Up Before the Sun

Mr. Truman was up, Pressed, and out on the street before the sun, and before breakfast. Trailed by Secret Service men, he strode 20 blocks to the Union Station, met Bess and Margaret on the 7:50 B. &O. train from Independence. It was the beginning of an up-before-the-sun, busy-every-minute, presidential week. The President seemed to enjoy it all.

Congressmen, Cabinet members, aides paraded through his White House office. In striped pants and a black Homburg, and accompanied by Bess and Margaret, he piled into the presidential limousine and rode up to Capitol Hill to read his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress.

In a half hour he gave legislators enough work for six solid months, reaffirmed every campaign promise. To Democrats who gave him scattered applause 30 times during the speech, to Republicans who listened in cold silence, he earnestly declared: "It is absolutely essential that your President have the complete cooperation of the Congress."

He listened to plans for Inauguration Day (Jan. 20): the committee expected 750,000 visitors, 30 floats. He rode up to the Hill for a birthday luncheon for Speaker Sam Rayburn in the Speaker's dining room, flabbergasted Congressmen by popping into the House chamber for the last dull rites of that archaic ceremony --counting the electoral votes. Cracked he, as he left: "It looks like I'm ahead."

Then Mr. Truman exploded a bomb in the State Department which would cause vibrations not only on the Hill, but around the capital and in all the capitals of the world. He announced the resignation of faithful, forceful George Catlett Marshall, and nominated as his successor Dean Gooderham Acheson.

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