Show truman labors under new deal inheritance congress seen taking advantage of presidents rightist leanings lacks influence of to put policies over by news analyst and commentator service 1616 1618 eye street NW washington D 0 it was a cool crisp winter day A week bafo before r e the erra erratic tic washington weather had seduced a whole circle of credulous pansies which pu pushed hed their S startled faces aces up from the garden on the white house lawn poor bemused floral they were soon frozen as solid in their beds a as a the pres presidents I 1 den a labor legislation in congress we hurried along pennsylvania avenue our coat collars turned up arguing heatedly as newsmen do when they are released from the inhibitions hibit ions which seize them the moment they sit down and meet the solemn stare of their typewriter keyboards with that threatening noose the deadline tightening about the medulla gata the most astounding thing said one of us Is the way truman with all his experience in congress cant get along with it it if he would only buttonhole some ot of the thinkers in the opposition say in the senate and men like wollcott in the house and appeal to their sense of patriotism he have all this trouble it as simple as that interrupted te another as we paused to show 0 our ur photographic passes to the guard at the gate who has known us all by our first names lor for a decade but who always solemnly studies our cards as if they were aliases it as simple as that after all congress has to be realistic in a an n election year they are facing real issues and the presidents program realistic whether or not it Is realistic the th third ird member of the group put in after all it his program he inherited it its new deal and the new deal Is old hat now it represent harry Trun Tr lans ideas at all but he has to go through with it all ali I 1 felt I 1 could add to those sage observations without agreeing that the new deal was old H hat at or the latest downing street model whether it was realistic or modernistic or neo marxian was th that at it certainly is probable that if the president were able to shatter his inheritance to bits and then it to something nearer his hearts desire he could probably put a lot more pep into his selling talk to congress by this time we were adding our coats to the huge pile of garments on the great aguinaldo Agul naldo mahogany table in the lobby of the executive offices and taking our pa place a ce in the line outside the conference room resentment shades chiefs feelings on this particular day the president started off with the note on which the whole conference was carried I 1 dont quite know how to describe I 1 it t he kept smiling pe he lose his temper but there was just a shade of resentment in his voice and his words it an all sounded founded more like the later somewhat disillusioned days of his predecessor than the merry moments when a roosevelt interview was always a g good 00 d show as well as a event I 1 mean the early days before th the w weight eight of war descended upon wearying brow there is a weight on n truman today quite as heavy tor for peace has its miseries as well aeu ss as war just is as it was freely predicted that the united states will never stand for an occupying army for any length of time which proved to be so painfully correct so everyone evelyon e took for granted that any president in office when the war ended would have an impossible job but lets get back to the crowded office of the president on the winter day I 1 am describing he sat there smiling exchanging wise cracks with the men in the first row on the table behind him were the photographs of his family crowned wi with th a great bunch of jonquils horn from the white house greenhouse he looked cheerful enough the usual signal all in was sounded ile he stood up and began to talk about what he called a tempest in a teacup the controversy over building an addition to the white house personally I 1 think it is the height of tolly folly to continue the et ef tort fort begun by theodore roosevelt to try to house the office work of the president under the root roof ot of the pres presidents dents house but I 1 mention this controversy simply because it reflects the seamy side of white house congress relations many of 0 the presidents friends feel that trying to make a modern office out of a beautiful old american colonial reki residence dence Is folly but they also felt elt that much of the furor raised in congress was due to a desire desir t to 0 embarrass mr truman why cant truman get on n with alth congress perhaps because he Is a little too much like them this Is merely a hunch but I 1 am not the only one who has toyed with the idea both congress and the president 1 I realize that congress Is a loose term because the legislators are a collection of many men of many minds inclines farther to the right than the inherited roosevelt program Is targeted congress the part of it that knows harry truman well undoubtedly feels that his heart leans just about as tar far in the same sam e direction therefore he just cant get these more ideas across harry has a tremendous respect tor for the office of the presidency a deep feeling of duty doty to carry out the program which death placed in his hands a duty and a function he never sought he cannot toss this heritage into the discard and he probably reasons that tt if he feels that responsibility the members of the party should do likewise but it must be remembered that it was the powerful influence of a personality which could win an election tour four times a task no american had dared to attempt even tor for the third which kept congress obedient and even then toward the end only falteringly truman reveals hi his s true self on this particular day ol of which I 1 am speaking I 1 think we heard truman revealing his true self he believes that the white house should be enlarged he resented the opposition which he suspect suspected cd was at least in part personal and political 1 a 1 rather than the product ol of since sincere re conviction I 1 thought I 1 heard that in his voice but I 1 also think I 1 heard in his words a similar expression ot of his own philosophy when he said that he thought the present industrial strife was a struggle tor for power between labor and management in 0 ther other words that basically it was not the demands ot of the men who work for or more pay nor was it an objection on the part of industry to pay higher wages as much as it was a pitch battle between labor gatior leaders and the top men in management to see which could beat the other down to one who brags about being middle class without even a drop of 0 blood of an irish king in his veins it sounded like good sound call it stuffy if you want middle class resentment sent ment then the president added that he thought that both labor and management had too much power and it was time for or the government to step in and assert the power of the people which government is supposed to represent but when we asked the president tt if and how the government was going to assert itself to exert the power of 01 the people to settle the mess all he said was that he had done all that he be possibly could do he could have called out the army and the navy the national guard the FBI and the united marching and social clubs and taken over the steel industry the next day but a step like that which was no more than the wave of 0 a tapering cigarette holder yesterday was one which no cautious middle class middle western middle of the road american would me like to take except under duress 1 I say that as one such and so congress part of it responding to the pressure of management and part of it under the pressure of labor fiddles and filibusters while industry contentedly lives off its fat labor on union funds or relief and the people with all their alleged power wonder how long oh lord how longi |