Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-01-24

terms of person.
Charles G. Ross. alities rather
than principles, and, barring always
the tremendous interest in what the
President will do, there isn't much
interest even in the personal side Of
the campaign.
The political climate no doubt will
grow warmer as the campaign gets
under way and the usual charges Of
misfeasance and understandable
that of John L. Lewis yesterday
against Paul v. McNutt and the
two per cent bagmen"-begin to re-
vertebrate from the hustings. Mean
time, according to the scouts Of both
the parties in their candid moments.
the air is frigid and the soil infertile.
The friends of all the candidates are
faced with hard digging.
There are two large reasons, both
good ones, for the public's apathy.
The first is the narrowness Of the
political difference between those
who are running on the Republican
side, with any apparent chance Of
success, and those who are running
or may run on the other side. again
there is an exception, of course, in
the case of Roosevelt.)
The Republican List.
Look at the Republican list. Those
who are making the running are still,
as for months past, Vandenberg, Taft
and Dewey. In addition, as an in
dustrious press agent reminds this
column whenever it overlooks the
fact, there is also Senator Styles
Bridges of New Hampshire, who has
been beating the bushes all over the
country. Senator Bridges is hereby
mentioned. There is also Frank
Gannett, the upstate New York pub
Usher, whose present Importance as
candidate consists in the fact that
he is thorn in the side of Dewey.
Despite all the claims that are
made for Senator Bridges and Mr..
Gannett, respectively, in their beau
tifully worded campaign literature,
it remains true that the big three
are as named. None of them would
completely overthrow the New Deal.
Each Of them accepts and approves
some part of it, in some degree.
Least of all, believe, would Senator
Vandenberg, rated by many observ-
ers as the man with the best chance
to gain the nomination, scrap the
changes of the last seven years.
No Clear-Cut Issue.
So it is that when any Of these
three Republican candidates at
tacks the New Deal on general
grounds. asserting that its methods
are bad and that more sympa-
thetic attitude toward private busi-
ness is the great need Of the coun-
try-when any of them makes such
an attack, he is required by candor.
somewhere along the line, to pull
his punches. And not only candor
requires this, but the political exi-
gencies. Neither Mr.. Taft nor Mr..
Vandenberg nor Mr.. Dewey can 60
out hell-for- Leather against the New
Deal. This is a predicament that
makes their campaigning terribly
difficult task. They can't paint their
picture in black and white; they
have to use a lot of gray, and gray
is a hard color to make visible to
the electorate. They lack the great
campaign asset of clean-cut, read
lily understandable issue, like gold
VS.. silver or the question of joining
the League of Nations.
The Republicans hoped to repair
this lack by getting an issue out of
the war, and for time it looked as
If they might succeed. Up to q few
months ago there was undoubtedly
a widespread feeling in the country
that the President was too war
minded" If this feeling has not
been entirely wiped out, 1t has at
least been greatly reduced by the
recent cautious attitude OF the Presi-
dent. Some shred of war-or-peace
issue might still be salvaged by the
Republicans, but, failing an unex-
pected turn in events, hardly more
than a shred.
In what appears to the outsider
a frantic reaching out for an issue,
the Republicans are now making a
| drive against renewal of the
Executive authority to negotiate
trade agreements with other ma
lions. How they can hope to gain
any appreciate benefit from this
assault is hard to see. Even so
stanch q Republican newspaper as
the New York Herald Tribune has
been friendly to the Hull trade
agreements, and in this attitude it
has undoubtedly reflected a con-
siderable sentiment within the Re.
publican party. There is good rea-
son to believe that Gov. Landon in
1896 did himself more harm than
good by his Minneapolis speech
against the Hull policy.
No Standout Candidates,
So much for the issues, or lack
| OF them. The second reason for
the present public indifference to-
ward the campaign can be put In .
few words. 1t is the fact that the
Republicans in the last seven years
have developed no great outstanding
leader who captures the imagina-
ton Of the people, and that the
Democrats have developed no new
leader of that quality. The Roose-
welt prestige has been in this re-
spect suffocating force. On both
sides there are worthy candidates,
but there is no standout.
In the natural course Of events,
things will warm up politically, but
only IN one foreseeable contingency
will they become torrid. That viii
be the case, beyond all doubt, If the
third-term issue becomes real and
not lust something to be talked
about.