re: #355 prairiefire

I’m very proud of the haberdasher from Kansas City.

i certainly agree with your sentiments, but a few words about “haberdasher”

actually, that was only a small part of harry truman’s life before becoming fdr’s vice president

born on a prosperous farm, he was a studious child with glasses who loved to play chopin - he was probably the best musician to ever become president. but just as he was getting ready to go to college, circumstances changed, his father died, and instead he spent the next ten years behind the plow trying to make the farm go

world war one saved him from rural obscurity - he was a great success as a squad leader. when he came back there were a lot of opportunities for servicemen. but the haberdashery shop he was a partner in didn’t make it through the serious recession of 1920

soon, however, being a bit of a war hero, he got picked up by the corrupt missouri political machine, who made him a ‘judge’ - actually, a kind of bureaucrat in the missouri system. he was never personally corrupt, and after a few years the machine decided that he would make a great senator, and arranged it

as senator during world war two he became well known for the way he ran the committee that looked into corruption in war contracts. when fdr was considering a running mate for his fourth term, his aids figured that there would be a good chance he wouldn’t make it through. then vice president henry wallace was a very interesting figure in his own right - a progressive going on socialist - but fdr’s aids knew that they needed somebody like truman, who combined personal rectitude with one of the sharpest minds ever to occupy the oval office, and they pressed fdr to choose him