September 14

I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.

Harry S. Truman, 33rd President, 1945-1953-attributed to Truman. Born in 1884, Truman first came to Washington in 1934 having been elected to the U.S. Senate from Independence, Missouri. He certainly did not arrive with any great fanfare or high expectations of ever becoming President. Missouri was not known as a spawning ground of Presidents as almost half of our Presidents were born in or were affiliated with four states- Ohio, New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts. Only one- Truman hailed from Missouri which was far from east coast or mid-west "civilization." Independence was seen as an outpost leading to the west. In the westward expansion of the 1800's steamboats were able to travel up the Missouri River as far west as Independence and from there people ventured overland on the Santa Fe Trail. Thus Truman did not have the political "advantage" of being raised in the east nor the mid-west, nor was he educated in those parts of the country. In fact, he was the last President to not have a college education at all. However, despite his lack of of a college degree, he was, in fact, very well read. He was an excellent student and a voracious reader of history and biographies. It is said he had read every book in the Independence Library by the time he graduated from high school in 1901. He applied to West Point Military Academy but was turned down due to his poor eyesight. When his family could not afford to send him to another college, he took jobs on the railroad, then as a bank teller, and eventually ran the family farm when his father passed away. He did join the National Guard and served in France when the United States entered World War I in 1917. There he rose to the rank of captain and was a successful and popular commander. Afterwards, he became involved in Kansas City and Missouri politics for several years before he was elected to the Senate in 1934. In 1940, he rose to prominence and made a name for himself as head of a senate committee to investigate the National Defense Program. In that capacity, he rooted out wasteful spending and corruption, possibly saving up to $15 billion in taxpayers' money. He was chosen to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt's running mate for his fourth term even as Roosevelt's health was deteriorating. Only 82 days after becoming Vice-President, Truman assumed the office of the Presidency when Roosevelt passed away on April 12, 1945, a month before World War II ended in Europe and six months before the conflict ended in the Pacific.