The Missouri Traveler

One evening last week, a black Chrysler Imperial sedan rolled up in front of a motel in Decatur, Ill. The driver, a middle-size, friendly sort of fellow, and his wife checked in quietly, but a reporter was soon on their trail. Even the cost of their dinner ($1.72 for two) and the size of the tip (35-c-) were carefully noted. Harry Truman granted that he and Bess were not having much luck traveling "incognito."

About lunchtime the next day, the ex-President of the U.S. turned his car into the driveway in front of a brick Tudor house in fashionable North Indianapolis, Ind. Frank McKinney, Indiana's top machine Democrat, and his wife Margaret greeted their old friends. The Trumans went in, washed up and sat at the McKinney's dining-room table for lunch (melon-ball cup, breast of chicken on ham, asparagus, stuffed oranges, hot rolls, black currant preserves, strawberry angel pie).

Well-fed, and beaming with good humor, Harry Truman met the press, felt the cloth of a reporter's cord suit and allowed as how he had one just like it. A reporter wanted to know what he had to say about rumors that McKinney might be called back as Democratic national chairman. "I'd be in complete agreement," said Truman. "Frank's the best chairman the party ever had." Then, as if he suddenly realized that this would not be sweet music to the unhappy ears of Democratic National Chairman Steve Mitchell, Truman tried (with little success) to make it sound better. Said he: "Of course the present chairman was duly elected, and all that."

Was he for Adlai Stevenson for President in 1956? Truman replied that he has "no candidate" right now, but "when the time comes, I'll make my sentiments known." But he did have a ready formula for 1956: "I hope the party will nominate a Democrat who can be elected easily. If we do that, we'll have no trouble."

Having spoken, Harry Truman slipped behind the wheel of the Imperial, Bess got in the front seat beside him, and they rolled on east. A day and a half later the ex-President, in shirtsleeves, drove up in front of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. It was the Trumans' first return to the capital since they left on Jan. 20, and they just wanted to "have a good time" before pushing on to Philadelphia and New York. Would Truman see President Eisenhower? No, said Harry. "He's too busy to see every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes to town."

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