American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 33.1 Harry Truman

Episode Date: June 13, 2021

We are back (again) and we have part one of Harry Truman for you! Find out about farms, gangsters and dragons!

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, Harry Truman Part 1. Hello and welcome to American Presidents Totalus Rankium. I am Jamie. And I am Rob and this is episode 33.1. That's a bit of enthusiasm, Jamie. You're looking shocked. A lot of enthusiasm, yeah. Of course, we're back. It's been a while. That's true. It's been a long time. I know the Roman one was back, but now this one's back. We've got this one up and running.

I'm in a new house again. Yes. Yeah. But I'm settled. I'm settled. I'm here. And there we go. We're back with the American presence.

And it's been a long time. It has been a long time. Do you remember who we did last? Yes. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Oh, yeah. That was good. Just before we started recording, I did realise I'd forgotten we'd done Herbert Hoover.

Yes, yes, you did. Completely off my head. Yeah, it's been a long time. It has. But you know who we're doing today? Harold Truman. Harold Truman, or Harry for short. Yeah. Maybe. Well, let's not dilly-dally. That's an underused

phrase, isn't it? It is Andy from Saga Thing uses it a lot But he gets told off for using it It might be shilly-shally I can't remember Let's not shilly-shally or dilly-dally No, I will not tell you off for using them They are fantastic

Good, good I'm glad you agree Right, well We're saying this, but here we are Both dillying and dallying So we should probably start. Right, have you got an introduction? A blue sky.

I'm going very easy on you. Very easy. A blue sky. Start on a blue sky, Jamie. With dragons. Damn it. With a dragon. What type of dragon?

Not a massive one, but big enough to where if it went into your living room, it'd cause a nuisance. We can get rid of the dragon if you want. Oh, no, no. The dragon's got to stay. Start on a blue sky then, Jamie. I'm there. Yeah. And a dragon.

Surreal, yeah. Yeah, it's a big, big dragon flapping its big, leathery, scaly wings. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Making big throof noises every time it flaps. Almost sucks up the noise as just such a big sound. Yeah. In fact, it's quite rhythmic, this throof

noise as the wings are flapping. And you're following this dragon and it seems to be going in a downward trajectory. Trajectory. Oh, gosh. Trajectory. Trajectory.

That's the word I definitely said before my tongue betrayed me. It's going downwards. It's going down speedy. In fact, it almost turns towards the ground With a steely look in its eye And it is just plummeting faster and faster The wind is sort of breaking past it or streaking off It starts to make a whistling noise As it starts coming closer and closer to the ground

And it just, before it hits the ground It suddenly twists and curls itself up into a ball And then it smacks into the ground huge explosion why would it do that and then you see in the distance another one goes off and then another one huge explosions all over the place and then there are people running scared i think i read this in a history book this may have actually happened yeah no no it definitely did and um you realize that these are people running scared you realize they're actually soldiers world war one soldiers you you reckon based on the hat i mean you're no expert but that definitely looks like a world war one hat to you

right yeah and uh they're all screaming and running to each other and saying quick we need to take down the guns we need to take down the guns, we need to take down the guns, and then there's another explosion, and then everyone starts to run, and then suddenly there's a STOP, and then a huge swear word. I'm gonna let you choose which swear word. Damn! Damn! And blast. Yes. Yeah. And then everyone freezes, and then there's a man in the middle of all the chaos, just says, to your post, gentlemen, and everyone looks a bit embarrassed. And then someone leans over and whispers,

but what was the thing with the dragons? To the guy in the middle. And he looks disdainfully, Jamie, disdainfully at the soldier asking a question and says, do you not understand a metaphor, private? And then smash to harry truman that's that's reached a whole new level of weird you're the one who put a dragon in it i well with just the sky this was going to be such an easy one to do but you had to include a dragon so the shells became dragons fair enough

could have been worse i could have made the dragons be pooping out the shells. Yeah, fair enough. You did the best with what you had. Exactly, exactly. So there you go. So you now know that Truman's life either involves being in World War I or dragons. Oh, he is a dragon. Is he a dragon? I'll let you judge. You can judge at the end. Okay. Yeah, I quite often say this and then we forget, but let's try and remember this time. At the end, you're going to say whether he was a dragon or not. Yeah? Alright. Cool. Right. Okay, let's start. Let's start properly, shall we? We're starting on a farm in the 1880s.

Long time ago. Long time ago, in Missouri. We're with a man named John Truman, who was a livestock trader, and he married a woman named Martha. And the two of them had a son but the son died shortly after birth unfortunately as was coming back then. That'd make a very short presidency. Yes yes but you're probably onto something this wasn't Harry Truman because

in December of 1884 they then had a second son who did survive and they called him Harry, not Harold. No, Harry. Harold. After his uncle... Harold? Well, let's say it. Yeah. Yeah. After his uncle Harold. Why not? But they could not agree on a middle name, unfortunately. They were either going to give his middle name as Ship, spout with

two P's at the end, or Solomon, after a couple of family members named Ship and Solomon. Mix them together. Solomon. Could do. Or Sip. Could work.

Well, no, in the end, they came up with a compromise, similar to the compromise you just came up with, but arguably more ridiculous. Yeah. Do you want to hazard a guess? No middle name. No, no, they went for... Well, actually, no, you kind of got it.

They ended up with the middle name No, no, they went for Well, actually, no, you kind of got it They ended up with the middle name S Oh Yeah, so he is just Harry S. Truman The S doesn't stand for anything It's just an S on its own Sitting there, feeling embarrassed about itself Oh, you would, wouldn't you? You would

An S is usually a good, solid letter And it's got such grace Yeah, and then this poor S just left there. Oh, it's unbecoming of an S. Feeling a bit stupid, a bit silly. Sad. Sad, sad. Sad.

Yeah, in other words, beginning with S, yeah. So there we go, we've got Harry S. Truman now. But just know he's one of those other presidents that doesn't actually have a middle name. Little factoid for you. Anyway, a few months later, the family were on the move. John was struggling with the business of sanning mules, which is what he did.

So they decided to up a move and see if that helps at all. They had another son around this time, who they called John, after John. That's the dad. That's the dad, yeah. And then they moved again. There's lots of moving going on in the very early years harry recalled later that this was when his first memory was formed

despite only being two years old which makes me sort of cough in the uh sound of a uh a swear word slightly really two really can you remember when you were two jamie i think i have a memory of being a two-year-old, yeah. I'm about to cough. I don't know, maybe I'm weird. I have a memory of when I was three, I think, as my earliest. Which I know sounds close to two, but when you're that age that makes a big difference.

What's your earliest memory? Lying in a cart, hearing a wood pigeon outside. I didn't know it was a wood pigeon at the time. You weren't there stroking your little baby chin. Sounds was a wood pigeon this time you weren't there stroking your little baby chin sounds like a wood pigeon yeah i just remember i remember the wooden cart i remember hearing that sound yeah i remember my first memory going to an uncle's house oh dear they they lived upstairs was their living room and you had to go up some spiral stairs and the bedrooms were downstairs and it freaked my little tiny baby brain out that's freaking my adult brain out yeah i think they ran some kind of care home or something so it wasn't like a little house but i can't really

remember details it was a very big kitchen with like like an industrial type kitchen yeah okay yeah interesting anyway that's my earliest memory. Tell us your first memories, listeners. Yes. Right now, start talking over us. Turn to the person to your left. Tell them. I really hope someone on a bus is doing that now. Well, my first memory...

Well, let's find out John's, shall we? Do you want to guess John's first memory? Animals. Yes, it involves an animal. Well done. Keep going. Riding an animal. No, too small to ride. Seeing an animal being killed. Animals. Yes, it involves an animal. Well done, keep going. Riding an animal. No, too small to ride. Seeing an animal being

killed. No, no, no. Just feeding an animal. Not quite. Chasing an animal around the garden. Oh. Yeah. It was a frog. Oh. So there you go. It's his first memory, chasing a frog around the garden. Where was he born again? Missouri. Sort of like

in the middle and then to the right a bit. Okay. That's one of his earliest memories anyway, because the other memory of this time is perhaps a bit more memorable. There might be more of a reason why it's stuck in his head. He was thrown out of the window by his mother. Well, if you're not going to be willing to wash all the dishes, then... Well, exactly.

Consequences. I should probably point out that this was done all in good fun, said the mother repeatedly afterwards. It's just a game. So you understand, Harry, when anyone asks. It was a game. No, it was into the arms of an uncle, apparently. Out of the fourth story window.

Fair enough. Yeah. So there you go. That's his childhood, or at least his early childhood. A while after this, the family moved into Martha's Family Farm. This had 15 people on it in total. There, Harry recalls a very happy childhood. There was a swing on a tree that he could go out and swing on, which is nice,

but I know what you're thinking. But what if it's raining? Yeah, what if it's raining? Ah, they've got a fix for that. Grandad put up a swing on the inside as well inside the house yeah see that's cool that's a good granddad that's a good granddad isn't it yeah yeah so outside swing inside swing it's just swinging all over the place house of swingers yeah it's great loads of fun little sister mary jane was born at this time uh harry

learned how to ride a pony and did other things that children did in this time on a farm. He also remembers that he pretty much could eat whatever he wanted at this time. He was quite often just treated to things. In fact, I'll quote him here. There were peach butter, apple butter, grape butter, jellies and preserves. Butter and jam. All the butters. Yeah.

