THE PRESIDENCY: Push and Pull

The President, always a confident man, was more than usually off-hand in his optimism over the nation's ability to meet its problems. In a dam-dedicating speech at Gilbertsville, Ky. (pop. 355), he said: "We are having our little troubles now—a few of them. They are not serious. Just a blow-up after a letdown from war. . . . We still have a few selfish men who think more of their own personal interests than they do of the public welfare. But you are not going to let them prevail. You are going to force everybody to get into harness and push and pull. . . . Now let's all go home and go to work."

To many Americans, "not serious" seemed a much too casual description of the troubles of peace. Back at work in the White House, Harry Truman was even more intimately reminded of the urgency of three prime problems: 1) the atomic bomb (see INTERNATIONAL); 2) the disintegration of the Army and Air Forces under the public demand for swift demobilization (see ARMY & NAVY) ; 3) labor's continuing uproar (see LABOR).

The President attacked the "little troubles" as if they were very big ones indeed. He turned the full pressure of his Administration squarely on Congress in an effort to put through the catchall legislative program he had recommended (TIME, Sept. 17).

His method was unusual in an administration long used to government by executive agencies. He announced that he had harnessed his Cabinet members and other top administrators to the job of pushing and pulling balky Congressmen toward the legislation he wants. To each of his executive family the President had assigned the responsibility for specific parts of his program. To each (except Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, Attorney General Tom Clark and Postmaster General Robert Hannegan) the President had sent a letter outlining the legislation for which he would be held accountable in researching and drafting bills, presenting testimony to committees, promoting the legislation through Senate and House.

Late Abed. Franklin Roosevelt had used party whips and liaison men like Tommy Corcoran to put White House heat on the legislators. Harry Truman was the first President to turn his top policy men openly to such a task. He gave notice that he wanted action—reports, at once, on the status of the work assigned. Moreover, he wanted no shirking; he ordered twice-a-month progress reports.

To Reconversion Boss John W. Snyder, a neophyte in the ways of the Hill, went the responsibility for the President's "Full Employment" program and legislation for control of atomic energy. To Snyder also went the job of coordinating the Cabinet's super-lobbying efforts.

After five days away, Harry Truman had returned to Washington refreshed and fit, and more than ever in a hurry to get things done. While others fished at Reelfoot Lake, Tenn., he had two days of walking, loafing, taking a not-very-frequent drink, playing poker and sleeping late (until 8 o'clock one morning). He had his picture taken while giving a playful spank to moppet Mike Moffet. Back at his desk he swiftly cleaned up the accumulation of routine. One of his first decisions: to try to add Nashville, Tenn., and its James K. Polk sesquicentennial celebration on Nov. 6 to his North Carolina-Georgia trip.