National Affairs: The Snollygosters

In a train-platform speech at Parkersburg, W. Va. last week, Harry Truman once again proved his speed in the catch-as-catch-can school of political debate. Full of fine indignation, the President labeled Republican opponents of his foreign policy as "these snollygosters."* Mr. Truman's tone left no doubt that a snollygoster was a low creature indeed, but few, if any, of his hearers knew what snollygoster meant. According to one austere authority, the word is "a lower grade of colloquialism." Of obscure origin, it was given classic definition in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, which in...