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Show GRASSROOTS President Truman Will Be Hard To Beat in 1952 By Wright A. Patterson JONATHAN DANIELS, the editor of the Raleigh, S. C. Chronicle, a friend of President Truman, a one time employee in the White House, says In the August American Ameri-can Magazine that Harry S. Truman will be the Democratic nominee for President next year, and gives a number of reasons why he will be elected. No one of his reasons are as potent as the one that he falls to mention. That It the assured Truman vote of the Democratle army of bureaucrats, new numbering 2,300,000, and their relatives and friends, who want to see them hold onto their federal government govern-ment jobs. In the days of Tammany Tam-many eontrol of New York city, the sachems claimed that each Job was good for eight Tammany Tam-many votes In any rlty election, and frequently demonstrated the correctness of that claim. But should each bureaurratlo Job be good for only half of that number, four votes, there, for the President to start with, Is more than eight million votes, and that Is some handicap for any Republican nominee to overcome. over-come. Especially so, when the party is enly against what the opposition has done, but for nothing with which to appeal for votes, while the Democratic Demo-cratic rarty stands for a definite, and well defined program. That program is one reason for the Daniels assurance of Truman sue-, sue-, cess. Tbi Republicans (an taki full credit lor that 8,000,000 vott handicap they must overcome if their candidate is to win. In the 80i congresss, they had a majority ma-jority in both houses of congress, and might have forced the disbanding dis-banding of that bureaucratic army by not appropriating money to pay it, but they did Hot do so, and now they must face the consequences. That army will be larger, rather than less, when the 1952 election day arrives. For each new Job there will be, at least four more Truman votes. I would say that betting against the President is in no sense a sure win. A California state official, of-ficial, a Republican, said to me recently: "Unless Warren is the Republican nominee, the state will be in the Truman column." It hardly seems probable, but Daniels could be right. Anyway let's wait until the votes are counted. o The people and state officials of California think It Is quite proper for the federal government govern-ment to spend billions In building build-ing dams. Irrigating land and preventing floods In California, from whl:h only the people of California benefit, but they seriously seri-ously object to the same procedure pro-cedure I Arizona. The central valley project of California, Cali-fornia, is a much a state project as Is the central Arizona project The one difference is the smaller cost in California. Neither project will benefit any one outside of the state in which the money is spent. But it is the tax-payers in all the states who will pay the bill for both, and the people of both states eventually will sacrifice much of their local sovereignty through accepting ac-cepting and using the billions the federal government pours into such projects. For those states it means the death of constitutional state's rights. Congress should stop all such appropriations, other than those that can be self liquidating over a reasonable number of years. The Hoover dam in the Colorado river, while benefitting in one way or another five states and though built with government govern-ment money, was not gift. The cost Is being returned to the federal treasury, and within a reasonable rea-sonable number of years it will all be paid, plus interest. Others should be financed in the same way, Including In-cluding the central Arizona project, but the wealthy land owners are like all the other indigents who want their water supplied to them at no cost We pay a terrible price in dead and crippled for each weekend holiday. holi-day. Too much hurry to get there. British born Secretary of State Acheson is a heavy load to carry Into a political campaign. The report of the Senate Investigating Investi-gating committee was not specially pleasing to those responsible for the firing of Doufflas Mac Arthur. |
