Correspondence Between Senator Harry S. Truman and Judge Lewis Schwellenbach

COPY Washington, D.C. November 27, 1941 Honorable Lewis B. Schwellenbach United States District Judge Spokane, Washington Dear Lew: You don't know how very much I appreciated your pat on the back for the Merry-Go-Round story. It was a complete surprise to me. The first I saw of it was in Memphis where I went to hold some hearings on a rotten contract job down there. While the facts stated are not exactly according to the record, the write-up was much friendlier than they usually are to public officials. I showed Carl Hatch your letter and he said he also had allowed his feeling toward Pearson and Allen to become more friendly on account of that article. I don't think there is any doubt but what Senator Guffey is going to run for Governor of Pennsylvania. I had a conversation with him just a day or two ago and he seems to be in the mood. You certainly ought to be glad and happy that you are not in this terrible whirl here now. We are all practically dizzy. I fear very much that the economic situation has gone right back to 1920. Everything that you and I have fought for for the last ten years has been knocked into a cocked hat by the OPM. They have given the aluminum company a strangle hold on practically the whole metal situation. Lead, brass, and copper are in exactly the same condition. I am going to hold some hearings on lead and zine the Ninth of December. Little business is simply being slaughtered - and we seem to be practically helpless to prevent it. Joe O'Mahoney and I are going to have a hearing on the little business situation next Monday. I certainly hope your Mother's cataract operation came out all right. My Mother was eighty nine years old Tuesday. I sent her a telegram and then called her up. Just about a year ago she fell downstairs and broke her hip. She is now walking without a cane and is in practically as good health as she was before she had the fall. She thinks you are just about right. I have a picture of her taken in Sedalia while you were speaking and I never go home that she doesn't inquire about you.