for a Major Miles (of the 129th) as County Marshal. A few others of the battery played him false, either politically or financially, and his sense of shock and betrayal then made him unforgiving. But in general army reunion companionship was exactly to his taste. He always supported âthe bonusâ. 6 It was one of the few issues on which he went against Roosevelt in the 1930s. The American Legion Convention in Kansas City in October 1921 was a brief uplift during his decline to insolvency.
Amongst the intermediate ring of his army acquaintanceships was Lieutenant James M. Pendergast. He was the son of Michael J. Pendergast, who was an older but less dynamic brother of Thomas J. Pendergast, one of the legendary city bosses of American politics in the first 40 years of this century. In 1911 Tom Pendergast had inherited from the eldest brother of the three, âAlderman Jimâ, a traditional, poor neighbourhood, immigrant-based machine in the riverside areas of West Bottoms and North End. Within a few years he had extended this domain to include the new southern suburbs of Kansas City, as well as the more rural area to the east, and was endeavouring to control the state, although he was always subject to competition from St Louis, which was a bigger city.
Trumanâs relations in the early days were primarily with Mike Pendergast rather than with the âBig Bossâ, Tom. He knew him better (through his son, the lieutenant). He liked him more. (âI loved him as I did my own daddyâ, he is recorded byMargaret Truman as saying after Mike Pendergastâs death in 1929.) And while Trumanâs political arena was confined to the rural part of Jackson County, Mike was to him the more relevant figure. âTom didnât like the country,â he laconically and convincingly explained.
Later his relations with the greater Pendergast became a crucial and fluctuating factor in his career. He never âloved him like his daddy,â but he was his awkward client. He could not have secured his Senate seat without him. He lived honestly and therefore uncomfortably alongside him, his reputation suffering as a result. As Vice-President, he insisted on flying 1000 miles to his funeral, after Tom Pendergast had collapsed into disgrace and a jail sentence.
But in 1922 it was Mike Pendergast who helped him to win the nomination for Eastern Judge. This mandarin-like title concealed a moderately significant executive local office. Its holder was in no sense a judge: he had no judicial functions; he was the elected assistant administrator of the eastern district of Jackson County; together with the Western Judge, he worked under the Presiding Judge who covered the whole county. The western district was Kansas City. The eastern part was Independence, Grandview, and five other small communities. Truman therefore fought his first election very much on his own doorstep. But it was certainly not a âfront-porchâ campaign. He attempted to speak everywhere, but was frustrated not by the hostility of his audiences but his own tongue-tiedness.
There is complete agreement that he was at this stage an appalling speaker. At least it gave him the habit of never talking for more than 20 minutes, which he retained throughout his subsequent campaigns. He had the other advantages of a good local reputation and the enthusiastic support of the thick concentration of his army companions (the intensely local nature of the unit giving him a base which the dispersal policy of World War II would have made impossible). A claque from Battery D called for âthree cheers for Captain Harryâ whenever his oratory broke down. And he had Mike Pendergast, who endorsed him enthusiastically for the office. âNow Iâm going to tell you who you are going to be for for county judgeâ, Truman later recalled his saying to a Democratic Club meeting. âItâs Harry Truman. Heâs got a fine war record. He comes