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Show Washington, D. C. SHOOTING THE WORKS There is every indication that Hitler Hit-ler plans to throw everything he has into the war this summer, in order to end it by October. Cabled reports re-ports by U. S. observers abroad all point to this. There is almost certain to be a series of blows aimed at different parts of Europe Holland, Rumania, Hungary, Greece, in quick succession. succes-sion. Hitler has ample munitions and raw materials to last him through summer and fall, but perhaps not for the winter. Also there is a big Nazi question mark placed over the presidential elections in the United States. No matter which party is elected, the Nazis are figuring that the United States wi)l at least lift the Johnson act (forbidding credits to defaulted nations) and begin rushing major munitions to the allies al-lies on credit. This Hitler strategy of betting the whole pot on one hand is why Italy is moving closer to war. It was always the Italian plan to bet on the side of the surewinner. And now, Mussolini appears to be convinced that the present moment in Europe is equivalent to June, 1918, when it was a foregone conclusion that the allies were bound to win. Today May, 1940 Mussolini seems to think that the situation is reversed, that the Nazis are bound to win, and a lot of skilled American Amer-ican observers are worried over the fact that they agree with him. TAFT CLAIMS A little-noticed press release put out by Taft headquarters last week deserved a lot more attention than it got. It was significant on two counts: First, its challenging tone toward the claims of Dewey. For the first time, the Taft camp struck squarely and vigorously at the New Yorker. Dewey's managers were pooh-poohed pooh-poohed as "much more proficient in making claims than in electing delegates," del-egates," and the flat assertion was made that Taft will have "delegate strength in practically every state . . . and will be the real choice of a majority of the delegates . . ." Second, for the first time Taft managers did some specific delegate dele-gate claiming of their own. Previously Pre-viously they spoke only in total figuresranging fig-uresranging from 320 to 370 delegates dele-gates but they always avoided specific spe-cific state figures. This time, however, how-ever, the Taftites got down to the following particulars: California At least half of the 35 delegates will be. for Taft. Delaware A majority for Taft; none for Dewey. Indiana Still unchjsen, but Dewey Dew-ey claims of supremacy "fall in'the class of wishful thinking." Iowa A "favorite son" delegation delega-tion for Hanford McNider, minister to Canada under Hoover, with Taft definitely in the lead as second choice. Missouri At least 10 of Missouri's 20 delegates in the Taft bag. New York Taft has a good chance to get a bloc of delegates from Dewey's own home state. New Mexico Four of the six delegates privately favor Taft, even though this is the home state of Mrs. Simms, one of Dewey's campaign cam-paign managers. North Carolina At . least 15 of the 23 for Taft and not over five "have even a leaning to Mr. Dewey." Ohio Solidly for Taft. The South "The natural and normal nor-mal sentiment of the southern states, without a single exception, is for Senator Taft. It is entirely possible that Mr. Gannett will have more delegates from the South than Mr. Dewey." Washingtin Its delegates are not yet elected but not over six of the 16 will be for Dewey. In summary, the Taft campaign managers claim that their man will have most votes on the first ballot. Looks like the Philadelphia convention con-vention will be interesting. DUCE HARD TO SEE When Ambassador Phillips called upon Mussolini last week it was the iirst time in one and pw'y8Stt.wy a half years (vth LriiSss I one exception) that F ' i a U. S. envoy had f - J seen the real dicta- ! -v-li tor of Italy. Mf ' V ' The one exception I V i j was when Sumner k xf Welles visited Rome ft and insisted that J Ambassador Phillips A sit in on his talk with J&Ji Mussolini. For 18 xx months prior to that, Phillips II Duce had not seen one foreign diplomat except the German. Phillips got the audience only because be-cause the President of the United States asked for it personally. What Roosevelt wanted, of course, was some word regarding Italy's war aims. Naturally no ambassador can ask the ruler of any country whether he intends to make war. Instead, Phillips Phil-lips raised the question of American shipping in the Mediterranean. It was at this point that Mussolini replied reassuringly, and indicated that American shipping did not have to worry. But there was nothing definite denying war intention. |