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Notice Numbers appearing in square brackets (ex. [45]) within the transcript indicate the pagination in the original, hardcopy version of the oral history interview. RESTRICTIONS Opened August, 1972 [Top of the Page | Notices and Restrictions | List of Subjects Discussed]
Oral History Interview with
September 28, 1970 by Jerry N. Hess
HESS: All right, Mr. Brandt, to begin this morning would you give me a little of your personal background: Where were you born and where were you raised and just a little bit of your personal history. BRANDT: I was born in Sedalia, Missouri on June 6th, 1896. I went to school in Sedalia; the grade schools and the Sedalia High School, and then I went to the University of Missouri in 1914, with the idea of becoming an advertising man. At the University I entered the school of journalism my third year and took the courses that applied to journalism. I won a scholarship called the Eugene Field Scholarship which didn't pay very much, and I was the Columbia sports correspondent for four or five papers: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Kansas City
Star, the Des Moines Register and Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor. And that's the way I made most of my expenses at the University of Missouri. I belonged to the Sigma Chi fraternity, and that fraternity at that particular time, virtually ran the School of Journalism, we had the editors and so forth. I was associate editor of the yearbook. In June 1918 I went to an officer's training school, artillery, and I was commissioned a second lieutenant at Camp Knox (at that time), and I was allowed to skip two weeks of training. I think I made good grades on the examination. I went out to Camp Lewis in August, and I was discharged in February 1919. To get out of the Army, I had to say I was going back to school. Went back to the University and became assistant university publisher. And while there an engineer school professor, Dr. Luther "Daddy" DeFoe, suggested I apply for a Rhodes scholarship; I thought that was very flattering and I didn't think that I could make it. I did apply, and -- but in August I had an offer to go with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as an understudy to Curtis Betts their political writer. During that time
I was on the Post-Dispatch, the Rhodes committee met in St. Louis and I appeared before the board, the examining board. I knew at least half of the board personally. There were fifteen candidates for two places. The other candidate that I knew was John G . Madden of Kansas City, and we looked over the list of other candidates and decided that we were going to get something, which we did. We had a very amusing examination. One of the questions they asked me, if you were in England and some Englishman said, "Let's you and I have a drink," what would you think of his grammar? Well, I said, "I wouldn't think anything of his grammar, I'd have the drink." And there was one little fellow that I didn't know, he said, "Well, Mr. Brandt, many teetotalers enter Oxford, but none leave." Then I knew that I was safe. And I finally got it. I entered the second term of Oxford, at Lincoln College, and there was a mix-up because Oxford had never heard of a journalism degree. My tutor thought that they would accept it because if I had a AB degree I would have taken senior standing, but having only
a journalism degree, the council or whatever it was, decided that they couldn't recognize that. In the meantime I'd been studying for senior exams. I had to take the preliminary exams. The easiest was the law prelim. So, I took the law prelim and finally passed it and then I switched from law to history. I read history, and finally got my degree. In the summer of 1920, another Rhodes scholar and I, Elwin Evans, started a tour of Europe. We landed in Vienna. Another former Rhodes scholar was head of the Hoover administration there. So Evans and I worked for Hoover in the American Relief Administration for two months. I was in charge of the Office of Finances. I handled books and so forth. I should have studied, but I didn't, but I made my expenses in Vienna, and came back and finally I passed the history examinations. And just before that, the Hoover people needed some men in Russia. In 1922, after I had taken the exams, I went to Russia as the district supervisor for a town in White Russia called Vitebsk which is between Smolensk and Minsk. I was there for ten months. This district was about the size -- almost the size of Missouri,
and my job was to feed the orphans in the schools and to handle the $20 Hoover food packages American people bought -- deposited $20 in this country and sent their certificates over there and the recipients cashed them in food. This was during the famine in Russia. Mine was not a famine area and so we began to liquidate in 1923. I still had one term coming to me at Oxford, so I went back to Oxford. I came back here to this country in 1923. Went back to Sedalia, and reapplied for a job with the Post-Dispatch. I wanted to come to Washington, and O.K. Bovard, the managing editor said, "Well, there's no place there., but you go and get a job in Washington and we'll see about that later on." The head of the Washington Bureau here was Charlie G. Ross, who had been one of my professors at the University of Missouri, I worked for two or three months on the Washington Herald, and then I got the job as Ross' assistant, or associate, in the bureau. I think it was in December of 1923, and I've been with them ever since. And Ross, as you know, had gone to school with Truman.
