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Show I national AFFAIRS Reviewed by CARTER FIELD Carter Field believes Governor Bricker of Ohio has a good chance for the Republican nomination for President, if the national convention should be deadlocked dead-locked . . . Electric grid system sys-tem shrouded in mystery. (Bell Syndicate WNU Service.) WASHINGTON. The Republican presidential contest has narrowed down to Thomas E. Dewey and Sen. Robert A. Taft, so far as the pre-convention pre-convention battling is concerned. Of course anything may happen at Philadelphia. Phil-adelphia. There could be a deadlock, dead-lock, for example, with neither Taft nor Dewey able to muster a majority, ma-jority, at the end of which the leaders lead-ers would suddenly decide on the head of the ticket, or the convention conven-tion might be hysterically stampeded stamped-ed to almost any conceivable candidate. Incidentally that is one of the advantages ad-vantages of not taking part in the preconvention battle. To be eliminated elimi-nated in advance, as for example in ( primaries, puts a handicap on a man's being selected after a deadlock. dead-lock. Not always, however. There was Warren G. Harding, who did miserably in the primaries but was named after the three leaders had 1 worn themselves out ' John W. Bricker, governor of Ohio, seems to be In the prettiest position at the moment if there should be a deadlock. He is on the bench, at the moment, and must stay there until Taft wins or blows, by which time it may be too late. But if there Is a deadlock between be-tween Taft and Dewey, with just a few scattering votes which neither can corral to make a majority, the convention might turn to Bricker. That would be all right with most of the Republican leaders. It would be all right with most of the big contributors con-tributors to G. O. P. war chests, especially those in downtown New York. LITTLE BITTERNESS Up to now there has been little if any bitterness in the Republican fight, however, and bitterness is almost al-most an essential in' creating a deadlock. dead-lock. Taft has said nothing about Dewey, so far as has come to light, calculated to make Dewey or his friends eager to prevent Taft's nomination nom-ination at all costs. The same is true about Dewey's utterances. On the whole the picture does not look too bright for Mr. Bricker. Something may be said or done, before the convention assembles, to mar the harmony prevailing between the contestants. But there is no sign of it yet. In fact there is no prospect pros-pect of it even if there should be a knock down and drag out primary between Taft and Dewey in West Virginia, which looks more likely now than it did before Dewey scored so heavily in Wisconsin. SHROUDED IN MYSTERY Mystery continues to shroud the latest proposal for a huge electric grid system for the entire Northeast North-east from Boston to Chicago and Milwaukee, south to St. Louis and east to Baltimore which the federal power commission group laid before be-fore private utility executives. But since there has been a leak, and obviously a leak from federal sources, practical engineers and utility men not in the original secret have studied what they have learned about it, and are far from enthusiastic. enthusi-astic. This is a revision of the plan proposed pro-posed last summer, which was to have cost $400,000,000 and included four government built and operated steam plants, the whole avowed purpose pur-pose being to bolster the power supply sup-ply of industrial America against the possibility of it being called on for war production. Two things happened to that original origi-nal proposal. One was that congress con-gress was horrified at the notion of appropriating $400,000,000. The economy econ-omy wave, which has been slipping a bit since, was in the process of birth then, and the White House was giving no encouragement to any government branches figuring on a big boost in the budget. ISSUE SIDETRACKED The other was that war fever so obvious in some of the government's departments, notably the war department, de-partment, was just about the most interesting thing in Washington at that time. So the national defense motive, while still present, scarcely seemed to justify an appropriation of $400,000,000. So the group inside the government govern-ment so strongly interested in the grid system has whittled down and revised the plan. It now calls for an expenditure of only $189,508,200, and this does not require an appropriation. appro-priation. It merely requires that the RFC loan the money to the utilities. util-ities. Now the curious phase of the whole business is that the private utilities do not want the grid system. Particularly they do not want any grid system to be imposed by the government. So if it is to come it will have to be forced on them, and forced under the guise of national defense. |