Evening star., 1940-02-17

President Roosevelt has become con-
yinced that a short, intensive cam
paign is better than a long drawn
out affair For party on the de-
fensive, the preference might be
expected to be the other way so as
to have more time to answer attacks
and build new offensive.
Ifs President Roosevelt is to be
drafted the Democrats will need
only three days-from Monday to
Thursday-because the last time
the convention was held the Presi-
dent wrote the platform and sent it
to Philadelphia and the whole pro-
ceeding could have been consum-
mated in a couple of days 1t was
stretched out to make happy the
Philadelphia hotels and shopkeepers
who had contributed toward the
fund to bring the convention to the
Quaker City.
=. Speaking of platforms, the Re-
publicans are going to have some
thing novel in the history of politi-
cal parties this time They have
had a committee at work for more
than two years. headed by Glenn
Frank, former president of the Uni
.Versity of Wisconsin. This COM
mittee was not composed of politi-
clans or of politically-minded per-
sons at all. 1t was committee who
made it their business to study and
survey national economic problems
at first hand. consulting with spe-
cialists in almost every field of the
controversial material covered.
To Appear Next Week.
The final platform. of course, will
be written by the national conven-
ton, but the DR.. Frank platform
will be made public next week. 1t
consists of 10000 words and it was
purposely made comprehensive so
as to avoid the clever epigrams and
ambiguous phrases which character
ize party platforms that are made
up by resolutions committees in the
haste and turmoil of national con-
ventions.
The DR.. Frank document in its
present form does not bind anybody,
but 1t Is challenge to the delegates
Of the party to accept the liberalism
which the proposed platform con-
tains. 1t would be surprising if the
publication Of the suggested platform
did not play vital part in the pre-
convention campaign. The public
will have right to ask what Senator
Vandenberg or Senator Taft or Gov.
Bricker or Thomas E. Dewey think
Of the statement of party plans and
purposes.
Revised Many Times.
Many members of Congress have
been consulted in the preparation of
the DR.. Frank platform. There have
been dozens of drafts and revisions.
Regional committees in different
parts of the country have spent
many nights at work in discussion
and writing. 1t is perhaps the most
carefully prepared document that
has ever been presented to a politi-
cal party dealing with national sub
jects and it will unquestionably be
of aid to State Republican conven-
tions in the next several months.
Some of the conservatives and the
politicians in the party have not
liked what the Glenn Frank Com
mittee was doing. They thought it
was poor strategy to give the Demo-
Gratis something to shoot at so far in
vadvance of the national convention.
But the progressives in the party,
who have forthrightly sponsored the
proposed platform, feel that the
Democrats will have a hard time
evading the basic recommendations
contained therein, and that the
debate may turn to the publicity
advantage of the Republicans,
whose principal handicap thus far
has been widespread belief that
they had no program or definite ap-
proach to the solution of present day
Ills.
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