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Report #1 by: Jessica
5th Grade
Bennion Elementary
Taylorsville, Utah
Mrs. Hansen
Jessica
Jessica
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 Introduction
Late in the afternoon of April
12,1945, Vice - President Harry Truman stopped by the office
of his friend Sam Rayburn, who was the speaker of the United
States house of Representatives.
When the Vice - President arrived,
Rayburn told him that there had been a phone call from the White
House. Steve Early, President Roosevelt's secretary, asked that
he call immediately. When Truman heard Steve Early's stained
voice, he suspected the something was wrong.
Truman ran out of Rayburn's office,
ran through the basement of the Capitol, and to his car outside.
When he got to the White House he went through the main entrance
and to the second floor study of the wife of the president, Eleanor
Roosevelt. Inside the room the president's wife & daughter,
the daughter's husband, and Steve Early. Mrs. Roosevelt put her
hand on Vice - President Harry Truman's shoulder and said, "Harry,
the president is dead."
What Harry didn't realize, was
that if President Roosevelt hadn't died, Harry S. Truman wouldn't
have been President.
Harry S. Truman was born on May
8, 1884. He was born and raised on a farm in Lamar, Missouri.
He has no middle name. His parents gave him the initial "S"
so that both grandfathers could claim him as their namesake.
When Harry was 5 years old he
could read simple sentences in the newspaper & family bible.
(His mother taught him to read.)
In 1890 the Truman family moved
to the little town of Independence, Missouri. He always saw Independence
as his home.
At the age of 8, Harry began attending
a public school in 1892. The head start his mother had given
him to make school an easy experience.
Harry already knew how to read
when he started schooling, he found it hard to see the small
print in newspapers & books. He took a visit to the eye doctor
and had to get glasses. Some of the kids in the area made fun
of his glasses, referring to Harry, who is never big, as "little
four - eyes."
Despite a severe case of diphtheria
during his second year at school - which left his legs, arms,
and throat paralyzed for months - Harry was an excellent student.
He skipped the third grade entirely.
By the age 14 he had read all
the books in his town library.
Good grades marked his career
in high school, where he continued to be interested in history,
especially the lives of famous people.
While he was in high school, he
began to work at his first paying job called Jim Clinton's drugstore.
Harry S. Truman graduated from high school in 1901, shortly after
his seventeenth birthday.
He got a job working as an accountant
for crews building the Santa Fe railroad. He and his brother
Vivian lived in a Kansas City boarding house, where another boarder
named Arthur. Arthur's brother Dwight later became president
right after Harry's term.
In 1905, he joined the National
Guard of Missouri, becoming an original member of the newly formed
Battery B.
Harry left Kansas City to return
to the Grandview the very next year, in 1906. He remained on
the farm for a decade with his father, John Truman. When his
father died years later, Harry became the chief manager of the
farm.
By 1916 World War I was raging
in Europe. Because of his experience in the National Guard, Harry
S. Truman became a first lieutenant in the 35th Infantry Division
of the U.S. Army. Before living for France on the S.S. George
Washington, Lieutenant Truman Bought 3 spare glasses from a patriotic
eye glass maker who refused payment. When he arrived in France,
he found that the soldiers under his command were hardly so unfriendly.
Some soldiers weren't ready to take orders from him. Soon the
soldiers found that they could indeed take orders from their
new commander after he bluntently told the men, " I didn't
come here to get along with you, you came here to get along with
me. If there are any of you who can't speak up right now... I'll
bust your back right now." Before long Harry became Captain.
World War I was over on May 6,
1919. Major Harry Truman was discharged from the army. At the
age of 35, he wasted little time getting on with his private
life. On June 28, 1919 he married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth
(Bess) Wallace, at a ceremony in Independence.
In 1922, when Harry S. Truman
began his political career, there were 2 important political
parties. One was a Democratic party and the other was another
Democratic party. It was difficult to find a single Republican
who failed to live up to that expectation. With so many Democrats
at hand, the party naturally split into two different groups,
the Rabbits & the Goats. The Goats boss, Tom Pendergast,
had a brother named Mike, Mike had a son named Jim.
When Jim figured out that his
Uncle & Father were trying to find a county judge, he suggested
Harry S. Truman. So Harry try to win the Democratic nomination.
He served as a judge for two years.
Good news came to him in 1924,
with the birth of a daughter, Margaret, his only child.
His childhood family is a Mother,
a Father, & a brother named Vivian. Vivian is 2 years younger
than him. Now he has a new family with his wife Bess, & his
daughter Margaret.
