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PROPERTY FROM THE FORBES COLLECTION
TRUMAN, Harry S. (1884-1972). Two typed letters signed (“Harry Truman”) as Senator from Missouri to Edward D. McKim (1895-1969), Washington, 13 February 1935 and 21 February 1942.
Details
TRUMAN, Harry S. (1884-1972). Two typed letters signed (“Harry Truman”) as Senator from Missouri to Edward D. McKim (1895-1969), Washington, 13 February 1935 and 21 February 1942.
Four pages, 260 x 200mm, accomplished on United States Senate stationery, both letters with a five-line autograph postscript in Truman’s hand (minor glue remnants, usual folds.)
Harry Truman writing on the New Deal during his first months as a Senator. Truman's letter of 13 February 1935 opens by venting his frustration: “I have been having all sorts of trouble on the Appropriations Committee here in Washington. We are considering the biggest appropriation bill in history, and nobody, from the President to the Chief Clerk in the Public Works Department, is able to tell us anything about it. At least they don’t tell us anything about it. We have been butchering it for fair. And when it comes out of Committee, the President, himself, won’t know his child." His postscript concerns an interview with President Roosevelt: “I called on F.D.R. this morning at his suggestion and had a pleasant conversation on most every subject I dont know yet what he wanted [.] Maybe you can guess I’m dumb!” On 21 February 1942 he again writes to McKim, who was then the agency director at the Omaha Mutual Benefit Health and Accident Association: "I fear very much that you don't completely understand my New Deal point of view. The trend of 'normalcy' which brought us into this war and our financial straits was toward absolute control by a very few in the financial field. [...] My understanding of the New Deal is to give just such fellows as you a chance to operate." McKim served under Truman during World War I and later as Chief Administrative Assistant to the President in 1945.
Four pages, 260 x 200mm, accomplished on United States Senate stationery, both letters with a five-line autograph postscript in Truman’s hand (minor glue remnants, usual folds.)
Harry Truman writing on the New Deal during his first months as a Senator. Truman's letter of 13 February 1935 opens by venting his frustration: “I have been having all sorts of trouble on the Appropriations Committee here in Washington. We are considering the biggest appropriation bill in history, and nobody, from the President to the Chief Clerk in the Public Works Department, is able to tell us anything about it. At least they don’t tell us anything about it. We have been butchering it for fair. And when it comes out of Committee, the President, himself, won’t know his child." His postscript concerns an interview with President Roosevelt: “I called on F.D.R. this morning at his suggestion and had a pleasant conversation on most every subject I dont know yet what he wanted [.] Maybe you can guess I’m dumb!” On 21 February 1942 he again writes to McKim, who was then the agency director at the Omaha Mutual Benefit Health and Accident Association: "I fear very much that you don't completely understand my New Deal point of view. The trend of 'normalcy' which brought us into this war and our financial straits was toward absolute control by a very few in the financial field. [...] My understanding of the New Deal is to give just such fellows as you a chance to operate." McKim served under Truman during World War I and later as Chief Administrative Assistant to the President in 1945.