Speech Delivered by Senator Harry S. Truman to the Members of the Jefferson Club of Clinton, Missouri

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SPEECH DELIVERED BY SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN TO THE MEMBERS OF THE JEFFERSON CLUB OF CLINTON, MISSOURI, THE EVENING OF APRIL 13,1938 Members of the Jefferson Club and ladies and gentlemen of Henry County. It is a very great pleasure and an honor to be your guest this evening. Clinton is a sort of home to me. I was born in Lamar, lived in Harrisonville while I was learning to talk, was raised in Jackson County, went to school in Independence and lived here in Clinton for a year when I was twenty-one years old. Henry County is just the same as Jackson to me--I have nearly as many friends here, both personal and political- so you can see how very much I enjoy being here. This Club is one of the outstanding Jefferson Clubs of the United States. All its Presidents have been wonderful and able Democrats-- Mrs. Callaway, Mrs. Cary and now Miss Katherine Spangler. I am particularly pleased that Miss Spangler is the President tonight. She and my sister are staunch Eastern Star friends and Miss Spangler was one of the ablest Grand Matrons Missouri ever had. Clinton is also to be complimented on its newspapers--Mr. Whitaker and his Henry County Democrat make a Democratic combination that the party can tie to. Then there is Miss Ella Pearl. Clinton would not be Clinton without Miss Ella Pearl Smith and the Clinton Eye--and Homer Johnson. Ed Moore, your postmaster, and I fought in the war together, and Judge Sperry I am particularly fond of. But I miss one of my good friends and one of Missouri's grand old men, Judge C. C. Dickinson. He presided and made a speech at the last meeting I attended here in 1934. He was one of Missouri's greatest members of Congress and his place in the hearts of his friends, both here and in Washington, will never be filled. Clinton doesn't seem the same without him. los KRUMAN NARA