1st White House TV speech: Eat less to help feed Europe

Seventy years ago this coming Thursday, the first televised address from the White House was made by President Harry S Truman. It wasn’t a big deal in the sense that on Oct. 5, 1947, only about 44,000 Americans had TVs. I remember my friend Eddie Patnik was fortunate to have a set, thanks to his parents owning a gas station that permitted them to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a tiny screen. And, for sure, more Americans watched the first televised game ever of the World Series a few days before between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers (the Yankees won, incidentally, 5 to 3).

But what made this speech special and historic is that it wasn’t about touting Harry or the United States but on the need to help others who were starving, namely, the war-torn nations of Europe, including the once archenemy, Germany. The winter of 1946-1947 had been hard on the other side of the Atlantic, and starvation was a real threat, especially for children. And Truman’s predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was heartless about the matter. When asked if the Germans should starve, FDR said, “Why not?”

To be sure, TVs may have been limited in number when Truman gave his address, but every newspaper in the country gave it attention, including in full its relatively short, but moving, text.

Of course, already in June 1947, during a speech at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall had proposed that a multibillion-dollar program of economic aid be enacted. The Marshall Plan, as it was ultimately called, took time to get through Congress and wasn’t signed by Truman until April 3, 1948. So an immediate program was needed; hence, the call by Truman for Americans to share what they had. “The nations of Western Europe,” said Truman, “will soon be scraping the bottom of the food barrel. They cannot get through the coming winter and spring without help — generous help from the United States . ... ”

Truman directed that all booze-making be suspended for 60 days (there were plentiful supplies on hand) so that liquor’s grain ingredients could be employed as food and shipped abroad; farmers were asked to reduce grains fed to livestock and poultry; restaurants weren’t to give out bread or butter unless requested by the diner; and the American family was to give up all meat on Tuesdays and poultry and eggs on Thursday, as well as one slice of bread every day.

As for the Americans who were “overeating,” think twice, scolded the president, about “taking more than a fair share of the supplies available. They will be personally contributing to increased inflation at home and to the desperate scarcity of food overseas.”

But the United States in 1947 wasn’t in the best shape to be charitable. After the end of World War II, which saw rationing of goods, the economy was stimulated by a rash in spending by consumers. That resulted in significant inflation, with too few goods being sought by caches of dollars. Prices rose by almost 50 percent in two years. Consequently, workers demanded wage increases to buy goods. Almost 4.5 million workers went on strike during 1946; no other year had seen so many strikes.

And when railroad workers threatened to go on strike, which would have exacerbated shortages and inflation, Truman threatened to draft them into the military so that he could stop their effort. Moreover, there simply weren’t enough jobs for everyone wanting to work, with veterans given preference for federal and state openings. For the first time since 1928, Republican adversaries took control in 1946 of both houses of Congress, winning with a powerful campaign slogan, “Had Enough?” The GOP quickly overrode Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley bill that overturned many of the rights won by unions during the administration of President Roosevelt.

Still, Americans were willing to accept Truman’s leadership to assist individuals abroad who were in much worse shape. And the program was a voluntary one that would succeed because America was a land of giving and global “friendship.” The message of the president was clear and simple: “Hungry people in other countries look to the United States for help. … I know that they will be waiting with hope in their hearts and a fervent prayer on their lips for the response of our people. … We must not fail them.”

Not surprisingly, this one episode spoke volumes for Truman’s reputation as chief executive. He handily won re-election in 1948 and has consistently been ranked by historians as among the nation’s 10 best presidents, most recently in 2015, at number six, behind Lincoln, Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas V. DiBacco, a 1959 Rollins College graduate, is professor emeritus at American University.