Letter from Victor Messall to Edgar Hinde

CARTER GLASS, VA., CHAIRMAN KENNETH MCKELLAR, TENN. FREDERICK HALE, MAINE ROYAL S. COPELAND, N. Y. GERALD P. NYE, N. DAK. CARL HAYDEN, ARIZ. JOHN G. TOWNSEND, JR., DEL. ELMER THOMAS, OKLA. H. STYLES BRIDGES, N.H. JAMES F. BYRNES, S.C. HENRY CABOT LODGE, JR., MASS. MILLARD E. TYDINGS, MD. United States Senate RICHARD B. RUSSELL, JR., GA. ALVA B. ADAMS, COLO. PATRICK MC CARRAN, NEV. COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS JOHN H. OVERTON, LA. JOHN H. BANKHEAD, ALA. JOSEPH c. O'MAHONEY, WYO. Washington, D. C. WILLIAM GIBBS MCADOO, CALIF. HARRY S. TRUMAN, MO. April 19, 1939 F. RYAN DUFFY, WIS. EDWARD R. BURKE, NEBR. HERBERT E. HITCHCOCK, S. DAK. THEODORE F. GREEN, R. KENNEDY F. REA, CLERK JOHN W. R. SMITH, ASST. CLERK Mr. Edgar G. Hinde Postmaster Independence, Missouri Dear Hinde: Sorry I haven't had time to give you a reply to your last letter sooner, but I am sure you can appreciate the enormous amount of extra work we have had heaped on us in the past few weeks. Things have been happening so fast in Kansas City and in Missouri generally that today's letter is old news tomorrow. Of course, I think the opposition in Kansas City is shooting with everything they have and I can't help but think that there will be an end to it not too far in the future. We know nothing, of course, about the indictment, and all we can do is hope and pray that everything comes out all right. It would do me a lot of good to sit down and talk to you for about fifteen minutes about this whole situation. The ramifications are too many to attempt to write them. I never have thought they could beat us, and I don't now think they can. We were naturally going to have a tough fight under ordinary conditions, but the present situation means we will have to work ten times as hard, and if all our friends were as enthusiastic as you are about getting the job done, there wouldn't be a man in the State or a bunch of them, who could beat us. I feel the same as you do about the political line-up for 1940 as regards Dickmann and Clark. This seems to be our best bet at the moment and things happening here in the past week or ten days indicate more and more that this is probably what will happen. Confidentially, for your own personal information, I believe that our office this year and next year in Missouri will be in Independence, which should solve a few of the handicaps we have had in the past.