Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1940-08-29
GEN
HUGH S.
JOHN SON
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United Features wNu Service
Washington, d. C.
THIS MAN WILLKIE


dell Willkie have been eye-openers
to newell as thought I knew
him. This column isn't going to
make the mistake it made in 1886
and take strong partisan position.
But it feels certain sense of re-
ssponsibility for insisting on the avail
ability of this man for almost two
years and getting a good many rasp-
berries for its alleged goodness.
The "eye-opener" was this guys
sturdy independence. I think he is
another, but a pleasanter, Grover
Cleveland. sensed, and sometimes
saw, the strongest kinds of pulls
and pressures applied to him in
these few days. Some of them were
from the mightiest of political lead
ers. Others were of the modern
telegraph-barrage variety-"S Speak
ing for 100000 farmers, we urge;
Speaking for 21,00O,0OO Catholics,
we demand''; Gas representative of
$4,000, 900 Negroes we ask; eff you
won't do so-and-so, you will lose New
York state and the whole Atlantic
seaboard."
The candidate answers genially
and courteously. He checks facts
from every source he can command.
He continues to pursue the even
tenor of his way and thought with a
smiling urbanity that seems mira
Gle to me. I know only one other
man who could take such pushing,
pulling and paving with as much
good nature, as little disturbance of
his convictions and as little loss of
sleep. His name is Franklin Roose-
welt.
do not for moment mean to
suggest that Wendell Willkie is a
stubborn dogmatist. He is just the
reverse of that. He has the usual
business habit of putting up an alert
defensive to any professional sales
talk. But he also uses the efficient
business mans practice of overlook
ing no promising proposition and
of getting every fact and expert
opinion available before he decides.
There has been a good deal of spec
ulation about why went to Colorado
Springs. Mr.. Willkie asked me to
come to give my opinion. on GER
tain aspects of the farm, labor and
defense problems, with all of which
I have had some experience and
have expressed strong views.
Well, he winnowed whatever
brains I have with fins-tooth comb,
so far as I know accepted nothing,
put up as able and well informed
debate as I have yet encountered
and left me in complete ignorance
as to his final judgment.
To me, all this seems a good sign.
The. greatest blunder in recent
government has been, think, a
sort of trout-like swapping at and
swallowing whole of any attractive
brainstorm, with little or no attempt
to get an objective analysis or hear
any worthwhile contrary opinion.
Of one thing I am sure. Nobody
is going to shove this, shaggy Hoosier
around, sell him any gold bricks or
push him off of any important moral
position, for the sake of any expedi-
ent political advantage. The latter
has, to my knowledge, been vainly
attempted with dire threats of de-
feat if Willkie did not instantly
knuckle. He just laughed.
He has another quality of Franklin
Roosevelt. Nobody rejected ever
goes away mad. But while the Pres
ident accomplishes this by saying,
Yes, yes, yes-you are perfectly
right" and then acts just as he
pleases; Mr.. Wi1lkie somehow man.
ages to keep them cheerful with
something like yours received and
contents noted. / will study it care
fully. Just now it looks lousy or
attractive" as the case may be.
I still say he would be great
President.
THOSE so DESTROYERS w
NEW YORK.-The fight to sell so
of our destroyers to Britain is led
by the two whirling deryishes of
the third-term assault on American
tradition-the glamorous Senators
Josh Lee and Claude Pepper. Each
has right to be as fanatical as he
P1edSeS-dS Fepper is LOT 'OlQ DOC
Townsend's cruel deceit. of the
aged; as Josh is for the uncompen-
stated confiscation of property. "
Both schemes would wreck beyond
repair the economic strength Of this
country in time of great danger.
During our Civil war, Great Brit.
ain permitted swift Confederate
commerce. destroyers to be fitted out
in British ports. They gave the final
push to our once-supreme merchant
marine-a blow from which it never
recovered. Our protests continued
for years. The British finally adj
nitted that for this sort of illegal
participation in undercover war, the
offending country is responsible in
damages for every loss its unlawful
act has imposed 'Nsf
Apart from any such quibbling as
Josh Lee is doing to make a mock
cry of statutory and treaty obliga-
tiOnS LET'S NOT Ovar1oolr 4ba AL,