Whistle Stop by Philip White

Author:Philip White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of New England

Thurmond, Dewey, and Wallace would have applauded such an exhortation for liberal democracy, even if they may have questioned Truman’s methods for upholding it. But the Pittsburgh crowd needed no caveats, cheering the president and Margaret, who stood beside her father on the rear platform waving at the well-wishers below. Also with him were Pittsburgh mayor Dave Lawrence and county commissioner John Kane, both of whom had vocally supported Truman for the vice presidency back in 1944.66

After shaking hands with as many people as time would allow and smiling broadly as a man further back in the multitude yelled, “You’re on the road to victory!,” Truman went back to his own train, which trundled down the track to Crestline, Ohio.67 There, in the same spot where he had opened the June trip, Truman delivered some ill news to the 1,500 train workers and their families who had stayed up until 10:25 p.m. to hear him speak: “I have just received a confirmation of a very sad incident. The United Nations Mediator in Palestine was assassinated today. His death emphasizes again the difficulties in our efforts to secure liberties under law to all the peoples in the world. We know that through orderly world organization we must seek liberties like those we hold precious in towns such as this beautiful city in Ohio.”68

The same day, Soviet Russia had cast another shadow on peace by insisting that the communist countries would block Western attempts to put the Berlin standoff before the United Nations meeting in Paris. The East German military newspaper Tagliche Rundscha, a mouthpiece for the Politburo used to test opinions, stated that it was in fact the United States, not Russia, that was jeopardizing the world “in sharp contradiction to United Nations statutes.” Despite such warnings and accusations, the America-led airlift set a new single-day record, delivering almost five thousand tons of coal and other supplies with 581 flights.69

With night now enveloping the Ferdinand Magellan, Truman switched his working attire—which that day included a wide-lapel black suit accented with a natty black polka dot tie and white pocket square—for pajamas and retired to his bedroom, where he could, at long last, spend a few hours alone and in silence. Or so he thought. Just a couple of hours later, the president’s repose was unceremoniously interrupted by a rapping at his door. Another international incident? Strikers back in the picket lines? A security threat to the train? No. It was a sheepish-looking aide, who told the bleary-eyed president that Illinois political boss Jake Arvey had boarded at the last stop and wanted a word. At 3:00 a.m. A few minutes earlier, Arvey’s county commissioner, Arthur X. Elrod, had warned the Chicago kingmaker that “the big wheel’s asleep.” Elrod had apparently forgotten, however, that the Truman wheel, like those of his train, rarely stopped, particularly not when there was a little less than six weeks left in the campaign that would either extend or derail his career. So Truman, shaking off his slumber, had someone put on a fresh pot of coffee and talked for as long as Arvey wanted.

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