PRESIDENT ANNOYED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27570, 12 December 1950, Page 7

PRESIDENT ANNOYED

Criticism Of Daughter’s Singing Abilities THREAT TO MUSIC CRITIC NZPA—Copyright • WASHINGTON, Dec. 9. President Truman this week is reported to have threatened to punch a Washington music critic on the nose for criticising the singing abilities of liis daughter, Margaret. The threat is stated to have been included in a note to Paul Hume, music critic for the Washington Post. The note was handwritten on the White House stationery and bore the familiar initials “H.S.T.” Hume refused to make public the note, but the Washington Daily News published a version which said: “I have just read your lousy review buried in the back pages. You sound like a frustrated old man who never made a success, an eight-ulcer man on a four-ulcer job and all four ulcers working. I have never met you, but if I do you will need a new nose and plenty of beef steak and perhaps a supporter below. Westbrook Pegler, a guttersnipe, is a gentleman compared with you. You can take that as more of an insult than as a reflection of your ancestry. H.S.T.” The White House confirmed that the President did write to Hume, and it is learned, says the United Press, that the contents of the letter were substantially as reported by the Daily News. Hume had criticised Miss Truman for her “ flat ” singing at a Constitution Hall recital on December 5. He said: “Miss Truman is extremely attractive on the stage, but cannot sing very well. She is flat a good deal of the time. There are a few moments during her recital when one can relax and feel confident she will make her goal, which is the end of the song, and still the public goes and pays the same price it would pay for the world’s finest singers.” Hume today in commenting on President Truman’s note, said that his attitude was that of a “ man suffering the loss of a close friend and carrying the terrible burden of the present world crisis, who could be forgiven an occasional outburst of temper.” (Mr Charles Ross, the President’s press secretary, died on December 5, a few hours before Miss Truman gave her concert). Music critics throughout the country have given Miss Truman’s singing a mixed reception since she took the concert stage in 1947. Pegler said in New York: “It is a great tragedy that in this awful hour the people of the United States must accept in lieu of leadership the nasty malice of a President whom Bernard Baruch in a similar incident called a rude, uncouth, ignorant man. Let us pray.” President Truman wrote an angry letter to Mr Baruch, noted financier and adviser to Presidents, at the time of the 1948 Presidential elections. Pegler, a widely-syndicated columist, is one of President Truman’s severest critics.