First Election Won with 'Goats' Support
At the end of the Great War, five citizens of Independence returned from
France with the rank of captain: Harry S. Truman, Roger T. Sermon, Spencer
Salisbury, Kenneth Bostian and Art Wilson, who was my grandfather.
Unlike the other captains, Captain Truman had neither personal resources
nor an ongoing business to return to. Like many veterans of the current
era, Harry Truman had difficulty in finding permanent employment. Besides
his famous bankrupt haberdashery, Mr. Truman tried a wide variety of
crafts, including the sale of life insurance and the sale of memberships
in the Missouri Automobile Club.
In 1922, through the assistance of war buddy Eddie Jacobson and other of
his Kansas City friends, Mr. Truman was offered the support of the Goat
faction (Tom Pendergast's group) in seeking the Democratic nomination for
eastern judge of Jackson County.
The Goat candidate for western judge already was locked up in the person
of
Henry F. McElroy, later the first city manager of Kansas City. With Goat
support, Mr. Truman easily won the Democratic primary.
In 1922, there were not sufficient Republicans in the eastern portion of
the county to necessitate a primary election. The Republican County
Committee nominated the Republican candidate.
Faced with a returning war veteran filling the Democratic slot for eastern
judge, the Republican Committee solicited the assistance of a Republican
veteran holding the rank of captain, Cpt. Arthur L. Wilson, Engineer
Corps, who had operated sawmills behind the 35th Division front in France
to produce the necessary timbers and duckboards required for World War I
trench warfare.
Captain Wilson returned to Independence in 1919 to continue the operation
of the A.L. Wilson Lumber Co. at 120 5. Liberty Street. When contacted by
the Republican Committee, Art responded that he would be willing to allow
his name to be placed on the ballot; however, he firmly stated that since
he was not a politician he would not campaign for the office. He,
thereafter, left Independence for a month long fishing trip in
Colorado.
Art Wilson lost the general election to Harry Truman by 2,764 votes.
I have in my personal collection of Truman memorabilia a piece of scrap
paper in Mr. Truman's handwriting where he kept the vote count on all
candidates in the general election of 1922.
Truman had 9,073 votes to Wilson's 6,319. First election won with 'Goats'
support.