President Truman traveled through Ohio yesterday enroute to Buffalo where he will talk tonight, pounding away at the same theme “I like Ike but . . . .”

Now it takes more than mere words to explain one man’s sudden change in feeling toward another and none has been forthcoming from Mr. Truman that has any solidity in fact. Four years ago Mr. Truman wanted Eisenhower to run for the presidency on the Democratic ticket. Gen. Eisenhower refers to this in his book “Crusade in Europe,” and Mr. Truman has never denied it.

At that time he praised Eisenhower to the skies. He referred to him as one of the greatest citizens of the modern world, and said he deserved to be placed in the same category with the greats of American history.

When Europe faced the grim task of setting up a military defense against the encroachments of Communism, President Truman turned toward the then president of Columbia University and asked him to undertake the job.

Being a soldier at heart he answered the request and within a few months had the several nations in Europe working toward a common goal. It was one of the most important posts in the world, and knowing his war-time ability, Mr. Truman turned toward the man he felt best fitted for the job.

Time and again he lauded Eisenhower for his outstanding patriotism and ability.

Today the tongue that once sounded the general’s praises is sounding a note of alarm. Mr. Truman, the man who said “Uncle Joe Stalin was a pretty decent fellow” in Seattle four years ago, now says he had been misinformed about Russia’s evil intent by Gen. Eisenhower.

The man Truman thought good enough to be president in 1948 has since become the target of bitter vilification.

Was it Eisenhower who said of China “we will wait until the dust settles?”

Was it Eisenhower who said “we consider Korea beyond our defense perimeter?”

Was it Eisenhower who urged Gen. Chiang Kai-Shek to load up his government with Communists?

Of course not. Those bits of advice came from his closest aides. Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Gen. George C. Marshall.

Do you hear any words of condemnation from Mr. Truman heaped on those two men?

No—he reserves his sarcasm, his bitter jibes and uncouth language for a man he once hailed as a great American, the man who has the audacity to run for the presidency on the Republican ticket. [And there’s your answer]