Show j he riz Truman's Temper TemperA A ALL LL presidents being human sometimes lose their temper And Harry Truman being intense devoted to his family has an un understandable understandable understandable tendency to shoo from tram the hip when it comes to hii hi wife and daughter However those on the Inside o 0 the White House know that presidential presidential fuse-blowing fuse is not confined confine to protecting his family More and more the Presidents President's temper haj har influenced public policy Quick decisions decisions de swayed by personal peeve can affect the lives of millions and the public has a right to know knoss about them Take for tor Instance price controls Failure to impose price controls control has bas shot up the cost of living by bil bil- dions ions of dollars has increased the cost ost of at rearmament to Uncle Sam and started an inflation spiral which may do inestimable damage Yet congress long ago voted presidential power to impose price con can troIs In fact Republicans led in giving the President more power than he requested However this power osver has not been used Anti Baruch One reason is that Bernard Bartich Baruch Baruch Bar- Bar uch tich came down to Washington and helped persuade the Republicans to vote these powers and the President President President dent hates Bernard Baruch He hates bates him with a passion that distorts distorts distorts dis dis- dis- dis torts and discolors his judgment When Baruch's name comes up in conversations dispassion and reason reason reason rea rea- son leave the President The hatred began when Baruch declined an invitation to serve on a committee of Democrats to raise money during the 1948 campaign The President then wrote him a letter letter let let- ter not unlike the one sent to music critic Paul Hume Hurne later he fired Baruch's brother as ambassador to Rolland Holland and timed it to occur on Baruch's birthday Bernie once a caller at the White House has never been near there since Later the President blamed Baruch Baruch Baruch Bar Bar- uch for getting revenge on him by blocking confirmation of at Truman's close friend Mon Man as chairman of at the national security resources board Baruch denies this But his influence with southern southern south south- ern tern senators is considerable and White House advisers gave him credit for the fact that was vas never confirmed Anti Anti- Anti Tatt Taft Another illustration of what presidential presidential presidential peeve can do to national policy is Sen Bob Taft For a long time the President has hast t been een wanting to get the bipartisan foreign policy back on an even keel But the cornerstone of such a policy is Senator Taft Taft most most influential Republican on capitol hill hilI For his part Taft has made no secret of at the fact that he would like to be summoned to the WhiteHouse White House When other Republicans Senators Wherry and Wiley return from presidential conferences Taft has bas queried them like a cub reporter report report- er r afraid of getting scooped And when he heard that the White House might call him in last week Taft was like a schoolgirl about to go to tobel her bel er first prom He even offered to cancel a trip to Yale where he Is Isa isa isca a ca member of the board of trustees But the President who has a personal personal per per- tonal prejudice against Taft would ot invite him Pearson Prediction Another illustration of at presidential peeve which upset his own applecart applecart applecart ap ap- ap- ap was the proposed loyalty review review re re- re- re view board composed of Judge John Parker of ot North Carolina Judge John Patrick Higgins of Massachusetts and Adm Chester Nimitz White House advisers had sold the President on appointing this board ta to the supersede Tydings committee for the purpose of thoroughly thoroughly thoroughly thor thor- examining the question of at communism in the state depart depart- ment A nonpartisan board of judges It was argued would lift the question of state department loyalty out of partisan politics and give a answer to Senator McCarthy The President Pies Pies- dent at first was all aU for it Then this commentator predicted that the board would be appointed Immediately the President got peeved He was not he made it clear t to advisers going to help to tomake tomake make make a Pearson prediction come rue The bipartisan loyalty board was scrapped crapped McCarthys McCarthy's charges became became became be be- came the chief issue of the campaign campaign campaign cam cam- and some of at the Presidents President's supporters were defeated Palace Guard Every member of the White House secretariat knows what the Presidents Presidents President's Presidents President's dents dent's peeves and pet aversions are But up until recently they did little to put a quietus on them In fact the man who tried hardest to buck the President on certain idiosyncrasies idiosyncrasies idiosyncrasies idio idio- Clark Clifford was the object of an Intense and je jealous campaign by John Steelman The White House staff stall know of at course that anything even remotely remote remote- ly critical of ot his wife wile or daughter makes the President blazing blaring mad |