Show GENERAL g HUGH S. S JOHNSON Jays m f Washington I D. D C C. C WiLLKiE Three days of observation of Wendell Wendell Wen dell have been openers eye-openers to me well me-well well as I thought I knew him This column Isn't going to tomake tomake tomake make the mistake It made In 1930 1936 and take a strong partisan position But It feels a certain sense of responsibility responsibility re reo re- re for Insisting on the availability availability avail avail- ability of this man for almost two years and getting a good many raspberries raspberries rasp rasp- berries for Its alleged goofiness The opener eye was this guys guy's sturdy Independence I think he Is another but a pleasanter Grover Grovr Cleveland I sensed and sometimes saw the strongest kinds of pulls and pressures applied to him in these few days Some of them were from the mightiest of political lead lead- ers era Others were of the modern telegraph-barrage telegraph variety Speak variety Speaking Speak ing for farmers we urge Speaking for Catholics we demand As representative of Negroes we ask If you wont won't do so and you will lose NewYork New NewYork NewYork York state and the whole Atlantic seaboard The candidate answers genially and courteously He lie checks facts from every source he can command He III continues to pursue the even tenor of his way and thought with a smiling urbanity that seems a miracle miracle mira mira- cle to me I know only one other man who could take such ouch pushing pulling and yawing with as much good nature as DI little disturbance of his convictions and as little loss of sleep Ills name Is Franklin Roosevelt Roose velt I do not for a moment mean to suggest that Wendell Is a stubborn dogmatist He lie Is Just the reverse of that He lie has the usual business habit of putting pulling up an alert defensive to any professional sales talk But Dut he also uses the efficient bus business Inns mans man's practice of overlooking overlooking overlook overlook- ing no promising proposition and of getting every fact tact and expert opinion available before he decides There has hu been a good deal of speculation spec spec- about why I went to Colorado Springs Mr asked me to come to give my opinion on eer- eer certain thin tain aspects of the farm labor and defense problems with all an of which I have had some experience and andt to t have expressed strong views Well he winnowed whatever I brains I have with a tooth fine comb so far as I know accepted nothing put up as able and well Informed debate as I 1 have yet encountered encountered- and left me in complete ignorance as to his final judgment To me all this seems a good sign The greatest blunder in a recent government has been I think a sort of trout like snapping at and end swallowing whole of any attractive brainstorm with little or no attempt to get an objective analysis or hear any worthwhile worth contrary opinion Of one thing I am sure Nobody Is going to shove this shaggy Hoosier around sell him any gold bricks or push him off oft of any Important moral position for the sake of any expedient ent political advantage The latter has to my knowledge been vainly attempted with dire threats of defeat defeat defeat de de- de- de feat if Winkle did not instantly knuckle He Ill just laughed He Ill has another quality of Franklin Roosevelt Nobody rejected ever I goes away mad But Dut while the PresIdent PresIdent President Pres Pres- ident accomplishes this by saying Yes yes yes you yes you are perfectly right and then acts just as he pleases Mr somehow manages manages man man- ages to keep them cheerful with something like Yours received and contents noted I will study it care care- fully Just now attractive as the case ease may be l I I still say he would be a great President SO 50 DESTROYERS NEW YORK The The fight to sell 50 5 0 of our destroyers to Britain is led by the two whirling dervishes o othe of f the third-term third assault on American tradition tradition the the glamorous Senators Josh Lee and Claude Pepper Each has a right to be as fanatical as h he e pleases pleases pleases-as as Pepper is for Old Doc Do c Townsends Townsend's cruel deceit of th the e aged as Josh Is for the uncompensated sated confiscation of property Both schemes would wreck beyond repair the economic strength of this s country in a time of of great danger During our Civil war Great Britain Brit ain aln permitted swift Confederate commerce destroyers to be fitted ou out t in British ports They gave the final push to our supreme once-supreme merchant marine a marine a blow from which it never recovered Our protests continued for years The British finally admitted admitted ad that for this sort of illegal participation In undercover war th the e offending country is responsible in damages for every loss its unlawful l act has baa imposed Apart from any such quibbling as 81 a s Josh Lee is doing to make a mockery mock ery cry of statutory and treaty obligations obliga lets let's not overlook the Alabama Alabama Ala bama claims They involved In the th e main only two wooden ships What would 50 destroyers Involve There are some vital factual ques qUIS questions bons which should be considered d against all this third third- term bokum hokum Are these vessels obsolete If I Iso f J. J so so how can it be urged that th the tho life lee of the British navy depends o on them l' l t. t |