HESS: They were in the same class in high school. BRANDT: Yes. HESS: When did you first meet Mr. Truman? BRANDT: I was trying to think, and I don't remember, because the only time that it really remains in my memory, was when he introduced the resolution for the... HESS: Truman Committee. BRANDT: Truman Committee. Now, I must have known him before that because he was chairman of the subcommittee on railroads, and I covered some of those, but I didn't know him intimately. You have to understand this, the Post-Dispatch editorial policy was against Truman, at all times, because of his connections with the Pendergast machine. This was particularly true because in the '34 primary, the other candidates in the primary were Representatives "Tuck" [Jacob L.] Milligan, and John J. Cochran. Milligan was the candidate of Senator Bennett Clark, Cochran was from St. Louis, a very close friend of mine, Cochran went
to his death believing that that primary was stolen. His thesis was that one of his people had made a mistake in saying that they were going to carry St. Louis by a hundred thousand. And Pendergast carried Kansas City and Independence, by I think it was fifty thousand. Cochran thought that he was counted out. He really believed that he had been nominated. And I'm inclined to believe that too, because that was the period when Pendergast had the vote scandals and they were voting graveyards and everything else. I never talked to Truman about that, but I have talked to Cochran. HESS: Were there ever any times when you felt that Mr. Truman's association with the Pendergast organization may have influenced some of his decisions? BRANDT: There are two cases, that I can remember, when he was chairman of that subcommittee. The railroad had their lobbyists out, and they got ahold of Pendergast. I forget which railroad it was. They called Pendergast and told them to exclude that particular railroad from the investigation. And Truman told me
about that. And he said, "But I can't do it." That was the one thing that we supported Truman on, his investigation of the railroads. The other time that they tried was when Pat Harrison and [Alben W.] Barkley, were fighting for the majority leadership. In that case Truman told Pendergast he had given his word. And in both cases Pendergast did not influence his actions. HESS: Did you see Mr. Truman very often during the years that he headed the Truman Committee? BRANDT: Well, never closely. He had a counsel that I worked with. He was very, very able. He was the man that I dealt with most of the time. HESS: Did you deal with Hugh Fulton at any time during the... BRANDT: Very slightly. HESS: He was the counsel for the Committee wasn't he? BRANDT: But this man Max somebody, I can't think of his name, he wrote a book about the FBI, because I helped him a little with that.
HESS: Oh, Max Lowenthal. BRANDT: Max Lowenthal, yes. HESS: Did you help write that book? BRANDT: No I didn't help write it. Max consulted me occasionally because at that particular time we thought the FBI was using rubber hoses and everything else. HESS: Do you still think so? BRANDT: No, I don't think so now. But they were pretty tough in those days. Max later became suspect. I know they thought he was a Communist. And I never could figure that out. They came around to me about it. Max was a far-out liberal. He was a very good investigator on the railroads. Because of the editorial policy of the Post-Dispatch, we were never persona grata in Truman's office, although Charlie Ross had gone to school with him, and I don't think they had even very close social contacts. HESS: During what period was that?
BRANDT: When he was Senator. HESS: Oh. BRANDT: Charlie always admired him, but I don't think there was social contacts. HESS: Do you think that during that period of time that Truman sort of held it against Mr. Ross that he was working for the Post-Dispatch? BRANDT: No, I think there was just a matter of an understanding. HESS: Was the Post-Dispatch's policy somewhat in the nature of a Kansas City-St. Louis rivalry, also? BRANDT: No, we don't care anything about that. That's three hundred miles away. They are not competitors in any way. HESS: All right. Do you recall anything about Mr. Truman during the 1944 convention when he was selected to run with President Roosevelt? BRANDT: Well, the only thing that I really know about is
that there are two points. First, the letter of the -- Roosevelt letter. HESS: The "Douglas-Truman" letter. BRANDT: Douglas-Truman letter. Edward Harris was covering that part of it, and he got the word that [Robert] Hannegan had this letter. Then there was the rumors that Hannegan had changed the letter. As soon as we found out t |
