The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1940-07-04
A FREE MAN
Philadelphia, June &c


The really miraculous nomination OF
Mr.. Wendell Willkie involves so many
extraordinary things and was brought
about by such interesting and I'M
usual forces that it will be written of,
analysed and discussed for long
time. 1t is really an epic politica!
story.
1t swept aside party customs and
political axioms that had been held
unchangeably sound for generations.
1t has altered accepted ideas as to the
unbeatable power of the politicians
and the stupidity of the people. 1t was
triumph of realities over phoniness;
an amazing tribute to the personality
of a single sincere man. There is no5
space in this article adequately to
describe what happened and why.
What can be done, however, is to set
down two outstanding and incontro-
vertible facts about this nomination
which neither the frantic rawlings of
outraged New Deal journalists nor the
sour notes struck by alarmed Admin
istration spokesman can distort or
obscure.
The basic reason this is true is be-
cause, despite intense and bitter anti
Willkie propaganda during the strug-
gle, somehow or other the truth got
to the people. The first of these facts
is that the nomination was achieved
without the support of any politica.
organization and without the approval
of the more or less notorious financial
interests" in the Republican party.
Actually, such Old Guard leaders as
are left were strongly opposed to Mr..
Willkie. AS for Mr.. Joseph Pew and
the Pennsylvania delegation, they only
swung into line after the nomination
was assured. Up to that time it and
he had been counted in the Taft
camp. The "big money men" in the
party were not with Mr.. Willkie and
every posted observer here knows it.
1t was Kansas and Nebraska and
Missouri and Arizona and Minnesota
and Nevada and Colorado and other
States of the West, to say nothing Of
Connecticut and Maryland in the East
where the real stalwarts of the Willkie
movement were located and it was
Michigan which really broke down
the last barrier and let in the flood.
This is no big State combination-made
ticket. There was about this nomina-
ton no smoke-filled-room business, IN
which delegations are swung through
deals with political leaders who know
what they want. With the exception of
Governor Stassen of Minnesota and
Gov. Raymond Baldwin of Connecticut
and Congressman Halleck of Indiana,
who put him in nomination, there was
not politician in the whole Willkie
outfit.
That, perhaps, is the most striking
and significant fact about the whole
convention struggle. Almost exclu-
sively, the crowd around Mr.. Willkie
here were amateurs-mostly young
men, enthusiastic volunteers who had
never played a convention game of
politics in their lives but who learned
with astonishing speed. Of course,
they could not have done the job them
selves. Actually, Mr.. Willkie, himself,
inspired, directed, managed his own
fight, made his own contacts, sold him
self personally to the delegates. 1t
was an unprecedented and thrilling
performance-to see man patiently,
simply and convincingly plead his
own case with no loss of dignity and
no resort to demagogery. Nothing like
it has happened in the whole history
of American politics.
The second outstanding fact about
the nomination is that it was achieved
without single commitment from
the candidate or from anyone author
lied to speak for him. Not a pledge
has been made by him nor in his
name. No jobs have been promised; no
obligations of the usual type can
didate has to incur in such fight have
been taken on. And those who have
had chance in the last few weeks to
see something Of Mr.. Willkie at close
range are completely convinced none
will be. So far as he is concerned, in
the matter of obligations, his post
nomination campaign will be identi-
cal with his pre-nomination campaign.
The fact is he comes out of the con-
vention the freest, most untrammeled
man any party ever nominated. There
is not a single string tied to him.
He is an intensely appreciative and
grateful man, but he is not in debt
to any politician of any kind or char.
acter for anything. And that is unu-
sual-ln fact, so unusual as to be prac-
tlcally unprecedented He has not. for