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."31 Republicans pointed out that even the Democratic nomineeacknowledged a mess in the nation's capital.McGowan took the blame, saying he had dictated the letter withoutputting the phrase in quotation marks.Others blamed the typist.Stevenson apologized to the president, but thedamage was done.Publicly, Truman refused to give the "mess in Washington" letter any more attention than it had received.Asked tocomment on it at a press conference, he replied simply, "I have no comment, because I know nothing about any'mess.'"32 Although he graciously accepted Stevenson's apology, he was infuriated.The result was a letter that,fortunately, he did not send:My dear Governor:Your letter to Oregon is a surprising document.It makes the campaign rather ridiculous.It seems to methat the Presidential Nominee and his running mate are trying to beat the Democratic President instead ofthe Republicans and the General of the Army who heads their ticket.There is no mess in Washington except the sabotage press.Page 145I've come to the conclusion that if you want to run against your friends, they should retire from the sceneand let you do it.When you say that you are indebted to no one for your nomination, that makes nice reading in thesabotage press, but it gets you no votes because it isn't true.You fired and balled up the Democratic Committee Organization that I've been creating over the last fouryears.Cowfever could not have treated me any more Shabbily than have you.Best of luck to you from a bystander who has become disinterested.33Four months later, Truman was still bitter:The Governor found it very difficult to believe that a life-long politician can be a honest man.He did notand does not yet understand the necessity of organization from the precinct to the National Committee.He and Franklin Roosevelt experienced contact with two rotten, money grabbing machinesKelly-Nash andTammany Hall.It did not occur to the Governor or to the President that even these terrible machinesusually present honest men for public office.There are more honest men who are professional politicians than there are honest bankers andbusinessmen.The word of a successful man in politics is worth more than the bond of a banker, of [a] bigbusinessman.So the Governor distrusted the President, the Chairman of the National Committee and the DemocraticParty.He had read Bertie McCormick's awful Tribune and Hearst's Chicago sewer sheet until he morethan half believed what they had to say about Roosevelt's New Deal and the President's Fair Deal.A half-hearted approach never won in a political campaign.34On their side, the Republicans were far from halfhearted: campaign material was exhaustive and detailed on theissue of corruption.The most complete examination of the corruption issue was compiled by the staff of the SenateMinority Policy Committee.In a twenty-one-page section of a report on issues, each incident bordering on a scandalduring the Truman years was reviewed.35 A resource book for Republican speakers, "Democrats Run on TrumanRecord," included a section of quotes and quips such as these: "The only thing the Democrats have to fear isfuritself";Page 146"Probably the reason the Truman people like to go to Key West is because so many of them have been sufferingfrom exposure." 36 A handbill proclaimed that "A Vote for Ike and Dick is a vote against corruption.A vote for Ikeand Dick is a vote for morality."37 A pamphlet entitled "Want Another Truman?" portrayed the Stevensonadministration in Illinois as founded on corruption, comparing the records of Stevenson and Truman.38Eisenhower mentioned corruption at nearly every campaign stop.He seldom dealt in specifics, relying instead oncatch phrases, promising to "cast away the incompetent, the unfit, the cronies, and the chiselers."39 He indictedStevenson as well as Truman: "Their nominee for President has lately been quoted as admitting that there is a messin Washington.The head of the Administration himself has announced that their Presidential nominee must run onone issuethe record of the Administration.On both of these points I am in hearty agreement with the opposition."40Eisenhower was evasive in his solution to the problem, however.He spoke only of getting rid of the perpetrators,proposing to "root out of government those who would betray our system or abuse our confidence."41 He beheld anew breed of honest politicians, "men and women to whom low public morals are unthinkable.''42Shortly after the convention, Truman had planned an extensive whistle-stop tour for the last month of the campaign,but the tension between Stevenson and Truman in August left Stevenson's advisers unsure that Truman'sparticipation would be an asset.Stevenson wrote to the president: "I know how sincere you are about helping us andof your almost limitless energy, but we shall try not to impose on you unreasonably."43 Truman, moreover, hadsecond thoughts as his support of Stevenson waned.He scrawled one of his caustic unsent letters, complaining of"snub after snub" by Stevenson and his campaign manager, Wilson Wyatt.Truman closed with a reference to hiscampaign trip, saying, "I shall go to the dedication of the Hungry Horse Dam in Montana [scheduled for 1 October],make a public power speech, get in a plane and come back to Washington and stay there.You and Wilson can nowrun your campaign without interference or advice."44 Nevertheless, party loyalty and disdainPage 147for the opposition overcame his reservations.So did Stevenson's campaign, which had not repeated the affronts ofAugust.But Truman's involvement during the last month of the campaign had little to do with Stevenson and muchto do with Truman himself.Columnist Doris Fleeson commented that there was an essential difference between the1948 tour, when Truman was "fighting recklessly for office," and the 1952 trip: "He is fighting now for his place inhistory and that is a much more careful and deeply felt effort." 45Yet Truman's style was reminiscent of 1948.He no longer defended the administration's record on corruption; hewas now constantly on the attack.He accused the Republicans of running what he variously labeled "a smearcampaign," a "gutter campaign," or a "'back street' campaign."46 He claimed, as he had in 1948, that the letters GOPproperly stood for "Gluttons of Privilege."47 He intimated that former generals make poor presidents who oftenpreside over corrupt administrations.48Republican rhetoric in October 1952 was an even match for Truman's vitriolic accusations as the campaigndegenerated to mudslinging vilification on both sides.The Republicans launched a "scandal-a-day" project inOctober, a series of twelve whistlestop speeches.49 Reborn to righteousness after the Checkers speech in which heanswered charges that he had benefitted from a "slush fund" financed by wealthy Californians, vice-presidentialcandidate Richard Nixon referred to Truman and several members of his administration as "crooks andincompetents." He charged that under Truman, "We find embezzlement, thievery, knavery and criminal carelessnessrife in the American Government."50 On another occasion, Nixon called Truman ''the champion lemon picker of alltime."51 Eisenhower, in spite of his protestations of being nonpolitical and above the fray, scrapped with the others.He exhumed the Kansas City machine and its boss: "Tom Pendergast is dead.But his political influence, his politicalmorals, his political offspring, they all go marching on."52 The campaign did have its high momentsnotably in themagnetic personality of one candidate and the literary style of the otherbut the corruption issue did nothing toelevate either the candidates or the campaign [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]