Letter from Fred Kraft to President Harry S. Truman with Attached Newspaper Clippings

P.P.F. Hume con Fred W. Kraft 1221 Goodland Avenue K South Bend, Indiana December 9th, 1950 Honorable Harry S. Truman HARRY RECORDS President of the United States. SERVICE Dear Mr. Truman: I have read, with regret, the enclosed article, which appeared in today's Chicago Tribune, and after reading it the second time, it appeared to me that, as an American Citizen, I should give voice to my thoughts, in these trying times. Here they are: As your Masonic Brother, may I first admonish you to exercise more control over your passions, You, Brother Truman, are not exemplifying the precepts of Free Masonery when you write a letter of the type published, particularly when it is written on Official Stationery, and signed by the active President of the United States Would it not have been far better to write such a letter to Joeseph Stalin ? I can see him now, after you have told him, 11 Joe, you guttersnipe, you sound like a frustrated old man who never made a success, an eight ulcer man on a four ulcer job, and all four ulcers working. You can take this as more of an insult than as a reflection on your ancestry. I have never met you, but if I do you'll need a new nose and plenty of beefsteak, and perhaps a supporter below." About music, I believe Mr. Paul Hume is quite justified in expressing his opinions, whether good or bad, regarding a singer, without cause to give any more favorible consideration to the daughter of the President than to the daughter of the local paper-hanger. It is upon the precepts of free speech and freedom of thought==== the very freedoms that we as Americans are striving to nuture and cultivate in the world today that Mr. Hume's opinions were based. As a matter of fact, I am very much inclined to agree with Mr. Hume's opinion. It is my privilidge to do so. On the other hand, it is understandable that you do not concur, however, why not concentrate some of the energy directed at Mr. Hume (whom I do not even know, and never heard of until today) into such channels as will promote the safety and the well-being of our great Nation in these uncertain and surely un-paralleled times? Do you threaten everyone who voices their opinions in disagreement with yours? Consider, if you will, the effect of such actions on your part. Look at the importance that is given to such an unprecedented outburst, in the newspaper. As the President of the United States of America, the Leader of the only remaining powerful Free Nation on the face of the earth today, when the very world is being shaken by forces which are dedicated to the proposition of destroying our way of life, and our very life