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Show GOP Leader Places Faith ' r In Simple Election Formula , j Harrison Spangler, Party Chairman, Sees f; " ,s Republican Victory as Result of Complete Effective Local Organization. f , By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. On a recent sunshiny Washington afternoon, I made a pilgrimage to the Republican National committee headquarters. As I entered the white-pillared portal of the modest little house they have rented on Connecticut Con-necticut avenue, a number of , thoughts, which may be omens of good or ill in the coming .election, floated into my ken. The house was once a private home but now it is situated amidst shops and restaurants and looks across the avenue toward a towering apartment house taken over by the Civilian Defense administration. As I ascended the stairway to the second floor office of Chairman Harrison Har-rison Spangler, memories rushed about me and I was transported back to the days when the Republican Republi-can party was suffering in the slough of its deepest despond. The rooms about me then housed one of the many trade organizations created by that wonderful and awful National Recovery administration presided over by the late and stormy General Gen-eral Iron Pants Johnson. And later, as I chatted with Mr. Spangler, I was reminded of another circumstance, gently symbolic of the days when the elephant sulked, impotent and neglected, in his tent the Republican committee was forced to move some two years ago from its snappier, modern quarters on Lafayette Square where it could gaze longingly at the White House on the right hand, and not too hopefully hope-fully at the United Slates Chamber of Commerce on the other. The reason the committee had to move was because it was only a tenant on Lafayette Square and the CIO (which had tossed a million into the Democratic electioneering fund) was the landlord. Tempora mutantur. But if the times and the quarters have changed, so have Republican spirits. "Roosevelt won't carry two states (or was it five?)," I was confidentially con-fidentially informed by one of the modest laborers in the GOP vineyard. vine-yard. Harrison Spangler made no tall predictions to me. He made no predictions pre-dictions at all. He simply told me about what he is doing, the results so far obtained. He has a simple faith that results already achieved are the precursors of victory. Well-Used Word Spangler's forte is organization, and that's the word he uses most. "The precinct is the squ.id," he said. "If you have good squads, you have a good regiment." He has reduced the training of the squad to a very simple formula. Get one energetic worker and assign as-sign him or her 20 Republican voters. vot-ers. See that they vote. Mark Han-na Han-na used that system. It works. Iowa (Spangler's own state) uses it. Many others do. The important word in the last sentence is "do." Important because Spangler used it in the present tense. In the days of the Blue Eagle, and for many years thereafter, any statement about an effective Republican Repub-lican political organization had to be used in the past tense. But tempora mutantur, again. Sangler believes that times have changed and have been changing for some time. Chairman Spangler is not starting at scratch with his organizing; 26 Btates which have elected Republican Republi-can governors, he pointed out to me, already have pretty good machines which are working now. The chairman is a typical, successful suc-cessful businessman of a middle-sized middle-sized tow-n (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) in the Middle West. His speech and his speeches are pretty much basic English except when he "rises to pronounce" on party principles. Then he uses good old substantial political phrases marshaled in the conventional manner. But like all pre-convention committee chairmanships, chairman-ships, his job is eschewing the over-specific. over-specific. He can talk about candidates, candi-dates, but not a candidate, pro or con; he can talk about platforms but not about planks. He is, according to his associates, a man of action. Already he has visited all of the northern states and that is what he is still doing, dividing his time between the field and the Washington office. He likes ' best to meet with a small group of leaders, about 30. He also makes his contacts with non-political organizations. organ-izations. (He, himself, is an Elk and a Mason.) The Farm Problem The farm organizations will be handled en masse. Representatives of all the farm organizations have been invited to attend a meeting in Chicago early next month in order to express their views for possible incorporation in-corporation in the party platform. They will meet with members of the Republican postwar advisory council's coun-cil's committee on agriculture. Its chairman is Governor Hickenlooper, who succeeded the late Senator Mc-Nnry, Mc-Nnry, father of the farm bloc. Agriculture is one of the eight "problems" listed by the advisory counsil at its meeting in September, 1942. The others are foreign policy; pol-icy; postwar industry and employment; employ-ment; social welfare; federal administration; ad-ministration; finance and currency; labor; agriculture; and international economic problems. A staff of experts under Dr. Neil Carothers, dean of the school of business busi-ness of Lehigh university, has been assembled, who assist the council, which hopes to produce timber for tlie party platform by scientific methods. Chairman Spangler admits that we face a world in which conditions which will affect the election in November No-vember are likely to change radically, radical-ly, perhaps before the conventions; certainly before the elections. But he believes that insofar as possible, the various "problems" listed by the advisory committee should be threshed out in as much detail as possible before the convention so that they will not have to be dealt with superficially at the last moment mo-ment by the platform committee at the convention. Votes and Relief "We made several surveys covering cov-ering different periods in the East a few years ago," he said, "and we found that the New Deal vote rose in direct proportion with the amount of relief in the community. The people were grateful for the help they got and gave Roosevelt the credit; they forgot that it was the people's money they were spending. When they are able to pay their own bills, earn enough for what they need, they want to be independent. They want to shake off government control and regulation." Mr. Spangler and his associates believe that the Republican party will win first, because of the energetic ener-getic response of people which has made the rebuilding of an effective political organization possible; second, sec-ond, because they consider trends already evident are a factual indication indi-cation of a turn of the tide. Mr. Spangler did not attempt to argue the case of the Republican party, nor are these columns a place for such a political debate, but anyone any-one can see that he and his staff believe be-lieve that they share a popular feeling feel-ing that "the times have changed," "et nos mutamur illis" (and we are changed with them). The "we" meaning a voting majority of the American people. Of such. is the optimism which fills the workshop on Connecticut Evenue where the one concern is the practical practi-cal side of politics there, where the shadow of the Blue Eagle once fell across the portals, not even the flutter flut-ter of a ghostly feather can now be detected. Service Education To facilitate the educational program pro-gram for servicemen overseas, the United States Armed Forces institute insti-tute has set up branches in five theaters the-aters of war Southwest Pacific, South Pacific, Middle East, European Euro-pean and Alaskan theaters. Members Mem-bers of all branches of the American Ameri-can armed forces serving overseas may now apply directly to the new branches for the same courses that are given in the states through institute insti-tute headquarters at Madison, Wis. The curriculum covers the range from grammar school to university subjects. An enlisted man may apply ap-ply for as many courses supplied directly by USAFI as he wishes for only one enrollment fee of $2. For self-teaching courses, text book and materials are supplied free of charge. B R I E F S . . . by Baukhage A campaign to fill 100,000 present and impending job vacancies on the railroads will be conducted by a newly established railroad manpower mobilization committee representing the united efforts of the government and railroad labor and management. The pay-as-you-carn system of income in-come tax collections is being considered con-sidered in Australia. ,J I American servicemen consumed approximately 143,192,000 cups of coll'ce and 70,000,000 doughnuts at Red Cross clubs, canteens and club-mobiles club-mobiles overseas during the last 12 months. I j Korsc-drawn streetcars after an absence of 40 years are again be- hi used in Amsterdam. They may be slow, but pui,r is conserved. |
