Dear Bess: October 13, 1939
Transcript
Welcome to the Dear Bess/ Dear Harry podcast for October 13, 2023, brought to you by Harry S Truman National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service.
Today, we’d like to share with you a Dear Bess letter that was written on this date in 1939 by Senator Harry S Truman to his wife, Bess Wallace Truman. Senator Truman was in Washington DC, and his wife was back home in Independence, Missouri, with her mother and family. It’s not a long letter, but has some interesting tidbits. In the first paragraph Truman refers to his eyes…at the age of six, Harry Truman was diagnosed with an eye condition commonly known as flat eyeballs that required corrective lenses for the rest of his life. But it had a net positive for him, as he became a voracious reader and, as you can hear, could sympathize with what was ailing Mrs. Truman’s brother Fred, then 39 years old.
Truman then refers to anti-aircraft artillery, and how he doesn’t think that it’s not enough against a plane attack in force. Those are haunting words considering what would happen just under 26 months later on December 7, 1941.
As always, thanks for listening. Here’s the letter.
Washington D.C.
Oct. 13, 1939
Dear Bess:-
Your letter came at ten this morning and I am most happy it did. I'll thank the Columbia Pictures man as soon as I can. I'm certainly sorry about Fred's eye. No one appreciates eyes as I do. Mine have been a handicap for fifty years.
Glad that Arnie was in a good frame of mind. They ought not to hold the situation against us because I've really saved Oscar four different times. Stuart McDonald is leaving and I suppose my pull will be gone with him. He's getting a $75000.00 a year job with the Maryland Causualty [sic] Co., so it is rumored. I'd be tempted to quit myself under such circumstances.
I went over to Aberdeen yesterday after all. It was a grand demonstration. I came to the conclusion that anti-air artillery is not enough against a plane attack in force. We must also have plenty of planes for defense as well. That's a real admission from an artilleryman, and that was not the intention of the demonstration either.
Brought Dewey Short back with me and he told me an earful about the Republican estimate of Stark. It is far from high. He also told me that my position had improved exceedingly in the last three months. I'm sure he wouldn't be telling me what I wanted to hear.
I'll go look at that car. I'm satisfied with it if you are. The color is good too. Why don't you get some new curtains if you want them? Hope you and Chris had a nice ride. Wish I were rich enough to fly home every weekend - we're working this Saturday however.
Love to you both
Harry
A brief, but fascinating, letter from Senator Harry S Truman to Bess Wallace Truman from October, 1939.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/147870508