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143

Harry S. Truman

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,000.00 - 1,500.00 USD
Harry S. Truman

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Auction Date:2011 Oct 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS signed “Harry,” one page, 8 x 10.25, United States Senate letterhead, January 11, 1939. Letter to John W. Snyder, Manager, Reconstruction Finance Corporation. In part: “The situation here is rather peculiar. Neither the ultra-conservatives nor the President want to come to a permanent break. From all indications the President is still highly popular in the country, but there are a great many people who are scared to death of the labor policy and of that national defense red herring which is now being pulled across the trail. National defense, as you know, can be made the most popular thing in the country, but it is not necessary, for an adequate defense, to spend some extra billions of dollars, which I think is what the object is. I have some ideas of my own on national defense which I hope will be of use at the proper time. Outside of the President, I think [Vice President John N.] Garner is the most popular man in Washington at the present time, and I think he is liberal enough to please all the liberals, and conservative enough so that fellows like [Virginia Sen. Harry Flood] Byrd and [N.C. Sen. Josiah W.] Bailey could swallow him. I hope you have business in Washington so that I can see you before you go to Hot Springs for that check-up. I think we have that matter just about straightened out.” At the bottom Truman writes a brief postscript, “Say hello to Mrs. Snyder & [daughter] Drucie for me.” In fine condition, with two punch holes to top edge, a few creases, and a bit of mild toning. Accompanied by an unsigned carbon of Snyder's January 14th reply.

Truman’s correspondence touches on many of the hot topics that swirled about Washington as the world continued its march toward war. His favoring an “adequate defense” was the topic of a speech he delivered ten months earlier at the 19th anniversary of the founding of the first American Legion post in the United States, as he correctly warned that democracy must ‘defend its principles and its wealth’ in the ‘coming struggle’ with the dictatorships. His reference to the “labor policy” that “a great many people are scared to death of” targeted the Fair Labor Standards Act, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938. The legislation set a national minimum wage and a full-time standard work week, and prohibited child labor in activities involving interstate commerce. In early 1939, Truman was also keeping tabs on a US Wage and Hour Administrator investigation of serious violations of the labor act by establishments in eight states, including Truman’s home state of Missouri.

Interestingly, Truman’s observation that, other than Roosevelt, Vice President John Nance Garner was “the most popular man in Washington” was bore out by a 1939 poll in which Democrats were asked who they would favor for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1940 if FDR did not run—with Garner taking 42 percent of those asked. The vice president, a symbol of conservative sentiment at the time, took such public opinion to heart, leaving him to announce his own candidacy for the White House in the 1940 campaign. Historical not only in its overall content but the desirable addition of Truman’s handwritten postscript.
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