JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2462
A LETTER FROM HARRY TRUMAN TO BESS WALLACE
Lawton, Oklahoma (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, October 5, 1917, future United States president Harry S Truman* wrote a letter to future first lady Bess Wallace here in Lawton.
Lieutenant Truman complained in the letter about the high prices for goods being sold to soldiers. He was particularly critical of the laundries which...
"added 40 per cent to their prices. The way they were charging, it would cost a man fifty-four cents to get a shirt and pants and socks washed."
He added...
"they've got to do better or we'll do our own washing."
The Lieutenant also told of how he had tried unsuccessfully to buy a "carload of pop" from Coca Cola. He wrote....
"So there is another combination in restraint of trade. I'm not going to sell pop."
The future president concluded...
"Remember me to your mother...and yourself first, last and all the time."
*Before deployment to France, Truman was sent for training to Camp Doniphan, Ft. Sill, near Lawton, Oklahoma. Lt. Truman ran the camp with Edward Jacobson, a clothing store clerk from Kansas City.
Truman met James Pendergast, the nephew of Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast while at Ft. Sill.
SOURCE
"Letter from Harry S Truman to Bess Wallace", October 5, 1917, Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum, www.trumanlibrary.org/
Wedding Photo
Harry & Bess Wallace Truman
Independence, MO
June 28, 1919
Truman Library Photo
Lawton, Oklahoma (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, October 5, 1917, future United States president Harry S Truman* wrote a letter to future first lady Bess Wallace here in Lawton.
Lieutenant Truman complained in the letter about the high prices for goods being sold to soldiers. He was particularly critical of the laundries which...
"added 40 per cent to their prices. The way they were charging, it would cost a man fifty-four cents to get a shirt and pants and socks washed."
He added...
"they've got to do better or we'll do our own washing."
The Lieutenant also told of how he had tried unsuccessfully to buy a "carload of pop" from Coca Cola. He wrote....
"So there is another combination in restraint of trade. I'm not going to sell pop."
The future president concluded...
"Remember me to your mother...and yourself first, last and all the time."
*Before deployment to France, Truman was sent for training to Camp Doniphan, Ft. Sill, near Lawton, Oklahoma. Lt. Truman ran the camp with Edward Jacobson, a clothing store clerk from Kansas City.
Truman met James Pendergast, the nephew of Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast while at Ft. Sill.
SOURCE
"Letter from Harry S Truman to Bess Wallace", October 5, 1917, Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum, www.trumanlibrary.org/
Wedding Photo
Harry & Bess Wallace Truman
Independence, MO
June 28, 1919
Truman Library Photo
