The Evening Star (November 2, 1946)
President continues hands-off policy on Missouri balloting
By Joseph A. Fox, Star staff correspondent
KANSAS CITY, Missouri – President Truman stuck to the sidelines today as his fellow Democrats in Missouri – in common with those in the rest of the country – were making their closing appeal to the voters for support in Tuesday’s election.
Continuing to maintain a hands-off attitude on the balloting which will determine if the Democrats are to retain control of Senate and House, the president, back home in nearby Independence to exercise his right of franchise, had only a single engagement scheduled today – a dinner here this evening with his old World War buddies of Battery D, 129th Field Artillery.
Ordinarily, when at the family home in Independence, the president rides 16 miles into Kansas City to spend a few hours in the office kept at his disposal in the Federal Building, where he handles any paper work forwarded from the White House and greets old friends. This routine was discarded in August, however, when the president came out here to vote in the primary, and according to Press Secretary Charles G. Ross, Mr. Truman will not come downtown today.
Independence hears Rayburn
The president told newsmen when he arrived here by special train late yesterday, after a 25-hour trip from Washington, that he planned an early morning walk today. The remainder of the day presumably will be spent in the sprawling white frame house in Independence which the Trumans call home.
The citizens of Independence turned out last night for a political rally in the American Legion Memorial Building, where Rep. Rayburn of Texas, speaker of the House, delivered the principal address, and warned of the confusion in government that would flow from the division of authority if the Republicans capture Senate or House – or both.
Curbstone chroniclers said the president hadn’t missed one of these rallies – which are biennial events – in 28 years. Mr. Truman, however, skipped the oratory and spent the evening at Grandview, with his 93-year-old mother and other members of the family.
The Legion Hall seats about 1,200 persons and some 1,000 were on hand for the rally. Mr. Rayburn put in a plug for Rep. Bell, Democrat of the 5th Missouri district, which includes Independence, and for Enos Axtell, candidate from the 4th district, whom President Truman backed against Rep. Slaughter, the Democratic incumbent, in the primaries.
Calls for support of Truman
Kansas City gossip is that Mr. Axtell will have a tough fight. The same holds true for Sen. Briggs, who also has gotten the specific indorsements of the president. Speaker Rayburn pointedly made support of President Truman an issue in his speech.
He recalled how attention used to be focused on the Dutchess County (New York) vote, because it was the home of President Roosevelt, and wondered “what they will think in England, Prance, Germany and Japan” if Missouri goes Republican.
The president’s family was together in Independence for the first time in several months. Mrs. Truman traveled from Washington with the president, and when their train reached Lee’s Summit, 12 miles from home, yesterday, it made an unscheduled stop to permit their daughter Margaret to come aboard.
The president’s special made three other stops in Missouri – St. Louis, Jefferson City and Sedalia – but a handshaking levee was the president’s nearest approach to politicking.