Ohio History Journal

WHISTLE-STOPPING Through Ohio by RICHARD O. DAVIES

Ohio played an important role in returning Harry S. Truman to the White House in 1948. Prior to the election he had been foredoomed to defeat by all reputable political seers. Ohio was seen as being safely within the Republican fold, and was supposedly prepared to take part in a nation- wide Republican blitz. Elmo Roper, for example, quit taking samples of voter preference as early as September 9, with the comment that only a "political convulsion" could prevent New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey from winning the presidency.1 The prognostications were ignored by the voters, however, as Truman executed the most startling upset victory in the history of American presidential elections. Ohio went Democratic by over seven thousand votes, while Truman was returned to the White House by a popular-vote margin of over two million. In the electoral college he scored impressively with a 303-189 margin.2 NOTES ARE ON PAGES 196-197

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114                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Election analyst Samuel Lubell explains the Truman victory as a result

of the "Roosevelt Revolution."³ The New Deal, creating a Democratic

majority in the nation's electorate, was the major factor which enabled

Truman to coast to victory. Lubell insists that the real surprise would have

been a Dewey victory; in fact, had the turnout of voters been larger, "Dewey

would have been buried in a landslide."⁴ Even Henry Wallace, with his

1,157,000 popular votes, and Strom Thurmond, with his thirty-nine Dixie-

crat electoral votes, failed to derail Truman.

If Lubell is correct, how do we then evaluate the campaign? To Lubell,

"often the campaign oratory is but the small talk which conceals the almost

instinctive predispositions which all of us carry in the backs of our minds.

Certainly no basic reshuffling of party alignment is possible unless the sub-

conscious, emotional loyalties of the voters are reshuffled."⁵ Applying this

idea specifically to Ohio, can we relegate the Truman whistle-stop journey

through the state to "small-talk"? Would Truman have won Ohio had he

not waged a strenuous campaign for the Buckeye vote? Is it not possible

that such a campaign is necessary in order to remind the voters to be certain

to vote in order to take advantage of this party domination? Or, is it not

equally possible that such a campaign is necessary, even vital, to reaffirm

the "almost instinctive predispositions" of each voter? In other words,

would the 1948 voter have remembered the New Deal if he had not been

reminded of it?

By examining closely the Truman campaign in Ohio it is possible to

understand more fully the 1948 election as well as obtain a detailed view

of a limited but significant part of one of the most intriguing campaigns in

the nation's history. And, perhaps, such an examination will suggest that

the whistle-stop campaign was of signal importance in the election of

Truman.

In view of the supposedly overwhelming odds facing Truman in Ohio,

it is surprising that he even bothered to campaign in the state at all. In

1944 Dewey had won the state by almost twelve thousand votes, defeating

Franklin D. Roosevelt and his relatively unknown running mate in the proc-

ess. With a hard core of Dewey strength theoretically already in existence,

there seemed to be little doubt about Ohio's intention in 1948.6

Although all political experts believed that "Truman had his back to

the wall" in Ohio,⁷ the determined Missourian waged a whistle-stop cam-

paign into the heart of the state on Monday, October 11. Beginning with

a breakfast speech in Cincinnati and ending with a state-wide radio broad-

cast from Akron that evening, Truman covered three hundred miles and

delivered eleven speeches. In the process, he was cheered by several hundred

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thousand persons; ominous predictions of a Republican romp notwithstand- ing, Truman did not concede a single vote, at least not until he had "told the people the facts."8 The Truman strategy in the Buckeye state, as well as throughout the nation, was not complex. It aimed to achieve two basic objectives, both of which Lubell uses as the key to his interpretation of the election: (1) to get out the vote in order to take advantage of the Democratic preponder- ancy, and (2) to speak clearly on a few easily understood issues which would make the Republican party appear to be the lackey of "big business" and "the vested interests," while at the same time extolling the Democratic party as the "party of the people." In order to accomplish this Truman followed the counsel of Democratic National Committee Research Director William Batt, who suggested in a memorandum to the Truman campaign advisors that in order for Truman to reinvigorate a party split by internal squabbling, the president "should not just exude confidence, but confidence with reasons. He should give our side some good solid substance upon which to hinge the campaign arguments. Platitudes and truisms should be avoided like the pox." And, to take advantage of Truman's homespun midwestern qualities, Batt urged that the wording of the speeches "should be short, homely, and in character. This is no place for Churchillian grandiloquence," he said.9

