Evening star., 1940-06-26

ShAries U. hoss. tOgetner is Jne
desire to get that man" out of the
White House. That Roosevelt will
run is taken for granted. His sha-
dow, with the shadow of the Euro
pean conflict, lies athwart the en-
tire proceedings. The beat Roose-
welt" wish-or obsession-is strong
enough to cause the differences over
foreign policy, and all other diff
ferences, to be submerged.
Young Gov Stassen of Minnesota
made a better than average keynote
speech. But he delivered it to a
curiously lethargic lot of delegates
toward the end, positively SOM
nolent lot. He deserved a better
hearing. He got applause, to be
sure, when his voice demanded 1t.
but almost the only bursts of real
enthusiasm were those evoked by
the passages of which keynote
speeches are conventionally made
the old sure-fire turn the rascals
out" stuff.
When Stassen poured it on" the
President and the New Deal, cries
of more, more!" rose to him from
the floor and the galleries. This was
the sort of thing they wanted. Sit
ting through the rest of the speech
was just an ordeal to be patiently
and politely borne till the conven-
ton could get down to the absorb
ing business of nominating its can
didates.
Foreign Relations Compromise.
So 1t was also with the speech
yesterday by the permanent chair
man, the popular Joe Martin Of
Massachusetts,, minority leader OF
the House. Such enthusiasm as he
succeeded in arousing came from
the old political hokum-variants
on the eternal political theme Of
the failure and futility and broken
promises" of the opposition.
There's nothing inspiring about
compromise-and meaningless COM
promise is the expedient to which
the convention has been driven on
the only issue Except the issue Of
the New Deal itself in which the
convention is interested. That is the
issue centering about the foreign re-
lations of the United States. 1t isn't
simple, black and white issue. For
want of better terms. one can only
fall back on the words "isolationism"
and "internationalisrn" to describe
| it.
Oversimplified through this dis
| tinction Is, the words do represent
| two different states of mind. These
two states of mind are emotionally
In conflict here as they are through
out the country. They can pe de-
scribed briefly as the mental atti-
tudes. or schools of thought. repre-
sented on the one hand by William
Allen White. ardent exponent of
aid to the Allies, and, on the other
hand, by such men as Hamilton
Fish and Senator Gerald Nye.
Both sides are for keeping out Of
war; both sides are for aid to "op-
pressed peoples-that beautifully
straddling phrase Of the platform
trainers. There is between them only
marked difference of emphasis,
a difference that is felt by most of
the delegates here rather than form
ulated in words.
Plank Reconciles Emotions.
How real is this cleavage, how po-
tentially disruptive of party har-
mony, has been made manifest by
the anguish of the platform makers
in their Today struggle to write a
foreign policy plank. What they
had to do. If they were not to pro-
woke fight on the floor of tine con-
vention. was to turn our a plank
that would reconcile two contradic-
tory emotions. They had to make
the Republican party peace
party; they hoped somehow to
hang on the Democratic party the
label of war party; yet at the
same time they were afraid of the
effects of possible successful
counter-effort by the Democrats to
label the G. o. P. the peace at any
price party"
1t was problem to try the wis
dom of Solomon, and it was resolved,
of course. politically. That is to say,
there emerged a plank into which
anybody can read anything he
pleases.
The plank now looks vastly i'm
portant. 1t will later be seen to
have been one-day headline.
What will be important in the cam
paign is the attitude of whoever may
become the presidential nominee.
What Of the Candidates?
The fight today appears to be be-
tween Taft and Willkie. Dewey, by
all surface indications, has faded
badly. His people are still putting
up confident front, claiming some
$50 delegates on the first ballot and
quick accessions thereafter, but 1t Is
plain to be seen that they are wor-
ried.
The "stop Dewey" movement that
got under way after his victories in
Wisconsin and Nebraska has been
succeeded. thanks to the amazing
progress of the Indiana-New York
man, by stop Willkie" movement.
A group of Western and Middle
Western Congressman are banded
against him. They are assiduously
putting out the thought that Will
kie's public utility headship, plus his
Democratic background, plus his
support of the Hull trade treaties,
would make it impossible for the
party to carry crucial States of their
section. "The Willkie movement"
they say, "sprang from the grass
roots of Wall Street"
The drive against Willkie is han
dicapped by its late start. It may
still succeed. If it does, Taft appears
the most probable beneficiary.
But no prophet who values his
reputation will go out on a limb for
any candidate. If any forecast can
safely be ventured, it is that some
thing decisive will begin to happen
on the third ballot The first ballot
will tell but little. Watch the third
' for a clue to the result.