The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04

strategists, fearful of the effect the charge might have on their drive to increase the WPA budget, scurried around to drum up im- pressive denials. One authority they approached for such a coun- ter-blas was Miss Perkins.
 But to their aStoniShment she baked. At first they were mysti- fled by her attitude but, finally, on an inside tip they found the explanation in her annual report last year. In this document is a paragraph that in effect com- pletely corroborates the Thomp- son-Krock claim.
 NOTE-While Miss Perkins re- port escaped general notice, the alert U. s. Chamber of Commerce spotted 1t. The Chamber called its members attention to the re- port in a monthly bulletin.
 FRANKS COP PLATFORM
 If you have been following the campaign speeches of the Repub- lican candidates, you probably have been struck by this interest ing coincidence:
 That on all major issues their views are practically identical; and that all these views are strikingly similar to the ideas ex- pressed in the report of the Glenn Frank Program Committee.
 As one Republican veteran on Capitol Hill sagely observed "The boys apparently are writing their speeches with a Thesaurus Tn one hand and the Frank report in the other"
 This quiet borrowing from the Frank report is particularly evil dent on the farm issue. The Frank Committee, in effect, approved the AAA but criticized allegedly in- efficient and bureaucratic admin istration. Also it advocated that the emphasis on benefit payments should be on "sOil conservation" rather than on the New Deals "crop controp.
 The Frank "farm plank" un- questionably scored in the crucial grain belt. It was widely re- published and enthusiastically en- dorsed by many prominent local Republicans. This was not lost on the three leading COP candi- dates, Dewey, Taft and Vanden- berg.
 Since publication of the re- port they have followed its farm plank" very closely. In his Omaha speech, Dewey practically echoed the plank. Taft, who last De- cember in Des Moines took a poke at farm subsidies, sang a more Frank k-like tune in his second try at the farm issue at Springfield, I'll. And Vandenberg's senate declarations on the subject also have been along the lines of the Frank report. ... LIBERAL GOSPEL
 This attitude of the candidates is very significant.
 The Frank report is a lot more liberal than the views held by certain powerful Eastern COP leaders, who will have great deal to say behind the scenes at the Philadelphia convention. That the candidates nevertheless are echoing the doctrines enrnciated by the report indicates clearly that they deem this liberalism necessary to win public favor.
 It also is a good tip-Off that
 when the COP platform emerges
 it will read very much like the
 Frank report. In his preface,
 Dr. Frank stated that it was not
 the intention of his Committee
 to write platform. But party
 insiders will give you odds that
 that is just what he did.
 NOTE-In the hot Dewey-Van- denberg primary now in progress in Nebraska, Dewey boosters are capita1izing on Vandenberg's vote against the $212,OO0, 900 parity payments fund by declaring that Dewey faVors such farm beenfits. The young New Yorker has never : said this flatly himself. but his Nebraska supporters are claim ing 1t for him.
 WHITE HOUSE FLOWERS
 For nearly month yellow cro- cuses have been blooming near the fountain in the east garden of the Waite House. For a long time they bloomed alone, al- though the garden. tucked into an ell on the warm side of the White