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Show What The Republicans Need Is... The continued fist-shaking by national leaders oMhe Republican party at something they call "me-tooism" is getting awfully tiresome. It's been over a year now since Tom Dewey, their favorite fav-orite whipping boy, lost the election to Harry Truman supposedly because Dewey was too me-tooey and yet party leaders at the national level are still talking as if the election had just happened. At this late date they still seem to think a staunch stand against me-tooism is enough "to woo the voters back into the fold. How blind can you get? Perhaps we should explain right here that this complaint com-plaint is not against Republicans of the Taft or Lee stripe. Ohio's Senator Taft and Utah's Governor Lee are constantly getting on the record with words which, though not always popular, are certainly forthright. Our objection is rather to the non-professional party leaders of the national committee com-mittee set who are still fumbling around with post-election apologies. Only Tuesday night, according to a newstory from Chicago, the Republican national strategy committee engaged en-gaged in the usual soul-searching and, exhibiting the courage cour-age of lions, again came out four-square against me-tooism. But did they more than one year after the debacle of '48 come out FOR anything? Nope, nothing yet. Maybe a little something later. "GOP National Chairman Guy Gabrielson left for New York city," said the Chicago news dispatch, "with the announcement an-nouncement that a statement of Republican principles will be submitted to the next national committee meeting, probably prob-ably in February." Meanwhile, there are many of us who do not approve the Truman Fair Deal and its loose way with a buck, or rather, a billion bucks. Whatsmore, we prefer enlightened capitalim with its accompanying freedom for the individual, to any kind of socialism, enlightened or otherwise, administered ad-ministered by an all-powerful state. And we fear monopolistic monopo-listic practices on the part of labor with the same urgency we fear these practices on the part of capital. Yes, there are many of us who feel these things strongly strong-ly and have looked in the past to the Republican party to give them voice and effect. But the G.O.P.'s present national nat-ional leaders have failed to forge the party into such an instrument. Unless they soon do, and stop raging at the straw man, me-tooism, the party better get some new leaders lead-ers or there won't be any party left to lead. |