The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1943-11-05
Battle Tides 10 Influence
1914 Political Campaign
Close Observers Change Minds, Express Belief
President viii Not Be Candidate if
War Ends by Spring.
BY BAUKHAGE
Netus Analyst and Commentator.

tout of the White House" at his own
| behest, before the ides of Novem-
Der, IA.
This situation, if it does arise, i'm
poses an interesting problem for the
Democrats. It is pretty generally
agreed that the conservative element
in the Democratic party has been
gaining in power in the last months
when the President bestowed posi-
tions of key importance on the right
wing of the party while many New
Dealers faded into the background.
When Vice President Wallace,
whom it was taken for granted would
be the Presidents choice as sue
cessor, was dropped and his activi-
| ties placed in the more conservative
hands of Messrs. Hull, Crowley, ct
al, it was plain that the original
New Dealers were being relegated
to the rear of the hall.
COP Attitude
And while the burning highlights
| of the administration portrait are be-
ing toned down to more sober hues,
| the Republicans seem to be outdoing
themselves in an effort to show that
they can make use of the bright
lexicon Of youth as a reference work
and select from it promising shib-
boleths who speak of action rather
than reaction.
Of course, Mr.. Willkie does not
speak for the Republican party but
he has a following which his sup
| porters hope will be reinforced by
disgruntled former New Dealers as
well as others whose leanings, al
though they have never been such
that they could intellectually sup
port a Democratic regime, are still
far enough left to demand the most
progressive candidate offered under
any other respectable banner.
Meanwhile, of course, the Presi-
dent must, according to the invio-
liable principles of politics, show no
signs of intending to withdraw, since
it is written that you can't control
your party unless there is a fair
chance that you are going to con-
tinue to be its active head.
Our political campaign of 1914 is
bound to be affected by the tide Of
battle abroad. ~
General Arnold Explains
On mild day, with the Virginia
countryside warm in the glow Of
autumn, and the Potomac sparkling
in the sunlight, some so newsmen-
correspondents, columnists, radio
commentators climbed up the wide
stone steps of the river entrance to
the famous Pentagon building.
General Arnold, chief of Americas
army air forces, took his seat and
began to talk. The gist of his words
you have read. What he felt can
only be guessed but he was faced
with the proposition of explaining
the obvious and he seemed just a
little weary at the prospect. Arnold
is a pleasant but blunt-spoken fight
ing man with wings and service rib
bons won in service.
| A few days before, he happened to
listen to a commentator who was
computing in dollars and lives and
material the cost of the bombing
raid of the great ball-bearing fac
tory in Schweinfurt, Germany.
The general was exceedingly
irked. What the commentator did
not perhaps realize was the number
of endless explanations of "the OBJ
vious" which General Arnold has
had to make since we entered the
war. And if Germany does crumble
because her war effort is smashed,
it will be Arnold's explanations as
well as the bombs themselves that
ought to get the credit.
If he had not been able to tex
plain" that American bombers could
fly in sufficient numbers into the
heart of Germany in the light of day
and hit target with the precision
to destroy it, we would never have
chance to prove it could be done.
There were few in high places either
here or in Britain who believed
such an absurd, untried thing was
practical. But he had his chance
and proved his thesis. Then, when
the experts were convinced, when
he was beginning to swing into ac-
ton, the public began to exclaim at
the cost of his raids. That must
have been hard to take.
| And so he sat for an hour Keeling
off figures, recounting details which
will never be printed until peace
comes and, most effective of all for
the layman, showing the greatly
enlarged photographs of the destruc-
tion these great DAYLIGHT precision