Feud

Harry Truman's feud with Roger C. Slaughter was neither pretty to watch nor quick to die.

It started in 1946, when the President decided to purge him from Congress because Slaughter, a Democrat from part of Harry Truman's own home territory, the Fifth Missouri District, persistently voted against the Truman program. Jim Pendergast, his Kansas City henchmen and other good Democrats, including the late Charlie Binaggio, were quick to oblige, but they were a little clumsy about it. They purged Roger Slaughter in the primaries, all right, but they let a Republican win the seat in the finals. And, after the election, 118 vote-fraud indictments were returned against Democratic primary workers. (Two were convicted, 115 indictments were dismissed, and the most damaging evidence was stolen from an election board safe.)

Roger Slaughter stayed in Washington, went to work as a legal representative for grain interests. Harry Truman showed that he had not forgotten his old vendetta. A Washington grand jury indicted the former Congressman on charges of lobbying without registering.

Last week, after the Justice Department had postponed the case for 18 months, Roger Slaughter went on trial, waived a jury. The Government produced only two witnesses and a skimpy skein of circumstantial evidence; the defense presented no witnesses and explained that the government's own testimony proved Slaughter was acting merely as a lawyer, not a lobbyist. District Judge Alexander Holtzoff briskly decided that the Government had no case, acquitted Roger Slaughter within about an hour.

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