Show News Behind the News GOP Heads Con Concede ede Division Of Ranks Serious Problem By RA RAY TUCKER WASHINGTON Republican members of ot the national committee com corn and congress concede rather grimly that the normally well disciplined G GOP 0 P has rarely approached a presidential struggle gle gic in such a state of ot dissension ion and confusion as now besets th their lr principal personalities and candidates for 1948 So acute have become the division divi divi- sion and find internal fe feuding ding in re recent recent re- re cent days that they wonder whether th they can can reform a united line behind a any platform or nominee even Phila Philadelphia delphia convention next June The primary cause of ot their difficulties has ss' ss its pl pleasanter aspects however r. r It appears tolie to tolie tolie lie in their beU belief f that they have havethe havethe havethe the b best t chance of ot Victory next year that they have enjoyed aln 1 1 Q 4 T t- t p Truman's recent gains in public opinion have have tempered their ear earlier lier anticipations They ar arc still licking ticking their chops but less vIolently violently vio yb- and noisily The prospect of party triumph always exaggerates latent animosities ani ani- ani- ani and differences as it did when Alfred E. E Smith and William G. G McAdoo destroyed the Democrats' Democrats seemingly seep fine chance in 1924 with their headon head head- on on surrender no wet dry f class clash at Madison Square Garden The second reason for tor the public public pub pub- lic He airing of their personal and philosophic disagreements a apolitical apolitical political heresy o of which the Grand Old Par Party was rarely guilty In the days of ot such two- two fisted bosses as the Cannons Reeds Plat Platts Piatt and Is Is the acute desire of pr presidential rivals to weaken or discredit Gov Thomas E Dewey of N New w York ii 1 1 As s the leading figure in al almost al- al lost l- l most ost all aU public polls although ranking near the bottom of the the books pt ot of members of ot congress ong ess and party workers n He has berie be be- i rie a natural target to fo for concerted concerted concerted con con- attack by his opp opponents They also nourish the secret grievance vance that he uhe had hi his chance f It almost seems that in their anxiety to kill off the urbane New Yorker they are willing to risk the thc reelection of Harry S Truman The third factor In the browl- browl ing is the most unconventional campaign which Harold E. E Stassen Stassen Stas- Stas sen sen- late if Minnesota but ut now a roaming roaming- political Romeo has hs conducted for the nomination As anxious observers mutter in congressional corridors That guy is worse than Wendell Willkie Will Will- kie kle As an o outsider If or so 50 his mates consider hl him and as a a aman man from a a state with only 11 electoral votes to Its name the handsome brash Mr Stassen figures that he must wage a slashing mashing tion battle which will set him apart from his fellows ws in inthe the delegates delegates' eyes The bosses agree that he has done Just that also believing that he has hurt both himself and his party by his unorthodox behavior With that Judgment Mr Stassen does docs not abide Nor will wUl he subside according to his present plans for an even more aggressive attempt to round up first or secondary delegates The Minnesotan for instance has branded Gov Gay Dewey Dewcy evasive evasive eva sive and me In his attitude attitude attitude atti atti- tude toward public problems He has i higher regard for tor Sen Taft but Mr Stassen has assailed assailed as as- sailed his stand on domestic affairs affairs affairs af af- af- af fairs as sed and h has s described described described de de- de- de scribed as mi miserly erly his position on aid to Europe Mr Taft is too courteous In public at l least ast to engage In per per- But it if is known that his brusque frank temperament inclines him to too to ct that political ambition accounts for Mr Deweys Dewey's del delayed mental re re- re actions W With th many others who ho will not be quoted he feels tha tl the New York gover governor or awaits th the publication o of public polls polls' before before before be- be be be- fore he announces his his' viewpoint With s-rdo s sardonic c humor mor th Dr George allup and arid Roper ope as an Albanys Albany's i y yer er J |