Ask the Scholar

President Harry S. Truman's 302nd news conference, held in the Indian Treaty Room (Room 474) in the Executive Office Building at 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 1, 1952. Topics discussed include: the announcement that Senator Brien McMahon would be seeking the Democratic nomination for President; the state visit of President Somoza of Nicaragua; the steel crisis; extension of the Defense Production Act; another statement by Truman that he would not be a candidate in 1952; postmaster nominations; the Selective Service Act; the May Day riots in Tokyo; statement by Truman on Dwight Eisenhower: [after being asked if Eisenhower was too ill to run on the Republican ticket] "Oh no, he's not anything of the kind. He's in perfect health. He's as fine a man as ever walked. I have told you that time and again"; and loans made to the Democratic National Committee by the New York State Committee. Names mentioned include: Walter F. George; Hubert H. Humphrey; Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa; Adlai Stevenson; Charles E. Wilson.