e after his initial election in 1934. He had carried the taint of the Pendergast machine with him to Washington, D. C. and never forgot those few colleagues who welcomed him warmly. Truman’s personality and penchant for working hard had changed much of the perception of his colleagues and his friendly nature soon made him quite popular with other senators. That same affection would figure prominently in his reelection bid.
Even more helpful to Harry Truman was Lloyd Stark himself. The governor had shamelessly promoted himself to President Roosevelt and it would have been easy to think there was no other New Dealer in Missouri save for Lloyd Stark. It was obvious Stark was highly ambitious and once when the governor visited Senator Truman’s office, Truman blurted out to a staff member, “That son-of-a-bitch is running against me!”
Yet Lloyd Stark’s ambitions were not confined to the United States Senate. When Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson died in 1939, Governor Stark, a graduate of the Naval Academy, thought he would be an excellent replacement. In 1940, Stark considered the possibility FDR might not seek a third term and he very well might be nominated for the presidency. When it became clear that Roosevelt would indeed run again, Stark was eager to become the vice presidential nominee. Lloyd Stark’s ambitions conflicted with those of the senior senator from Missouri, Bennett Champ Clark. Senator Clark not only saw himself as the leader of the Democratic Party in Missouri, but as a genuine presidential prospect in the event FDR did not run again. Bennett Clark deeply resented Governor Stark and while he and Harry Truman had their differences, the senior senator would prove to be a valuable ally during the 1940 campaign.
The wily Senator Clark set out to divide the anti machine vote and began encouraging yet another ambitious politician to run for the Senate. U. S. Attorney Maurice Milligan found himself on the receiving end of Senator Clark’s attentions. Milligan had no fondness for Harry Truman, who had 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