And jellies. I guess after the death of their first child, it sort of makes sense. He may have been spoiled compared to... Well, you get more the impression this is Martha's parents spoiling the grandchildren here. Big family unit, and the kids were well-treated, and they had a happy time.

He did, however, almost die at one point, which is a shame. He got a peach stone stuck in his throat, which is quite what he was doing with the peach. Probably just sucking on the stone at the end and then it just got stuck. Maybe. Or he's swinging with it in his mouth.

Maybe he was on the swing. This is why you shouldn't go swinging eating fruit. Exactly. Martha, however, acted quickly. What would you do, child in front of you? Peach stone in their throat. Well, however, acted quickly. What would you do? Child in front of you, peach stone in their throat. Well, either Heimlich,

smack on the back. Heimlich's not alive. I don't know. When was Heimlich around? When did he invent his manoeuvre and publish it for the world to see? Probably the following year. Probably.

He's probably not quite. I'm guessing either smack on the back or just fingers in to pull it out. Ah, no. Oh, yeah. Go on. You know those bellows for fireplaces? Yeah. Up the bum.

Pfft. That is thinking outside the box, but Martha thought outside the box in a much more clever way. Because I'm with you and I'm guessing most people, your first reaction is get the stone out. Martha very impressively decided she wasn't going to be able to hook out the stone, so she just put her finger in and just jabbed downwards.

Oh! Yeah, and just pushed it in. But what if it was, like, over his airway? Well, it went past and then went down his throat and into his stomach. I mean, stops the problem of choking to death, but I'm guessing the next day was painful. But yes, there you go.

He didn't die. You'll be relieved to know. And it was also Martha who was in charge of Harry's education around this time. She used a Bible to teach the boy how to read, which was very common for the time. And also they realised just how bad Harry's eyesight was. They kept talking to walls and calling them Grandad and things.

Oh, yeah, right. Well, actually, more truthfully, it was during a fireworks display. It was noticed that he only reacted to the sounds. He wasn't going, ooh, ah, to the display of the fireworks. Only when they made a big noise did he turn around and get excited by it. Yeah, he was in fact diagnosed with flat eyeballs which i had to look up and it was nowhere near as exciting as i was hoping yeah i was hoping he literally had discs for eyes but no apparently that was just a way of

saying farsighted back then do you mean nearsighted that's a very good point you know what i've written this down in my notes and i've just suddenly realised that's wrong It definitely said farsighted in the book I read But that doesn't make sense, does it? No, because you'd be able to see the fireworks really well Yeah, you know what Usually if a mistake like this happened I'd edit it out

I'd pretend it didn't happen I'm going to keep this in Homework for the listeners Was he near or farsighted? Whichever one it was, he was very I'm guessing he was very short-sighted, because he couldn't see the fireworks. That makes sense, doesn't it?

Yeah, logically. Yeah. It doesn't really matter either way. The fact was, he couldn't see very well. That's the important thing. A huge amount of money, for the time, was spent getting him some double-strength glasses, a variety of glasses that children never used.

They were far too expensive and far too fragile. Children never had these things, but the family treated them to him with a kind of do-not-break-these. And he was amazed. All of a sudden he could see, and it changed his life. Not only could he see, he was also told that they were about to move house to the town of Independence so the children could get an education. It was time to go to a real school.

And Harry liked school when he started. I'll quote him here, I do not remember a bad teacher. And one teacher said of him, he just smiled his way along. So it was all just very nice in school, apparently. I'd like to give you some interesting stories of his school life but there are none or at least I came across none apart from Diphtheria was that a bully? yes Diphtheria caught him in the playground

stole his lunch money and infected him it was quite bad yeah he caught Diphtheria so bad, in fact, that his limbs became paralysed. Ooh, that could be that. For about a month, he was bed-bound, couldn't move at all.

He was transported around using a baby carriage that they still had hanging around. Not what you want when you're ten years old. But then, one day, just as suddenly as it came on, it suddenly lifted. So there you go, he's up and old. But then, one day, just as suddenly as it came on, it suddenly lifted. So there you go. He's up and moving. But a month is a long time to not be able to move.

Especially when you're a 10-year-old. Time moves slowly when you're a child. It does. So it would have been a very hard time. But Martha hadn't wasted this time. She made sure that Harry kept up with his education so he was able to slot back into the school where he should have been, despite missing almost a year in the end. The recovery was slow. Not being able to move for a month, but then slow recovery afterwards. But he didn't need

to repeat a year or anything. He was able to just go back, which is good. Because he was housebound for so long, he just hoovered up books. He got into his reading just looking for anything to do well there were books around he'd have made a great podcast host yeah he'd probably make a great podcast host nowadays or either that or he'd just play on his playstation who knows but yeah at the time lots and lots of reading

mainly histories and biographies his favourite character from the past was the one eyed Carthaginian general None other than our friend Hannibal Very impressed With all the elephants And the alps

Every time he turned a page He used the movement to high-five himself Yeah That's what he did It wasn't just the ancient Romans That caught his attention He also liked more modern history But again, it was very similar stuff It was all just the ancient Romans, however, that caught his attention. He also liked more modern history. But again, it was very similar stuff.

It was all about the generals. He was a big fan of Robert E. Lee, for example. Oh, he's the controversial guy. Yeah, well, not in his family. His mother came from a family who still very much resented the Union's victory in the war, as did a majority of the town that he lived in. Which, despite this being more than 40 years since the war it was still very bitter about the union winning uh anyway he's back in school by

this point he shied away from physical activities i mean being bedridden for so long wouldn't have helped but also obviously he has his very expensive glasses that he keeps on and he doesn't want to break them. True. Later on, he says, To tell the truth, I was kind of a sissy. Now, in the very detailed biography of Truman by David McCullough that I have been reading, McCullough states that Harry's brother debated whether Harry was a sissy and that the other boys would not have called Harry a sissy because he had the respect from the other boys due to his knowledge of history.

Apparently, he would step into the other boys' games when they were playing things like Jesse James and just pretending to be Jesse James, and he would just point out the historical inaccuracies of their game. And I quote here, things like that the boys had a lot of respect for really yeah this is why i'm including this because i really want to debate this yeah that'd be like somebody commenting after every episode really saying that was inaccurate there weren't actually dragons

during the war kind of thing well we we both teach exactly this age group yeah we know what would happen if there were a group of boys playing a game and another boy walked into that group and said, well, actually... Yeah, it's just... Yeah. I think they'd be... With my class, they're quite nice.

They'd probably get a bit polite. Like, OK, yeah, for the first time. Then the second time, they'd ignore. Third time, get annoyed and push them over. My class are not that polite. OK. So, yeah, I'm debating whether the boys really respected uh truman for his uh his historical knowledge but i'd like to think it's true because it's the way it should be yeah definitely knowledge knowledge is friendship

material yes exactly uh but who knows but as we can see he perhaps struggled to get on with uh his peers. However, there was one person he did notice when he was at school at this age, though. This was a girl in his class called Bessie Wallace. Or Bess. Or Bessie. She sat directly behind him because of alphabetical order. Bess was sporty and popular and everyone loved her.

It's unclear how much Bess noticed Harry at this time, but you get the feeling, not much. Yeah. Harry certainly noticed her. Give her more facts, Harry. Give her more facts. Tell them the story about Hannibal and how he lost his eye actually in a swamp, not in exciting combat.

Yeah. It's just infection. That's all. Bess. Bess, it was infection. Bess. Oh, she oh she's going all green and pussy it's like hanging out green and pussy best green and pussy yeah maybe it was maybe it did anyway he's he's a growing lad at this time not not just when he was thinking of best

he was developing new interests he started piano lessons, for example. He practised practically daily, and he became quite an accomplished pianist for his age, which was very good. He also became even more obsessed with history, and not only that, he started to take an interest in politics. Now, as I've mentioned, pretty much everyone in independence was very much a democrat, and therefore so was Harry. He attended his first Democratic convention in the year 1900 with his father. This was when Brian was attempting to pull the Democrats further to the left to become the Working Man's Party. Harry and his father very much approved of this move. John, incidentally, his business has gone from strength to strength,

as you might have picked up on by the fact that I'm saying things like he got piano lessons. In fact, things are going really quite well for the Truman family by this point. They're able to move house to a better area of town. And in fact, you'll never guess where they end up. Just round the corner from Bess. Oh, weird that. How nice. Well, it probably is just coincidence,

unless Harry Truman was amazing at pulling strings in the background as a teenager. But yeah, apparently Bess would come over. And according to Harry's cousin Ethel, I'll quote here, I don't know if they got much Latin read. We all know what that means. Practice their Latin tongue.

Well, Harry at this time also took up fencing and also built a model of Caesar's Bridge over the rhine yeah if you remember back to his episode that's the one he put up in like a day just to show that he could and then took it down again oh yeah well fair enough i mean he did cross it for a bit but yeah yeah he built a bridge to show off basically did did truman built the bridge in a day oh i don't know how long he took he He probably, knowing Caesar,

he probably took longer to build the model than Caesar took to build the actual bridge. That's what I'm guessing. Well, he's got thousands of soldiers as well. Well, that certainly helps. Yeah. When it's just you and the local cockerel and the cat and a bunch of lollipop sticks. Yeah.

