Tom L. Evans Oral History Interview, September 18, 1963

Notice
This is a transcript of a tape-recorded interview conducted for the Harry S. Truman Library. A draft of this transcript was edited by the interviewee but only minor emendations were made; therefore, the reader should remember that this is essentially a transcript of the spoken, rather than the written word.

Numbers appearing in square brackets (ex. [45]) within the transcript indicate the pagination in the original, hardcopy version of the oral history interview.

RESTRICTIONS
This oral history transcript may be read, quoted from, cited, and reproduced for purposes of research. It may not be published in full except by permission of the Harry S. Truman Library.

Opened August, 1966
Harry S. Truman Library
Independence, Missouri

[478]

FUCHS: When the recorder stopped working in our last interview you were telling of the attempt to secure a man to take a position on the Securities and Exchange Commission during Mr. Truman's tenure as President. Would you care to finish that?

EVANS: Well, I think we finished it with the exception that I was not sure of his name and I now learn that that was Harry A. MacDonald, and then another name that I mentioned in that previous interview, Jim, was a man with the Bromo-Seltzer Company. It's just come to me today that his name was O'Neil. I believe that that about finishes that phase of...

FUCHS: We can go ahead then.

EVANS: I think I said that President Truman had asked me, knowing of my friendship and acquaintanceship with Nate Shapiro in Detroit, to confidentially check with him in regard to this Harry A. MacDonald,

[479]

whom they were considering for a position in the Government; and I checked with Mr. Shapiro who was well-known in Detroit, in fact, in addition to being the head of the Economical Cunningham drugstores, he was director of the fire department in Detroit, and was President of the Chamber of Commerce in those days. So he was quite a well-known man. And this man MacDonald had an executive position--I was going to say president--but, anyway, an executive position with an ice cream--company that supplied ice cream to the Shapiro stores in Detroit. So, he knew him very well and gave him a very fine recommendation--couldn't have been better--and I conveyed that information to President Truman and later he did go into the Government. I believe he's still in Government, although I'm not sure.

FUCHS: Did you go to Fulton, Missouri, in March, 1946, when Churchill spoke at Westminster College?

EVANS: Yes, I was there at the famous speech, but

[480]

there was such a crowd and quite a tremendous amount of turmoil that I didn't get much opportunity to visit with the President; but I was there along with a number of other people from Kansas City that went down.

FUCHS: He never told you whether or not he had prior knowledge of what Churchill was going to say?

EVANS: Visiting with him, I recall that he said something to the effect that in coming out to Fulton, that Mr. Churchill wanted him to read his speech and he said, "No, if I did, then people would think I wrote it. I don't want to know anything about what you're going to say or have anything to do with it. I'll hear it along with the rest of the people." So, my impression is that he did not--was not familiar with it. Now that may have been one of Mr. Truman's famous jokes, as you well know he's noted for.

FUCHS: Did you drive down to Fulton from here?

[481]

EVAN: Yes.

FUCHS: You didn't see them after the speech?

EVANS: You mean after the speech?

FUCHS: Did you see Mr. Churchill or Mr. Truman?

EVANS: Yes, I shook hands with Mr. Churchill on two occasions and bid the President good-bye and I came on back. I took a group down with me.

FUCHS: There wasn't any particular incident that you remember?

EVANS: Nothing of interest, I don't believe.

FUCHS: In 1946, there was quite a contest in the 5^th Missouri district for the Congressional seat involving Roger Slaughter and another candidate, Enos Axtell. What do you recall of that?

EVANS: Well, as you say, there was quite a lot involved and Mr. Enos Axtell was selected, and the President told me that he wanted me to do everything

[482]

I could to get him nominated, which I did, I worked plenty hard and met Enos for the first time early in that campaign. I raised a substantial amount of money, interested a lot of people in working; it was quite a campaign and, as you well know, we won the primary and beat Mr. Slaughter, but we lost the election to the son of Judge Reeves; but we go back to the old days, Jim, of "Goats" and "Rabbits." I've often said that I think I was probably 16 years old before I knew there was such a thing as a Republican. It was always Goats and Rabbits; and Mr. Truman and I were Democratic Goats and Mr. Slaughter happened to be a Rabbit, and the Goats and the Rabbits fought all the time, so that was just another Goat-Rabbit fight

FUCHS: Did you have a decided opinion about the qualifications of Slaughter and about his activities in Congress which were, as you know, somewhat in opposition to Mr. Truman's proposals for his

[483]

administration?

EVANS: Well, yes, I knew of the fact that on at least two or three occasions he had indicated that he would be for certain things that Mr. Truman expected him to be for and at the last minute he had been turned around without any advance warning and was against, which was enough to stir the desire to see him defeated, let's put it that way.

