Evening star., 1939-11-10

~
i convention, the
Ohio delegates
Charles G. Ross. will swing to
Bricker. In the New York picture,
as 1t appears today to Republicans
familiar with the alliances and feuds
OF that State, Dewey is well up in
the foreground, but he will not have
set OF delegates pledged to go
down with the Dewey flag flying.
He will have perhaps 80 to 80 per
cent of the New York delegates at
the start. The man to whom New
York will turn, If and when the
district attorney appears unable to
make the grade, is Representative
Barton.
Controlling the delegation, in all
probability, will be National Com
mitteeman Kenneth Simpson. A
truce has been patched up between
him and Dewey, but there is no
love lost between them. Barton and
Simpson, on the contrary, are good
friends who lose no opportunity to
speak well of each other.
Time Grows Short for Dewey.
All these circumstances make the
author of The Man Nobody
Knows" representative for the last
two years Of the silk stocking 18th
district of New York, a man to
watch. There is also the important
circumstance that Dewey, apart
from his racket-busting activities,
remains a man of mystery. He has
yet to make known his views on ma
tional issues, and the time remain-
Ing to him, II he is to sell himself
to the rank and file Of the party
as its white hope for 1910, grows
short. The war has been a heavy
drag on Dewey.
Bruce Barton, on the other hand,
has made himself and his opinions
on national topics fairly we'll known
throughout the country. They have
been, generally speaking, opinions
better worth listening to than one
might have expected from the shall.
low slogan that he employed in his
first campaign-"Repeal a law q
day" 1t is also to the point that
Barton. whether because of his views
or his talents as an advertising man
Che is an executive Of an important
agency, has proved himself a first-
| class vote-getter in New York,
/ State which is indispensable to Re.
publican success in 1910.
A Light Dark Horse.
All this adds up to the fact that
Barton is in the front rank of the
second-string possibilities for the
nomination. He's q dark horse, that
Is to say, with distinctly light shad-
ings-very much less of dark horse
than, for example, was Warren
Harding when he was picked for the
nomination in 1920. in circumstances
approximating those Of today.
Barton's disavowal of presidential
ambitions, when he was questioned
at Pittsburgh yesterday. should be
read IN the same way as all such
statements by public men. They
are part of the prescribed ritual Of
politics. 1t is to be noted that he
went out to Pittsburgh to make .
speech.
That he is not an active candi.
date, in the sense of being out after
delegates. is Of course true. The
goal he has set for himself is the
Senate. There will be an opening
there next year, and Barton has
lately been making speeches in his
State with view to getting into
the race.
Explains Neutrality Switch.
Barton's course in the neutrality
fight was interesting. He was one
Of the few Republicans in the House
who voted for repeal OF the arms
embargo when the issue came up
last summer. Between the adjourn
ment of the regular session and the
opening of the special session in
September, he switched over to the
anti-repeal side. In explanation,
he cited the outbreak of war in the
meantime. To change the rules
during the war, he said, would be
an unneutral act and would tend to
drive the German people closer to
Hitler. The effect of his anti-repeal
vote on his political fortunes re-
mains to be seen. That it would
have any material effect on his
chances for the presidential nomi-
nation. should he emerge as a real
contender. is most unlikely.
There has been no change in the
three names at the top of the
Republican list. Vandenberg, Taft
and Dewey remain the outstanding
prospects for the nomination, and it
is doubtful whether their respective
chances-except insofar as Dewey
suffered from publicity blackout-
have been affected by the neutrality
fight. They are the three at the
top, but write down Barton and
Bricker as distinct possibilities.