It's hard work. It's hard work. It is. The feathers get in the way. Yeah. But that's his life. Generally, hard work. It is. The feathers get in the way. Yeah. But that's his life. Generally, things are looking pretty good. He graduates school. His teenage years pass like that, essentially.

Things are looking nice. But then the financial winds turn, as they are to do. John had made some great investments over the years. Like I say, Harry's childhood essentially was his family climbing the social ladder quite rapidly. That would have seemed quite normal to Harry. But then overnight in 1901, all of John's investments were suddenly destroyed by a bad investment. He lost literally everything overnight. They had to sell the house and move to a much smaller place in Kansas City. Oh dear.

Yeah. Now, that's not great. This is a huge, huge shock to the family. Everything looked like it was going well, and then it just crashes and burns. Harry, at this time, really wants to join the military. I mean, after all, look what all his heroes in history did. They were all generals. So he's going to join the military.

But West Point turned him down due to his eyesight. Fair enough. Yeah. So he was disappointed, but the idea was, okay, I'll go to college if I can't go to West Point. But obviously that's now off the table. The family have no money. So that's college gone. Instead, he's got to go and find a job. He finds a job in a mail room. And then, shortly after that, as a construction timekeeper on the railroad, he was thrown into a life that he had not yet experienced. Everything had been all very smooth and calm.

Drinking lemonade on the farm porch kind of thing. Yeah. But he's now just been thrown into the working class. Yeah. Like I said, his family were not rich when he was born, but they weren't poor. And this was definitely a new life. He was side by side with big hulking men just lugging parts of railway track.

According to his biographer, I'll quote here, the talk included profanity and raw observations on life of a kind Truman had never imagined. Swear words, Jeremy, that you couldn't even imagine. Can you imagine it? No, I can't imagine it. No, you can't. What's the worst swear word you can think of? Exactly.

Now, make that twice as bad. I don't think I can. No, exactly. Yeah. But that's what we heard. And raw observations. Ooh. Things like that. Chicken's not done yet. Yeah. But that's what he heard. And raw observations. Ooh. Things like that. Chicken's not done yet.

Or something like that. It's culinary career. Yeah. But Harry was easy to get on with. His job was essentially to keep track of everyone's times. So as you can imagine, this is not necessarily the type of job that would warm you to other people. He's the

timekeeper. You're late! Well, apparently he was well-liked enough. He got on with everyone. He learnt a new vocabulary. But then he decided it was time to move on and get a better paid job. But when he left, the foreman described Harry as, and I quote here, all right from his a** in every direction. I have no idea what that means.

No. But I'm guessing this is the problem Harry had a idea what that means. No. But I'm guessing this is the problem Harry had a lot of the time. Yeah. Oh, thank you. I think that's a compliment. I heard the words all right, so I'm going to say that was good.

So anyway, he leaves his job on the railway and he applies for a job as a bank clerk, which he got. Short version of that interview. He worked there for two years at $20 a month, which was a much better wage, but still not enough for his family to get back to what they were used to. Not long after starting there, however, some shocking news reached him.

Bessie's father had shot himself. Oh. Yeah. Bess, aged 18 at this time, moved away, as did most of the family, due to the shame, as obviously back in these days, it would have just been seen as shameful that the father had abandoned the family.

They weren't big on empathy back then. No. No. So that's it. She's gone. I mean, he's already moved out of the area to Kansas City, so he wasn't going to be seeing her any time soon anyway. But now, no, that's it. She's gone out of

his life. And he hopes that he had not dashed. Still, the dream of the military's still there. In 1905, at the age of 25, he signed up to the new National Guard unit that had been created. Now, this new unit was desperate for recruits at the time, so they were willing to

overlook Harry's eyesight Let's just pretend that we can't see your glasses And you don't mention them And yeah, it's fine So off he went to train He was promoted to corporal fairly quickly And then he returned to his grandmother's home To show off his dress blues that he got

These are like your posh wear Yeah, your posh wear The kind of wear that if you turn up to the battle wearing, people are going to laugh. Oh, yeah. But I think one day an army should do that just to show off. I know if I was fighting and the enemy turned up in their full dress wear, I'd be intimidated.

Because I'd assume that they were so confident they were going to win that they've already dressed up for the party afterwards. However, one person who was not impressed with his dress blues was his grandmother, who was utterly disgusted. It's blue, which is a Union color. Yeah, you got it in one. Got it in one. It reminded her far too much.

That was a lucky guess. It reminded her far too much of the Union soldiers. She told him to take it off and never wear it in her presence ever again. Ooh. Yeah. Anyway, during this time, he's still with the National Guard unit in his spare time, but he moves from one bank to another.

He gets a pay rise. He's earning up to $100 a month at one point, which he was very pleased with. Things were actually starting to go well. But, unfortunately, at this time, John, his father, moved back to the family farm and was attempting to build it back up again. He was finding it far too difficult, however, so he asked Harry to come back and help him.

Probably with a bit of a sigh, Harry quit his job, in the bank, and headed to the family farm once more. And for the next five years, his life just revolved around the crops. He rose before dawn, he ploughed the fields, he milked the cows, he shouted at the horses, he prodded the hay, he... Poked the gopher. Poked the gopher, colluded the cockerels. Dallied with the ducks. Exactly. Whatever you do on a farm. He grew to hate it, utterly hated it, especially dallying with those ducks. They don't know how to dally.

They don't. Yeah. It also did not help that his ageing father seemed to be having the time of his life. He was strutting around the farm just with a glint in his eye, just throwing things around, just a whole haystack on his shoulder. Oh. Saying words like, isn't it bracing? Oh. Yeah.

Oh. And just really sucking in really hard and saying things like, oh, country air. Yeah. Lots of things like that oh, country air. Yeah. Lots of things like that. Food always tastes better when eaten outside. Yeah. He probably, probably even put his thumbs in his braces, dipped his knees, pulled out the braces slightly. Oh.

Yeah. And just looked around with an ear of corn in his mouth. I could picture you wearing braces. I'm surprised you don't. I don't have any, I could picture you wearing braces. I suppose you don't. I don't have any, but maybe I should wear braces. I think so. Just so I can do that move. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, Harry, after working in a bank for a while, this wasn't him. He didn't enjoy it at all. After three years of being on the farm, however, he managed to do something to interest him. Through a contact he'd made in the bank, he joined the Masons. Oh. Oh, yes. He did all the secret trials and the

thing that you don't talk about, and he put the thing you don't mention. In the What's My Diddle. That's the one. Yeah, all those things. Being a big history fan, something really appealed to Harry about being in a club that the likes of Jackson And Teddy Roosevelt have been part of

Again, being likeable And polite and serious Meant that he soon did very well as a mason And he rose up through the ranks in the lodge Rose through the ranks And slowly but surely the farm grew It starts to turn a profit John made his son partner So so he had more responsibility,

and it's around this time that he was reintroduced to Bessie. She's still around? Yeah, yeah, she had moved back into the area. He was invited round for tea one evening, and they played piano together, which was very nice. Ah. Yeah. They still lived far enough apart that it was a struggle to see each other often. They were still hours apart. But, I mean, this is

America. Rural America. I mean, your neighbour's probably two hours away at best. But, if you can't see each other, then what better than to become pen pals and just write to each other very regularly. Hundreds and hundreds of letters were sent back and forth between the two around this time we don't have any of her letters

unfortunately we've only got his so we don't get to see both sides that that implies a very awkward situation as well or that we just lost some of the letters uh we do have the letter from a few months later when he proposed to her oh yeah she said no didn't she i'll quote you know if i were an italian or a poet i would commence and use the luscious language of two continents i'm not sure which two continents the continent of italy and the continent of Poet maybe. Yeah, well, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. I am not either but only a good-for-nothing

American farmer. You may not have guessed it, but I've been crazy about you ever since we went to Sunday school. But I never had the nerve to think that you would even look at me. And then he goes on to propose the trouble proposing via post however gives you time to think gives you time to think and it gives you time to

wait for the reply yeah yeah he waits he waits oh he waits oh i mean they're neighbors as well which makes it even more awkward three whole weeks pass and then then he gets a phone call phone call? yeah they've got phones which makes you wonder why the letter maybe he just found more comfortable writing

that does make sense because actually talking to someone on the phone, oh I hate doing that I don't like doing that you're right, if I was to propose to someone either on the phone, oh, I hate doing that. I don't like doing that. You're right. If I was to propose to someone either over the phone or via letter or email, I'd definitely choose the latter.

I did it via text message. Did you, classy? Yeah, emoji and would you? Is there an emoji for would you? Like a ring, a wedding ring. Oh, right, and the shrug emotion. Yeah, yes. Yeah, good. you like a ring a wedding ring oh right and the shrugger motion yeah yes yeah yeah good um yeah he essentially did that just in letter form um yeah he got a phone call and you're pleased to

know he got a short succinct answer was he pleased to know not at all the answer was no we obviously don't know what was said, and we don't have her letters, but we do have his next letter where he thanked her for taking him seriously and not laughing at him, and that he understood that she needed someone far better than him. Again, I'll quote, I've been so afraid that you were not even going to let me be your good friend. To even be in that class is something. You may think that I'll get over it, just like the other boys do.

