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Show Series of Contradictions Marks Political Campaign By BAL'KIIACE VViri Anal j it and Commentator WASHINGTON Political currents and cross currents are running high, wide and deep along the Potomac these days. The wave of popularity stirred up by Stassen supporters is not pleasant pleas-ant for regular Republicans to contemplate. Some of the non-professionals however, particularly those In the Taft corner, are very bitter about it, not because they think that Stassen will get in, but because of the way he has served to block the Taft efforts despite the fact that those efforts have been labelled, rightly or wrongly, futile from the beginning. Deweyites don't admit they are worrying but! I talked to one of the Taft men recently. "What makes me sick," he said, "is the way the people who fgiij n"" have done their f1x 1 best to break down I j Taft are ul1 of 45 C I Pra'se or him : A.' f I now' that they j$t ji Mnk he is beaten. ''v'IVl They describe his - : I A efficiency, his - i"" ft f knowledge, h 1 s grasp of the sub- ' jfjf t;,.A1 Jects he discusses. ' '' . And they t,Ik i 1 about Stassen's -- - i riirMffiiTl vagueness and inability in-ability to answer Taft's charges." "And these," he wound up, "are the same people who have been shooting shoot-ing at Taft ever since he started his presidential campaign." There is something in what this man says. You would be surprised how many liberals, how many Democrats Dem-ocrats even, praise Taft privately, would really like to see him elected, but either they can't quite come out openly in his favor, or they take for granted he can't win anyhow. Then there la the great group of Republicans who are going to vote for Dewey, but act If they were gritting their teeth In the process. "What have you got against Dewey?" I ask them. Some are vague, others say the New York governor la a "strad-dler "strad-dler ... an opportunist . . . never cornea out for an Issue until he aeea a Gallup poll on It . . . but I auppose he'll win . . ." Can he? Since the Stassen hurricane, tho oldtimers are talking a little differently dif-ferently about Dewey. Some of them who have predicted right along that Dewey would win now are saying that Stassen has undermined him so thoroughly that now Dewey has no more chance than Taft. And all the time the Vandenbcrg tide is rising. But here's an interesting inter-esting thing. Way back in February Febru-ary some very canny observers were saying that Speaker Joe Martin Mar-tin of the house of representatives had the best chance of anyone for the Republican presidential nomination, nomina-tion, in case of the expected Taft-Dewey Taft-Dewey deadlock. At the time many people were surprised at that opinion. But it wasn't long before we began to see mention of Martin here and there. Then, finally, Insiders accepted him as probably the best bet of the several sev-eral Republican dark horses. I know 1 could feel hia popularity growing is I travelled around the country. But then came the surprise move when Martin was credited with bringing about settlement of the coal miners' pension row the appointment of Sen. Stylea Bridges of New Hampshire as neutral trustee on the pension board with John Lewis and Ezra Van Horn, and the agreement that waa reached between Brldgea and Lewis. At first the settlement put Martin In a favorable light with the public. pub-lic. Then some of the conservative Republicans who hate Lewis expressed ex-pressed their disapproval. There were hints of a "deal" that had been reached between Bridges and Lewis before Bridges was appointed. Democrats Dem-ocrats charged that Martin was politicking. poli-ticking. Horn, representing the operators, op-erators, appealed to the courts to ' declare the pension agreement In valid. Martin's stock dropped. And the oldtimers began to say bis chances for the presidential nomination were slim. Not so much because of the pension deal itself, but paradoxicallyand paradoxical-lyand this Is one of the accepted paradoxes of politics because his intervention In the row was taken as a public avowal of his candidacy. Martin ceased to be a dark horse and as a light horse, he wasn't considered con-sidered nearly as much of a favorite favor-ite The paradox applies to Senator .Vandenberg. The Michigan senator sen-ator constantly and consistently has disavowed any desire or Intention In-tention of being candidate for the Republican nomination. If, according ac-cording to this paradoxical political po-litical rule, the oldtimers say, he were thrust Into the limelight, his cause would sutler too. At this