Evening star., 1944-04-06
Mr.. WiIIkie Bows Out

In stepping aside as candidate
for the Republican presidential
nomination after his crushing de-
feat in the Wisconsin primary, Wen
dell Willkie. the COP standard
bearer four yeas ago, simply is
bowling to the inevitable.
He had said himself that his can
didacy would stand or fall on the
Wisconsin returns. Now that the
returns are in it seems evident that
Mr.. WiIlkie is no more popular with
the rank and file of the Republican
COP in wisconsin than he is with
the political leaders of the party,
and in this latter quarter his popu-
larity is nil.
1t has been a long time since a
titular head of a major party has
received a rebuff comparable to this
one. AS the Republican candidate
in 1910, Mr.. Willkie received nearly
$4,000 votes in Wisconsin, coming
within $4,000 votes of carrying the
State against Mr.. Roosevelt. In this
years primary he was the only
candidate to go into Wisconsin to
appeal personally to the electorate.
He also enjoyed the benefit of
divided opposition, the vote against
him being split among Governor
Dewey, General Macarthur and
Governor Stassen. Despite this
favorable setup he ran poor fourth,
apparently having failed to win
single delegate. What this meant
to his nomination hopes is best il
lustrated by the fact that even
ardent Willkie supporters had con-
ceded he would be through as an
aSpirant If he were to win fewer
than half of Wisconsin's twenty
four convention delegates. In these
circumstances Mr.. Willkie has taken
the only sensible course that was
open to him-to withdraw as a can
didate and to request that his name
not be presented to the Republican
convention when it meets next June.
There probably is little to be
gained at this time from speculation
as. to the reasons underlying Mr..
WILKES defeat. It is natural, how
ever, to wonder whether the char
acter of the Wisconsin voting may
not reflect widespread hostility in
that State to the international posi-
ton which Mr.. Willkie had taken.
Although his stand was lacking in
specification as to details, Mr..
Willkie, to greater extent than any
other Republican candidate or pos
sibility, was committed to positive
program of close cooperation with
other nations in the maintenance OF
world peace after this war. He was
identified as an "internationalist,"
and he was content to have it that
way. Appealing to the Wisconsin
voters, he said that "if my hand is
not upheld then the Republican
party is going to take route down
to defeat" And now the Wisconsin
Republicans have shown that they
were deaf to that appeal. Does this
mean that they have repudiated the
things for which Mr.. Willkie stood
in the realm Of postwar interna-
tional collaboration?
MIR. Dewey. emerging as the odds
on favorite for the Republican NOM
ination from primary which he
did not want to enter, is now
squarely faced with the full implica-
tions Of this question. If he is dis
posed to submit to a Republican
draft despite his stated desire to
serve out his term as Governor of
New York, it would seem that the
time is close at hand when he should
announce his own position on the
matter of this country's role in the
postwar era-a matter before which
the other issues of the Forthcoming
campaign will pale into relative in
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