I really never had any desire to make love to a girl just for the fun of it. And you have always been the reason. Yeah, I know, you're looking shocked. It's getting a bit spicy. Please do not think I am talking nonsense or bosh. I've always been far more idealist than practical anyway. So I never really expected a reward for loving you. I shall always hope

though. I need to ask someone to not think I'm talking nonsense or bosh. That's great. So, it's a no. He's rejected. But in the letter anyway, he's taking it in good grace. But he's not giving up oh oh no

no he's gonna send more letters far far more letters he continues to write continues to invite her around regularly please write back please write back please write back well she would always have an excuse a reason not to come around oh yeah you get the feeling it starts getting a bit awkward for a while. He talked about things that they had in common. Their background, their shared childhood in the same school. They're both massive racists. They have that

in common. Quote, I'm strongly of the opinion that Negroes should be in Africa, yellow men in Asia, and white men in America and Europe. Ooh. Yeah. That was actually one of the more pleasant of... Oh, dear. There were some others that I just went,

I don't want to read that one out, you know. Yeah, so they had that in common. Anyway, eventually, Bess's walls are broken down by all this letter writing. Let's hope it wasn't the racism. Bess wrote to him agreeing that they were actually now secretly engaged.

Very secretly no one must ever know. Please, please stop asking me because we're engaged now. We're engaged. You don't need to ask me anymore. But it's a secret. Harry knew that if it was to not be a secret at any point, then he would have to impress Bess's mother. And the gap in wealth between the two families now would make this very hard.

Bess was very much in a far better class of family. Harry's family had been catching up, but then fallen on hard times. So he's in his 20s. He needs to impress his potential future mother-in-law and also his secret fiancée and just generally the ladies. What do you do when you're in your twenties and you want to impress

the ladies? Go take in a show. No. You buy an expensive car. Oh, okay. Yeah. This is one of the most modern things I've come across in our podcast so far. Yeah. The family is still struggling financially, but he really've come across in our podcast so far. The family is still struggling financially, but he really wants to impress Bess.

So he just goes out and he buys an expensive car. No, he can't afford it, but he gets it anyway. The car breathed new life into his days. He could now go and see Bess and his other friends. He was no longer just abandoned on this farm. He could go and pick them up and they could go places. They could go and take in a show, for example, or just go for picnics. And his life seems to pick up for a while. He seems to be quite happy. And then

his father dies. Oh, John. Yeah, and the farm passes on to him. Oh. Yeah. Perhaps due to this, Harry paid little attention to the rumours of the war in Europe. What war? Yeah, it's just nothing to do with him. He's in rural America. What's it got to do with him. He's in rural America.

What's it got to do with him? But as finances became worse and worse, he longed for something to happen so he could escape his spiralling life. And also he longed for a way to prove himself to Bess. So he signs up to fight. He's 33 at this point. He's also a farm owner.

So therefore there was no pressure for him to do this. Fair enough. The young lads were the ones that should sign up. And if you also a farm owner, so therefore there was no pressure for him to do this. Fair enough. The young lads were the ones that should sign up, and if you own a farm, you should stay at home and you should grow food for the country. That's true. But he doesn't like farming, though, does he? Well, no, no. So he's using it as a way out. Right, yeah. Yeah. And again, he's always wanted

to be in the military. So he signs up. When Bess heard, she told him that they must get married before he went and amazingly he refused saying no for i may not return oh all very melodramatic you can imagine this was taking place on a train station somewhere that was black and white yeah yeah but then she get a widow's pension. Yeah, yeah. But I get the impression it was more for the statement of the, oh, no, but I may not be.

That's the impression I get. I think a lot of drama was being inserted here. Yeah, fair enough. He later said that Bess crying over his leaving was worth a lifetime on earth, which is why I get the impression a lot of this was him enjoying the drama. Fair enough. Yeah.

Anyway, he signs up. He's obviously quite old for many of the recruits at being 33. So he became a recruiter. How best to recruit young men into the army at the time? He painted his car red and just started driving around in his dress uniform. I'd like to think literally with just like a pot of paint and a brush. Almost like a whitewash with red. Just painted the words Army

and then a question mark on the side. He starts driving around Kansas City recruiting people. And because he was one of the recruiters, obviously he got to know a lot of the young lads being recruited. And this was back still when the men would get to vote for who their lieutenants were going to be and he was voted first lieutenant which was nice

he was very touched by that and then he was off to oklahoma to train how to use artillery he was going to be an artillery man nice uh so he trains up and then eventually news comes through for the departure date for france so he sold his car, realising that there's no point keeping it and trying to keep paying off. So he sold it, and he and the men boarded a train to New Jersey and then got on board a captured German cruise liner. See, that's a good idea. Yeah, it is.

Please don't sink us. Look, we're a German cruise liner. Ja, schnell. Yeah, 7,000 troops squeezed on. Yeah, they did that, didn't they? I don't know. It depends how big the cruise liner was. If it was a cruise liner for 10,000 people,

maybe they were spread out. Cocktails. They did that with the Olympic. They converted that into like a... That was a medical ship, wasn't it? I'm guessing they weren't spread out in cocktails, though. I'm guessing crammed in. Oh, yeah, yeah.

A whole load of extra barracks and books. Cramped, hot, several people to a room. That's the kind of thing that would be going on. But still cocktails. Well, the weather was perfect, apparently. Lovely, sunny weather. Really calm sea. Really nice and calm.

The kind of sea that just seems so flat and perfect that a submarine could just easily rise from and start shooting torpedoes oh yeah yeah yeah it was perfect submarine weather uh something all the men were very aware of very stressful journey across the atlantic just going to sleep hoping you weren't going to be woken up with the cabin filling with water, with no hope of your survival. Yeah. Yeah. But eventually they get across.

Two weeks it took to get to France, but they get there. Harry was promoted to captain at this point. Is he done? Oh, to be fair, we are skimming some. He did do some training. He did an interview back in America when he was training. I thought he had an interview to be captain be captain well apparently it was really horrible the uh the guy doing the interview it was him and two other men who were trying to get promoted they were just ripped apart and they all assumed they'd done really badly uh but actually no he got promoted

but he only found out once he was in france it took a while for it to go through so he's captain now which is nice uh he found himself teaching logistics to men younger than him, but with far more education. I mean, he didn't go to college, but he did do the training and he understood it. And now he's teaching these young men who've gone to all these fancy colleges. He was then put in charge of four guns and 194 men.

And these 194 men had a reputation. They were largely a hard-drinking Irish Catholic unit, which I believe is what was written, sewn into their badge. Just a picture of a Guinness. Yes. Harry looked like a bank clerk in his glasses, and his fairly small frame. And yeah, he just did not really look like someone you're going to be intimidated by.

So he sets out to go and talk to his new men. I'll quote him here. Never on the front or anywhere have I ever been so nervous. The men were used to their captains, because they got through them apparently, coming in hard and trying to browbeat them. So they were used to people shouting at them. They didn't care. They got their Guinness. Harry, however,

stood in front of them and said nothing. Nothing at all. Oh. The silence stretched out. And then he gave a very crisp dismissed and sent them on their way after

just staring at them eyeballing them for a while do you think he was just freaking out that's exactly what he was doing yes he later said the men may have thought i'm paraphrasing here i've not got it in my notes but he said something along the lines of the men may have thought i was trying to achieve something but i was just terrified oh yeah even of the men may have thought I was trying to achieve something, but I was just terrified. Oh. Yeah. Even if the men did think he was trying to achieve something, it didn't work because they gave him a Bronx cheer, apparently,

which I had to look up. It's just a raspberry. Oh. Yeah, just one of them. So, not a great first impression. Later that night, a fight broke out, and many men in the unit ended up in the infirmary. Yeah, not good. Captain Truman spent his entire night

trying to get to the bottom of all this and then posted a list of men who had been demoted in the morning. So it was a tense start, but he quietly proved that he would take no bleep from the men. But he wasn't going to rant and rave. If you mess about, I will just demote you or send you on your way.

Just a quiet sort of... Yeah. And soon enough, he won enough men over that they stopped openly mocking him. But it wasn't the best of starts. Anyway, they train for about a month or so, and then they finally see some action, and here we are in the thick of World War I. This is our first time over to World War I, isn't it?

First time we've seen anyone fighting in World War I, yes. That's what I mean, yeah. Anyway, the battery was set up on the edge of a large valley, and they were ordered to shell the German position, which was posted roughly four miles away uh it'd been raining a lot and everyone was just slick with mud after setting up all their guns they set up they let rip for half an hour just as night is falling they send all the shells over and just try and demolish the german position four miles away they They fire over 500 rounds. And I'll quote one man who was in the unit,

we were having a hell of a good time doing it until we woke up someone over there. Ah. Yeah. Well, the idea was half an hour, short, sharp burst, get as much artillery over there as possible and try and flatten them, then quickly pack everything up,

throw them on the horses and leg it. So when they do return fire, we won't be there anymore. That's the plan. However, there'd been a bit of miscommunication and the horses weren't ready. You obviously can't keep your horses next to the artillery. They would freak out. I like to think they're just trying to negotiate with the horses. Like, come on, we need to go now.

