of American military preparedness when European conflict erupted again in 1939. In 1940, Truman was reelected to the Senate as a Democratic politician who was not endorsed by and did not endorse Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Truman heard about needless waste and profiteering from the construction of Fort Leonard Wood in his home state of Missouri, and he determined to see for himself what was going on. He traveled in his personal car not only to Missouri but also to various military installations from Florida through the Midwest driving approximately 10,000 miles (16,000 km). Everywhere he went, he saw the hard-luck poverty of the working people in contrast to millions of government dollars going to military contractors. Too many of the contractors were reaping excess profits from cost-plus contracts without being held accountable for the poor quality of the goods delivered. He also saw that too many contracts were held by a small number of contractors based in the East rather than distributed fairly around the nation. Returning to Washington, DC, Truman met with the President, who appeared sympathetic to his wish for corrective action but did not want Truman to reveal to the nation the wasteful nature of Roosevelt's own federal programs. In early 1941, Representative Eugene Cox, a vocal anti-New Deal Democrat, proposed an investigative committee run by the House of Representatives, intending to expose federal waste in military spending. Learning of the likely source of embarrassment, Roosevelt joined with Senator James F. Byrnes to back a more friendly committee run by the Senate, one with the same stated purpose but with Truman as leader. Truman was seen by Roosevelt as less ideological and accusatory and more practical. On February 10, 1941, Truman spoke to the Senate about the problems he had seen on his long drive, and he put forward the idea to have a special oversight committee on military contracts. It was the first new idea that Truman presented to the nation and he received a positive reaction. Other senators were favorable to the notion that their views on spending would be heard and that valuable military contracts would be distributed more evenly to each state. Truman also talked to John W. Snyder and other attorneys of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Defense Plant Corporation about how to avoid the problems of lost paperwork, wasted time in investigation, and lost productivity experienced during the Great