Harry Truman, Radiorator

In the language of show business, Harry Truman was following a great act. Franklin Roosevelt had been a radio nonpareil. Could his successor hold this vast audience? Two broadcasts last week seemed to indicate that the answer was a qualified yes.

Right off the bat, Harry Truman proved himself a radio speaker who meant to be clearly understood. His manner was so deliberate that it was sometimes dull, and he spoke so slowly it was sometimes exasperating. Lacking anything approaching the Rooseveltian "magic," either in voice or style, he made a virtue out of making himself plain--and that made it easy to believe what he said.

His voice sounded youthful; it also sounded as though its owner could smile. His voice was shallow, occasionally flat, and pitched a little too high for comfort (he lowered the pitch for his second broadcast). The President tended to chant his carefully enunciated phrases by syllables--one, two, three, four; one, two, three, four. His pronunciations had Missouri and Midwest antecedents: "entire"' was "ENtire."

Ex-Machine Gun. The President's radio coach was James Leonard Reinsch (rhymes with wrench), 37, managing director of the James M. Cox radio stations in Dayton, Atlanta and Miami. Picked by the Democratic National Committee to handle its radio activities, Reinsch coached Truman during and after last fall's campaign. Before he started working on him, Reinsch said, Truman talked like a machine gun.

After listening to the President last week, one Washington radioman said admiringly: "Thank God, he doesn't have sibilants--he handles his s's like a master." With more Reinsching, a somewhat less poky delivery and his present fine clarity, Harry Truman might well master the monster.

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