Nay. I'd man 25 more percent of oats. Yeah, no, the horses obviously would be there to set up. Then the horses would ride off. Then they would fire. And then the horses were meant to come back. The horses did not come back. It took another half an hour to fix the problem.

Eventually the horses do arrive and they scramble in the slick mud and the downpour to try and pack up these guns yeah while at the same time realizing it is only a matter of time before the germans return fire and they could well attack with gas so we need to get the masks on not just us but also with the horses who are already a bit freaked out and then the return fire starts. Yeah. Yeah. Truman was on his horse at the time, and the first shell struck 15 feet from him. The horse fell into a shell hole,

pinning Harry into the mud. Gasping for breath, he managed to squeeze himself out from between the horse and the muddy ground, and he drags himself to his feet just in time to see one of the sergeants screaming at everyone to run full-on denethor from lord of the rings run for your lives yeah very dramatic voice the sergeant

had it really cut through the sound of the shells yeah he was oh denethor was such a good character well panic starts to set in as you can imagine At least a couple of soldiers indeed started to flee, and it was only a matter of time before the whole unit fell apart. Mass hysteria kicks in. Harry looks inside himself and remembered the profanity from the stint on the railways. And he starts screaming every word that he knew at everyone around him,

demanding that they stay. Gosh darn darn it tally-ho you are all a bunch of spliffing no-gooders you bunch of yellow-bellied chickens yeah things like that yeah uh the men i mean despite the fact the shells were falling around them apparently was so shocked to hear mild-mannered Captain Truman suddenly swearing his head off, they all stopped. That's quite funny. Yeah. A new level of respect was earned. Yeah.

Stopped enough to stay the panic. Order was resumed. Truman realised that, no, there is no way we can get these guns in the wagons and away safely with all these shells going down. We do need to get away, but we need to get away in order. So he orders a ordered retreat rather than just fleeing. So the men mostly get out of there. They have to return for the guns another day,

but generally he manages to save some lives there or at least manage to keep the honour of the unit. And the men respected him a little bit more for it afterwards. Anyway, the war continues. Harry and his men see many horrors, as you can imagine, many dead. As one man in his unit later said, you know, when you're in the artillery, they don't shoot you with machine guns.

You're back from the line. So instead, they shoot you with the heavy stuff. So yeah, they're not in the trenches at the front line but when they send the artillery over there's a good chance there's some heavy stuff coming back yeah yeah yeah one night a shell landed just where harry had slept the night before he decided in the day just to move where he was sleeping for whatever reason. And if he had not made that decision, he would have died. Yeah, really is flip of a dice kind of thing.

Flip of a dice? Yeah, that's what you do with dice. Yeah. One day, by complete chance, he happened to spot in the distance a German gun battery setting up, one that they weren't aware of. Now, he had orders to fire at his assigned target. Very clear orders, you're here to fire at that target over there. But Harry saw this opportunity

is too good to miss. So he allowed time for the Germans to set up their artillery, and then enough time for the Germans to lead all their horses away. And then, getting the timing just right, he ordered his men to start firing on them. The German battery was utterly wiped out, and because of this, the lives of many Americans were saved. Because the German battery was about to wipe out a whole unit of Americans. But, Harry had completely disobeyed orders. Well, you're in the field, you know, you've got to make decisions. The army is notorious for not allowing free thinking.

It really is a chain of command thing. A phone call came through from the colonel demanding to know what the hell he was playing at. Harry was threatened with a court-martial. Saving lives, damn it. Well, yeah, you see, that kind of worked because nothing came from it in the end. Everyone kind of realised that actually this was a sensible thing to do. No,'t dismay orders but actually that was a sensible call so it was fine in the end but yeah he was given a slap on the wrist anyway the war goes on life was very hard as you can imagine no one directly under harry's command died which is uh impressive it also shows the difference of being in the frontline trench

and the artillery. But just because no one dies does not mean that you escape the horror that was World War I. They were certainly all affected. They all were living minute to minute not knowing if that was their last minute. They saw horrific things. Eventually though, at 5.45am on November the 11th, 1918,

an armistice was signed. Hey! To come into effect at 11. Harry and his men continued to barrage the enemy, because obviously it's not 11 o'clock yet. At 8.30, they learnt that the war was about to end. I'll quote him here. My battery fired the assigned barrages at the time specified.

The last one was towards a little village called Hermanville. My last shot was fired at 10.45. So they knew that the war was over at 8.30, but they had orders. Keep firing on that village. So they're good. And he follows orders, especially after that slap on the wrist. Well, exactly. But there you go, the war's over.

He survived. Two weeks later, he's in Paris, sightseeing. Not believing the war's over. He and a friend went on a tour of France for a while. They went down to the south coast. They get to the border of Italy. Then they go back up to paris see more sites uh fascinated by all the architecture just all the history look how old everything is over here

and look at all the amazing buildings you can see right through that one that don't know that one has fallen over oh dear so generally things are all good uh then their leaves over they go back to camp and they generally sit around and play non-stop poker, waiting for the journey home. And then an unexpected horror hit. Waiting to be shipped home in their camp, news came from home. A flu pandemic was sweeping the United States, and indeed the world. Soon letters start to flood into the camp,

and the men, in a bizarre reversal of fate, were now the ones getting letters of loved ones who had died over the sea. And I quote, Every day, nearly someone of my outfit will hear that his mother, sister, or sweetheart

is dead. This was common. Sure enough, Harry got his letter. His brother and his cousins and Bess had all come down with the flu. Fortunately, though, he very quickly learnt that they were on

the mend, because the way the post works, you tend to get a bundle of letters. That must have been a rollercoaster on that afternoon. It was a rollercoaster, yeah. But that didn't stop him worrying, though. His family are still in a land being torn apart by an invisible enemy, and people were dying. So it was very stressful in the camp for a while.

But that was pretty much the only thing he was now worried about. Because if the war had done anything, it was to prove to him that he could be bold and brave. He would not go back to the farm and pine over Bess like he had been doing for the best part of a decade. He was going to go back, he was going to marry his sweetheart, and he was going to do something with his life. Sure enough, within days of getting home, he and another man who had come back with him from France opened a store. That's what we're going to do.

We're going to start a business. And with that done, he then proposed to Bess once more, and they set a date. Oh. Yeah. In secret. No, no. In June 1919, they got married.

Oh. Yeah, and they moved in with Bess's mother and their family. Big house. Yeah. So there you go. He's married to Bess. Everything's good. And the store's doing really well.

It's started by pretty much selling whatever they could get their hands on, but they soon start to shift a lot of shirts. So they start specialising in shirts. In particular, silk shirts. Ooh. Oh yeah. Yeah. Spooth. Exactly. You've been in the trenches for months, years.

It's been hard. It's been tough. What do you want to do when you get home? Put on a silk shirt. Well, yeah. Feel the smooth breeze. 100% lice free. Yeah, exactly.

Apparently they're in fashion. You don't think of post-war period and silk shirts, do you? I guess it's the pre-20s, so I guess it's starting to get that sort of fashion. I'm thinking full-on, like, Alvis Vegas silk jumpsuits. Massive lapels! That's what I'm thinking, and no one's allowed to tell me different, so that's what they were selling.

Yeah, love it. Yeah yeah so they do quite well uh brand new yellow shirt everyone in the town was just like dressed up like albus it was amazing uh who's elvis yeah uh the shop also by design came to become a hangout for the veterans just back from France. Because obviously they knew people, and they'd come in to buy their silk shirt, jumpsuit, and then they'd hang out for a bit, and then a bit more, and then they'd come in the next day to chat. Lines of credit were given, so there was more excuse for people to come in and pay off things.

And yeah, generally, it's a hangout. For a couple of years, things are really good. He's got his new wife, they have a child, the business is doing well but then as ever the turbulent economy starts to turn people start to feel poorer and a little bit too late harry and his partner realized that perhaps silk shirts were not what you could call a necessity i don't know i mean i mean they look amazing the ones that they had with the word necessity stitched into the back across the shoulders,

I mean, they tried to claim that they were a necessity, but it didn't work. What about the ones that said king on the back? No, they weren't. Like sequins. They weren't shifting either. Oh, no. Fairly rapidly, people stopped coming in to buy silk shirts and started to come in for a quick loan. Maybe just a couple of dollars. I'll bring it back tomorrow. Honest Captain Truman. stopped coming in to buy silk shirts and started to come in for a quick loan.

