The President's News Conference

THE PRESIDENT. Please be seated. This time it isn't the Navy clock that's slow, it's that one up there. [Laughter] I am ready for questions.

[1.] Q. Mr. President, I wonder if you have made any personal inquiry, sir, into the incidents in Sweden involving Miss Margaret?¹

THE PRESIDENT. No, I haven't.

¹There had been reports in the Swedish press that the Secret Service agents accompanying Margaret Truman on her European tour had used unnecessary force while protecting the President's daughter.

Q. I assume you have read over the reports you have ?

THE PRESIDENT. I have read the reports as they came to me.

[2.] Q. Mr. President, do you plan to answer this Saturday Evening Post article of last week by Glenn Everett, the one that said in the 1948 campaign that you gave farmers false information about grain storage shortages ?

THE PRESIDENT. I haven't read the article and don't intend to read it, and of course I won't say anything about it. I don't very often read the Post because it's always wrong on most things. [Laughter]

[3.] Q. Mr. President, do you have any comment on the calling of the Russian congress? Do you have any observations or reactions

THE PRESIDENT. No, that's none of my business. It's up to the Russians. You want to ask a question ?

[4] Q. Do you have any comment on the exchange of letters between Governor Stevenson² and Portland, Oregon, in which the Governor promised to do his best to dean up what he called the "mess" in Washington ?

THE PRESIDENT. I have no comment, because I know nothing about any "mess."

² Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, Democratic candidate for President, had written a letter to Tom Humphrey, editor of the Oregon Journal's editorial page, who had asked the question: "Can Stevenson really clean up the mess in Washington?"

Q. Mr. President, yesterday Governor Stevenson told a news conference that crime and corruption in Washington had been, quote, proven, unquote, by the fact that some people had been indicted. Do you have any comment ?

THE PRESIDENT. I didn't see the article, and therefore I can't comment on it.

[5.] Q. Mr. President, I also would like to ask you--Senator John Sparkman ³ said that the steel strike had been mishandled. I wonder if you have any reaction to that?

THE PRESIDENT. No comment.

³ Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, Democratic candidate for Vice President.

[6.] Q. Mr. President, you said you had read the reports of the Swedish incident. Do you have any comment on them, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. None.

[7.] Q. Mr. President, I would like to clear up one thing. In view of what Governor Stevenson said and what Senator Sparkman said, do you have any feeling of being a target?

THE PRESIDENT. Can't possibly be. I am the key of the campaign. I can't be a target.

Q. I didn't follow that, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT. I said I have no comment on what Tony ⁴ asked me, but I am the key of the campaign and so of course I can't be a target on the Democratic side. I will be a target for Eisenhower and his cohorts, but not for the Democrats.

⁴ Ernest B. Vaccaro of the Associated Press.

Q. Mr. President, would you explain a little more what you mean by "key of the campaign"?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, the Democratic Party has to run on the record of the Roosevelt-Truman administrations, and that's all it can run on. You know that. You have been in politics a long time. I used to see you down in the Senate all the time, watching me. [Laughter]

Q. Now I'm up here watching you.

THE PRESIDENT. That's all right. I am glad to have you. I don't think you will find out anything new.

Q. In that connection, Mr. President, Governor Stevenson has said something to the effect that he wants to bring about a refreshening of the--I suppose of what has been going on for 12 years, or 20 years for that matter--

THE PRESIDENT. Well, new blood is always helpful in any organization, and I believe in that. I believe there ought to be new blood infused into the Democratic Party, but that doesn't mean that we are going back on what the Democratic Party has done in the last 20 years at all.

[8.] Q. Well, Mr. President, to go back to the Saturday Evening Post--

THE PRESIDENT. Why do you want to go back to that sheet, May?⁵ [Laughter]

⁵Mrs. May Craig of the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.

Q. Well, sir, I was rather surprised. You said you never read it, but it was always wrong. Now, how do you know that? Do you get a briefing? Do you get summaries of things that--

THE PRESIDENT. All I need do is look at the table of contents, May, and I know what's in it. And it's always wrong. [Laughter]

[9.] Q. Mr. President, on this question of the bodyguard for Miss Margaret, are there some new instructions--different instructions being sent to them?

THE PRESIDENT. Not necessary at all. They need no instruction. They are right, always.

[10.] Q. Mr. President, do you know what you are going to do in the campaign today ?

THE PRESIDENT. I will make the announcements at the proper time, and you will all have a chance--those of you who want to-will have a chance to pack your grips and go along, if you choose.

