Evening star., 1940-07-08

Charles G. Ross. kie will domi-
nate this campaign, and not any,
thing that the Republican platform
says or that Charlie McNary, his
running mate, thinks or says. In a
preliminary blast against Mr.. Will
kie, the publicity bureau of the
Democratic National Committee
makes much of the fact that he and
Senator McNary have been on oppo-
site sides of an impressive number
of questions. Senator McNary, the
bureau correctly points out, was for
the T. V. A. which Mr.. Willkie
| fought; the Senator opposed the
Hull trade pacts and Mr.. Willkie
supported them; "Willkie favored
the administration defense meas
ures; McNary was near isola-
zionist and voted against many Of
the measures"
Doubtless" says the Democratic
press agent, there will eventuate
some sort of Republican co-ordinat-
ing committee to reconcile the
views of the two ends of their ma
tional ticket; some sort of Glenn
Frank body to make it seem pos
sible for an administration to go two
ways at once"
| Laid Themselves Open.
All this is fair ammunition. The
Republicans laid themselves wide
open to its use when, for obvious
reasons of strategy, they put the CO.
author of the McNary- -Haugen farm
bill on the ticket. 1t is exactly the
same sort of ammunition that the
Republicans will be entitled to use,
and Will use to the limit, if the
Democrats-as is possible in their
own cockeyed situation-again name
Jack Garner to run with Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
But criticism based on the con-
fiicting views of Mr.. Willkie and
Senator McNary is, after all, bird
shot. The issue in the campaign
will be Wendell L. Willkie: or, to
put 1t in another way, it will be Gn
a certain contingency Franklin D.
Roosevelt VS.. Wendell L. Willkie.
The campaign in any case, thanks
to the colorful Republican candi-
date and the unorthodox manner
Of his nomination, will be highly
personalized; if Mr.. Roosevelt runs.
1t will be supremelv so. Recent
political history affords ne parallel.
In 1926 two politicians of the con-
ventional variety. Mr.. Harding and
Mr.. Cox, ran against each other,
and the contest was settled on an
issue entirely outside the person.
alities of the two candidates. The
League issue and back to normalcy"
won for Mr.. Harding. Four years
later it was Mr.. Davis against Mr..
Coolidge-again no color-and not
even the scandals of the Harding
administration could shake the
country out of its complacency.
AL Smiths New Pattern.
Al Smith gave the campaign of
1928 new pattern; his personality
counted both for and against him.
but measures rather than men, as
shown by Mr. Hoover's overwhelm-
ing victory, determined the out
come. No matter who might have
been the Democratic nominee, there
was one more victory for the G.
o. P. in prohibition and the full
dinner pail. In 1882 the depression
turned the tide and swept Mr..
Roosevelt into office over President
Hoover. -Four years later Mr.. Roose-
welt scored his great affirmative
victory over the Intellectual Mr..
Landon.
Principal author of the New Deal
and its perfect political symbol,
the man above all others against
whom the animosities created by
the New Deal are centered, Mr..
Roosevelt himself is an issue, quite
apart from the policies for which
he stands, and the issue will be
intensified If he seeks to break the
tradition against third term.
On the other side is the highly
articulate, superlatively self-assured
Willkie, a challenger spelling for
a chance, as he says, to get at the
champion" Mr.. Willkie is as true
a symbol of the more intelligent
opposition to Mr.. Roosevelt as the
President is of the New Deal.
The two of them, if Mr.. Roosevelt
runs, should provide a contest not
only exciting but realistic.
PHILOSOPHERS Not Far Apart.
The basic PHILOSOPHERS of the two
men are not far apart. They are
both men who believe, each ac-
cording to his lights, in a golden
mean. Both are as keenly intent as
anybody on preserving the demo-
cratic way of life in the United
States. The cryptic charge from
Democratic sources that Mr.. Willkie
somehow would introduce alien
methods into the historic American
processes of government is as un-
true, on the basis of all the avail
able evidence, as the slur that Mr..
Roosevelt is tarred with Com
munism. Both Mr.. Willkie and the
Republican platform are committed
to the retention of great part of
the social reform program of the
New Deal; indeed, neither he nor
the platform has demanded the
repeal of the Wagner Act, or the
wage-hour law, or the social security
law, or the laws regulating the stock
exchanges and the issue of securi-
ties, or any other New Deal reform
measure. Changes in some of these
have been demanded, but not repeal.
Mr. Willkie by his own definition is
a liberal. He says it was not he that
deserted the Democratic party, but
the Democratic party that deserted
him.
A great difference between Presi-
dent Roosevelt and Mr.. Willkie, on
the face of their acts and their
recorded utterances. concerns the
pace-the tempo-of reform. That
Is difference that embraces many
points of dispute over methods.
Whatever may be the agreement of
the two men on democratic funda-
mentals, the cleavage between them
is wide enough and vital enough,
when two such gladiators are en-
gagged. to furnish the material for