The Train That Changed History

There were three political conventions held in Philadelphia in 1948, a year that was among the most politically contentious in American history.  The Second World War had ended only three years before, and the man who inherited the job only months after President Roosevelt was sworn in for his fourth term, Harry Truman, had his hands full.

Truman was the hand-picked Vice President by the Democratic Party back room bosses in 1944 as they knew Roosevelt would die in office. Roosevelt actually despised Truman and did not want him for a running mate.  The party trembled in fear of then Vice President Henry Wallace running the country and actually told Roosevelt they would not support his fourth term with Wallace.  Truman had no real baggage other than he came from a big city machine, but who didn’t.  Wallace’s ultra-left wing progressive positions scared more than few.

The magnitude of the decisions that Truman found before him in ending the war and restarting the peacetime economy came fast and furious.  He never shrank from the job, but quickly became a moving target for interest groups, political opponents, and the press.  The national media of the time found the high-school educated Truman and his “down home” style not all that appealing and combined it with suggestions he was not smart enough to be president.  “To err is Truman” was among the many barbs sent his way, and Truman fired back with a long series of one liners that are well worth reviewing in an age where manufactured plastic personalities have long replaced “what you see is what you get” on the national stage. My personal favorite: “There is no limit to what one may achieve in this country as long as they don’t mind who takes the credit”.

Skipping over the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, massive problems on the world stage and the beginning of the cold war with Russia, Truman had a multitude of domestic challenges and issues to deal with.  The threat of national strikes and major labor unrest pitted him against many Democrats who elected him, as he told labor leaders they were not going to run the country and disrupt the lives of every citizen.  However, the most long-ranging domestic decision Harry Truman made was on July 26, 1948 when he issued the Executive Order to desegregate the U.S. Military - - beginning immediately.

Some saw it coming, many in the South said it would never happen, as the deal made after the corrupt Hayes-Tilden race of 1876 forced an end to Northern Occupation and created the hypocrisy of “Separate But Equal” racial division in the Southern states. All of these states were solidly Democratic as there were virtually no Republicans in the South, but they abandoned their President immediately, and began supporting Segregationist Candidate Strom Thurman to run as a third party candidate.  For many the 1948 election was a foregone conclusion, with Republican Thomas Dewey of New York being handed the mantle by the national press and handicappers who concluded that without the “Solid South”, minority party candidates, and considering Harry Truman’s history that he had no chance for re-election.

Both majority party Conventions were held here in Philadelphia that year during June and July, and many Democrats did not want to even consider their serving president for the ballot.  Most Southern delegates bolted the convention to support Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond in Birmingham Alabama, but a splinter party the Progressives, headed by former Vice President and recently fired (by Truman) Commerce Secretary Henry Wallace also held its convention here.

However, the bombshell of that initial salvo to begin racial integration in this country takes place in the same month only adding polarization to an already highly-charged atmosphere.  Even Republican Dewey did not get nominated until the third ballot, unusual for the Republicans.

Truman had to fight his way to nomination and even the party hierarchy were about to informally concede that the Republicans would take back the White House for the first time since 1931. Truman had a different idea that no one saw coming.

THE TRAIN

Although the president did travel by air in those infancy days of commercial aviation, the primary presidential transport inherited from Franklin Roosevelt was the presidential private railroad car that had been substantially renovated, bullet proofed and reconstructed in 1942 at the beginning of World War II.  While not particularly conspicuous from the outside it wore the then-standard olive green color of most traditional railroad Pullman sleeping cars, but was a rolling hotel with the best accommodations and a large open platform at one end where the President could speak to an audience without leaving the train.  Pullman cars all had names, rather than numbers in those days, and this one was “Ferdinand Magellan”.  Truman decided to start traveling from July through the November election and it was to be a campaign train without precedent.

