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 Summary: After family and farm news and joking about McKim’s “manure spreader,” Senator Truman turns to politics with sharp criticism of the Franklin Roosevelt administration. Truman emphasizes domestic affairs and political dissension here. Sixteen days later, though, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor united the country, as well as the Democratic Party, against fascism. Three years later, Truman would join the administration as vice president. “You are just as right as you can be about the labor situation. Our administration – and I say ‘our’ advisedly – has built a Frankenstein at the other end of the economic scale, just as bad as the one that Harding and Mellon built up at the top …”
Harry S. Truman. Typed Letter Signed, as U.S. Senator, to Edward D. McKim. Washington, D.C., November 22, 1941. 1 p. On stationery of Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, two punch holes at top, with three-word autograph postscript, “How’s Ed. Jr.?” at bottom left.
Inventory # 21880 $10,000
Partial Transcript:
“You are just as right as you can be about the labor situation. Our administration and I say 'our' advisedly has built a Frankenstein at the other end of the economic scale, just as bad as the one that Harding and Mellon built up at the top of the scale. It is going to take ten or fifteen years to get a readjustment on a right basis, when that readjustment could have been obtained just as easily as if power hadn't been concentrated in the hands of a few men who handle these sheep who make up labor unions. There isn't any difference in the manner in which John L. Lewis is trying to overturn the Government and the manner in which the New York bankers tried to do it in the 1920's. We got the banking situation cleaned up, and now we have a worse one on our hands. The only language Mr. Lewis can understand is a pick-handle, and that is what ought to be used on him ...”
Historical Background:
Smearing union members as “sheep” and recommending a beat-down of CIO leader John L. Lewis with a pick-handle would not have endeared Truman to one of the bedrock constituencies of the Democratic Party. Fortunately the recipient of this letter was an old Army buddy, and Truman felt safe enough to let himself go. Truman nursed a grudge against the President because he did not receive support from Roosevelt during the Democratic primary phase of his hotly contested Senate reelection campaign in 1939-1940. In February 1940, Truman announced that he did not favor an unprecedented third term for Roosevelt. “There is no indispensable man in a democracy,” Truman wrote privately. Roosevelt and Truman each won reelection in 1940.
In addition to his service on the Interstate Commerce Committee, Truman chaired the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. Already, the U.S. economy was switching gears to supply Britain and the U.S.S.R. Roosevelt had created an Office of Production Management with control shared by labor leader Sid Hillman and former GM executive William Knudsen. A month before this letter, Truman lambasted Hillman for withholding a construction contract, maintaining that union leadership was an “irresponsible” element in the government’s relationship with the economy. After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt in fact responded to Truman’s criticism by disbanding the O.P.M. in favor of a War Production Board with a single head.
Truman always positioned himself on the right-wing of the New Deal coalition, which is precisely why FDR eventually chose him to replace the leftist Henry Wallace as vice-president in 1944. As the sarcastic quotes around “our” administration show, Truman was sometimes uncomfortable in the New Deal tent, and it especially galled him to have to share it with radicals like John L. Lewis. As President, Truman resisted the harsh anti-labor measures of the Republican Congress, like the Taft-Hartley bill of 1947. But when steel workers struck in April 1952, he used his authority as wartime Commander-in-Chief to employ the Army to seize several plants and keep them running – a move which the Supreme Court eventually struck down as unconstitutional.
In an interview of McKim, conducted by James Fuchs and transcribed on the website of the Truman Presidential Library, this letter is mentioned:
“FUCHS: In Mr. Truman's second term as senator, I think you expressed, several times, opinions about labor unions. What do you think...?
MCKIM: I think about labor unions...that the idea of labor, union labor, is fine, but some of the leaders they've got are just hoodlums. That's still my opinion of them. I think that this Hoffa is a threat to the whole United States. That's just my opinion.
FUCHS: What did Mr. Truman think about that?
MCKIM: Oh, now, I don't know about that; you'll have to ask Mr. Truman.
FUCHS: I thought perhaps you'd talked it over because in one letter he refers to the power being concentrated in the hands "of a few men who handle these sheep who make up labor unions." I thought perhaps...
MCKIM: No, I guess that was just in our correspondence. I don't think there was any...you know, at this late date it's pretty hard to form any opinion of what Mr. Truman said to me or I said to Mr. Truman or what particular event of the times would cause me to make a comment like that...”
Edward McKim served under Capt. Truman in World War I in Battery D, 129th Field Artillery Regiment, and, subsequently in the U.S. Army Reserve Corps. McKim remained a close friend and advisor, and served as Chief Administrative Assistant to the President (1945); Administrative Assistant to the Federal Loan Administrator (1945); and, member of the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Company (1950-53).
John L. Lewis, a fiery union organizer, rose to prominence in the 1930s through his advocacy of the sit-down strike in the auto industry. He was founder and chairman of the CIO (Committee of Industrial Organizations).
Harry S Truman (1884-1972), a Missouri native, served in the Army during WW I. Upon returning home, he won a judge’s seat on the Jackson County Court. Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, and in 1940 gained national attention for his chairmanship of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program -- the "The Truman Committee." In 1944, despite his earlier opposition to FDR, he was chosen to replace Henry Wallace on the ticket as vice president. When FDR died unexpectedly, Truman was thrust into the presidency. His inheritance was a world at war. Germany had surrendered, but Japan fought on. Truman, in a desperate move to avoid having to invade the Japanese mainland, ordered the deployment of two atomic bombs on August 6 and August 9, 1945. Japan surrendered on August 14. As President, Truman waged an undeclared war on the Soviet Union and drafted the "Truman Doctrine", which proclaimed America’s willingness to provide aid to countries resisting communism. The Marshall Plan sought to strengthen the European economy in the hopes that this, too, would prevent the spread of Soviet influence. He also brought U.S. troops into the Korean War (1950-1953). At home, Truman expanded the New Deal and promoted Civil Rights initiatives, including the desegregation of the Armed Forces.
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