writing, Vandenberg seema to stand as the No. 1 bet. Stassenites, however, claim that this paradox is all old hat; that times and political thinking have changed. One of the first black marks which the Republican old guard checked against Stasien was the fact that he came right out as candidate way ahead of time. The traditional thing is to be oh, so coy about It But some observers feel as Newsweek News-week magazine expressed It some time ago: "Stassen's forthright quest for votes may end much of the traditional tradi-tional coyness of aspirants. In the future, it's tlmught that more candidates can-didates will frankly announce their Intentions well in advance of election." elec-tion." Well, maybe. There Is plenty of old-line resentment resent-ment against Stassen, not only because be-cause he began an open campaign so early, but also because of the efficient, powerful, highly-organized and aggressive machine he has built up. A right wing Republican I spoke to recently seemed especially especial-ly resentful, grumbling about the "big money" backing Minnesota's ex-governor, and the New York banking Interests "that wanted in." Senator Taft waa reported ao furious over Stassen's invasion of Ohio that It was thought that he might forget hia rivalry with ' Dewey and throw hia support to the New Yorker earlier In the convention If the deadlock waa certain. All this talk AGAINST candidates is interesting psychologically. You always hear far more reasons rea-sons for voting AGAINST a candidate candi-date than you hear for voting FOR one. It's a very good thing that no candidate Is ever quite so bad as his opponents claim he is. Other-, wise the government would fall apart regularly every four yean. Monroe Doctrine It Reactivated On Charles street In the sleepy little town of Fredericksburg, Va., in the first floor office of a story-and-a-half brick house, you can see, if you obey the parking signs and stop there, a beautiful brass-bound mahogany desk, artistic handiwork of the French cabinet makers of the early 18th century. It Is an historlo piece of furniture furni-ture for on Its surface 125 yeara ago, there was signed a document which, reactivated today, becomea at once the challenge and the hope of free men throughout the world. That desk, carefully carried across the seas as a precious heirloom, found Us way into the great, empty rooms of the White House, newly-rebuilt newly-rebuilt after the destructive fire set by an enemy torch In the War of 1812. Turn back the pages to December of the year 1823. At this desk sits a man in a stiffly-starched stock. His broad forehead is wrinkled with thought. His wide eyes look down at the document he is about to sign. It is his message to the 18th congress con-gress of the United States, but it embodies the spirit and is couched in the phrases which his predecessors predeces-sors have used before him expressing expres-sing the intent and the obligations of the young republic of which he. James Monroe, is the President Two years before, the Czar of all the Russians had uttered a ukase that no foreigner must approach within 100 miles of the American coastline north of the 51st parallel Russia then had a firm foothold on the northwestern coastland of the western hemisphere. The Iron curtain cur-tain had descended. Plus ca change, plus ca reste lax meme chose I "We could not view any Interposition Interpo-sition for the purpose of oppressing oppres-sing them (the free countries of the Americas) by any European power In any other light than aa the manifestation of an unfriendly unfriend-ly disposition toward the United States." One hundred and twenty-five years pass. Today, the United States, in a world that has shrunk until Moscow Is nearer to Washington than Boston Bos-ton was in Monroe's time, rededl-cates rededl-cates Its resources to "help tree peoples to maintain their free institutions insti-tutions and their national integrity against aggressive movements that seek to impose upon them totalitarian totali-tarian regimes." The words are President Truman's, Tru-man's, but the spirit Is the same as that breathed In the Monroe doctrine. America carries on. rolysyllablcally, John L. Lewis and Gen. Douglas MacArthur have something In common. Perhaps Lewis should run as MacArthur's vice president. Think of all the sonorous f I v e-syllable-word statements state-ments they could get out. o In President Lincoln's time, most of the speeches were made in the open air without benefit of public address system or microphone. Now all you really need Is few friends who can make themselves heard in a smoke-filled room. |