On May 15, 1934 one week after
his 50th birthday, Judge Truman received word from one of the
Pendergasts, Jim, who wanted to meet with Truman. At the meeting,
Harry learned that he was being offered a chance to run for being
the U.S. Senate with the backing of the Pendergasts were using
his good reputation to meet their needs. On the other hand, he
thought this was an opportunity that might never come again.
Without giving an answer, Harry went home and discussed it with
Bess, Who he always said, was the real boss in his life. Although
Bess wanted to stay in Independence, She encouraged her husband
to try for the U.S Senate position, if that was what he really
wanted. The next day he accepted the job.
The greatest challenge again,
was to win the Democratic nomination. Many people thought that
Harry S. Truman would not win the Democratic nomination. He eventually
won the nomination and, as did many Democrats thought out the
country, easily defeated his Republican opponent.
On January 3, 1935, with Bess
and his 10-year-old daughter Margaret sitting in the visitors
gallery, Harry Truman was sworn in to the U.S. Senate.
While other senators and Congressman
lived in large homes and had servants, the Trumans lived in a
small apartment just off of Connecticut Avenue in Washington.
Bess did the cooking and even typed her husband's letters to
save the expense of hiring a secretary.
Before he ran for senator he was
a county judge in Independence Missouri. Later he became vice-president
when President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked him to be since he
was a banker, a judge, and a senator.
A nice thing is that Harry S.
Truman didn't run against anybody. He was asked to be vice president
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At first Harry said, "No
thank you, I already have the job I have wanted." The days
went by as he wrote to his wife and daughter, Margaret. Harry's
name kept showing up on the list. Harry S. Truman, according
to Hannegan, it was President Roosevelt's choice to be vice president.
Harry Truman could hardly believe his ears, Truman thought the
president had been mistaken. Harry told Hannegan, "I don't
want to be vice president." Some people didn't take no for
an answer.
It snowed on January 20, 1945,
when Vice-President Truman stood next to President Roosevelt
at the White House to be sworn in American history, a president
and vice president were inaugurated while the nation was at war.
During a luncheon following a ceremony, Truman slipped away and
hitched hiked a ride to the Capitol. There he telephoned old
mother at Grandview. "Now you behave yourself.", she
told the new vice-president of the United States. When President
Roosevelt died Harry S. Truman automatically became President.
One of the positive and first
things Harry did when he became president was to help establish
the United Nations. A negative and bad thing was World War II
in Japan.
When Japanese leaders ignored
the warnings of our new weapon, the atomic bombs were dropped
and World War II was over. It effected the Japanese administration
when they didn't listen to the U.S.A. Because they thought it
was a threat, when it wasn't. Throughout Truman's life, he was
fascinated by history. History clearly showed him that, following
a war, the American economy was quite predictable.
Truman wanted new laws. These
laws called for new civil rights for minority groups, a national
health plan system, and new federal aid to local school. Thinking
of the well-known "New Deal" of Franklin Roosevelt,
Truman called his package of proposed new laws a "Fair Deal."
After Dwight Eisenhower became
the thirty-fourth president of the United States on Jan.21, 1953,
he and his wife Bess Truman arrived by train in Kansas City,
just a few miles from Independence.
When he got home he wrote 2 long
books about his years in the White House. He called one, largely
about his first twelve months in office Year of Decisions. The
other, Years of Trail and Hope, was about his remaining time
as president. The books were extremely important additions to
the subject of history that he loved so dearly. Many shorter
books about his life draw much information from those two books.
He also worked hard to establish
the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. For a number of
years, he stayed out of the public limelight, driving each day
to an office in town to work on his books and other projects.
In 1960 he campaigned for the Democratic Presidential candidate,
John F. Kennedy. He apparently had no love for the Republican
candidate, Vice President Richard Nixon. In San Antonio, he said,
that any Texan who voted for Nixon should go to hell. Nixon said
that the former president's remark was a menace to children.
Adult American voters, never the less, elected Kennedy.
Harry S Truman died in 1972, at
the age of eighty-eight, and was buried in the courtyard of the
Truman Library.
He had been involved in heated
controversy throughout his political career.
During the early years of his
presidency, his press secretary, a childhood friend from Independence,
once remarked that Harry would rather be right than be President."
"I'd rather be anything than
be President,"Truman responded.
Closing
And so ending with this report
of Harry S. Truman, I understand that he didn't want to be president
or vice-president. But, he did it anyway and he followed his
dreams with Bess and Margaret at his side.
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