Schools dismissed to greet Truman
Braddock, Rankin men called partial
Schoolchildren in Braddock and Rankin were dismissed for an hour today and the school’s bands were out to welcome Senator Harry S. Truman, Democratic candidate for Vice President.
Their dismissal brought charges from some civic leaders in Braddock that favoritism was being shown by school officials who, they said, had canceled chapel meetings last week in which another speaker was to appear, on grounds that it would have been a “political meeting.”
According to Edward McCrady, one of a group of eight Braddock civic leaders who had arranged for DeLoss Walker, former associate editor of Liberty Magazine, to speak to the school students, school officials canceled his visit asserting that they understood his talk would be of a political nature.
Truman in Braddock
“Obviously, said Mr. McCrady today, “they don’t consider Mr. Truman’s visit today a political meeting.”
Mr. Truman, in his campaign tour of the Pittsburgh district today, was scheduled to appear at the Rankin Borough building and at 8th Street, and Braddock Avenue, in Braddock.
School officials in Braddock and Rankin, who today admitted that they had canceled the scheduled appearance of Mr. Walker before student assemblies last week, said they understood that Mr. Walker was not in the Pittsburgh District on the day he was scheduled to make his appearance, but instead had gone to Canton, Ohio.
Walker did appear
Mr. McCrady said that Mr. Walker, however, did appear for a scheduled meeting last Friday night at the Carnegie Free Library in Braddock, where more than 100 persons heard his address on the topic of “The China, Japan, and American Way of Life.” He said that there was nothing of a political nature in his address.
He declared that the appearance of Mr. Walker in the schools had been arranged by his group after they had heard a short resume of what would be contained in his talk “and we felt it was such a good talk that it should be given broader hearing.”