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Show O GENERAL HUGH S. Li rjJOMNSON m Jour: A VISIT WITH WILLKIE COLORADO SPRINGS. It puts a columnist on a spot to be invited by a presidential candidate to give his (the columnist's) views on public pub-lic questions to be taken or rejected as the candidate sees fit. It is a spot because a newspaper man's job is to take not give opinions, and to use what he can .glean to inform the public. In this reversal of roles, I can't be talking about Mr. Willkie's views, as disclosed in two long sessions ses-sions here, because he has to be absolutely fair to the press, and that means no favorites or exclusive interviews. in-terviews. I can't for another reason, rea-son, which is that he is my friend and talks in as complete confidence as a man would indulge in with his own brother. The net result from a newspaper man's viewpoint of a 3,200-mile airplane air-plane hop to interview Mr. Willkie is just like taking a dish of spinach to a luxurious banquet or being invited in-vited to dig freely in a diamond mine with a pair of eyebrow tweezers. tweez-ers. It's a spot, but his Colorado Springs setting on the toenails of the Rockies at Pike's Peak, is one of the most pleasant and beautiful spots on God's footstool, so I think I can survive the mental anguish. It is telling no tales to say, from observation here and elsewhere, that Mr. Willkie is surely continuing the process of selling himself on sight: Little Mary Pickford, who had lunch with us, went away in raptures. She has marvelously preserved her stature in public respect and adoration adora-tion and otherwise. She is going to be a help. If enough potential crusaders like Mary can meet Mr. Willkie in such circumstances, his lack of an old-fashioned old-fashioned political organization won't count for so much. There is no question of his appeal : and political "It" in personal contacts, con-tacts, whether it is with single individuals in-dividuals or in crowds. He has all that it takes. What remains to be seen, is what he can do on the radio and the content of his speeches. The Republican platform was so indefinite in-definite that Mr. Willkie wiD have to chart the party course almost single-handed. single-handed. It is some chore! The Republicans were leading at this stage of the 1936 campaign, but from the very day of Mr. Landon's undistinguished opener at West Middlesex Mid-dlesex they started on a toboggan slide that left them two states. Mr. Landon's theme was: The New Deal is perfect, but I can deal it better. That left no issue, save one of personalities. As between Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Landon, that was just no contest. There will be a contest in that field this time. Some people say that in his engaging exterior, Mr. Willkie is just another Roosevelt. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only point of similarity is that they are both pleasant gentlemen. gen-tlemen. Mr. Roosevelt's charm is that of a cultured actor. Mr. Willkie's Will-kie's is far more roughshod and homely. I believe that most people will regard it as more genuine. But he is going to need more than that He will have to make issues far more clear than they are today and convince people that his is the right side. ' One handicap of Mr. Landon was that Col. Frank Knox and Ogden Mills were speaking with him but not the same language. Mr. Willkie may have a similar problem. Mr. Hoover is going to make at least two speeches. He is a thoughtful, experienced and respected re-spected American, but Mr. Hoover's speeches represent Mr. Hoover's doctrine and nothing else whatever. They will be attempts not to sell Willkie, but to sell the present edition of Hooverism which may be something as different as Knox and Mills from Alfred Landon. That would be one great handicap and there are many others. However, How-ever, Mr. Willkie's life habit has been overcoming seemingly impossible impos-sible handicaps, like getting a Democrat Dem-ocrat nominated on a Republican ticket. None of these new ones compares com-pares with that. Let's wait and see. TRAINING PILOTS Unconfirmed stories about the Germans sending partly trained boys to attack in flights, relying on only one or two ships equipped with modern instruments and piloted by really trained leaders may be true. They also may explain the astonishing astonish-ing British claims of bringing down three or four German ships for every ev-ery one they lose. That, is too expensive a policy, and we certainly do not want to risk cities, ships, convoys not to mention young lives and costly planes on that kind of training. The Civil Aeronautics administration administra-tion is exerting great efforts to get some interest and primary training train-ing into young men by subsidizing older pilots to train them at so much a head for eight hours with dual control. Then the kid goes up solo. After that he has 22 hours altogether alto-gether 30. He isn't supposed to be a pilot, but to have had his primary pri-mary training $325 worth. Will the army and navy entrust its expensive military ships to these boys? Almost certainly no. |