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As a result, throughout Ohio as well as the nation, Truman addressed

himself directly to the labor and farm blocs, pointing out the advantages of

past Democratic rule. "The Democratic Party thinks in terms of doing

things for the people--higher wages--broader social security--protection

in old age--better schools and homes--and a better life for the men and

women who do the world's work," he told the Ohio voters.10 While describ-

ing his own party in the meaningful terms of the New Deal and Franklin D.

Roosevelt (a vote-attracting name which he did not hesitate to invoke),

Truman placed upon the Republicans the stigma of depression, and declared

that the opposition party was controlled by "special interests" which acted

only "at the behest of the lobbies." Having drawn the images of the two

parties in such black and white terms, Truman then exhorted his audiences

to "think it over when you go into the voting booth next month. Think of

the gains you've obtained in the last 16 years--higher wages, social security,

unemployment compensation, federal home loans to save your homes, and

a thousand other things--and then think of the Tafts and Tabers."11

Thus the issues discussed by Truman were those which would appeal

mostly to the middle and lower income groups. Not afraid to tell his

audience to "vote in your own interest," he put the campaign upon an

individual level; he simply said that the working man and his family would

benefit more from his administration than from that of the Republican

candidate. Bidding for the vote of organized labor--or at least attempting

to keep it within the Democratic fold--Truman declared that the Taft-

Hartley act, enacted by the Republican eightieth congress, had "put the

handcuffs on labor."¹² He told city dwellers that their acute housing prob-

lem was the result of the refusal of the "do-nothing eightieth congress" to

enact the comprehensive housing bill which he so ardently championed.

In Dayton, for example, he reminded the citizens that they had twelve to

fifteen thousand familes living in substandard homes. "I have been trying

for over three years to get the congress to pass the kind of housing laws we

need, but the Republican leaders in congress are now more interested in

what the real estate lobby says than what the people of this country need."13

He emphasized time and again the rapidly rising prices and, naturally, laid

the responsibility at the feet of the opposition: "You know that the Repub-

licans said if we got rid of price controls, prices would adjust themselves.

Well, they have. They have gone clear off the chart."¹⁴ On taxes, he told

his listeners, the Republicans "delivered to the rich by passing a rich man's

bill."¹⁵ As for the farmers--traditionally Republican in their politics--

Truman simply reminded them of their remarkable gains in income since

1933: "Under the Democrats you are getting a fair share of the whole

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country's prosperity. Our federal farm program is based on a solid truth--

farmers have a right to be sure of a market for their products at good

prices."16

Because of these facts, Truman explained, the Republicans did not want

to face "the issues." If the Republican candidate refused to answer his

challenge, everyone could clearly see that the Republican leadership was

out to destroy the gains made by the New Deal. The reason why Dewey did

not speak out was clear--his party's record was too weak on the major

(Truman-selected) issues. In Hamilton, for example, Truman berated his

opponent for remaining upon a supercilious plane, blandly calling for

"national unity" but never getting down to "the facts." "This campaign

is . . . a crusade to enable the people of the United States to realize what

this election means. I must face you personally, or you don't find out.

That's what I'm doing. My Republican opponents don't discuss the issues.

