 opposed his reappointment as United States Attorney. Milligan’s brother had run for the Senate in 1934 against Truman and he entered the 1940 primary. His candidacy had precisely the effect Bennett Clark intended. It deprived Governor Lloyd Stark of votes that he likely would have received otherwise.
Once Milligan entered the senatorial race and was in too deep to back out, Senator Bennett Clark took to the stump. Clark expertly used ridicule to deride Lloyd Stark’s political ambitions. Senator Clark rattled off all the offices Stark aspired to and finally concluded waspishly that he understood the governor was receptive to being elected Pope or Archbishop of Canterbury.
Stark’s campaign was awash with money, while Truman struggled to finance his own campaign. Senator Truman barely scraped by and his campaign was helped immeasurably by the support of labor, which furnished in-kind donations, money, and manpower. Stark was not helped when it was revealed his campaign had received an illegal donation from a utility company in the amount of $4,000, a huge sum for the time. Truman apparently received a $4,000 campaign contribution from Bernard Baruch, a millionaire businessman and stock investor who was a Democratic financial angel.
Governor Stark advertised himself as a friend of President Roosevelt and “A Vote for Stark Is a Vote for Peace, Preparedness and Good Government!”
Yet Harry Truman remained very popular with regular Democrats. At the Democratic State Convention in 1940, Governor Lloyd Stark was shocked to be booed by most of the delegates, while Senator Truman received a warm welcome. The St. Louis Star Times sulked that “It should come as no surprise to Lloyd C. Stark that was the victim of spiteful molestation and vicious resentment from county courthouse politicians and old-line Pendergast henchmen attending the Democratic State Convention.”
The Star Times editorial bemoaned Senator Bennett Clark’s “extreme verbal assaults on the governor” and blamed Clark for encouraging antagonism against Stark. The editor of the Star Times complained had Bennett Clark “stood shoulder to shoulder” with the governor against the remnants of the Pendergast machine, Missouri would be a much better place to live. The editorial outrage of the Star Times was largely ignored and the leader of the St. Louis machine, Robert Hannegan, was slowly changing his own political attitude. Much of the St. Louis machine had been prepared to back Stark, but Hannegan was having second thoughts.
A differing editorial opinion was shared with the readers of the Jefferson City Post Tribune who opined nobody brewed hatred of the governor but Lloyd Stark himself. The Post Tribune flatly stated Stark’s pursuit of the vice presidential nomination, which failed to interest much of anyone, “cost him prestige at home” and noted “it’s going to take those orchards a long time” to make up for “all those apples given away for free” at the Democratic National Convention to promote Governor Stark’s failed candidacy. It was an accurate assessment.
As the primary campaign became more heated, Bennett Clark’s pushing Maurice Milligan into the senatorial contest proved to be quite shrewd. Governor Stark and Milligan each tried to claim credit for the fall of T. J. Pendergast and destroying the Kansas City machine. While Maurice Milligan and Lloyd Stark bickered over who was the true giant killer, Senator Truman ignored the attacks on the Pendergast machine and talked about national issues.
Senator Bennett Clark continued his furious verbal assault on Governor Stark and publicly said he was backing neither Truman nor Milligan; he frankly stated his concern was seeing Lloyd Stark defeated. Privately, Clark was for Truman.
As the senatorial primary campaign came to a close, Governor Stark charged that Senator Truman was the beneficiary of a large “slush fund” raised by what was left of the Pendergast machine. A furious Truman, who struggled to raise money for his campaign, retorted that the governor had pressured state employees for contributions for his own campaign, a