Letter from Harry S. Truman to Edgar Hinde

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON April 11, 1950 Dear Edgar: I read your letter of the eighth with a great deal of interest and as you know it would be, I think, bad taste for me to tell anybody to file or not to file in the Fourth District. You know how I feel toward Russell Gabriel. He has always been one hundred percent in my corner and I think very highly of him. The present Congressman has a one hundred percent record in the Congress, however, and if I should proceed to take a slap at one of my few one hundred percent Congressmen I don't know what the rest of them would think about it. It seems to me that you boys ought to get together and decide what you want to do and then go ahead and do it. I've never been hard to get along with. Bill Boyle was talking to me about Joe Brady the other day and I told him that it seemed to me that the organization in eastern Jackson County ought to decide on the man they should support for Congressman. I think what you say about Brady has a lot of merit. If I could be at home for about a week I don't think we would have any trouble getting the matter straightened out but that is an impossibility. I have to stay here and work on the Congress until I leave here on May seventh. I understand the last day for filing is April twenty-first. I hope we can get the thing worked out so Jackson County will be well and properly represented in the Congress. Sincerely yours, Honorable Edgar G. Hinde United States Post Office Independence, Missouri