Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-10

Willkie as Loser Won Niche
And Will Be Heard From Again
The Skids Aren't Creased for Oblivion-He Still
Has Hold on Popular Imagination and
Will Continue G. O. P. Fight
Ry
By Marquis ". ChIds.


The challenger has gone down before
the champ. But even as a loser Wendell
WillSie won a generous niche in Amer
lean political history, for never did
challenger go down fighting so hard
against such odds.
In defeat Willkie will still have
large hold on the popular imagination
for the campaign that he made, that
man-killing, precedent breaking, tradi-
tion-shattering campaign which ended
last Monday with WILKES final hoarSe
whisper into the microphone.
One may be certain that he is no
ordinary loser with the skids carefully
creased for oblivion. Herbert Hoover
emerged from his furious bout with
Champion Roosevelt nursing an in
feriority complex from which he has
never recovered. ALT Landon took it
amiably, laughing at himself a little
and not caring if the country laughed,
too. Neither could retain hold on the
Republican party.
Willkie, it is safe to guess, will fight
to keep the position that is nominally
his as titular head of the G.. o. P.
Powerful forces in the party that re-
sented his nomination will try to elimi-
nate him now. The old guard will at
tempt, Of course, to cut this maverick
out of the herd and restore normally.
Some such palace revolt may be looked
for as took place when Franklin Roose-
welt and Jim Farley ousted Al Smith,
Jouett Shouse and John J. Raskob from
their prior claim on the Democratic
party.
Will Be Heard From Again.
The old guard never really approved
of Willkie. Compelled to go along"
at the Philadelphia convention, they
stood on the sidelines during much of
the campaign and uttered gloomy
prophecies. He's talking too much, they
said. But Willkie had to do it his way
the hard way. Right up to the very last
moment of the campaign he went on
talking, talking to any one and every
one who would come out to hear him.
1t is both his vocation and his avoca-
tion-talk-his only form of exercise.
An important part of his job as
Corp. was public relations The old
say-nothing, public-be- damned atti-
tude was, in WILKES view, destruc-
tive. He started out to sell himself and
his utility company to the public. One
third of his time was spent on the road,
travelling in Commonwealth & Southern
States. In the same way, aided and
abetted by powerful advertising and
publishing friends he tried to sell him
self to larger public
In business or in politics, and prob
ably in both, Willkie will be heard from
again. At 48 he is full of a fierce and
restless energy, a consuming ambition
He is neither disgruntled Hoover nor
an acquiescent Landon. This is the
man who made the most strenuous cam
paign IN American history, this fatalist
with belief in his own destiny.
Even Wilkes political foes were
compelled grudgingly to admire his
energy. BY special train, plane and
automobile he. covered nearly 10000
miles in "a States for $50 speeches and
rear platform talks.
More Miles Than Bryan.
While no official record exists of the
mileage covered by William Jennings
Bryan in the history making campaign
Of 1896, railroad men agree that Willkie
Travelled many more miles. They add
that Bryan may have covered more
territory, since Willkie criss-crossed back
and forth over the same ground sew
eral times in important States. Only
one other train has made longer tour,
according to railroad officials, and that
carried the exhibit of drug company
for five months to every State.
Willkie himself admitted to reporters
In the middle OF 1t that much of his
campaign was sheer drudgery, hard,
slogging effort. The rewards came, and
this is revealing of one of the most
significant traits of his personality when
he was challenged.
Boy, 1 sure enjoyed that" he said of
his campaign appearance at Madison,
Wis, where several thousand University
OF Wisconsin students had come to make
trouble for him.
A challenge puts him on his mettle
He Is an intense partisan. You are
either for him or against him and there
are no subtle shadings. Quick to anger,
he kept himself under remarkable dis
cpline during the 81 furious days of
the campaign. He lost his temper, and
the camera caught it, when an egg
struck him on the forehead in Chicago.
And he lost his temper in private at
the Democratic National Committees
booklet - subsequently repudiated -
which sought to bring the race issue
into the campaign, letting loose blast
OF sulphurous language that startled
members of his encourage.
Something Brand-New.
willkie in the campaign was some
thing brand-new in American politics.
He was the corporation lawyer, the big
businessman. But this big, bulky man
with the rumpled hair and the engaging
grin was never an orthodox corporation
lawyer. He has persisted in remaining
q homespun Hoosier, Enthusiastically the
man from Indiana, realizing shrewdly,
OF course, how great an asset this is
in business as well as politics.
In New York he was utility execu-
tive who didn't play golf and didn't own
car. He lived with his wife and one