Maybe just a couple of dollars. I'll bring it back tomorrow. Honest Captain Truman. Which Truman was happy to do, but the business was failing. And then it failed. In 1922, it goes under. This was a blow, but by this point,

the connections through the army had started to work out. Because whilst he was in France, he had made a friend. And this friend was a young man named James Pendergast. That's a good name. James Pendergast. Well, yeah, yeah. Because he was the nephew of none other than the current political boss of Kansas, Tom Pendergast now jumping ahead slightly because we're in the early 20s here but by the 1930s the pendergasts would be in charge of kansas in the way that you would imagine a family being in charge of a city in

america in the 1930s they were powerful they corrupt, and they were full of favours, shall we say. In fact, Tom Pendergast himself once said, we have a theory that if we do a man a favour, then he will do us one. It's human nature. He said whilst holding

the horse head. Yeah. You can say it's human nature in a way that sounds very menacing. Oh, you really can, yeah. Yeah. We will do this podcast together, JB. It is human nature.

Yeah, yeah. That's when he pulled out the sheep eye. It's terrifying. Well, the Pendergast's had been around for quite some time. Tom's older brother, older brother of 16 years, had been the political boss of Kansas until his death in 1911. And then his younger brother, Tom, took over.

Tom took the family business, shall we say, in a different direction to his brother. His brother was very much a, let's be on the city council and let's try and control things. Tom thought, why bother with that? Let's take a step back from frontline politics and just give and receive favours. Make some offers. Yeah.

Exactly. All above board. All legit. Of course. Of course, of course. These are my two associates, Crowbar and Chains. Well, it was not long before Tom had expanded the Pendergast business. Due to political ties, the Pendergast practically

owned all the saloons in the city, either directly or through holding and withholding licences. But as you can imagine, with Prohibition coming in, the organisation had to shift slightly. Not completely, because obviously. But they did shift. You need some legit business.

So what business do you think they went into? Shirt making? No, no, no, no. Brothels? No, no. Concrete. Oh. That's always going to be useful, isn't it?

Getting in the concrete business. It's very handy substance, concrete. It can That's always going to be useful, isn't it? Getting in the concrete business. It's very handy substance, concrete. You can do all sorts. You can hide a lot with concrete. You can. You can cover over those cracks really well, can't you? You can do a nice little sideline in the shoe business as well. Yeah. Yes, you can. Yeah.

Many in the city feared the Pendergasts, obviously, but, as is always the case, they were also very well loved. He was seen as a Robin Hood figure by many. He was looking out for the little man and sticking it to the tops. I love that. The organisation would, for example, make sure that the neighbourhoods of the area of the city that they controlled had water and electricity,

and if there ever was a problem, it was sorted. No fuss, no paperwork. All you had to go and go around to the pendergasts go to go to the office and just say all the water's out on third street sure enough the water was back on weird no no filling in forms no waiting in line as you can imagine this endeared them to a lot of people. If it was cold, the organisation would hand out coats and free dinners to anyone who was homeless. These sound like the Yakuza in Japan. They sound like pretty much any organised crime. Well, yeah, I guess so. It was all free as long as people remembered. That's all you need to do. All you need to do is remember. And then on election day,

perhaps, maybe, who knows, perhaps some of the locals could return the favour and go and vote a few times. People were driven around the city and would spend all day voting. One woman who did this for the Pendergast later said, oh, I knew it was illegal, but I never thought it was wrong.

That's interesting. However, we're not quite in the 1930s yet. We're in the early 20s. The Pendergast were powerful, especially their leader, Tom Pendergast, but he wasn't all powerful. The city was actually split between two democratic political factions. The Pendergast headed up one faction, and they were known as the Goats.

The other faction, led by a man named Joseph Shannon, were known as the Rabbits. I'd rather be a Goat. There are various stories about why these names came across, but it would appear it's just the Pendergast controlled an area of the city that was on a hill where Goats were kept. The Rabbits were near the river where the rabbits lived.

But there's lots of theories about one faction being more strong and one faction being more clever and, yeah, but... A lot of rubbish theories, yeah, fair enough. But I am now imagining all of them wearing silk shirts with embroidered goats and rabbits on the back or little ones running down the sleeves. You see those kids that wear... In the winter,

the rabbit hats with rabbit ears. Yes, they probably had those. And those wear the little horns. Definitely. Both factions tried their hardest to bury the other faction politically, including teaming up with the much smaller Republicans. These two factions of the Democrats despised each other.

They'd much rather work with the Republicans than the other Democrats. Oh, yeah. As often happens in politics. So it was into this climate that the Pendergasts thought of Harry Truman and thought that maybe he'd be a vote winner if he got into politics. One person said at the time, Oh, Tom just wanted to have some window dressing.

Captain Truman. He's likeable. People would vote for him. Real American? Yeah. If a goat got a judgeship, for example, he could assign contracts and other jobs, etc, etc. All of this was explained to Truman one day

when he was in his failing shop. His friend James and his friend James' father, Mike, came to see him. Mike, by the way, is the brother of Tom Pendergast, so... Right. Yeah, a high-up Pendergast. They came to see him with an offer. Are crowbar and chains behind?

No, no, no. This was one of the nice offers. Okay. And Truman, very grateful, I quote him, I went into business all enthusiastic. I lost all that I had and all that I could borrow, and Mike Pendergast picked me up and put me into politics, and I have been lucky.

And he won the upcoming election through the skin of his teeth. 12,000 votes were cast, and he won just by 279. But when he did, it was a fairly standard two years as a judge, so there's not much to report here. Truman just got on his job. But no, I'm saying judge. It was a fairly standard two years as a judge, so there's not much to report here. Truman just got on his job. Now, when I'm saying judge, it was an administrative judge. He wasn't in courts giving sentences. He was essentially...

You're saying he's not a lawyer. Yeah, yeah. You didn't need to be a lawyer to be an administrative judge. All you needed to do was sit in an office and sign bits of paper to say, yes, this contract can be yours, and things like that. Fair. Unfortunately for Truman, because he was happy with the money, in 1924, the Republicans were riding a wave,

and Coolidge had just been swept into power, and Truman was one of the many, many Democrats who were voted out at this time. So he was forced to look elsewhere for employment. He spent a couple of years selling membership into an automobile club, which is interesting. He made a couple of investments that utterly failed and things start to look tough. They start to look hard. He could really do with some money, but he kept in contact with Mike Pendergast. Is there anything available? He sent word. Because what I'm doing right now is not working. I've got a daughter now.

I've got a wife. I need money. Mike took Truman to go and see none other than Tom Pendergast himself, the big chief. Oh, this is like a Godfather scene here. This is definitely a Godfather scene, yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Horse head at the ready. There are fiddles playing italian music as he walks in not that pentagas was in any way italian but uh yeah do you know i i've watched the godfather but only only i think about half of it i fell asleep oh you should i know i should i enjoyed it i resisted watching it for ages and ages because I'd seen a couple of classic gangster films like Casino and Goodfellas and found them incredibly long and boring. So I assumed The Godfather

would be the same. No, Godfather's actually good, as is Two. And then they stopped making them. Yeah. How about, suggested Mike, we give him the collector job. That sounded good to Truman. we give him the collector job? That sounded good to Truman.

I'll have the collector job. You get a lot of money being a collector. But no, Tom said, he promised the collector job to someone else because democracy. Instead, why don't you be a presiding judge? I mean, you've been a judge before. It's essentially a similar job. You'll get a bit more money. Why not?

You're a county's chief executive is what you'll be doing. So, fair enough, says Truman. And he gets the job. There was an election, obviously. It's democracy. And he won. Nice. Yeah, that's all you need to know about that. Don't ask too many questions.

He was back in public office once more. And the next eight years he filled the role he did political stuff mainly around public works roads buildings etc etc or very boring just general admin administrative stuff however he didn't forget what he was there to do and if the pendergast ever wanted a man in a certain job or a company on a certain contract, he made sure it happened. Truman would later say, I'm quoting, I wonder if I did the right thing

to put a lot of no-amount sons of b**** on the payroll and pay other sons of b**** more money for supplies than they were worth just in order to satisfy the political powers. You can tell that time working with a working class is really... I know, I know. I'm going to bleep it out. That's what I'm going to do.

But just know, listener, that word that you invented in your head that was twice as bad as the worst word you can ever think of. Oh yeah, that's probably what he said. Yeah, anyway, he wades through the corruption. That's what he does. He finds it difficult at times, but he continues, rationalising with himself that he's doing a greater good. Yes, occasionally he needs to do a favour, but doesn't everyone? This is the real world, come on. It's the only way to get

stuff done. After all, he's helping build roads and schools and hospitals. And without him, there's no way someone else could be in this pen-pushing administrator job to do exactly the same thing. So he's going to continue. Yes. He helped corrupt people. He wasn't corrupt. He probably told himself. Before he went to sleep.

Yeah. No. Yeah. We are now hitting the 1930s. 1930s politics in America. You can't avoid this stuff. You just can't. Anyway, after two terms, it was time to move on.

And it just so happened that a GOAT candidate for governor died at this time, a month before the election. So Harry expressed an interest. Don't ask questions, Jamie. No, I think this one's all above board. I don't think there was anything dodgy in that. Ah, hello, chains. That's a lot of blood on your shirt.

It's raspberries. Yes, yes, it's raspberries. I like to crush them before shoveling in my mouth. Anyway, he wants to go for governor. However, Tom Pendergast says no. He is at the height of his power at this point as Pendergast and he is able to just say no, you're not going to be the next governor.

