The First Ten Days

Into the White House trooped top U.S. officials, foreign dignitaries, Congressmen, advisers, many an old & new friend. It made a heavy schedule for the new President, but the small, trim man behind the big mahogany desk took it in his stride.

In a few breathless days, the U.S. people got an idea of how their new President would carry on: Harry Truman was quick, decisive, seemed to have a talent for working hard without getting confused or losing his temper.

On the domestic side the President: P: Told Congress he was wholeheartedly for Roosevelt-sponsored legislation to continue the Price Control and Stabilization Act and to extend Selective Service without amendments restricting the use of 18-year-olds in combat unless they have had prescribed periods of training. P:Made his first major appointment--close friend John Wesley Snyder, St. Louis banker and former RFC official, to be Federal Loan Administrator (see THE ADMINISTRATION) .

P:Swiftly seized the strike-closed plant of the Cities Service Refining Corp. at Lake Charles, La.

P:Approved the transfer of some functions of surplus property disposal from the Treasury to Henry Wallace's Commerce Department.

P: Strengthened White House relations with Congress by inviting his old friend and ex-colleague, Senate President Kenneth McKellar, to sit in at Cabinet meetings. P: Broadcast a message to U.S. armed forces throughout the world, assuring them that he would not falter, telling them: "We are depending on each and every one of you."

P: Told Congress he would support legislation to carry out the Bretton Woods monetary agreement and to continue the reciprocal trade agreements program. P: Signed the third extension of the Lend-Lease Act, pledging that "Lend-Lease will be carried on until the unconditional surrender or complete defeat of Germany and Japan."

P: Prepared a radio address of welcome to the San Francisco Conference.

The Man. In the light of these first words and actions, thoughtful citizens could weigh their President only tentatively, but they had a fuller chance to size him up as a personality. He seemed to fit the advance notices as a classic product of rural Missouri--full of the unpretentiousness of farm folk, brimful of quiet vigor and determination.

The Trumans were temporarily quartered in historic Blair House, diagonally across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Within a few days U.S. citizens grew accustomed to pictures of Harry Truman's neat, compact figure striding briskly across the street, up the grey, curving driveway, into the executive offices.

Once, as the President started from Blair House at 8:30 a.m., followed by Secret Service men and reporters, a tiny old lady stepped from a knot of onlookers, said: "I just wanted to shake hands." The President shook hands. And once, when traffic halted to let the President pass, a cab driver yelled: "Good luck, Harry!" Harry Truman grinned and waved.

In the White House he upset the whole routine. An inordinately early riser (by the standards of White House reporters), he was at his desk at 8:30, began his day's appointments promptly at 9:30. No matter how crowded the list (one day he had 18 appointments), he kept the schedule running on time, a feat which loquacious Franklin Roosevelt had seldom been able to do.

One thing Harry Truman could not quite get used to: the office comforts of being President. He had presented to Eleanor Roosevelt the desk at which the late President had worked, and for himself had taken the old, dark red mahogany desk which had been used by Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. On the desk was a little oak plaque with three black buttons on it, to summon secretaries and stenographers. But whenever Harry Truman wanted a stenographer he would jump up, rush to the door and say, "Look, I want to dictate a few letters."

One day he had a lunch date with Mrs. Truman. At lunchtime he got up, stuck his head into the room next to his office, and asked: "Where the hell is the boss?" The boss was on time, too.

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