Although modern streamlined stainless steel and lightweight passenger trains arrived in the late 1930s and by 1948 were the premier trains for long-distance travel on most railroads, the logistics of the Ferdinand Magellan presented a problem.  This car had to be the last car of the train from which the President would speak and it was almost three times the weight of those lightweight modern cars. Starting and stopping a 17 car passenger train with that much weight at the back was considered a serious concern if the intervening train were light cars.  So it was decided that the entire train would be the heaviest of Pullmans from the traditional pool to help with the balance and safety of the operation.  The full consist of the train was often a baggage car with autos, many Pullman sleepers, some converted to communications cars, some for reporters and secret service and staff, and two dining cars.

While the train stayed basically the same for the multiple cross country trips the locomotives changed each time the train moved from one railroad company to another. This being long before consolidations and mergers meant frequent engine changes.  Despite the fact that Harry Truman had used federal government intervention in one of the ugliest national strikes in recent years in 1946, both the companies and crews were pleased to handle these trains. Most lines sent their newest streamlined diesels engines to make the runs, but half the railroad industry was still steam powered in 1948.  One memorable leg of the trip was on the Union Pacific Railroad where there was a time constraint to get the president overnight to Denver by noon for a scheduled speech. They assigned a polished up steam engine that was capable of speeds in excess of the diesels limit of 90 mph to keep ahead of schedule. According to the memoirs of daughter Margaret Truman, her father was reading late that night and became uncomfortable as he looked at the speedometer in his private car while the train was maintaining 105 mph for an extended period through Kansas. He ordered a speed reduction for the sake of safety.

It was not specially painted or decorated in any way as the plan was not to call this a campaign train, but a Presidential inspection tour on the early runs.  Actually it made a series of trips that covered nearly 30,000 miles with the president making 340 speeches to 6 million people in 35 states before it was over, many of them in small towns from the back of the car to assembled crowds at the depot or even freight yards. With the exception of a small segment of Northern Virginia, the train never entered any of the former Confederate States in the South.

THE TRIPS

The first of Truman’s rail trips with the special train was a 15 day, 18 state 13 speech official government tour that began on June 3, 1948.  That set the tone and was a learning curve for the multiple trips in October closer to the November election day. As late as mid-October Newsweek Magazine had polled what they considered the 50 most informed political experts for a forecast of the upcoming election result only weeks away.  All 50 claimed Dewey would win handily.  Truman is handed the article, ridiculed the expertise of the 50, and set about covering as much territory as possible.

The train ran from coast to coast several times taking northern and southern routes, up and down the west coast covering all but a few states other than the intentionally by-passed South.  Truman knew that his July 26, Executive Order that integrated the Armed Forces ended any election chances in the south and if he was to pull the race out of the fire it had to be through renewing personal confidence in him, his decisions and from the grass roots.

As time marched on and campaign funds dwindled the funding of the trips was reduced to essentially passing the hat at major station stops and counting the revenue from the local Democratic Party efforts. The next stop was often chosen by how many train miles the money could buy!  Small towns where the train only stopped on whistle signals were regular stops for this special and hence the name was applied by a reporter after a Republican ridiculed the tactic in a speech at the Philadelphia Union League.

Working this train into regular railroad commerce in an era where most travelers and the vast majority of freight were carried by train was no small accomplishment.  Security was paramount and difficult, with the Secret Service having to ad lib at every new location on a moment-to-moment basis. Railroad officials did all they could to make sure human error did not delay the train or cause accidents.  Reports state that switches were spiked in one direction and military and police guarded the trackside in areas where that was considered prudent.

The crowds that appeared trackside and at stations small and large swelled as Election Day drew closer. Truman never gave up his enthusiasm or listened to the self-absorbed national press and handicappers who predicted a landslide against him right up to Election Day.

He had returned to his home in Independence Missouri to vote and was riding the train back to Washington when it stopped in St. Louis on Election Day Nov, 4, 1948.  From the back railing of the Ferdinand Magellan Truman held up the early edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune which proudly proclaimed in large headline: “DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN”, when in reality Truman was the victor.  That photograph is one of the most significant in American political history as Truman’s 11th hour efforts had reversed national sentiment, brought the people to the polls in what was the most resounding reversal of expected outcome at that level the country has ever experienced.

Jim Foster

Editor