THE PRESIDENCY: From Sunshine Into Murk

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In Key West, switchboard operators and Western Union men urgently summoned the President's staff, his airplane crew and the press. Reporters came running in off the beaches in wet swimming trunks, and dashed into the pressroom. Then came the announcement: Harry Truman had suddenly decided to cut short his vacation, and would fly back to Washington a week ahead of schedule "for a meeting ... of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and representatives of the State Department." The reporters immediately began to clamor: What's wrong? A crisis?

Next day, Harry Truman sought to calm them as he boarded the Independence. "I don't want any great fuss made about this situation," he said. "There is nothing wrong." But something was wrong. Harry Truman came away from the Florida sunshine into the blackest cloud of murk that has risen over Washington in many a year. Day after day, revelations of corruption in his Administration are piling up, amid indications that the scandals may grow to outstrip Teapot Dome. In political urgency, the graft scandals overshadow the Korean truce talks and the confused debate over U.S. mobilization.

When Truman landed in Washington, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath was among those at the National Airport to greet him. McGrath is the chief U.S. official charged with prosecuting crime and keeping the Government clean. One of McGrath's top assistants was fired by Truman from Key West for his traffic with corrupters. Shaking hands all around, the President paused when he came to McGrath. "I'll be seeing you, Howard," he said.