FUCHS: Had you talked to Mr. Truman about Slaughter prior to the selection of Axtell, and, incidentally, I'd like to know how that came about?

EVANS: Oh, yes, I had talked to him about (I'm sure other people had, too) finding some suitable candidate, I'm not so sure but what I might have had one, but if so, I’ve forgotten who I had; I've had a number of candidates, One, in particular, which is another story, is our present Congressman, Dick Bolling. I'm somewhat rambling,

[484]

but it might be a good place to record this, and I don't believe we have recorded it.

FUCHS: No, I had intentions to discuss that later on but you can go ahead.

EVANS: Well, 1948 there was a young lawyer here in Kansas City by the name of Emmett Scanlan, who was a candidate for Congress in the 5th Congressional District from Kansas City, who I've known for many years. Anyway, he apparently had the backing of most of the Democratic factions, and he had double-crossed me at a state Democratic convention by promising to vote a certain way on a program that we had, and when we got into the meeting, why, he voted the other way and I got pretty angry about it, So, I looked for a good candidate and a group of young lawyers and young merchants told me about a fellow by the name of Dick Bolling who had just gotten out of the service and had been overseas, been over in Japan, and was on the staff of General MacArthur; had

[485]

entered the service as a private and had come out a colonel; and that he was teaching school at the University of Kansas City. And I met him, and it was Dick Bolling, a fine young man. We had numerous visits, and I was quite enthused with Dick and his ideas and, to make a long story short, he was much interested in running for Congress. Mr. Truman, of course, was President and was up for election, and in very early 1948 Mr. Truman was back here at the Muehlebach Hotel and I spoke to him about the fact that I had a candidate for 5th Congressional District for Congress and that I'd like to have him meet him. He said he'd be delighted to but he'd already committed, and he was for Emmet Scanlan. And I said, "Well, then there isn't any use doing anything about it, but I would love to be for this man Bolling because he's just, in my opinion, an outstanding, capable, young fellow and what we need."

And he said, "Well, why don't you go ahead and let him run?"

[486]

And I said, "Well, I'd hate to have to beat you."

And he said, "Well, you couldn't beat me."

I said, "Would you get mad at me?"

And he said, "Why certainly not; go ahead."

So I did. We ran him, and we beat his candidate in the primary. And, of course, in November he was elected along with Mr. Truman when he was elected President. Within three or four months after Dick Bolling had taken his office as Congressman from the 5th District, I was in Washington and President Truman said, "Tom, I want to tell you one thing. You have sent me the finest Congressman that we have in Congress. Dick Bolling is a wonderful fellow and in my opinion has the greatest opportunity of anybody in politics that I know, if you can do one thing, if you can keep him from getting 'Potomac Fever."'

You, of course, Jim, are familiar with Potomac Fever, which, I'm sorry to say, it seems to me that about ninety-nine and forty-four

[487]

hundredths of a percent of the people in Washington, be they Democrats or Republicans, have that horrible disease. Later on I'll tell you about some of them that were connected with the President, some few of them who had Potomac Fever. I said, "Well, Mr. President, I probably could keep him from getting it if he knew that you had instructed me to, and would you tell me that in front of Dick?"

And, he said, "Yes, but how will we do it?"

I said, "Well, we'll arrange it."

He said, "Well, I'll have him come over to the office and you be here tomorrow, and I'll tell him."

So, Dick Bolling came over to see the President at my suggestion, and he went in and shook hands with him and we visited a minute, and I said: "Well, Mr. President, you're very busy; why don't you tell me again what you told me yesterday that you wanted me to do about Dick Bolling." I said, "Dick, he gave me some instructions,

[488]

but I wanted you to hear them first hand."

So the President said, "Yes, Congressman, I told Tom that in my opinion you had the finest future of anybody in politics providing he could keep you from getting the Potomac Fever and that's the job I have given him."

So, '48--it's been a good many years ago--what, fourteen, sixteen years ago. When somebody says, "Well, Dick's not spending much time at home; Dick's doing this, Dick's doing that," I say to Dick, "Say Dick, you haven't got a little temperature have you?" And he knows what I'm talking about; so I think that's been a little helpful.

Well, anyway, I got off the subject of having a candidate--that incidentally, was the same district where Mr. Slaughter was up and Enos Axtell. I imagine I might have had a candidate; if so, I've forgotten who it was. But anyway, Mr. Truman said that, as I remember it, that

[489]

Vivian had selected this Enos Axtell, who lived in Grandview, and asked me if I knew him. He had a law office in Kansas City, and I had met Enos, but, frankly, I didn't place him. I immediately met him and he--well, he was a very young man and very intelligent and bright, no question about that, and was capable and qualified. And with Mr. Slaughter's record of being a double-crosser, it wa