[11.] Q. Mr. President, I wonder if I could go one step further--I don't want to belabor the thing--

THE PRESIDENT. Go ahead, Tony.

Q. Are you satisfied with the way that Stevenson and Sparkman have initiated their campaign ?

THE PRESIDENT. No comment.

[12.] Q. I don't want to do a solo here--

THE PRESIDENT. Go ahead, Tony. Try your luck. [Laughter]

Q. Well, last week you said that General Eisenhower had sometimes garbled some of the things you said. I wonder if you would tell us just what

THE PRESIDENT. Did I say that, Tony? I don't remember saying anything like that.

Q. We asked you about the liberty he would have to disclose what you told him, and you said that he had always spoken pretty freely--some words to that effect-and you said sometimes he had garbled what you said.

THE PRESIDENT. Maybe I said he got mixed up. I don't think he intended to garble it at all. All of us do that, including reporters.

[13.] Q. I have one more, sir, while I'm on my feet.

THE PRESIDENT. Shoot, Tony--shoot.

Q. A Los Angeles paper has asked me about the visit of Mayor Fletcher Bowron⁶ Monday--he wouldn't talk after he left there.

THE PRESIDENT. My suggestion to the Los Angeles Times--I guess that's the one that asked you--is to talk to the mayor.

⁶ Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif.

Q. They have done that, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. Well, that's all right then--they have got all the information they are entitled to. They won't get any from me.

Q. Could you say whether he is being considered for a judgeship out there?

THE PRESIDENT. The matter was not discussed at all.

[14.] Q. Mr. President, Secretary Lovett raised an interesting question the other day, on the carryover from one administration to the other on breaking in new men. Have you got any ideas on how that could be done on your budget--

THE PRESIDENT. Well, I think the record is perfectly plain on that--both candidates have been invited to be briefed on the policy and the future situation with regard to the Government, and of course I think Secretary Lovett's idea was just a follow-up on that program.

Of course, I don't know who the new Cabinet is going to be, and neither does anybody else.

[15.] Q. Mr. President, I wonder if you would comment on what General Eisenhower had to say yesterday in Boise? I was going to quote from--

THE PRESIDENT. Go ahead, Eddie⁷ because I haven't read it. [Laughter]

⁷ Edward T. Folliard of the Washington Post.

Q. He said--well, he said that the Government applies the philosophy of the left, and goes on to say that the Government will build the power dams, the Government will tell you how to distribute your power, the Government will do this and that, the Government does everything but come in and wash the dishes for the housewife

THE PRESIDENT. Well now, Eddie, I think a little later on that will be gone into very carefully, but it will be on the stump and not here at a press conference.

Q. Well, Mr. President, could I ask a kind of general question?

THE PRESIDENT. Sure--let's see what you mean by general question--but go ahead.

Q. Yes, sir. There again you haven't read what General Eisenhower said, but you will answer him later in the campaign. How do you keep up with the general progress of these subjects which you will either answer or deal with, or you should know about? Do you get briefings, or summaries, or--

THE PRESIDENT. Well, May, I think I know more about the Government than any man in the United States, and when I get ready to tell what the Government means and what it does, it will be a categorical answer to anything that the opposition may have to say. I don't have to read what they have to say. I know what they are going to say. And it's all wrong. And I am going to prove that I am right. [Laughter]

Q. Does somebody thrash out for you all the information you should have ?

THE PRESIDENT. It isn't necessary at all, May, because I am familiar with the whole situation from start to finish.

Q. But you don't know what is being said if you don't read it yourself.

THE PRESIDENT. Yes, I do; I know exactly what they are going to say. It has been said time and time again. Read Willkie. Read Dewey. You just get a repeat, that's all.

[16.] Q. Mr. President, anything new on a special session plan ?

THE PRESIDENT, What's that?

Q. Anything new on a special session?

THE PRESIDENT. Not a thing.

[17.] Q. Mr. President, there has been some concern expressed on the part of some Democratic Party leaders, for fear that Mr. Stevenson might not have the facilities of the same good researchers that you had in your 1948 campaign. Some of these people, I believe, are still on your staff, or closely associated with you. Their names have not been mentioned. There have only been two, I believe, sent to Stevenson's staff-maybe one. I wonder if you would tell us if you are going to give Mr. Stevenson the same advantage of these good researchers as you had in 1948?

THE PRESIDENT. Why, certainly. He can have all the information he wants, and so can Eisenhower, if he wants it. I will give them the truth. Then if they want to use it, why it's up to them.

Q. I don't want to cut anybody off--do you have anything else to say, sir?

THE PRESIDENT. Not a thing.

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. President.