tuck and the President shook hands again for photographers. Said the President: "They think we're going to fight." Said the Governor: "Well, we certainly wouldn't fight with these clothes on."

After a buffet luncheon, the presidential party drove to Yorktown, where the Williamsburg now awaited them for the overnight cruise back to Washington. The sun was shining again, and Harry Truman felt that it hadn't been so bad after all.

*An old rumor was going the rounds last week that the "S." stands for Shippe. To avoid offending either grandfather Anderson Shippe Truman or grandfather Solomon Young, his parents gave him the nameless middle initial S, which could stand for either.

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