After One Year

A year had passed since Harry Truman picked up the burden that he had dreaded would fall on him. He had known that whatever he did as President would inevitably be judged by what the people believed his predecessor might have done. This week heavily burdened Harry Truman realized full well that among his towering problems of leading the U.S. people was the still towering shadow of Franklin Roosevelt.

In his first few months in the White House Harry Truman had enjoyed a personal popularity—it was almost indistinguishable from sympathy—that few Presidents had ever achieved. At one time this popular sympathy had been greater (according to Gallup polls) than F.D.R.'s at its highest. The plain people had cottoned to the plain Missourian who seemed so eager to admit his inadequacy, but so humbly trustful of democracy that he was willing to take on burdens and make quick decisions.

Now, after twelve months, the plan people still liked Harry Truman as a plain man. But he was not a President who inspired their high confidence and enthusiastic admiration, any more than their deep hatred.

They could not dislike him, but they could not admire him the way they felt they should. Harry Truman was a sincere, hard-working man who had unfortunately had to step into a job that was too big for him. A great many of the U.S. people felt sorry for him.

"The Best He Can." Last week TIME'S U.S. correspondents sampled the people's feelings about their President. From almost every section of the country came the recurring answer: "a mediocre man doing the best he can." To a man they criticized him for his "poor appointments"; most of them overlooked such good selections as George Marshall, Omar Bradley, J. A. Krug, etc. In recent weeks Harry Truman had successfully applied a strong policy towards Russia. But the people did not seem to regard that as a solid accomplishment. Many still grumbled about "letting Russia get away with murder."

Harry Truman, the President of the United States, was no longer in the forefront of public interest. Said a San Francisco stenographer: "You just sort of forget about him until he makes some sort of mistake." A waitress in Harry

Truman's own Kansas City exclaimed: "Funny, but you don't hear many people talking about him any more. All I hear from my customers is when can they get a pair of nylons or a white shirt."

President Truman had presented catalogues of wanted legislation, but he had failed to sell the issues; he had failed to arouse or hold the people's concern. In Washington an astute observer summed it up: "Congress still gets orders from the President, but now it doesn't feel required to pay attention. It's the power that Roosevelt put into the Presidency that is gone, under Truman."