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RELEASE UPON DELIVERY AT 12:00 NOON MONDAY AUGUST 7, 1944. REPORT OF THE HONORABLE SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN ON THE TRUMAN COMMITTEE TO BE DELIVERED TO THE SENATE ON MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1944. Mr. President, one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make was that to resign as Chairman of the Special Senate Committee on National Defense. I consider it a very great privilege to have served with that Committee. In the last war I had an opportunity to observe the waste and confusion that always exists in a period of great emergency when many important decisions have to be made overnight and have to be carried out by inexperienced staffs. When the President advocated a program for preparedness over the opposition of many of our isolationists, I wholeheartedly supported that program. It was another and perhaps the greatest instance of that ability which he has so frequently shown to see into the future and determine the right course for this nation. But as a soldier who had deplored the waste and confusion in the last war I believed that our preparedness program should be subjected from the very first to intelligent and honest investigation so that mistakes could be caught before the damage had been done, The old saying that it doesn't do any good to lock the barn door after the horse has been stolen properly could be amended to read: "It does not do much good after the horse has been stolen to find out why TRUMAN NARA