U.S. students miss out on great history tales

I have been a student of history all of my life and I find it incredible that European and Asian school kids know far more American history than our own kids do. I have always regarded history as a grab bag of terrific stories. For instance:

In the adoring biography of her father, Harry S. Truman, Margaret Truman, in the large chapter about the 1948 Presidential campaign, wrote rather extensively about how, when a train engine stops, the cars behind it bunch up and then re-expand to their full length. With a large train, this can take upward of 30 to 40 seconds. During their entire nationwide whistle stop campaign, Harry Truman's aides always sent word to the next destination asking the crowds not to approach the train until it had finished rolling back.

On Oct. 12, 1948, Truman's Republican challenger, New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, committed an incredible blunder. His train rolled into Beaucoup, Ill., and Dewey stepped out onto the platform of the rear car. He began speaking while the train was still moving and the lurch of the rollback caught him in the middle of a sentence. Stupidly, Dewey lost his temper, and on nationwide radio, he suggested that the train engineer be shot at sunrise. Margaret Truman estimated that Dewey's foolish remark probably cost him half a million labor votes.

Steven W. Bristow

Cedar Rapids