THE PRESIDENT. Please be seated.
I have no statements to make. I will try to answer questions, if there are any.
[1.] Q. Mr. President, the first one--do you agree with General Eisenhower that Senator Nixon completely vindicated himself?
THE PRESIDENT. I have no comment.
Q. Mr. President, do you care to contribute anything to the Nixon fund controversy?
THE PRESIDENT. I have no comment.
Q. Mr. President, may I ask this? Did you see his defense on television?
THE PRESIDENT. I did not.
Q. Thank you.
[2.] THE PRESIDENT. May,1 how did you leave the North Pole ?
1 Mrs. May Craig of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.
Mrs. Craig. Well, we struck a warm spell comparatively, so it was pretty good.
THE PRESIDENT. It must have been a nice trip.
Mrs. Craig. Yes, sir. Very, very informative.
THE PRESIDENT. Tell us about it some day, when we have things that are of no importance on. [Laughter]
[3.] Q. Mr. President, do you expect to touch on the Nixon fund on your coming campaign through California?
THE PRESIDENT. Well now, you will have to wait and see. I suppose you will be along.
Q. I am anxious to go.
THE PRESIDENT. I am not making any forecasts of what will take place on that trip because I don't think it would be as interesting to you. If you have something to speculate about, then you have a story to write, don't you see, whether it's true or not. [Laughter. ]
[4] Q. Mr. President, Lamar Candle2 says he is informed that you are now very sorry you fired him--
THE PRESIDENT. Never heard of it. I have never been sorry.
2 Theron Lamar Candle, former Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Tax Division.
[5.] Q. Mr. President, may I ask a question about foreign relations ?
THE PRESIDENT. Surely.
Q. Do you think the development in the relations between the United States and Germany will lead to a change in the future of the confiscated German properties in the United States, which is now approximately $250 million ?
THE PRESIDENT. That is such a complicated question that I would have to get a Philadelphia lawyer to work it out, so I can't answer it.
Q. A little complicated to take down.
THE PRESIDENT. I understand that, so you will have to get the "asker" to give it to you after you get out of here.
Well, are you running out of"soap"?
[6.] Q. Mr. President, other testimony that came up in the Caudle case involved what he called--the White House said-McGrath3 called the White House clique, that--
THE PRESIDENT. Never heard of it.
3 J. Howard McGrath, former Attorney General.
Q. Never heard of the White House clique ?
THE PRESIDENT. Never heard of the White House clique. They have had several names for the members of the President's staff, but I believe that's a new one.
[7.] Q. Mr. President, the stories last night and this morning seemed to indicate a slight difference of opinion between Senator Taft and General Eisenhower as to whether or not the Taft-Hartley Act could be used for union-busting. I wonder if you have any comment?
THE PRESIDENT. No, I haven't any comment. I am glad to hear of that difference of opinion, however. [Laughter]
[8.] Q. Mr. President, do you have any idea what Mr. McGrath might have had in mind, when he said he knew information that might blow the White House up to become a satellite--
THE PRESIDENT. Not the slightest. He did not take me into his confidence.
[9.] Q. Mr. President, the American Medical Association announced a few days ago that it is disbanding the group that has been fighting your health insurance program. They said they considered their battle won and the battle finished. Do you think it is finished?
THE PRESIDENT. I think what finished their battle was a speech--a certain speech that the President of the United States made in Philadelphia.4 I think that wound them up. They admit now that they have been wrong.
4See Item 249.
[10.] Q. Mr. President, you had the Norwegian Prime Minister5 as your luncheon guest yesterday. Can you tell us about your talk with him ?
THE PRESIDENT. Had a very pleasant visit with the Norwegian Prime Minister. He is a fine gentleman. He was in Norway when my daughter visited there, and he spent a great deal of his time telling me what a fine daughter I had. And, of course, that made a hit with me. [Laughter]
5 Prime Minister Oscar Torp.
[11.] Q. Mr. President, do you think the public is entitled to know the names of the contributors to the Stevenson fund ?
THE PRESIDENT. I have no comment.
Q. If you had such a fund, would you announce the names of the contributors?
THE PRESIDENT. I have no comment.
Q. Well, Mr. President, did you ever have such a fund ?
THE PRESIDENT. No. I was like Sparkman. Mrs. Truman was my secretary. That helped me pay my bard when I was in the Senate.
[12.] Q. Mr. President, are there any issues that you particularly think you will stress in your swing through New York State?
THE PRESIDENT. Through New York State ?
Q. Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT. Well, I think I will say to you just what I said to my friend down here, you will have to wait and see.
I would like to make one comment. They have been poking fun at our candidate, Governor Stevenson, because he likes to put his audiences in a good humor. I found a quotation, I think, that will cover that. It is an admonition, in Matthew 6. It says, "Be not as the hypocrites, sad of countenance." [Laughter]
Q. Mr. President, will you repeat that, sir?
THE PRESIDENT. "Be not as the hypocrites, sad of countenance."
[13.] Q. Mr. President, as a Democrat and a politician, are you glad or mad that Nixon is still on the Republican--
THE PRESIDENT. No comment.
Q. Well, Mr. President, would you consider the Nixon fund matter one for TV judgment or grand jury judgment?
THE PRESIDENT. No comment.
There is one matter I want to call your attention to, that might be of interest to you. Give you something to read.
Back in--let's see--September 27, 1951, I sent a message to Congress6 which was most important at that time, and today has become much more important. I invite you to read it. It has about two mimeographed pages--won't take you long to read it. Enlighten you considerably.
6 for the President's special message to Congress recommending legislation requiring Government officials to disclose the sources of their incomes, see 1951 volume, this series, Item 237.
Q. What's it about, sir ?
THE PRESIDENT. Well, read it.
Q. Wasn't that the message suggesting that everybody lay on the line their income ?
THE PRESIDENT. That's right. You guessed right. I want you to read it. I want you to read that message.
Q. September 27?
THE PRESIDENT. September 27, 1951, just a year ago.
Q. You still believe, then, that all Federal officials getting top salaries should make public--
THE PRESIDENT. Read the message. It speaks for itself.
Q. Yes--wasn't that what it said, though?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes.
Q. And you are still for the message?
THE PRESIDENT. Yes. I stand behind every message I send to the Congress. [Laughter.]
[14.] Q. Mr. President, in mentioning that Mrs. Truman served as your secretary, were you suggesting that it is difficult to get along on a Senator's salary and allowances?
THE PRESIDENT. In those days it was exceedingly difficult. We had no expense accounts or anything of the sort when I was in the Senate.
Q. Mr. President, do you think it is just as difficult now?
THE PRESIDENT. Well they get much more pay now than they did when I was in the Senate--lots more emoluments than I did when I was in the Senate.
Q. You feel it wouldn't be as difficult?
THE PRESIDENT. No Comment. [Laughter]
[15.] Q. Mr. President, I don't want to belabor this insurance point. I suppose you are speaking of Philadelphia--the speech you spoke of--you requested that they come forward with some other program ?
THE PRESIDENT. That's right.
[16.] Q. Mr. President, how do you feel now about the outcome of the election in November ?
THE PRESIDENT. I am not a pollster. I am not a prophet, so I have no comment to make on that. Let the results speak for itself.
Q. Do you have anything else for us, sir?
THE PRESIDENT. Not a thing.
Reporter. Thank you, sir.
Note: President Truman's three hundred and seventeenth news conference was held in the Indian Treaty Room (Room 474) in the Executive Office Building at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, September 25, 1952.
Harry S Truman, The President's News Conference Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/230515
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