Instead, Harry had to wait for two years and then maybe he could run for Congress. Or maybe you can take that collector's job that you wanted eight years ago. Choose one of those, Harry. Harry was offended. He wanted the governor's job.

He felt slighted. He'd done his stint for the Pendergast. Surely it was time for a reward. So, because of this, he decides to step away. He walks away from it all. Fair enough. But then two years pass. He's approaching 50 by this point.

He starts to worry about his future. So, he approaches Tom and asks for the run for Congress. Actually, yeah, can I be a senator, please, Tom? Because actually I would quite like that. Tom refused. Two years was a long time after all, and Tom had now promised the position to someone else.

However, in a lucky turn of fate for Truman, it turned out that Tom was jumping the gun. Tom Pendergast had approached four separate people to run for the Senate, including the leader of the now-defeated rabbit faction, but no one would do it. No one wanted that job. Just because they didn't want to, or because they knew there'd be a puppet? Partly, they knew there'd be a puppet, because you are just going to go and do Tom Pendergast's

bidding. But also i in the circles they're moving in there are definitely easier ways to make money than be a senator and first year senator you're not really going to be wielding much power it's just people weren't going for it however truman was happy for it uh truman's not penderast's first choice, but he's not a bad choice. So he approaches Truman and says, OK, fine, you want the job, it's yours. After an election, of course. Of course. Democracy.

However, Truman hesitated. Maybe he was annoyed at being messed about. Maybe he realised, actually, the campaign would cost a lot of money. Now he thought about it. Don't worry about money, said Pendergast. That's all sorted. And he probably just patted like a briefcase next to him. Yeah.

Now, Truman was fighting against two other Democrats who were standing for other political machines in the state at the time. So this is the election to win the nomination, not the election to win the nomination not the election to become the senator so he's he's fighting against other democrats here it was very rough and ready campaign all the candidates called each other names and they all

accused each other of being stooges for the political machines that they represented because they were all stooges for the political machines that they represented oh of course yeah in the end however the power of the Pendergast machine, which was at its height at this time, coupled with the fact that Truman was clearly President Roosevelt's biggest supporter of the three, meant that he won the nomination. Hooray, he's now a senator.

Has that? Yeah. The wave of popularity that Roosevelt was generating with the New Deal meant that Truman was then able to go on to win the election against the Republican candidate fairly easily. So he's off to Washington. And I'll quote here, I was as timid as a country boy arriving on the campus of a great university for its first year. The New York Times described this new senator as, and I quote, a rube for Pendergast land. What is a rube?

Like a bumpkin. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So I never knew that. No, I totally did. And I did not just look it up and then cut out what I looked it up. No, of course not. No, because I'm so shocked that you knew

that. Well done. No, I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Listeners, go back and go for when Jamie asked the question. How little time it took for me to answer. Almost overlapped. Almost overlapped. Yeah. Anyway. But Truman was

given some good advice from a fellow senator at this time, which is generally some good advice for life, I think. Don't start out with an inferiority complex. For the first six months, you will wonder how you got here. And after that, you'll wonder how the hell the rest of us got here. Which I think works pretty much everything I've ever done, really. And after that, you'll wonder how the hell the rest of us got here. Which I

think works pretty much everything I've ever done, really. I guess so, yeah. I get a lot of imposter syndrome. Oh yeah, I'm surrounded by imposter syndrome. But then, quite often, every now and again, quite often you're going, yeah, no, I'm terrible at this, but so is everyone else. How does the world function? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's insane anyway as we've seen before a lot in this podcast once someone gets to washington their life becomes very boring and their stories tend to dry up and truman is no different uh he's in a senate that has a huge majority there was very little need for the white house to court favor for his votes or anything. He was described at the time by one journalist saying, he ruffles no oldsters' feathers and treads on no-toes.

So there you go. He was put on the Interstate Commerce Committee, which is about as exciting as it sounds. And he finished his six-year term with little he could point to as a reason to re-elect him. But he was a Democrat, and the Democrats were very popular at this time, and he'd done nothing wrong, so surely he reason to re-elect him. But he was a Democrat, and the Democrats were very popular at this time, and he'd done nothing wrong,

so surely he'd be re-elected. But there's a problem. A year before his re-election, Tom Pendergast was arrested. Oh, connections. Guess what for? Tax evasion. Of course it's tax evasion.

All gangsters are arrested for that. He was got for the old tax evasion. You can hear Al Capone laughing in the background. Well, going after Tom Pendergast went up to the top. I mean, the White House were getting involved with bringing Tom Pendergast down. Yeah, yeah. It was a case of we need to get rid of him.

It was well known he was a shady character. It was well known that he deserved worse. And he got 15 months of tax evasion, and he should count himself lucky. Almost all politicians distanced themselves from Pendergast if they had ever had any dealings with the party boss in the past. Apart from Truman. Oh? Well, he knew he would be nothing without the Pendergasts, so he refused to abandon ship. Not only did he not distance himself he publicly attacked the

prosecution of pendergast as a witch hunt oh it's a witch hunt by the republicans they're just going after the good old tom he's done nothing wrong no one has ever been so persecuted in the history of this country probably he said few were very fooled by this. The Roosevelt administration, like I said, itself had paid a very heavy hand in bringing down the party boss. It was very clearly not the Republicans. The Democrats were going after him as well. This was bipartisan.

So did Truman just keep saying the same lie over and over again? Pretty much, and it just made him look corrupt. It's weird how that happens. Yeah, weird, isn't it? Keep defending the obvious corrupt man, you end up looking corrupt. Yeah. Yeah.

He wrote to Bess when he realised that things were going wrong. The terrible thing done by the high-ups in Kansas City will be a lead weight on me from now on. Sure enough, the Roosevelt administration saw no reason to help Truman out in his re-election, and the Missouri press also would not swing behind him after his display of defending Pendergast. So even though it should have been a shoo-in, actually things looked a bit

dicey in his re-election. However, never discount the incumbent's advantage. It's a huge thing in politics. Truman spoke very loudly about the benefits of the New Deal. Oh, the New Deal isn't the New Deal great. I love the New Deal. Do you love the New Deal? I love the New Deal. New Deal's, yeah. New Deal. Old Deal. Need to get rid of that.

Need to get one of these bad boys, he said, slapping the New Deal next to him. Look how shiny it is. Yeah, look how new and shiny. He also talked loudly about how the military must be more prepared in case the war in Europe spilled over into the Americas. Obviously World War II is starting

up at this point. Yeah, it is. Yeah. And he scraped through a win using this. So he's back in Washington. He starts his second term very much like his first term. But then something happened that would change his career and his life. What? pearl harbour yeah yeah as covered in moose vault's episode the country were utterly shocked allegations of treason sabotage and corruption flew around

there's no way we were caught unprepared it must be a problem with the military or treason or something yes someone on the inside, surely. Exactly, exactly. But yesterday, sir, we had a manicure session for the soldiers. And massage lessons. I mean... You're right. Let's look into the masseuse.

Yeah. It just so happened that Truman was heading up a committee at this point. He was the chairman of the Military Affairs Subcommittee. Even before Pearl Harbor, Truman had made it his hobby horse to make sure that the military were up to scratch, ready for a war in case we need to be. He'd already toured several military bases

to see if any of the allegations of waste held up any merit. He essentially went from army base to army base with a clipboard and his glasses. Oh, no. Yeah. He was everyone's best friend, I'm sure. Well-liked fellow.

Yeah. Well, the attack on Pearl Harbor elevated Truman's committee to a national level. All of a sudden, the man with the clipboard checking up on the military. All of a sudden, we want to hear what he's saying. Is the military up to scratch a sudden we want to hear what he's saying is the military up to scratch did you find anything was the military fit for purpose and the truman committee

as it started to be known started up hundreds of hearings and issued dozens of reports overnight truman becomes a national figure so prominent was this committee that Truman found himself on the front cover of Time magazine. His committee was called America's First Line of Defense. In fact, so rapid was this elevation into the national conscience that when the next election came up, many were talking about Truman becoming the next vice president. Interesting. The current vice president, a man named Wallace, was upsetting many in the Democratic Party. The New Deal was already upsetting many conservatives in the party, especially those in the South.

And Wallace was saying things like, do we need to be segregating people based on the colour of their skin? And just other crazy things. Utterly crazy things. What a commie. Yeah, so, yeah, he was upsetting a lot of people. Roosevelt was bad enough, but this Wallace, he's gone off the wall. So we need to get rid of him. And also the president, I don't know if you've noticed, he's not looking too chipper at the

moment. We certainly don't want Wallace to be the next president in case anything happens to Roosevelt. So we need a new vice president. Roosevelt, obviously very busy running the war, doesn't want the party to fall apart and is desperately trying to keep it together. So he sends Wallace to China and then to Russia in the spring of 44 in a clear message. It's not going to be Wallace because he's abroad.

He can't campaign to be the vice president. And also his bodyguards are Chains and Crowbar. Yes. They've gone up in the world. And I brought my raspberries with me. Well, Roosevelt refused to get drawn into discussing who the vice president was going to be. He didn't want the distraction of party politics.

But in the end, though, he and his administration start to think that perhaps maybe Truman wasn't the worst choice. Ringing endorsement. He was a New Deal supporter, a very vocal one, and always had been. But he wasn't overly liberal. He had many southern sympathies.

