Show 1948 long way off but taft looms as GOP hope by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service 1616 E eye ye street NW washington D 0 along about june of any election year when a lot ot of simple souls are thinking about moonlight and roses electric fans and where to go for or a summer vacation a lot of longer range p planners a are w wondering end ri g bout about next winters coal supply harvest time and m many a n y 0 other t h e r things a lot further away than the fly on your nose among these are the politicians ti tic ians clans ns its a great time to loan lean back in a chair in the senate office building or thereabouts open another bottle of willie white rock hock light another seegar 0 and nd burble on about going t to 0 happen come november and s still t ill more intriguing to prognosticate C ate on presidential possibilities its fun for or the newcomers because c a use its so easy lot for them to predict d lct to in the light of happening right now just what will happen then its still more fun tor for the old timers because they know that the voters who may not love you in the autumn often seem very palsy to in the spring and vice versa since there much use in speculating on who the democratic presidential ident ial lal nominee will be its more interesting to talk about republican possibilities perhaps that la Is why along about the middle of may the heavy backers of bob taft began to be heard from up until then most of the talk in the was how bricker was the no 1 boy and how stassen even be mentioned above a whisper kven even own men decided it was better tor for the young man from minnesota to keep his head down so he attract any lightning until he had found out cut whether his forums were more potent than the against ems now its getting to be more serious fun to talk about tart taft tatt t wants to be president ile he has wonted wanted to be president before ile he Is pretty much master of the republican organization but even if he B bracker icker his present friend and rival Is more beatable de pite the good impression he made on his speaking tour before the last convention what with the leftist look in so many veterans eyes bricker has a staunch and solid conservative following but it is a little too solidly conservative tatt taft could hardly be called a radical in tact fact his political garden has never produced prodie ed even a pale and lonely pink on the other hand his supporters prudently can point to many a constructively liberal measure which has had his bles blessing sing only the other day I 1 was talking with an ardent administration official who has been battling for a measure badly battered by conservatives of 0 both political stripes I 1 asked him if he could expect to retrieve in the senate a certain provision in his legislation lost in the house oh yes he answered bob taft will go along on that and tatt taft has a good liberal record on such mass appeal measures as housing the republicans dont have to deal with the old line bosses basses to the extent that the democrats do and in two of the larger cities where the republican machine Is vital philadelphia and cincinnati everything would be jake so far is as taft Is concerned ile he himself Is kingpin in his home state organization find and mr rew pew who makes the republican wheels go round in pennsylvania wanted taft in 40 and 44 it Is to be presumed hell feel the same in 48 this eliminate other bril llant possibilities including stassen and both of whose political futures may be molded by international developments mr has done a lot of the molding himself this could work both ways on the one hand the energy and devotion with which mi has applied himself to foreign affairs and the powerful Influence he has exerted have greatly increased his silhouette on the international horizon on the tha other hand these activities both in quantity and quality have taken him far afield from rom the usual political pol at approach to a republican presidential nomination it may be there Is a niche in the tha making that would need a man of his proportion to fill but one democrat said to me the other day sometimes it looks as it if van would rather other be right than president times change almost lacally icalla these days the presidential candidate ot of tomorrow may turn out to be if 11 excuse my irish a dark horse ot of an entirely dif different lerent color columnists speak butof out of in in turn the carping critics of today and yesterday enjoy decrying the various inroads upon our founding fathers ideas of 0 government by the people we hear bear much about government by lobbies government by executive order government by this and by that president roosevelt used to inveigh against what might have been called an attempt at government by columnists it always seemed rather unnecessary on his bis part since he used to be elected regularly with abress a press 80 per cent hostile recently president tr truman u man was called upon to comment on the work of 0 the distinguished columnist walter lippmann lippmann expounded the somewhat startling theme with evan even more startling ling trimmings that britain and russia were pursuing a foreign policy based on the possibility if not the probability of war with each side hoping to enlist eventual german support in tact fact mr lippmann even discovered an invisible german army in the british zone 1 I dont mean that literally for or I 1 understand that he did not visit the british zone in his tour of 0 investigation the presidents comment was that hindsight was better than tore fore sight but as far as a hidden army was concerned he never heard ot of it and think it existed the same day mr truman was asked to comment on the statement of another distinguished correspondent harold callender paris correspondent lor for the new york times mr callender had reported a sharp reversal ot of american foreign policy toward russia the president slapped that down too saying that he knew of no change and he made the policy some days before sumner welles former undersecretary of state now a radio commentator made observations ions similar t to 0 those of callender recently harold ickes another former civil servant turned columnist declared that the careful newspaper reader could get more authoritative information than the secretary of state possessed because the secre information was wag 5 screened by a reactionary and inefficient aide lust just how much influence the individual writer or commentator wields is a question in most cases it takes an almost un unanimous aninious repetition of an idea to produce action and then its eff effect act on the government is usually indirect it results from the pressure of public opinion which in many cases is created by press and radio when the many men of many minds and political faiths can agree on some one subject when the majority agree it usually means that they are as nearly right as mortals can be in these confusing days in the case of walter waller lippmann I 1 believe that he be Is voicing what many of us who have followed recently international Intern illonal gatherings and who have been in europe since the war agree upon namely that the statesmen of the major european powers have fallen into the old pattern basing their diplomacy jn in the thesis that war ly Is more or less inevitable instead of the he new pat pattern terii where the objective is to prevent war rather than prepare tor for it another theme of lippmann which Is not held by him alone to which this writer certainly agrees Is that the problem of the proper handling of germany Is the most important foreign problem and the one upon which all the other problems depend |