Evening star., 1943-12-13

his espousal of the progressive in
domestic affairs and in the main by
his outspoken support of policies
later adopted by the Roosevelt Hull
administration in foreign affairs.
The influences in the Republican
party which are bringing out smear
literature and are attempting to get
a Senate committee to 60 back to
the 1910 Republican convention and
investigate Wilkes support are the
same influences that have tried to
make the American people believe
that Wall Street caused World War
I and that somehow policy of in
ternational cooperation such as
both Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Willkie
believe in must of necessity be Wall
Street-born.
This same school of thought
helped to kill the American NUM-
tlons industries and to keep Amer
lea unprepared for war in the years
intervening between World War
and World War II. The same in
fluenceS are at heart bitterly op-
posed to the application of the
terms of the Moscow agreement and
are already beginning to insist no
pledge" be made unless the de
tails of what the Moscow agree
ments mean are made known. These
are the same old tactics that helped
to defeat ratification in the Senate
Of the League of Nations Covenant.
First agreeing with the principles"
and then insisting on reservations
that nullifed the principles, the
Republicans in 1919 and 1920 finally
succeeded In keeping the covenant
from being ratified by the Senate.
Today the tactics seem to be to
pound away at Willkie because of
his international point of view and
try to discredit him politically. It's
the same kind of attack that would
be made against Mr.. Roosevelt ex-
cept that it is a bit more difficult
for the Republican isolationists
openly to attack the Roosevelt Hull
policies, especially since public
opinion has given such universal
Endorsement to the agreements
reached at Moscow, Cairo and Te-
heran.
Willkie, on the other hand, pre-
sents an excellent target for the
isolationists because on the surface
1t appears to be merely a fight with
in the Republican party. But the
independent voters of the Nation
are watching that fight. Many of
them have no special admiration
for Willkie and many OF them feel
that probably some other Repub-
lican might even make a better
President. But when the isola-
tionists begin to gang up" on a man
and attempt to punish him for
holding views about international
cooperation that are not unlike
those of President Roosevelt and
Secretary Hull, then the independ-
ent voters begin to feel the contro-
versy Is not personal at all but rep
resents cleavage in which citizens
will divide according to principles
and policies.
Granting that the isolationists
have deep convictions, too, about
these matters and are impersonal
also, then the question turns on
what the 100000 to 100000 inde-
pendent voters in the Republican
party will do If Willkie is defeated
at the 1914 convention and strad-
dler or middle of -the-roader is Sc
lected as the Republican nominee.
Many Republican conservatives
made the mistake of thinking that
the third-term objection would be
sufficient to defeat Mr.. Roosevelt
in 1910, but they will find that in
1914 the antifourth-term argument
has no real persuasiveness if there
Is a greater issue at stake, namely
Americas course in preventing
World War III.
Likewise there are many inde-
pendent Republicans who believe
that a right-wing reaction in 1914
would be most unfortunate. They
want to see better administrators in
Washington and important correc-
tions to New Deal laws that have
been arbitrarily and sometimes mis-
chievously interpreted, but they
don't want to see all the progressive
legislation repealed. These inde-
Oendents hold the ha1aoce of r,ouer