Show martin Is lakesy 7 GOP G UP dark IJ ark horse contest between taft dewey decisive in republican race by BAUKHAGE neus analyst end and commentator As this is written the crystal ball gazers say that the 5 51 8 1 black moustached ached governor of the empire state is going to be the next president of the united states some people will question this and three six or more months from now even my private crystal gazers may revise their predictions but the dewey following is confident even in the face of the latest roper poll which shows that harold stassen is the only republican now that eisenhower Elsen hower Is out who could win four out of the six major geography cal regions of the country from mr Tru truman maill the poll says stassen leads everywhere but in the solid suppose the solid south should split from the democratic party as they indicated they might in or der to rebuke the president for his so called anti southern civil rights message which becom mended antt anti lynch anticoll anti poll tax fair tices cices legislation which Is la belled pro negro by many southern critics 7 9 well sup pose that and as of the date of this poll february 5 stassen has it still the old timers stick to their prediction of dewey which they make with tears in their eyes in stead of smoke from the smoke filled room where decisions are sup posed to be made I 1 wish that you people could have attended that over crowded lunch eon at the national press club when gen dwight eisenhower Elsen hower spoke and introduced his ins successor gen omar bradley as chief ot of staff it was a food good talk and you probably read the lepor report t ot of it you also probably have read the report of the question and an ewer period general eis els endower permitted and which was one of the best news con leren ces that s what it turned 49 out to be that I 1 ever have at f tended members who couldn coulden t get in were standing up cocking ears 13 12 to 15 deep outside the entrances to the dining room naturally some questions dealt with the eisenhower Elsen hower withdrawal statement issued late in january the night after the eisenhower Elsen hower withdrawal which most republicans and democrats considered as final I 1 happened to be with two d die ae hard right wing republicans who wouldn t even admit they were as happy as they were they kept say ing why coulden couldn t he have said that much earlier if he meant it and anyhow he has left a loophole so he can run if not now in 1952 I 1 couldn coulden t see that I 1 knew a lot of republicans thought eisenhower Elsen hower s letter was an absolutely honest statement dictated by the reason ing of an honest man untrained in politics it is true but speaking i from his heart there isn t space to repeat eisen hower bower s long statement in which he said among other things I 1 am not available for and could not accept nomination for high political office my dec deci sion is definite and post tive the necessary and wise subordination of the military to civil power will be best sustained when lifelong pro fess ional soldiers abstain from seeking high political office I 1 would regard it as un alloyed tragedy for our country tf if ever should come he the day when military commanders might be selected with an eye to their future potentialities in the political field genera general sherman said I 1 will win not run if it nominated and will not serve if elected but what motivated sherman and eisenhower Elsen hower the sincere belief expressed in eisenhower Elsen hower s statement that a man of purely military training gasn wasn t equipped for the job that state ment as you know was thrown back at eisenhower Elsen hower as a sideswipe at gen douglas macarthur who has emphatically NOT said that he to run I 1 have spoken of the eisenhower Elsen hower family at some length before in this column I 1 do not clam aa to be more than an acquaintance but as I 1 said when general eisenhower Elsen hower s statement came over the wire I 1 was firmly convinced that there wasn gasn t any equivocation in it and I 1 am glad that the press and their friends heard eisenhower Elsen hower answer the ques eions as he did giving back steel for steel on every throw there was a big sigh of relief of course when the republican and democratic leaders knew eisen hower bower was out I 1 felt the same way but for a d efferent reason my rea eon son for being glad that eisenhower Elsen hower isn t going to be president as he would have been on any ticket it if he had run is the same reason he put forth I 1 have tremendous respect for him hirn personally professionally I 1 am not a professional soldier but my experience as a wartime sold er is reinforced by an indirect imbres sion of military thought which goes back for man hanif generations in my own family and Is kept alive with close personal contacts in the armed services I 1 simply say this to the voter lou may have a tremendous respect for a man s military record but that t mean you d call him in if your child had appendicitis politics is just as much of a profession as med acine or the law we need a trained leader in this particular kind of leading maybe we will get one maybe we won t speaker joe martin universally popular stassen has certain qualities of leadership with which he seems to have impressed the people inter viewed by the roper potters but unless stassen could sweep the arl manes marles I 1 lm m frankly quoting my chief crystal gazer he t a chance at this writing there doesn doean t seem to be a chance of his sweeping the primaries and anyhow there aren t many states which have adopted this device which it was thought could beat the smoke filled room now the man who Is going to be nominated is the man who wins in the taft dewey contest always as of NOW that doesn doean t mean it will be taft or dewey but it does mean that it will be the man who although he chasn t enough votes on this prelim can pick up enough in dependent votes in later con tests to see him through at the present writing it looks as if it there were enough of those changeable votes to nominate dewey if it s neither dewey nor stassen the wise guys in wash agton say it will be none other than speaker joe martin who never insulted anybody and has more fr ends in and out of washington than a winner in a crap game when everyone else is broke without ever pull puling ng any rough stuff joe martin has put more peo pie under willing obligation to him than any man I 1 know in congress for example when the taft hartley fight was at its hottest a certain republican congressman came to joe and said 1 I in sorry joe I 1 ve got to bolt my cons titu ency doesn doean t want this bill joe didn dian t argue he simply said don t worry I 1 understand your situation perfectly we 11 get the votes anyhow forget it that man is joe s friend for life some years ago a magazine took a secret poll of the wash ington correspondents to determine the most useful man in congress he was to be judged by his integrity intelligence industry and influence joe got the highest ugliest vote of anyone in either house or senate not long ago there was one of those big part es here periodically thrown by various visiting firemen it was a regular stampede but some way I 1 managed to back joe martin into a corner with my two washington wise assistants joe Is a bachelor and these two women are not lacking in either brains or pulchritude they d both met the speaker before more or less pro fessio nally anyhow rather formally this wasn gasn t formal neither of ahm is a born and bred republican lice me and all other washingtonians Washing they are and more or less neutral between the parties both of them fell for joe martin hard and it wasn gasn t because it is leap year and joe is a bachelor they are both happily married the only kind of assistants my wife and I 1 hire at any rate joe martin is a good dark horse to watch |