They are trying to make you believe there are no real issues," he said.¹⁷

In addition to the big "issues," the veteran campaigner from Missouri

knew the effectiveness of references to items of local interest. In Dayton he

told his audience that if Daytonian James M. Cox had been elected president

in 1920, "we never would have had . . . that boom and bust program which

followed the election of a Republican candidate."¹⁸ In Sidney, recalling his

senatorial committee which investigated war production, Truman said he

had heard a lot about the war effort in Sidney. "Sidney has elbow grease,"

he told the crowd, "and we need this for continuing prosperity.^"19 In

Rittman, having been presented with a block of locally produced salt, he

responded with a ready quip; "And don't think I'm not going to put it on

the tail of the opposition."²⁰ At Fostoria he used the time-tested political

device of praising the virtues of small town and farm life. Referring to a

recent sarcastic remark made by Robert A. Taft that "Truman is hitting

all the whistle-stops," Truman retorted that such towns as Fostoria "are the

backbone of America." And, too, he was careful to point out that as an

ex-farmer, he had observed from his train window that Ohio's farm land

appeared to be the "finest in America," and was, in fact, "almost as good"

as that back home in Missouri.21

Throughout the trip Truman cast down from the train platform an image

of honesty, sincerity, and simplicity. This image was further enhanced

by the presence of his wife and daughter Margaret on the train platform

with him. Here was a man of humble origins who was not only the leader

of his people but one of them as well. He was not afraid to trust the judg-

ment of the "people," for he knew them well from his own Missouri back-

ground. He knew well those who gathered excitedly around the rear of the

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train to catch a glimpse of the president. His ability to reach them was not an unimportant aspect of this trip. "He's the President," a Lima News editorial writer observed, and yet, "he's just an ordinary family man, proud of his wife and daughter. He has something in common with many who heard him."22 Although the Ohio campaign on October 11 would be considered "very successful" by state party leaders,23 it could hardly have begun upon a more dreary note. Arriving in Cincinnati at 7 A.M. on a rainy Monday morning, the president's motorcade from Union Terminal to a Netherland Plaza breakfast gathering of about two thousand Democrats drew just a few hundred spectators. Only scattered clusters of early risers lined the "almost deserted" streets, braving the chilling light rain, as the presidential entourage quickly passed by.24 With no cheering crowd to welcome him to a state he knew he had to win, and with a bleak, grey sky threatening

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to dampen the day's all-important bid for votes, Truman's spirits visibly

sagged. A veteran political reporter for the Des Moines Register, who had

traveled with Truman throughout the campaign, noted that "he looked like

a man who had received bad news but felt the show must go on.^"25 At the

hotel, however, where he was introduced to the assembled Democrats by

Mayor Albert Cash as "a leader of unflinching courage,"²⁶ Truman re-

sponded with one of his typical speeches--he vigorously attacked his

opponent. Dwelling upon the theme of Dewey's refusal to discuss the issues,

Truman noted that while he and Cincinnatian Robert A. Taft were "as far

apart as the poles on the welfare of the people, at least you know where

Taft stands, and that is more than you can say for some Republican candi-

dates." Continuing this line of attack, Truman said, "You know where I

stand. We are just trying to find out where the other fellow stands." Turn-

ing to his favorite whipping boy, the eightieth congress, he charged that

its Republican majority leadership had "led the fight against price controls"

and "consistently opposed a national health program" while supporting

"measures which took social security away from a million people."²⁷

At nine-thirty the president, with his family, advisors, and a host of Ohio

Democratic candidates headed by gubernatorial candidate Frank Lausche,

boarded the chartered train and headed northward. Stopping at industrial

Hamilton at 10 A.M., Truman was greeted enthusiastically by a crowd

estimated at ten thousand persons.²⁸ The rain had stopped and a brisk

autumn breeze whipped around the train's rear platform as the Democratic

candidate, obviously very much pleased with the large crowd, stepped for-

ward to deliver a ten-minute speech on the evils of Republican congressmen.

