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Show i . m IFNGeneral JOie HUGH s. Johnson mJaar: ADVICE TO REPUBLICANS Having generously provided the Democrats with wholly unsolicited and gratuitous opinions as to how to run their show, it seems no less than fair to do an equally unsought service for the Republicans. Dr. Johnson's diagnosis here Is based entirely on his findings on the Democratsthat Dem-ocratsthat Mr. Roosevelt will be In the opposition. But tf Mr. Roosevelt runs. It Is probable that he could lick any of the present foremost contenders for the Republican crown singly or in any possible permutation of pairs. Perhaps It Is a little premature to assay Mr. Dewey's position on national problems because, as Raymond Ray-mond Clapper has so sharply pointr ed out, he hasn't defined it. He did a magnificent job of generalization in his first speech and has well presented pre-sented the argument for the prose- I G.O.P I I STABLE I A WOW IN THE GYM cution. But that isn't enough. Generalities Gen-eralities and criticism are two small-bore weapons, but specific proposal and constructive suggestion sugges-tion is absolutoly necessary this year. Senator Vandenberg has had to take forthright positions. He is on record on everything. But he is recorded re-corded on so many sides of so many questions that Mr. Roosevelt's ghost manned speech factory would go to work on him with whoops of glee. Senator Taft Just isn't sufficiently articulate. His principal asset is a name and, while it was the name of a very great man, it wasn't the name of a very great President, and the senator seems to be a chip oft the old block. There are two candidates available avail-able to the Republicans who would take care of themselves with Mr. Roosevelt on their feet in any ring in the country and with no holds barred. One is Mayor La Guardia of New York, who has a mind like a steel trap, can speak masterfully on any public question at a moment's notice no-tice and has hung up the best comparative com-parative record in the country bar none not only as a vote-getter but as an able, honest, conservative and effective chief executive In the second hardest Job of the kind in the nation. He did it with no political party at all behind him. He has a distinct national standing with agriculture ag-riculture and with labor on his congressional con-gressional record. The other is Wendell Willkie. You can't dismiss him because he runs a public utility any more than you can dismiss La Guardia because he is called "radical." I try to visualize visu-alize these men as candidates or Presidents, rather than by thoughtless thought-less label. With either or, better, both of these men on a Republican ticket, we shall see a real race. The way matters seem to be trending now, it will be just 1936 over again. e e RAILROAD PROBLEMS Our log Jam of unemployment should be scientifically attacked at the key timbers. For seven years we have been doctoring the symptoms symp-toms by handouts "to distribute purchasing power." Every single one of these rules and subsidies, by increased taxes, debts and regulatory regula-tory burdens, tends to increase the cost of things as fast or faster than it spreads the purchasing power to consume them. The latter effect cancels out the former. Recently more intelligence has been applied to releasing one of the key logs in the jam building construction. Another equally important im-portant key log is the railroad mess. There has been so much decay and so many improvements in the railroad industry that if they could get that capital, the modernization of our railroad system would afford a very large re-employment It could speed up our whole economic system save time and lower costi of everything that moves in com merre. This is the surest and soundest way to increased consumption, hence production, hence employment employ-ment and to farm relief. Senator Wheeler's bill for railroad reorganization is among our most important pieces of legislation. It recognizes that some railroad capi-1 tal structures must be "put through the wringer" by prompt and realis- j tic court action reducing obligations to pay for dead horses of past mis- takes or on values of property be-; yond what can be properly classified classi-fied as their reasonable power to earn. j |