Truman and Pendergast

No portion of the political career of Harry S. Truman was more fraught with drama than his early relationship with Thomas J. Pendergast. The two men met in 1927. Truman, who was then presiding judge of Jackson County, gave a $4000,000 road contract to a construction company in South Dakota, and Pendergast, the Boss of Kansas City, wasn't very happy about it: he had someone else in mind for the contract. Although their association began in disagreement, their common interest in politics was enoug…