The unexpectedly large crowd quickly restored Truman to his usual fighting

self and erased all thoughts of the sparse crowd in Cincinnati. It produced

"the most striking change in the Democratic candidate's demeanor I have

witnessed in all of our trips,"²⁹ the Des Moines reporter observed, as

Truman, making a "natty appearance" in his blue pin-stripped suit,³⁰ lashed

the Republican congressional leadership for its dilatory action on the bi-

partisan Taft-Ellender-Wagner housing bill.31 Explaining in oversimplified

but politically effective terms the reasons why the comprehensive housing

bill was not enacted despite the greatest housing shortage in the nation's

history, Truman charged that "they killed the housing bill at the behest of

the real estate lobby." This was, he concluded, just one of several reasons

why the Republican candidate did not desire to discuss the issues.32

By eleven-thirty the diesel-powered train had arrived in Dayton, where

Cox and Mayor Louis W. Lohrey were at the station to welcome the presi-

dent to the Gem City. Because he had arrived during the lunch hour, and

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120                                                 OHIO HISTORY because the city schools had been dismissed to allow the students to see the president, a very large, excited crowd lined Main Street as Truman and his family were driven to Memorial Auditorium, where he delivered a thirty-minute speech. An estimated fifty thousand persons had gathered along the route to the auditorium, and amid the carnival-like atmosphere that prevailed on a "no-school" day, a young schoolboy, his political symbols slightly confused, was heard to ask, "I wonder if he will ride in on a mule?"33 Truman might not have arrived upon a mule, but he certainly was figuratively astride the Democratic donkey as he opened fire upon the "do- nothing eightieth congress" for opposing all effective price controls. Ob- serving that the "boom and bust" economics practiced by the Republicans had led to the Great Depression in 1929, he pointed out that "they still refuse to give us the protection we need against another crash."34 Turning to housing, he said that when he had given them an opportunity to enact the housing bill in his special session of congress in July, the Republicans had refused to comply.35

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Leaving a cheering crowd at the station, the train continued its northward

journey, making a five-minute stop at Sidney, where he urged, as he did at

every city visited, the election of Lausche and local Democratic congress-

ional candidates. "Vote the straight Democratic ticket, and you vote against

special interests," he said.36

Arriving at 2 P.M. in Lima, which is centered in Allen County's rich

farming area, the apparently tireless sixty-four-year-old campaigner re-

minded a gathering of over four thousand how the New Deal had revived

the national economy after the depression. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt

