Letter from Harry S. Truman to Eleanor Roosevelt

THE WHITE HOUSE Fle WASHINGTON June 10, 1946 Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: I hope you will pardon my delay in answering your letter of May wenty-seventh, but as you can well imagine I have been quite busy. It is very heartening to get your kind expressions with reference to some of the recent events in Washington. I have tried to carry out what I think is the best interests of the nation as a whole. I am sure that I have succeeded in wiping from my own mind any thought of the political considerations in- volved. The dangers to our whole economic system stemming from the stagnation of the railroads were so great that there was no room for any politics. I am afraid, however, that in some quarters the old criterion of politics was still quite important. As you know, the Senate has removed from the bill the provision for drafting strikers against the Government. I assure you that it was not easy for me to recommend such legislation. I tried to hedge it around with as many safeguards as possible. Among these safeguards was a limitation of its provisions to a handful of national industries in which a stoppage of work would affect our entire economy. There was also the limita- tion that its provisions could be made applicable only to those industries which already had been taken over by the Government. I am afraid that the Senate has taken all of the teeth out of the proposed emergency legislation.