Harry Truman

  b. 1884; d. 1972 | American politician

At The Bottom

— 1922

For the rest of her life, she suffered headaches, nausea and seizures as a result of the trauma from that assault.

After only three years in business, Harry Truman’s Kansas City clothing store was in deep trouble.  Truman and his friend Eddie Jacobson had returned from their service in World War I and opened the store in a prime downtown location, where they planned to sell a full line of “gents furnishings,” including shirts, socks, ties, belts, and hats.  Truman had grown up as the son of a farmer and livestock dealer in the nearby town of Independence, but he had no taste for the farming life.  During the war, he and Jacobson had run the canteen at Ft. Sill during their training, and they did such steady business that they decided to try their hand at running their own.  At first, the operation was a roaring success; the partners doubled their investment, selling $70,000 worth of goods their first year (roughly $760,000 in today’s’ dollars).  By 1922, however, the nation’s economy was suffering from the effects of a deep post-war recession.  Farmers took the worst of it, as wheat prices dropped by nearly half; because the economy of Kansas City was so closely linked to the agricultural market, businesses like Truman’s and Jacobson’s suffered as well.  Their earlier, flourishing success had disappeared.  They were now tens of thousands of dollars in debt. With their business on the verge of ruin, Harry and Eddie closed up their shop for good.  At the age of 38, Harry Truman seemed pretty well washed up.