had taken office, he pointed out, farm income alone had increased over nine

times. To insure continued prosperity, he said, his reelection was im-

perative.³⁷

From Lima the train moved on to Ottawa, Deshler, Fostoria, Willard, and

Rittman for short stops as it headed towards Akron. At each stop Truman

spoke in generalities about farm prices, inflation, and housing, always con-

cluding with his own practical bit of advice: "Vote in your own interest

or you will be voting for special privilege." Obviously, the Democratic

party's interests and those of his listeners coincided perfectly. The short

speech concluded, he would ask his audience, "Do you want to meet my

family?" and amid a chorus of cheers, Mrs. Truman and Margaret would

step onto the front of the platform to smile and wave their greetings to the

assembled Ohioans. Then, with the local high school band blaring, the

train would pull away slowly, the nation's first family smiling and waving

goodbye.³⁸

At Akron, where Truman had already promised to "take the hide off the

Republicans,"³⁹ a very large and enthusiastic throng, estimated to be near

three hundred thousand in number, welcomed the president into the Rubber

City as "the rubber workers and the Democratic machine put on the biggest

political show in the city's history."⁴⁰ Still fresh despite the long day of

traveling, hand-shaking, and speaking, Truman made a strong bid for the

state's labor vote in his 9 P.M. state-wide radio speech from the Akron

Armory.⁴¹ Those who had hoped for a Truman-type speech were not dis-

appointed, for in an extremely partisan address he criticized the Republican

congressional leadership for the Taft-Hartley act and, in doing so, blandly

assumed that all Republicans were anti-labor. He reminded the armory

audience of twenty-five hundred, and untold numbers listening on the radio,

that the Republicans had vowed to kill the gains made by labor during the

New Deal. Fully embracing the New Deal, Truman said: "The Republicans

don't like the New Deal. They never liked the New Deal, and they would

like to get rid of it." They were "waiting eagerly for the time when they

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can go ahead and do a real hatchet job on the New Deal without inter- ference," he warned.42 Thus, on a plane of high partisanship, Harry S. Truman ended a fifteen- hour campaign during which he made his major appeal to the Ohio elector- ate. By eight o'clock the following morning he had retraced his trail across northern Ohio and was entering Indiana to begin an equally extensive cam- paign in Hoosierland. What effect did this whirlwind whistle-stop trip have upon the Ohio electorate? Although he was greeted by large crowds throughout the state (except for his early morning visit in traditionally Republican Cincinnati), Truman was probably seen by little more than a half-million persons; and a large number of these were school children. He did not say anything in his speeches that he did not utter time and again in other states. He did not visit many of the major Ohio cities; in fact, he spent valuable time in small towns. However, the psychological impact of the president taking the time to stump representative sections of Ohio asking for support cannot be under- estimated. This is especially significant in view of the fact that Dewey did not actively campaign in the state, for he apparently accepted the opinion of the "experts" that the state was all wrapped up in a Republican gunny sack. Because of the very large shift in the farm vote in Ohio, the time spent in the rural areas seems not to have been wasted. The short visits to representative small rural communities added an important dimension to the Ohio whistle-stop campaign At the end of the day, Frank Lausche, destined to sweep to an easy 215,000-vote victory in his quest to regain the governorship, wholeheartedly endorsed the Truman candidacy in a near-poetic statement which came as a surprise to many Ohio politicians. "Harry Truman," Lausche said, "possesses a soul that reflects the soul of America. He is a good man, a fearless man. He has tried to conduct the affairs of this country so as to bring the greatest good to the greatest number. I will cast my ballot for him in the belief that the nation will be secure by his guidance."43 This ringing endorsement certainly did Truman's cause no harm and possibly

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helped attract independent voters, among whom Lausche was strong. What

greatly impressed Lausche was the surprisingly large crowds. "At every

village, town and city, the crowds waited in startling numbers," one national

magazine reported.⁴⁴ At one city the amazed Lausche is reported to have

told Truman, "This is the biggest crowd I ever saw in Ohio."⁴⁵

Despite the emphasis upon the issues of labor, housing, and inflation,

the election returns indicated a slight loss from the 1944 level in the vote

of labor. It was the radical switch in the Ohio farm vote which returned

Ohio to the Democratic column. While he lost slightly in such industrial

areas as Akron and Dayton,⁴⁶ Truman made huge gains in the rural areas.

In Putnam County, for example, where Truman spent ten minutes at Ottawa

discussing the gains made by the farmer under Democratic rule, the vote

changed from 71.8 percent for Dewey in 1944 to 50.5 percent for Truman.

In Allen County, where he stopped at Lima, Truman cut the 1944 Dewey

margin by more than fifty percent; the county went from a 21,024 to a 12,564

popular vote Republican romp in 1944, to a much closer 17,380 to 13,161

Dewey victory. In Shelby County, where he visited Sidney, which in 1944

had voted for Dewey by about 1,500 votes (7,084 to 5,622), Truman re-

versed the margin (6,939 to 5,406).⁴⁷ In the industrial areas, such as

Hamilton, Dayton, and Akron, while the Democratic margin fell slightly

from 1944, the margin of victory was still substantial. In these areas his

aim undoubtedly was merely to maintain his party's strength, and in large

measure he was successful. However, as the vote returns show, the foray

into the rural areas certainly did not hurt the Truman cause.

While it is impossible to establish completely the efficacy of such a cam-

paign trip, the evidence does clearly suggest that the whistle-stop visit by

Truman to Ohio was an important factor in determining the final outcome.

Mr. Truman maintains that this trip was "most decisive," although he is

quick to point out, "I knew I would win all the time."⁴⁸ Whatever the

actual effect, the nation-wide Truman whistle-stop campaign, which covered

22,000 miles and entailed 351 prepared speeches within a six-weeks period,

is an important event in American political history. Recalling with obvious

pleasure the Ohio phase of this campaign, Truman notes that it proved to be

"a grand time" for him as he presented "the facts as I saw them" to the

hundreds of thousands who heard him on a cool, windy, sometimes rainy

October Monday in 1948.49

 

THE AUTHOR: Richard O. Davies is a

graduate student and part-time instructor in

American history at the University of Mis-

souri. A native of Ohio, he holds degrees

from Marietta College and Ohio University.

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