He came from a town who pretty much still lived pre-war. So, um, yeah, you know what? what the conservatives could get behind him the new deal faction could get behind him you know what he will do they said and heaven forbid he actually becomes president one day at least he wouldn't send a wrecking ball through the new deal he'd be there for what a couple of years and then new president can come in it'll be fine that's never gonna happen so it'll be fine

it'll be fine pointless considering it word got out leaked to the press the press responded by uh opening their cases and just picking up some tumbleweed and just nudging it down the hill slightly the wind didn't even bother to blow it and they had to use brooms to poke it. Yeah. Underwhelmed, shall we say, the press were. Yeah. Truman was then invited to the White House and met Roosevelt for the only time he met him

in the entire campaign. Right. Will you be my vice president, he was asked. Yes, Truman responded. Good, answered Roosevelt. That is me summing up that conversation. I get the feeling that may have been how it went. It might be verbatim, yeah.

And then as we saw, Roosevelt won his fourth term. It was the narrowest of his four victories, but it was still very decisive. Truman had nothing to do with it. No one was voting over Truman whatsoever. No one cared. No one cared about who Roosevelt's previous vice president was. Why are they going to care about the new one? So, there you go.

But, Truman's now vice president on the 20th of January 1945. Nice. And it soon became very clear, he was not going to be part of the administration. The president did not contact him, let alone give him a job. Really? Yeah. One reporter said at the time, Truman doesn't know what's going on.

Roosevelt won't tell him anything. He's just there. He's there to be there and keep the conservative faction happy. That's all he's there for. I mean, you could have just had a paper cutout of him. Pretty much, yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, a paper cutout with the words we quite like to

look after the poor but we're still racist written on it just to keep everyone happy yeah we're balancing on both sides yeah anyway then on the 12th of april in the afternoon truman finally got a call from the white house hooray a call from the White House, he thought. What's this number? Come over immediately, said the White House secretary, in a very tense manner. Truman, hearing the tension in the voice, and also knowing the rumours of Roosevelt's health, suspected something maybe was up. He apparently uttered the words, Jesus Christ and General Jackson. And then rushed through the building into a waiting car. And as the car sped through the streets of Washington,

he attempted to convince himself that it's fine. It's going to be fine. Roosevelt's just back in Washington and he wants to finally talk to his vice president. I'm sure that's all it is. That's all it is. It's just a meeting. It's just a meeting. It's just a meeting.

And he was in a bad mood. That's why she was so tense. Yeah, it's fine. It's all going going to be fine Then he arrived at the White House And soon realised that it was not all going to be fine Why is there blood pouring down the stairs? Chains is at you Raspberries He sidestepped past chains

And he's put into raspberries Into the President's quarters he sidestepped past James and into into the president's quarters where Eleanor Roosevelt was waiting Harry she said the president is dead Harry was utterly stunned and asked if there was anything that he could do for Eleanor is there anything we can do

for you Harry for you're the one in trouble now was was Alan's response. He later said as if it was the moon, the stars and the planets had fallen on him. Which is hardly surprising, because all of a sudden he was in charge of the largest war in history. And America have just invented the most powerful weapon ever created. Oh, that's interesting. I would have assumed F fdr had ordered it we will have to wait oh well i mean it wasn't in fdr's episode so you could probably yeah i mean i can i can work that out yeah um so there you go i really enjoyed that i thought that was fascinating

he's it's a different life story isn't it it? It is. It's not. Grew up, college, bit of hijinks, lawyer, Congress, president. Yeah. No, there was lost love. There was a farm. There was swearing dockers. No, railway workers. There was war. There was, oh, there's everything you need in a story.

And you get the impression as well, he didn't want to become a politician because he enjoyed it. He did it because it paid well. Oh, yeah, yeah, very much so. He became a politician because he needed money. And the easiest way for him to make money was to do a crime boss's job. Yeah, that's fascinating. I'll tell you what, apart from the obvious racism,

I'm liking him quite a bit. Yeah, yeah. It's a good story. Yeah. How do you think he'll do whilst president? Do you know what? I don't know. I've heard of his name,

but that's probably because he's more recent rather than through anything else. So I don't know. I don't have any association with him at all. Fair enough. We will have to find out. And that will be next time, dear listeners. However, before we move on, we need to decide, was he a dragon?

I am very impressed. Well done for remembering. Will you tell me, Jamie? I wrote a note. I'm going to say no. I don't think he's a dragon. No? Why?

Explain your reasoning. He didn't have wings and he wasn't a reptile. Solid. Solid reasoning. I like it. Good. Fair enough. explain your reasoning he didn't have wings and he wasn't a reptile solid solid reasoning I like it good fair enough so heard it here first

listeners Harry Truman not a dragon potentially we've got another episode yeah that is a good point yeah

he's got a massive layer of gold underneath the White House anyway that is that's it that's it that's this it. That's this episode. And we're back. Yay. We're back.

Which is good. It's good to get back into the Presidents again. It really is. Yeah. Yeah. Before we go though a huge thank you to all the people who turned up to our live stream that we did last weekend. It was a lot of fun. Especially a huge thank you to Bree from Pontifax who turned

up. A thank you to Bree from Pontifax, who turned up. A thank you to Graham from Rex Factor, who was also there. Andy from Saga Thing. And Matt and Adam from Grim Reading. It was just so great having all this podcast. Oh, and Jerry. Sorry, Jerry. Oh, this is the President Podcast. You can't forget Jerry.

I know. This is the one we have our link with him. Sorry, Jerry. And he was moving house that day as well. Yeah. Like, literally, whilst he was recording, he was on his phone. If you weren't there, this is what happened. He had one box full of books on one shoulder, and he had his phone, and he was just lugging things around,

throwing them into the removal van, as he was imparting knowledge on podcasts and presidents. We were all very impressed. Yeah, so it was really nice speaking to all the other podcasts as a group and also really nice to hear so many of you guys, the listeners, over a hundred people at one point. Yeah, it was really amazing. We've got to say as well, unfortunately, because the way the screen is,

we couldn't see everybody. So if you're holding things up or doing something, we couldn't see you all and if you're holding things up or doing something we couldn't see you all and we're really sorry about that we'll have to try and figure out if there's a better way of doing that, if and when we do another live stream, which I'm sure we will because that was fun, special shout out

to all of those who stayed for the post credits oh yeah oh you won that by a mile yeah there was a standoff, we refused to hang up, they refused to hang up they refused to hang up then we realized that it was approaching midnight where we were and some of the people were in australia and we were never going to beat them we did have a list of all their names uh to thank them uh but unfortunately i think we we might have lost it there might be one place

we can find it yeah we will find it and we'll try uh but for now this is a mini thanks to you guys so thank you very much oh and well done to everyone who made their own rocky which is a roman podcast reference so if you've not listened to that yet go go and listen do it right okay that's enough waffling from us thank you very much for listening um and until next time don't forget you can download us on pubbean and itunes yes and we'll put you on stitcher as well yes yeah stay tuned for um uh patreon news because we're getting there we're very very very close now yeah so yeah great okay thank you very much and until next time goodbye goodbye Hello, my son. Come into the room.

Tom, Tom, pleasure. Pleasure to meet you at last. It's good to see you. I hope you don't mind chains and crowbar around the room. Chains and crowbar? Oh no, these fine gentlemen here. Yes, no. Yes, Chaint is the one holding the chains. Yes, I see.

Crowbar is the one holding the axe. Couldn't find a crowbar? No. Okay. Anyway, about the collector's job. Yes, the job. Shall I open on a silver platter through the goodness of my heart? Yeah, well, I'd love the job.

And I want to thank you for the opportunity. But I just want to make sure there's nothing that I... I want to make... I want to do the job, Mr. Pendergast. And I want to make sure you're happy when I do the job. You accepting the job will make me happy as number one. Good, good. As number one. Right.

The thing is, I just want to... Iron a couple of details out. Because... Details? When you said earlier on that I could have the job, and then you said the words nudge, nudge, wink, wink, and then you said the words favour a lot. I just want to... What kind of favour?

I mean, there's nothing... I don't want to offend you, but there's nothing illegal, is it? I've got to say, the law is a... It's nothing... I don't want to offend you, but it's nothing illegal, is it? I've got to say the law is a... flexible beast. It is, I would argue, subjective. Yes, no, you definitely could argue that. You could. You could definitely... That is an argument that you could make make and if you were to think of the law as subjective would i be doing anything illegal you'll just have to sort something out get rid of a minor issue right i'll be honest, these terms are arguably vague and possibly worrying.

What do you mean by issue? Let's just say we have a problem that needs solving. Yes, no, you did say that, and I would love to help you. A problem, you say? Tell me more. We have a person that needs to be gotten rid of. Right. Mr. Pendergast, I'm just going to say it. Do you want me to kill someone?

What insinuation? What do you think? What kind of organisation do you think we're running here? Oh, good God, no, no, no. That'd be awful. No. We just want you to fire Jeff and book Eric in the accounts department. That's all. Have you put chains off his raspberries? I mean, oh, oh, Harry, I truly don't think you're the

kind of fellow we are looking for. Good day.