"I Know the Troubles..."

No matter how often he puts his foot in his mouth, President Truman has a saving humility and lack of pretense. Last week he demonstrated those plain virtues again. As he scraped for dollars and food to aid Europe, he recalled another time when he was hard-pressed: his 1919 venture as partner in a Kansas City haberdashery. He told the Commerce Department's advisory committee on small business: "I know some of the troubles of small business. I was in one myself. ... It took me 20 years to get out from under that experience, and I would hate to see the young men who are anxious to make a start for themselves in this period have to suffer the same troubles that I had. . . ."

The next day, as his personal contribution to the food-saving program, he announced that he would cancel the five customary state dinners at the White House this winter. When asked by a group of editorial writers whether the U.S. would get any credit for its foreign-aid efforts, he replied: "We're not doing this for credit. We are doing this because it's right and necessary."

Last week the President also: P:Parried an invitation to the International Labor Organization meeting in San Francisco next June and jokingly remarked that he expected to have a very busy program at that time (party convention time).

P:Heard from Mrs. Truman about daughter Margaret's concert appearance in Pittsburgh (see cut), the first in a nationwide tour of 30 cities. The audience of 4,000, which included Mrs. Truman and Secretary of the Treasury Snyder and his wife, applauded enthusiastically, called Margaret back nine times and heard three encores. But the critics, as before, were cool.

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