Evening star., 1939-10-09

" wiz may Va
N may not be in
that category
Cnaries u. hoss. were already
suffering; the war leaves them about
as they were, except as 1t may have
heightened the mental anguish cre-
ated by the third-term threat.
Frustration has been for so long the
unhappy lot of the yearning Demo-
Gratis that they have become Injured
to it. The war is just another factor
In their unease.
1t hits the Republican aspirants,
however, terrific wallop. What
effect 1t will have on their relative
chances to win the nomination is a
question as unanswerable as what
the effect will be on Republican
chances at the polls in November.
In the meantime, all of them are
caught in a blackout.
One day the country is talking
about the presidential campaign and
assessing the prospects of the G.
o. P. to come back into power; the
next day it is talking about the war
and what the United States should
do to keep out of it. One day the
Republican candidates are in the
headlines on page /; the next day,
comparatively speaking, they are on
page II.
Victims of Cruel Fate.
All this, from the Republican point
of view. is highly deplorable state
of affairs. 1t came about just at
time when the candidates. of the
leading Republican aspirants were
getting nicely under way. All the
traditional rites were being OBJ
served and were being duly noted
in print. Candidates were being
summoned by the swelling voice Of
the people and they were respond-
ing to the call. Polls purporting to
show their popular standing were
being eagerly studied. The opinion
of even so lowly a person in the
political hierarchy as county chair
man was significant news. Then
the war struck. Were ever the can
didates of any political party the
victims of a more cruel fate?
But not only was fate cruel in
thus shifting the spotlight of at
tention from the candidates. It
was even more malign when It
brought to the front an issue which
for the time being has split the
party. This is the neutrality issue.
There are leading Republicans on
both sides of it. No suggestion Is
here intended that the issue makes
an irreparable cleavage in the Re.
publican ranks. any more than that
1t makes such a cleavage among
the Democrats.
Harmony Essential.
1t is, however, an unfortunate
circumstance, from the Republican
point of view, that the split comes
on the eve of campaign, at
time when harmony in the party
is vitality essential to its success.
The division over neutrality may
turn out not to have been serious,
even if serious, its effects may be
offset by the split on the same
issue in the Democratic party. but
the Republican strategists would be
feeling much more comfortable to-
day if the issue had never arisen.
The task of producing a united
front-a task at which Minority
Leader Joe Martin of the House,
for conspicuous example, has la
bored heroically and with consid-
erable success-is made at least
little more difficult by the emer-
gence of an issue which has set
such important Republicans as
Taft and Vandenberg on different
sides and has caused such Repub.
'llcan elder statesmen as Nicholas
Murray Butler and former Secre-
tary of State Stimson to come to
the support of the Democratic
President.
The neutrality fight has had the
further effect, bad in its relation
to Republican chances. of taking
public attention away from domestic
problems. Not much is being heard
now about the issues on which the
Republicans hope to win the elec.
|, ton.
They have themselves to blame
for the fact lat the neutrality de-
bate is now dividing the party and
contributing to the country's mat
tent1on to the issues created by the
New Deal. 1t is clear now that re-
peal Of the embargo, barring some
unforeseen event in the war, will
win. The Republicans would be in
better case today-and so would
the country-if they had permitted
repeal at the last session of Con.
gress and got the issue out of the
way.
Candidates in Obscurity.
Eventually the country will get
its mind back on the home front.
The war cannot continue to monop-
olize its interest. Meantime, the
Republican candidates remain in
comparative obscurity and the time
within which the party must solid
lily itself for the campaign grows
short. The meeting of the Re-
publican National Committee to de-
eide on the place and time of the
partys nominating convention is
only about three months in the
future.
The leading Republican candi-
dates? Let's see. If memory
serves, they are, or were, Vanden-
berg, Taft and Dewey. Chance has
played at least two OF them, and
perhaps all three, scurvy trick.
Estabiished 1895